as aforesaid, shall in all cases be done under the direction of said commissioners, or any two of them, at the expense of the applicant or applicants for such lease; and said commissioners shall receive from such applicant or applicants their necessary expenses, and one dollar and a half per day for each day's actual service about his or their application. Said bounds, stakes or buoys, with the marks thereon, shall be renewed whenever said commissioners shall direct. SEC. 11. Any person who shall injure, deface or destroy said marks or bounds, or shall break, pull up, injure, carry off, cut or destroy any such stake or buoy, or deface any mark thereon, or shall tie or fasten any boat or vessel to any such stake or buoy, shall forfeit and pay the sum of twenty dollars for each offence, to be recovered on complaint and warrant before any justice of the peace within this state, on the complaint of any person who shall duly recognize for the costs of such prosecution; the said penalty to be recovered, the one half thereof to and for the use of the state, and the other half thereof to and for the use of him who shall prosecute for the same. Any such person shall, in addition thereto, be liable in an action of the case to pay double damages and costs to him or them who shall be injured by having the marks and bounds, stakes or buoys of their said lots injured, defaced, removed or used as aforesaid. SEC. 12. The oysters planted or growing in any private oyster ground 'leased as aforesaid shall, during the continuance of the lease, be the private personal property of the lessee or lessees of such oyster ground; and the taking and carrying away thereof, or of any of the same, shall be theft, under all circumstances in which the taking and carrying away of any other personal property would be theft, and shall be punished accordingly: provided, however, that nothing in this section contained shall interfere with or invalidate the right of any lessee or lessees to commence any private action for the taking and carrying away of their oysters aforesaid, and to recover full damages for the private injury by them thereby sustained. SEC. 13. This act shall go into operation from and after the passage thereof, and the first election of commissioners under the same shall take place at the present session of the general assembly; and all other public acts or parts of public acts relating to the shell fishery, so far as inconsistent herewith, are hereby repealed. Passed January session, 1844. An Act in amendment and explanatory of an act entitled "An Act for the preservation of Oysters and other Shell Fish within this State." It is enacted by the General Assembly, as follows: SECTION 1. Nothing contained in the act of which this is explanatory and in amendment shall be so construed as to include, within the provisions of the first and third sections thereof, the pond on Block-Island, and the oyster fisheries therein; or to prevent the planting of any oysters taken therefrom in any private oyster grounds within this state. SEC. 2. There shall be appointed by the general assembly from time to time, a committee of three persons, whose duty it shall be to let, in conformity with the provisions of the act of which this is in amendment, the whole or any portion of the oyster fisheries in the pond on Block-Island, to such persons being inhabitants of the town of New-Shoreham as they shall think fit; in consideration that such persons shall keep open during eight months at least in each and every year, the breach of said pond, under the direction of said committee; the performance of which consideration of said lease or leases shall be duly secured by proper covenants therein contained: provided, that if the whole of said oyster fisheries be let to one company, no stakes, bounds or buoys need be set or kept up. SEC. 3. The commissioners of the shell fisheries are hereby authorized to lease, under the provisions of the act of which this is in amendment, for use as private oyster grounds, any of the lands covered by the public waters of this state, lying north of Field's Point and between the channel and harbor line on the west side of Providence river, and not extending north of a line drawn from the depot of the New-York, Providence and Boston Rail-Road Company, eastward to the channel. SEC. 4. Nothing in the act of which this is explanatory and in amendment shall be so construed as to prevent any citizen of this state from digging clams or quahaugs on the shores of the public waters of this state, notwithstanding the provisions of this act, or any letting of the said shores as a private oyster ground. Passed May session, 1844. An Act in amendment of an act entitled " An Act for the preservation of Oysters and other Shell Fish within this State." SECTION 1. Oyster fisheries in the ponds in Charlestown exempted from the provisions of the amended act. It is enacted by the General Assembly, as follows: SECTION 1. The oyster fisheries in the ponds lying in the town of Charlestown are hereby exempted from the operation and provisions of the third, ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth sections of the act aforesaid, passed at January session, 1844. Passed May session, 1844. Resolved, that the medicines necessary for the use of the convicts in the state prison shall in future be purchased by the warden on account of the state, and be delivered by him to the attending physician, to be used as may be necessary; and no charge to the state for medicine hereafter by any other person shall be allowed. Passed January session, 1844. An Act in relation to the Cells in the State Prison, and in relation to the Jail in the county of Providence. SECTION 1. Unoccupied upper cells in state prison may be used as part of county jail, for SECTION the confinement of persons on criminal process. 2. Repeals former act on same subject. It is enacted by the General Assembly, as follows: SECTION 1. The unoccupied upper cells in the state prison may, at the discretion of the warden of the prison and keeper of the jail in the county of Providence, with the advice of the inspectors of said prison, be used for the confinement and safe keeping of persons committed to the said jail on criminal process, either before or after sentence. PETITIONS TO GENERAL ASSEMBLY. PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 539 SEC. 2. The act in relation to the cells in the state prison, and in relation to the jail in the county of Providence, passed by the general assembly at the January session, A. D. 1841, is hereby repealed. Passed May session, 1844. Resolved, that the warden of the state prison and the keeper of the county jail in the county of Providence be directed to keep the accounts of said prison and jail separate and distinct; so that it may appear what amount of expenses is properly chargeable to said state prison and what amount to said county jail. Passed June session, 1844. An Act in relation to Petitions for Acts of Incorporation. SECTION 1. Petitions for acts of incorporation, except for certain purposes, to be continued until after the election of a new general assembly. SECTION 2. Notice to be given of the pendency of such petitions-in what manner and when. It is enacted by the General Assembly, as follows: SECTION 1. All petitions that may be presented for any act of incorporation for any purpose, except for religious, literary or charitable purposes, or for a military or fire company, shall be continued until the session next succeeding the next election of members of the general assembly. SEC. 2. Notice of the pendency of such petition shall be given by advertisement thereof in some newspaper printed in this state, for three weeks next after the rising of the general assembly at the session at which the said petition may be preferred; and in such other manner as may in each case be prescribed by the general assembly. Passed January session, 1844. An Act in addition to the several acts relating to Public SECTION Schools. 1. School districts authorized to purchase, hire, build and furnish school houses and yards. 2. Mode of calling meeting of school districts. 3. Inhabitants of school districts qualified to vote for a tax or on the expendi SECTION ture of money, may at regular meetings appoint chairman and clerk, and order a tax and carry into effect powers conferred by section one. 4. Taxes how to be assessed and collected. It is enacted by the General Assembly, as follows: SECTION 1. Every school district is hereby authorized and empowered to purchase, receive, hold and convey land for the site and yard of a school-house for the district; to build, hire and repair school-houses, and to supply the same with furniture, blackboards and other appendages and accommodations; and to make all necessary provision for the preservation and use of the property of the district; and for these purposes to hold meetings from time to time in some suitable place in the district. SEC. 2. Until the inhabitants of a district shall prescribe some other mode for calling the same, the meeting of a school district shall be called by the school committee of the town or district in which such district is situated, by setting up a notice of the time, place and object of the meeting in three public places in the district, at least ten days previous; and it shall be the duty of said committee to call a meeting at any time on the written request of any five legal voters of the district. SEC. 3. At any meeting duly notified, the inhabitants of the district qualified to vote for a tax or on the expenditure of money in the town in which such district is situated, shall have power by a major vote to appoint a chairman and clerk for the time being; to adjourn from time to time; to vote a tax on the district for the purposes specified in the first section of this act, and to appoint assessors and a collector of the same; to appoint one or more persons to superintend the purchase, building, furnishing and repairs of the school-house, and the proper use and preservation of the building; and to do any thing else which may be necessary to carry into effect the provisions of this act. SEC. 4. Whenever a tax shall be voted in the district, the same shall be levied on all the real estate situated therein, and upon the personal property of all persons residing in the district at the time of voting such tax: and such tax shall be apportioned and assessed according to the tax bill of the town to which the district belongs, last completed or next to be completed, as the district may direct; and the assessors and collector appointed by the inhabitants shall have the same powers, and proceed in the same manner, in assessing and collecting the district tax, as the assessors and collector of a town tax. Passed January session, 1844. |