"Clinton Water Loan" not to SECTION 4. For the purpose of paying all necessary exceed $125,000. expenses and liabilities incurred under the provisions of this act, the said town of Clinton shall have authority from time to time to issue notes, bonds or scrip, signed by the treasurer, and countersigned by the chairman of the selectmen, to be denominated the "Clinton Water Loan," to an amount not exceeding one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, payable at periods not exceeding thirty years from the date thereof, with interest payable semi-annually, at a rate not exceeding seven per centum per annum; and said town may sell said bonds at public or private sale, or pledge the same for money borrowed for the purposes of this act, upon such terms and conditions as it may deem proper, and may raise money by taxation to pay said bonds and interest thereon when due; but said town shall not raise more than five thousand dollars in any one year to pay the principal of said bonds, except the year in which the same may become due. Water commis sioners to be elected. Terms of office. Vacancies. Rents for use of water to be established. SECTION 5. Said town shall elect by ballot as hereinafter provided, three persons who shall form a board of water commissioners, whose duties it shall be to execute, superintend and direct the performance of all the works, matters and things mentioned in this act, and exercise all the rights, powers and privileges hereby granted, and not otherwise specifically provided for herein, subject to the vote of said town. SECTION 6. At any annual meeting of the inhabitants of said town, or at any special meeting called for the purpose, one of the three persons to be chosen according to the provisions of the preceding section, shall be elected for a term ending one year. one for a term ending two years, and one for a term ending three years from the next succeeding annual town meeting, after which first election, one member of said board, as the term of each expires, shall be elected at the annual town meeting for the term of three years. Any vacancy occurring in said board may be filled by said town for the unexpired term. A majority of said board shall constitute a quorum for the exercise of the powers and duties prescribed by this act. SECTION 7. Said water commissioners shall establish such prices or rents for the use of the water, as to provide annually, if practicable, from the net income and receipts therefrom for the payment of the interest on the Clinton Water Loan; and also after three years from the introduction of the water into said town for the further pay ment of not less than one per centum of the principal of said loan. be established. The net surplus income and receipts, after deducting Sinking fund to all expenses, interest and charges of distribution, shall be set apart as a sinking fund, and applied solely to the payment of the principal of said loan, until the same is fully paid and discharged. to be trustees The said water commissioners shall be trustees of said Commissioners fund, and shall annually, and as often as said town may of fund. require, render an account of all their doings in relation thereto. SECTION 8. At any time after the expiration of three years from the introduction of said water into said town, and before the reimbursement of the principal of said Clinton Water Loan, if the surplus income and receipts for the use of the water distributed under this act, at the price established by the water commissioners, after deducting all expenses and charges of distribution, shall for any two successive years be insufficient to pay the accruing interest on the said loan, and the one per centum to the sinking. fund as aforesaid, then the supreme judicial court, or any justice thereof, on the petition of twenty-five or more of the legal voters of said town, praying that the said price of said water be increased so far as may be necessary for the purpose of paying from the said surplus income and receipts the said accruing interest and the said one per centum to the sinking fund, and upon due notice of the pendency of such petition, given to said town in such manner as said court shall order, may appoint three commissioners, who, upon due notice to the parties interested, may raise and increase the said price if they shall judge proper, so far as may be necessary for the purpose aforesaid, and no further; and the award of said commissioners, or the major part of them, being returned to said court at the next term thereof for the county of Worcester, and accepted by said court, shall be binding and conclusive for the term of three years next after said acceptance, and until the price so fixed shall, after said term, be changed by said water commissioners or by said town. Supreme judiappoint commissioners to raise income is not cial court may water rates, if sufficient. owner and SECTION 9. The occupant of any tenement or building Liability of shall be liable for the payment of the rent for the use of tenant. the water in such tenement or building, and also the Penalty for diverting water same impure. owner thereof shall be liable, if on being notified of such use, he does not object in writing thereto. SECTION 10. Any person who shall use any of said or rendering the water without the consent of the town, or who shall wantonly or maliciously divert the water, or any part thereof, taken, held or used under the provisions of this act, or who shall wantonly or maliciously corrupt the same, or render it impure, or who shall wantonly or maliciously destroy or injure any dam, conduit, aqueduct, pipe or hydrant, or other property, real or personal, held, owned or used by the said town for the purposes of this act, shall pay three times the actual damage to said town to be recovered by an action of tort. Any such person, on conviction of either of the wanton or malicious acts aforesaid, shall be punished by fine not exceeding three hundred dollars or imprisonment in the house of correction not exceeding one year, or both said penalties. Subject to acby a of the legal voters. SECTION 11. This act shall take effect upon its passage; two-thirds vote but nothing shall be done, nor any expenditure made, nor liability incurred under the same, except for preliminary surveys and estimates, unless this act shall first be accepted by vote of two-thirds of the legal voters of said town, present and voting thereon at a legal meeting, called for that purpose within three years from the passage of this Chap. 99 Narrow-guage act. AN ACT to authorize the Construction of certain Narrow-Gauge Be it enacted, etc., as follows: SECTION 1. Any railroad corporation which may be organized during the year eighteen hundred and seventysix, in accordance with the provisions of chapter three hundred seventy-two of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and seventy-four, for the purpose of locating, constructing, maintaining and operating a narrow-gauge railroad in the towns of Billerica and Bedford, may locate and construct its railroad with a gauge of two feet instead of three feet as established by the general law. SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon its passage. [1877, 6; 1879, 40.] [Old Colony, 1844, 150; 1845, 120, 126, 226, 241; 1846, 178; 1847, 85; 1848, 84; 1849, 163, 169, 195, 237; 1850, 260, 268; 1852, 124. Fall River, 1844, 100; 1845, 226, 234; 1846, 259; 1847, 210; 1849, 169, 198, 212; 1852, 67; 1854, 198. O. C. and F. R., 1854, 133, 303, 324; 1858, 171; 1861, 137, 156; 1862, 149. O. C and N., 1863, 238; 1864, 18; 1865, 102; 1866, 97; 1867, 74, 170, 206, 271; 1868, 122, 189; 1869, 21, 71, 199; 1870, 47, 48, 378, 379, 397, 398; 1871, 54; 1872, 28, 92, 143, 295; 1874, 213.] AN ACT to authorize the Fall River Railroad Company to Sell or Lease Chap. 101 Be it enacted, etc., as follows: its Road. Fall River Rail road Company may sell or lease its road. SECTION 1. The Fall River Railroad Company is hereby authorized to lease or sell its road, franchise and other property to the Old Colony Railroad Company, or to the New Bedford Railroad Company, or to the Boston, Clinton & Fitchburg Railroad Company, or to unite or consolidate with either of said companies; and either of said companies is hereby authorized to hire, purchase, unite or consolidate with the said Fall River Railroad Company, and may increase its capital stock to an amount not exceeding the sum expended therefor; but no such sale, Proviso. lease, union or consolidation shall be made except by vote of the majority in interest of the stockholders of the corporation purchasing, hiring or uniting with said Fall River Railroad Company, at a meeting duly called for the purpose; and by a like vote of the stockholders of said Fall River Railroad Company at a meeting called for the purpose; and the terms and conditions of the proposed sale, lease, union or consolidation shall also be stated in the call for the said meeting of each corporation. SECTION 2. In the event that the Fall River Railroad Company shall hereafter, as contemplated in this act, unite or consolidate with either of said corporations as aforesaid, the corporation so formed shall have, hold and possess all the powers, privileges, rights, franchises, property, claims and demands which, at the time of such union, may be held and enjoyed by either of said existing corporations, and be subject to all the duties, restrictions, debts and liabilities to which, at the time of union, either is subject in severalty; but the capital stock of the corporation so formed shall not exceed the sum of the capital stock of the uniting corporations at the time of such union; and after such union is effected the corporation so formed may take any corporate name that may be approved by the board of railroad commissioners. [1876, 135.] Approved April 6, 1876. New corpora powers of the existing corpoare united. tion to have all rations if they Chap. 102 AN ACT to authorize the Town of Provincetown to establish a Sinking Sinking fund may be established to pay for stock of Old Colony Railroad. Subject to provisions of 1875, 209, § 5. Votes of town legalized. SECTION 1. The town of Provincetown may establish a sinking fund for the payment of its indebtedness incurred for the purpose of paying for the capital stock of the Old Colony Railroad Company, and may contribute thereto any sums which it may receive upon sales of said stock or from dividends thereon, or from taxes which it may vote to raise and appropriate therefor, and may transfer the custody and management of said stock to the commissioners of said sinking fund. SECTION 2. Such sinking fund shall be subject to the provisions of section five of chapter two hundred and nine of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and seventy-five; and the commissioners thereof shall be elected, and vacancies in the board filled, in accordance with the provisions of said section five, with all the powers and subject to all the limitations and liabilities therein expressed. SECTION 3. The votes of said town at a meeting held in February of the current year, establishing a sinking fund for the payment of such indebtedness and choosing commissioners therefor, shall have the same effect as if passed at a meeting duly called after this act takes effect; and the commissioners of said fund already chosen shall hold office for the terms for which they were chosen respectively, and vacancies in their offices shall be filled in the manner provided by said section five. SECTION 4. This act shall take effect upon its passage. [1872, 229.] Chap. 103 AN ACT to regulate the Taking of Fish in North River, in the County of Plymouth. Seines not to be used. Shad, salmon, etc., not to be caught until July 1, 1881. Amended by 1877, 109. Be it enacted, etc., as follows: SECTION 1. No person shall fish with a net or seine in North River or any of its tributaries, in the county of Plymouth, nor in any manner take or catch any shad, salmon or alewives, until the first day of July in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-one, under the penalty of five dollars for each shad or alewife, and fifty dollars for every salmon so taken. |