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SECTION 1.

CHAPTER CCXLI.

An Act for the relief of Luke G. Lea.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas, That the Comptroller of Public Accounts be and he is hereby authorized and required to audit and allow the claim of Luke G. Lea, for services as district attorney of the Third Judicial District, from the third day of May, 1866, to the sixteenth day of August, 1866; and that the sum of two hundred dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, be and the same is hereby appropriated, out of any moneys in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, to meet the payment of the said claim.

SEC. 2.

That this act take effect and be in force from and after its passage.

Approved May 30th, 1873.

CHAPTER CCXLII.

An Act to amend "An Act incorporating the Houston and San Jacinto Canal and Navigation Company," approved August 13th, 1870.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas, that the act entitled "An act to incorporate the Houston and San Jacinto Canal and Navigation Company," approved August 13th, 1870, be and the same is hereby amended to read as follows: That section one be amended to read, after the enacting clause, "That J. R. Morris, Alexander McGowan, and their associates, be and are hereby appointed commissioners to open books and receive subscriptions to the capital stock of a corporation hereby created, to be styled the 'Houston, Trinity and Sabine Canal and Navigation Company." That section four, which reads as follows: The subscribers to the capital stock of this company are hereby created and established a body corporate and politic, under the name and style of the Houston and San Jacinto Canal and Navigation Company; with capacity to contract; to sue and be sued; to plead and be impleaded; to have

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succession and a common seal; to grant and receive; to make by-laws, and generally to do and perform all things necessary and proper to maintain their rights under this act" be amended by striking out the words, "Houston, San Jacinto Canal and Navigation Company," and inserting in lieu thereof the words, "Houston, Trinity and Sabine Canal and Navigation Company." That section eight be amended to read: That said company, when duly organized, shall be and is hereby invested with the right of locating, excavating, constructing, owning operating and maintaining a canal, commencing at or near White Oak or Buffalo Bayou, in the city of Houston, and running northeasterly, ciossing the San Jacinto, Trinity, Neches and Angelina rivers, and terminating on the Sabine river, in Panola or Shelby county, with the privilege of erecting such dams, locks, tramways, water wears, and creating such slack water navigation as may be deemed to the interest of the company and the successfnl maintenance and operation of said canal.

SEC. 2. That this act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage. Approved May 30th, 1873.

CHAPTER CCXLIII.

An Act to incorporate the Austin and Pacific Short Line Railroad Company.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of [the State of Texas, That Samuel P. Willis, George White, J. B. Bowman, W. F. Smith, W. C. Hite, A. O. Braiman, James Crutcher, F. W. Chandler, W. G. Thomas, James Ford, Dudley Sceance, John Phelps, Jos. N. Vaughn, their associates, successors and assigns, be and are hereby constituted and appointed a body politic and corporate, under the name and style of the "Austin and Pacific Short Line Railroad Company;" and as such shall have succession for sixty years, and a common seal; shall have power to sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded; receive grants, gifts and donations; buy, hold, sell and convey property, real, personal and mixed; make by

laws, rules and regulations for their general government, and generally to do all things and acts necessary to its interest, and not unlawful.

SEC. 2. The persons named in the first section of this act shall constitute the first board of directors, and shall hold their office for one year, or until their successors have been elected and qualified; a majority of them shall be a quorum, and their first meeting shall be held at such time and place as they may deem proper; and after a call published thirty days in two newspapers of the State of Texas, signed by a majority of said board, when they may organize for business; appoint time and place for opening subscription books; fix the number of shares, and amount of each; the amount of per cent. to be paid in on each share; and when the whole stock has been subscribed, and the per centum paid in, call a meeting of the stockholders for permanent organization, by thirty days publication in three newspapers in the State of Texas. And the capital stock of said company shall be two hundred thousand dollars, with authority to raise it to fifteen million dollars; and the organization of said company shall be completed within eight months after the passage of this act.

SEC. 3. Said company is hereby authorized and empowered to own, construct, maintain, equip and operate à continuous line of railroad and telegraph, together with all the rights and appurtenances thereto belonging, or in any way incident or appertaining, commencing at the city of Austin, and running across the State of Texas to some point on the Texas Pacific Railroad, between the one-hundredth and the one-hundredth-and-seventh degrees of longitude, deemed most practicable by said company after making its surveys. The object of said company being to establish a continuous line of railroad from New Orleans, and the seaboard of the Southern States, to the Pacific coast. They may make such connections with any other road or roads as they may, by agreement with them, be able to do.

SEC. 4. Said company shall have the right of way over the State of Texas on their line, and over any lands by whomsoever owned, subject to the general law of the State governing such cases, for a width of two hundred feet, and the usual depots, turn outs, machine shops, &c., and the usual rights of railroads to cross other roads,

streams, &c.; and shall commence the construction of their said road at any point on said line, which they may deem most advisable, within one year after the said permanent organization of said company has been completed; and shall complete and put in running order twenty miles of said road within one year thereafter, and twenty five miles each succeeding year, until said line of road shall be completed; and on failure to do so, said company shall forfeit all benefits under this charter, except upon completed road.

SEC. 5. The State of Texas hereby donates and grants to the said company, out of any unlocated public lands of the State, sixteen sections of land, of six hundred and forty acres each, for each and every mile of railroad constructed and put in substantial running order by them; and whenever any section of ten miles of said road has been completed the said company, through its president or secretary, may give notice of the same to the Governor of this State, in writing, whose duty it shall be, on the receipt of such notice, to order the State engineer, if there be any, or if not, to appoint a skillful engineer to examine said section of said road, and report under oath; and if said section of ten miles of said road be found to be constructed and in running order in a substantial manner, then the Governor shall certify the same to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, and he shall issue to said company sixteen land certificates, of six hundred and forty acres each, for each and every mile of road so constructed and put in running order, and in like manner with each and every succeeding section of ten miles of said road until the whole has been completed. All the certificates issued, as above, to said company, shall be located by them in alternate sections; that is to say, for every sixteen sections located by said company for its own use, said company shall locate also at the same time other sixteen sections of land for the State, and return the field notes and maps of the whole thirty-two sections to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, who shall number said sections so surveyed, and issue patents to said company for the sections numbered in odd numbers, reserving the even numbers for the school fund. And said company shall alienate their said lands, acquired under the provisions of this act, except so much thereof as may be necessary for the uses and successful operation of their

said [road] as follows: one-fourth in eight years, one-fourth in twelve years, one-fourth in sixteen years, and one-fourth in twenty years from the passage of this charter; provided, said company shall not alienate or sell said lands to any other corporation, nor to any person or firm in trust for said company, nor to any firm or corporation of which any officer or stockholder of said company is a member. And on failure to comply with the provisions of this section, or on violation of the same, said company shall forfeit all benefits under this charter; provided further, that the State shall in no case be liable for a deficiency of public domain, and no land certificate issued under the provisions of this act, which may not be located because of the previous exhaustion of the public domain, shall ever constitute any claim against the State.

SEC. 6. That said company shall not sell, rent or lease their said road to, or consolidate the same with, any conpeting, parallel or converging line of road, nor purchase, rent or lease any such competing, parallel or converging line of road, under penalty of a forfeiture of this charter. And said company shall be subject to all general laws now in force, or that may hereafter be enacted in this State, regulating railroads and railroad companies, both as to the rates of freight and passage, as well as to the conduct of its officers and employés.

SEC. 7. Said company shall be liable to all the restrictions imposed on railroads by any general railroad law of this State, and shall be entitled to any of the benefits conferred by the same. Its principal office shall be at the city of Austin, Texas; and this act shall be in force from and after its passage.

Passed May 30th, 1873.

[NOTE.-The foregoing act was presented to the Governor of Texas for his approval on the thirty-first day of May, A. D. 1873, and was not signed by him, or returned to the house in which it originated, with his objections thereto, within the time prescribed by the Constitution, and thereupon became a law without his signature.JAMES P. NEWCOMB, Secretary of State.]

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