-duties and powers.

CHAP. 100 deem necessary not exceeding ten, for all such unorganized places in any county, whose duties and powers shall be the same with respect to such unorganized places as those of the fire wardens of towns, and they shall also have the same authority to call out citizens of the county to aid them in extinguishing fires, that town fire wardens have to call out citizens of the town. The compensation of such fire wardens shall be paid by the county, and the compensation of persons called upon by them as aforesaid, to render aid shall be the same as that provided in the case of towns and shall be pa d one-half by the county and one-half by the owners of the lands on which said fires occur.

-compensation.

Penalty for not extinguishing camp or cooking fires built in or adjoining any woods.

-proviso.

Notices shall be

fires must be

extinguished.

SECT. 5. Any person who shall build a camp or cooking fire in or adjoining any woods in this state, shall, before leaving such camp, totally extinguish such fire, and upon failure to do so, such person shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars, or by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding one month or by both such fine and imprisonment, provided, that such fires built upon the sea beach in such situation that they can not spread into forest wood or cultivated lands or meadows, shall not be construed as prohibited by this act.

SECT. 6. It shall be the duty of selectmen in towns erected, that all within thirty days after this act shall take effect, to cause to be erected in a conspicuous place at the side of every highway as they may deem proper, and at suitable distances alongside the rivers and lakes of the state frequented by camping parties, tourists, hunters and fishermen, in their respective towns, notices in large letters to be furnished by the forest commissioner, substantially in the following form. Camp fires must be totally extinguished before breaking camp, under penalty of not to exceed one month's imprisonment or one hundred dollars fine, or both as provided by law. Signed, Forest Commissioner. The forest commissioner shall furnish owners of wood lands situated within this state when called upon so to do, notices of similar tenor to be posted at the expense of said owners upon their respective lands.

-form.

Hunters required to use

SECT. 7. All persons engaged in hunting game on any non combustible of the wood lands within any town or unincorporated place

wads.

in this state, shall use non-combustible wads in the loading of CHAP. 100firearms used by them.

SECT. 8. It shall be the duty of municipal officers in towns, and county commissioners, the latter with respect to unorganized places, to proceed immediately to a strict inquiry into the cause and origin of fires, within wood lands; and in all cases where such fires are found to have originated from the unlawful act of any person, to cause the offender to be prosecuted without delay.

Inquiry shall be

made into

origin of wood.

land fires.

Selectmen and

county commis. sioners shall

any forest fire.

SECT. 9. The selectmen of towns in which a forest fire of more than one acre in extent has occurred, and the county report extent of commissioners where a forest fire of more than two acres has occurred in any of the unincorporated places in any county, within a year, shall report to the forest commissioner the extent of area burned over, to the best of their information, together with the probable amount of property destroyed, specifying the value of timber as near as may be, and amount of cord wood, logs, bark or other forest product, fencing, bridges and buildings that have been burned. They shall also report the cause of these fires if they can be ascertained, and the measures employed and found most effective in checking their progress. Blanks for the reports required in this act -blanks. shall be furnished by said forest commissioner at the expense

of the state.

brush or

SECT. 10. Every railroad company whose road passes through waste or forest lands, shall during each year cut and burn off or remove from its right of way all grass, other inflammable material, but under proper care and at times when fires are not liable to spread beyond control.

SECT. 11. All locomotives which shall be run through forest lands, shall be provided with approved and efficient arrangements for preventing the escape of fire and sparks. SECT. 12. No railroad company shall permit its employes to deposit fire, live coals or ashes, upon their track in the immediate vicinity of wood lands or land liable to be overrun by fires, and where engineers, conductors or train men discover that fences along the right of way or wood lands adjacent to the railroads, are burning or in danger from fire, it shall be their duty to report the same at their next stopping place which shall be a telegraph station.

-report cause,

etc.

construction,

SECT. 13. For all damages caused to forest growth by Railroads under any person employed in the construction of any railroad

liable for all damages to forest growth caused by employes.

-penalty, if

employes fail to extinguish fires set along line.

CHAP. 100 hereafter to be built in this state, the company owning such road shall be primarily liable to the person or persons so damaged. During the construction of such roads through wood land, there shall be kept posted in conspicuous places on each line of the road ways at distances of two hundred feet, abstracts of the laws relating to forest fires. Any person employed in the construction of such railroads, who shall set or cause to be set any fire along the line of said roads, shall, before leaving the same, totally extinguish said fires, and upon failure to do so, such person shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not exceeding five hundred dollars or by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding sixty days, or by both such fine and imprisonment. It shall be the duty of all persons having charge of men in the construction of such that the provis- railroads, to see that the provisions of this section are carefully complied with, and any negligence or want of ordinary care on their part in relation to the same shall constitute a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof, they shall be liable to the penalties imposed by this section.

-persons in charge of men,

required to see

sions of

section are complied with.

Penalty, if any
R. R. company

violates this act.

Elementary instruction in forestry in public schools, etc., provided for.

Commissioner shall issue Circulars of

advice for care of wood lands.

Copies of this act shall be printed and distributed to

shall post same.

SECT. 14. Any railroad company violating the requirements of this act, shall be liable to a fine of one hundred dollars for each offense.

SECT. 15. The forest commissioner shall take such measures as the state superintendent of common schools and the president of the state college of agriculture and the mechanic arts may approve, for awakening an interest in behalf of forestry in the public schools, academies and colleges of the state, and of imparting some degree of elementary instruction upon this subject therein.

SECT. 16. The forest commissioner shall prepare tracts or circulars of information, giving plain and concise advice. for the care of wood lands and for the preservation of forest growth. These publications shall be furnished to any citizen of the state upon application.

SECT. 17. It shall be the duty of the forest commissioner to cause, at the expense of the state, copies of this chapter selectmen, who and all other laws of the state relating to forest fires to be printed and freely distributed to the selectmen of all the towns of the state, whose duty it shall be to post them up in school houses, saw mills, logging camps and other places, and similar copies shall be furnished to owners of forest lands,

who may apply for them, to be posted up at the expense of CHAP. 101 such owners. Any person viciously or wantonly tearing penalty for down, destroying or defacing any such notices, shall on con- notices. viction therefor, be punished by a fine of five dollars.

destroying

acts, repealed.

SECT. 18. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with the Inconsistent provisions of this act, are hereby repealed, but none of the penalties proposed by this act shall be considered as substitutes for or as repealing the provisions of existing laws, making persons guilty of acts of trespass or liable for civil damages to persons injured by such acts.

Approved March 25, 1891.

Chapter 101.

An Act to amend section sixty-five of chapter seventy of the Revised Statutes, as amended by chapter three hundred and twenty-three of the Public Laws of eighteen hundred and eighty. five, relating to Insolvency Proceedings.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in Legislature assembled, as fellows:

SECT. 1. Section sixty-five of chapter seventy of the revised statutes, as amended by chapter three hundred and twenty-three of the public laws of eighteen hundred and eighty-five, is hereby further amended, so that said section sixty-five as amended, shall read as follows:

established by

S. J. Court.

SECT. 65. The fees of all officers, the compensation of Fees shall be assignees, and of judges and registers of probate, under this chapter, shall be established by the supreme judicial court, and shall be paid out of the estates if there are sufficient —how paid. assets; if there are not sufficient assets for the payment of the fees, costs, and expenses of the insolvency proceedings, the person upon whose petition the warrant is issued shall pay the same, and the court of insolvency, after such notice as is required in the service of civil process in the supreme judicial court, and a hearing thereon, may issue an execution against him to compel payment to the register, in all cases where the debtor has been denied or refused a discharge, or where the proceedings have been dismissed for any cause, or where the debtor at the expiration of four months from the commencement of the proceedings, does not, after thirty days' notice in writing, by the court, to him or his attorney

CHAP. 102

of recor use due diligence in the prosecution of his insol-vency proceedings. Said executions shall be under the seal of the court issuing the same, bear the teste of the judge, be signed by the register, issued in the name of the assignee, and shall be for the full amount of all unpaid fees, costs, and expenses, in the proceedings, due the officers, assignee, judgeand register, and shall run against the body.'

SECT. 2. This act shall apply to all cases now pending.

Approved March 25, 1891.

Ballots used in elections shall

public expense.

-printing and distribution of, how paid for.

Chapter 102.

An Act to provide for the Printing and Distributing Ballots at the Public Expense and to
Regulate Voting for State and City Elections.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in Legislature assembled, as follows:

SECT. 1. All ballots cast in elections for national, state, be furnished at district and county officers in cities, towns and plantations, after the first day of September in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-two, and all ballots cast in municipal elections in cities after that date, shall be printed and distributed at public expense, as hereinafter provided. The printing of the ballots and cards of instructions to voters, shall in municipal elections in cities be paid for by the several cities respectively, and in all other elections the printing of the ballots and cards of instruction, and the delivery of them to the several cities and towns, shall be paid for by the state. The distribution of the ballots to the voters shall be paid for by the cities, towns and plantations respectively. The term state election, as used in this act, shall apply to any election held for the choice of a national, state, district or county officer, whether for a full term or for the filling of a vacancy, and the term state officer shall apply to any person to be chosen by the qualified voters at such an election. The term city election shall apply to any municipal election so held in a city, and the term city officer shall apply to any person to be chosen by the qualified voters at such an election.

-terms explained.

Who may nominate candidates for public office.

SECT. 2. Any convention of delegates, and any caucus or meeting of qualified voters, as hereinafter defined, and individual voters to the number and in the manner hereinafter