Lands, etc., vested in Corporation. Power to acquire and sell property. Common seal. By-laws. Head office. Appointment of officers, etc. Members not individually liable for debts, etc. Short title. 2. All lands, tenements, hereditaments, and property, and all schools, academies, convents, orphanages, and hospitals now belonging to and used, held, occupied, possessed or enjoyed by the said congregation, shall be, and the same are hereby declared to be, vested in the Corporation for the purposes thereof. 3. The Corporation may from time to time, and at all times hereafter, acquire and hold for the general purposes of the Corporation, any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, and personal property, in the Province of British Columbia, and from time to time may sell or exchange, mortgage, lease, let, or otherwise dispose of the same or any part thereof. 4. The Corporation shall have a common seal, with power to change, alter, break, and renew the same, when, and so often as they shall think proper; and may, under their corporate name, contract and be contracted with, sue and be sued, plead and be pleaded with, answer and defend in all Courts and places whatsoever. 5. It shall be lawful for the Corporation to make by-laws, rules, orders and regulations, not contrary to the laws of the Province of British Columbia, for the government and proper administration of the affairs and property of the Corporation, and amend and renew the same from time to time. 6. The head office of the Corporation shall be at the City of Victoria, or such other place in the Province of British Columbia as may from time to time be determined by the by-laws of the Corporation. 7. The Corporation shall have power to appoint such officers, agents, and attorneys of the Corporation as may from time time be deemed necessary, and also to remove such officers, agents, and attorneys at pleasure Provided, that until others shall be elected, the present officers of the congregation aforesaid shall be those of the Corporation constituted by this Act. 8. Nothing herein contained shall have the effect, or be construed to have the effect, of rendering all or any of the several persons hereinbefore mentioned, or all or any of the said members of the Corporation or any person whatsoever, individually liable or accountable for or by reason of any debt or obligation incurred or entered into, for or on account of the Corporation, or for, or on account, or in respect of, any matter or thing whatsoever relating to the Corporation. 9. This Act may be cited as the "Sisters of St. Ann's Incorporation Act." VICTORIA, B. C.: Printed by RICHARD WOLFENDEN, Printer to the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty. WHEREAS considerable tracts of land under and adjacent to Sumas Preamble. Lake, in the District of New Westminster, in the Province of British Columbia, and other lands in the immediate vicinity thereof, more particularly set out in the Schedule to this Act, are lying in a state of comparative unproductiveness for want of dyking, draining and reclaiming : And whereas a petition has been presented by Cuyler A. Holland, of the City of Victoria, Director of the British Columbia Land and Investment Agency, Limited; Henry Slye Mason, of the said city, barrister-at-law; and John A. Lumsden, of Sumas, farmer; and Frank A. Lumsden, of Sumas, farmer, requesting to be empowered to dyke, drain and reclaim the said lands: And whereas it is expedient to grant the prayer of the said petition: Therefore, Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of British Columbia, enacts as follows: 1. Cuyler A. Holland, Henry Slye Mason, John A. Lumsden, and Incorporation. Frank A. Lumsden, together with such other persons, firms and corporations as shall in pursuance hereof become shareholders of the Company hereby incorporated, are hereby constituted and appointed a body corporate and politic, under the name of the "Sumas Reclamation Company, Limited," hereinafter called "the Company." 2. Wherever the words following occur in this Act, they shall be Interpretation. construed to mean as follows, unless the contrary intention appears : (a.) "Owner" shall extend to and include every person having any "Owner." estate or interest, legal or equitable, in any lands to be affected by this Act: (INCORPORATION). 'Occupier." Provisional Directors. Head office. Directors may apportion stock. Allotment of stock. General meeting to be called. Qualification of (b.) "Occupier" shall mean pre-emptor, homesteader, lessee or licensee from the Crown. 3. The persons mentioned in section one of this Act shall be and are hereby constituted provisional directors of the Company, of whom a majority shall form a quorum, and they shall hold office until the first election of directors under this Act, and are to have the power of opening books and obtaining and recording subscriptions of stock, on the books of the Company, and to receive moneys and other securities in payment to the Company, for stock of the Company, and to cause plans and surveys to be made or adopt and acquire plans existing, and in carrying out of the objects and undertaking of the Company to receive for the Company any grant, loan, bonus or gift made to it in aid of the same, and with power to enter into any agreement, for the Company, respecting the condition of acceptance of or disposition of any gift, bonus, guarantee or other assistance to the Company; all moneys so received to be deposited in a chartered Bank having an office in the Province of British Columbia, and such moneys may be withdrawn by them for the purposes of the Company. 4. The head office of the Company shall be at the City of Victoria, aforesaid. The capital stock of the Company shall be five hundred thousand dollars, divided into five thousand shares of one hundred dollars each, the money to be derived therefrom to be devoted to the purposes of the undertaking of the Company; provided, however, that out of the moneys first received shall be paid the fees, expenses and disbursements incidental to the passing of this Act and the organization of the Company. 5. The provisional or elected directors of the Company may, in case more than the whole stock shall have been subscribed, allocate and apportion it amongst the subscribers, as they shall deem most advantageous and conducive to the furtherance of the undertaking, with power to exclude any one or more of the said subscribers therefrom, if it be deemed in the best interests of the Company. 6. The directors may allot the stock as by the by-laws of the Company is provided. 7. The provisional directors shall within three months after this Act comes into operation call a general meeting of the shareholders of the Company, at the City of Victoria, for the purpose of electing directors of the Company, giving at least two weeks' notice thereof in the British Columbia Gazette, and in one of the daily newspapers published at the City of New Westminster, of the time, place and purpose of such meeting. 8. In the election of directors under this Act, no person shall be eligible or be elected a director unless he is the holder and owner of at (INCORPORATION). least ten shares of stock of the Company, upon which all calls have been paid. 9. The directors are empowered to make and prescribe all such By-laws. necessary by-laws for the due carrying on of the undertaking of the Company, and such as to them may appear needful and proper, and generally for the transaction and management of the affairs and business of the Company, and carrying into effect the rights, powers, privileges and duties conferred or imposed on the Company, its shareholders and directors, by this Act. 10. No shareholder of the Company shall in any manner be charged Liability of shareon account of any liability of the Company beyond his or her subscribed holders limited. share in the capital stock of the Company. 11. The Company shall have power and authority :— (1.) To enter from time to time and at all times hereafter into and upon the lands of Her Majesty without previous license therefor, or into or upon the lands of any person or persons, bodies politic or corporate, mentioned in the said Schedule, and to survey, set out and ascertain such parts thereof as it may require for the purposes of dyking, draining or reclaiming, or all or any of them: (2.) To widen, straighten, deepen, divert, dam, scour or cleanse any river, stream, drain, brook, pool, lake or water-course, upon or running through such lands, and to make, open and cut in or upon the same, any new water-course, side-cut, ditch or drain, and at any time to repair, alter or remove any bank, sluice, flood-gate, dam, tunnel, or other part of the undertaking : (3.) To make, erect and construct dykes, banks, sluices, flood-gates, wharves, landing-places, piers, drains, buildings, and erections, and all other works requisite or necessary for dyking, draining and reclaiming such lands, and to construct and make upon any such lands any embankment or dyke against any river, stream or water-course, and execute all such works as may be necessary or convenient for the purposes of dyking, draining or reclaiming the said lands, and to enter upon any of the said lands, and dig materials, sand, stone, and cut timber, and cut drains, making compensation to all persons for any damage occasioned to them by the exercise of any such powers, the amount thereof in case of dispute to be determined by arbitration as hereinafter mentioned: (4.) To contract with the owners of the said lands, or with the Commissioners of any district appointed and acting in pursuance of the "Drainage, Dyking and Irrigation Act," for the construction of ditches, flumes, flood-gates, breakwaters, dykes, weirs and Powers of Company. (INCORPORATION). drains, and contract with those having an interest or right in any such river, stream, drain, brook, pool or water-course, for the purchase thereof, or of any part thereof, or of any privilege that may be required for the purposes of dyking, draining and reclaiming the said lands, or either or any of the said purposes, and for the right to take all timber, stone, sand, gravel and materials for the same or adjacent lands for the use and construction of the said dyking, drainage and reclamation works: (5.) The Company shall, subject to the provisions hereinafter provided, have full power and authority to stop up and divert the waters known as the Vedder Creek by changing the course of the waters of said Vedder Creek (as at present flowing) into that of the channel of the Luck-a-kuk River, emptying into the Fraser River, the said Vedder Creek and Luck-a-kuk River being in the Municipality of Chilliwhack, and running through a portion of the land set forth in the Schedule to this Act; and in the carrying out of the said power shall be entitled to make and construct all such dams, weirs, raceways, dykes, or other necessary works to fully complete the undertaking as aforesaid; provided, that in the carrying on of the said work the course of the Luck-a-kuk is to be straightened, in so far as is practicable and advisable, to the full end and purpose that the waters of the said Vedder Creek be permanently turned into the channel of the said Luck-a-kuk River: (6.) All the powers hereinbefore given shall be construed so as to enable the Company to drain Sumas Lake : (7.) To receive, hold, take and acquire all voluntary grants and donations of land or other property made to it, and to purchase, hold, take, and acquire of and from any corporation, person or persons, any land or other property, and to mortgage, sell, lease, or otherwise alienate and dispose of such land or other property, or any part thereof: (8.) To borrow upon security of the charges against the lands benefitted by the works of the Company and made payable under this Act from time to time, either in this Province or elsewhere, such sums of money as they may deem expedient, and to make the bonds, debentures or other securities granted for the sums so borrowed payable either in currency or in sterling, and at such place or places within this Province, or without, as may be deemed advisable, and to sell the same at such prices or discount as may be deemed expedient or be necessary, and to hypothecate, mortgage, or pledge their lands, revenues, undertaking and other property for the due payment of the said sums and the interest thereon, but no such debenture shall be for a less sum than one hundred dollars. |