Duration of charter Corporate pow. ers. Purpose of corpo ration. Corporate seal. Individual liability. Election of officers. Term of office. Directors shall be Each member shall have one vote. May issue industrial policies. diction of said association, and by such name and title shall exist for a term of sixty years, and be capable of suing and being sued, pleading and being impleaded, and of purchasing, leasing, holding and receiving in its corporate name property, real and personal and mixed, and of making such rules and regulations as the association may enact, not in conflict with the laws of the state and the United States. Sec. 2. To insure the life of persons of good bodily health who are acceptable, to collect assessments levied upon its members by the association, and upon satisfactory proof of the death of a member who has complied with all the rules and regulations. levy such assessments as the association may order, and pay the amount thus collected to the beneficiary named, in the certificate held by such deceased member or may charge members and industrial policy holders such premium in advance as the association sees fit under its rules and regulations. Sec. 3. That the said association shall have a corporate seal for making and doing its legal acts and proceedings, which it may alter from time to time as it may direct. Sec. 4. That private property of members of the said association shall be exempt from the corporate debts of the said association or members thereof. Sec. 5. That the association shall provide for the election of such officers as the association may deem necessary to transact the business of the corporation, to fix the compensation for their services, who shall hold office until their successors are duly elected and qualified. That the said officers shall hold office under such rules and regulations as the by-laws of the association shall provide. Sec. 6. That no by-law of the association shall be made or altered except by first giving each director thirty days' notice in writing or by advertising two months in a state daily paper, and by two-thirds vote of its whole number of directors, which shall not be less than three nor more than fifteen members of the association. Sec. 7. That each member of the association shall have one vote in the election of its directors. Sec. 8. That this association may issue industrial policies of insurance not exceeding five hundred dollars on each life or person, under such rules and regulations as a majority of the board of directors see fit to adopt. But the holders of industrial policies shall have no vote in the management of the association unless they be certificate members of the association. Sec. 9. That this act shall be in force from and after its ratification. Ratified the 6th day of March, A. D. 1899. CHAPTER 186. An act to amend, revise and consolidate the charter of the City of The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact: Body politic. SECTION 1. That the inhabitants of the City of Salisbury be and continue as they have heretofore been a body politic and corporate, and henceforth the said corporation shall bear the name and style of "City of Salisbury," and under that name is hereby Corporate name. invested with all the property and rights of property which now Corporate powers belong to the present corporation of the City of Salisbury, or and rights. any other corporate name or names heretofore used; and by the corporate name of "City of Salisbury," may purchase and hold for purposes of its government, welfare and improvement, all such property and estate, real and personal, within or without said city, as may be deemed necessary or convenient therefor, or as may be conveyed, devised or bequeathed to it, and the same may, by its board of aldermen, from time to time sell, dispose of and re-invest, as shall be deemed advisable by the proper authorities of said corporation. SEC. 2. The corporate limits of the City of Salisbury shall be as follows: Begin at the centre of the site of the old court-house and run four lines: One north of west along and upon the extension of Inniss street, three thousand six hundred and fifty-five feet; another south of east along and upon the extension of Inniss street, two thousand seven hundred and twenty feet; another south of west along and upon the extension of Main street, three thousand one hundred and sixty-five feet; another north of east along and upon the extension of Main street, three thousand six hundred and fifty-five feet. And the corporate limits of said town shall be compressed within a parallelogram included within four lines running at right angles to said lines at the termination thereof, and extending each way until they intersect each other respectively. All that territory lying west from the intersection of Main and Inniss streets, and between said Main and Inniss streets, shall be known as the west ward; all that territory lying north from the intersection of Main and Inniss streets and between said streets shall be known as the Corporate limits. Corporate limits. north ward; all that territory lying east from the intersection Division of of Main and Inniss streets and between said streets, shall be wards. known as the east ward, and all that territory lying south from the intersection of Main and Inniss streets and between said streets, shall be known as the south ward. SEC. 3. The government of the said city shall be composed of Government of city. Duties of mayor. Election of presiding officer. Duties of mayor pro tem. Term of office. Election of reg of election. Elections, how held. a mayor and eight aldermen, who, with the city marshal, who shall also be tax collector, shall be elected biennially on the first Monday in May by the qualified voters of said city as herein provided, and said aldermen shall be bona fide residents of the four wards of said town as follows: Two in each ward. SEC. 4. The mayor shall preside at the meetings of the board of aldermen, but shall have no vote except in case of a tie. At the first meeting succeeding their election, the board of aldermen shall elect a presiding officer, to be styled the mayor pro tempore, who, in the absence of the mayor, or in case of his sickness or death, or when the mayor shall authorize him, shall exercise all the authority conferred by law upon the mayor. All vacancies in the offices of mayor and mayor pro tempore and aldermen shall be filled by the board of aldermen, and said appointees shall hold their offices until the next regular biennial election, except the mayor pro tempore, who shall hold his office for one year. SEC. 5. The board of aldermen of the City of Salisbury, on or istrar and judges before the first Monday in April preceding each biennial election, shall elect one registrar and two judges of election for each of the four wards of said city to conduct the election which shall be held under the rules, regulations and penalties of the general election law, except as modified by this act. The said board shall make publication of the persons so selected at the court-house door immediately after such appointment, and shall cause a notice to be served upon such appointees. If any such registrar or judge of election shall die or fail to perform his duties, the sheriff of said county shall appoint another in his place. Each ward of said town shall be an election precinct. Special elections shall be held under the rules and regulations for the regular biennial elections. Failure of regis- Aldermen shall furnish registration books. When registration book shall be opened. Persons shall vote only in ward in which they are actual residents. SEC. 6. Each registrar shall be furnished by the board of aldermen of said city with all necessary registration books; and it shall be the duty of the registrar to arrange the registration books of his ward before each election in such manner that said books shall show an accurate list of the electors entitled to vote in such ward at said election. And he shall erase from the books the names of all persons not entitled to vote in said ward at said election. The registrars shall keep open their books for the registration of electors on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday preceding the election. There shall be a new registration of voters for the election to be held on the first Monday in May in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-nine. SEC. 7. No person shall be entitled to vote in any other ward than the one in which he is an actual and bona fide resident, nor unless he shall have continuously resided in said ward for ninety days preceding the election. And no registration shall be valid unless it specifies the number of the ward and the owner and number of the lot on which the person proposing to vote shall reside. SEC. 8. The mayor of said city shall furnish to each registrar Mayor shall furnish chart to reg. a plat or chart of his ward, with each lot of said ward plainly istrar. numbered thereon. As far as possible the old historical numbers shall be retained. Each block or square shall contain four lots, which shall be numbered, whether the streets adjoining them have actually been numbered or not. If the mayor shall fail to deliver to any registrar the said plat or chart for ten days after the appointment of said registrar, it shall be the duty of the registrar to prepare the said plat or chart. Any mayor or registrar violating this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. SEC. 9. Each class of officers shall be voted for in separate boxes. The mayor and city marshal and tax collectors shall be voted for in one box on one ballot; the aldermen for the north ward shall be voted for in one box on one ballot; the aldermen of the east ward shall be voted for in one box on one ballot; the aldermen of the south ward shall be voted for in one box on one ballot; the aldermen of the west ward shall be voted for in one box on one ballot. Failure of mayor Each class of officers shall be voted for in separate boxes. Ballot boxes shall be provided by aldermen. SEC. 10. The board of aldermen of said city, or upon their fail ure, the several registrars, shall provide for each ward ballot boxes for each class of officers to be voted for, in which boxes the electors may deposit their ballots for such officers respectively. SEC. 11. Each elector in person shall deposit his ballot for Electors shall deeach class of officers in the proper ballot box; and no person person. posit ballot in shall dictate to him at the polls how or for whom he shall vote, or interfere in any way with his voting. If among the number of officers voted for there shall be any two or more having an equal number of votes, and either would be duly elected but for the equal vote, the registrars shall determine who shall be chosen. when tie vote occurs, registrars shall decide. SEC. 12. On the next day after the election, at ten o'clock in When returns the forenoon, the registrars of the several wards shall meet at announced. the court-house and canvass and judicially determine the returns, and shall give a certificate to each candidate whom they shall ascertain to be duly elected. SEC. 13. The mayor and aldermen shall be installed in their Installation of respective offices at twelve o'clock, meridian, on the third Mon- mayor and day in May next after their election. aldermen. SEC. 14. The aldermen of said city shall establish as many Voting places. voting places therein as they shall, from time to time, deem necessary: Provided, that there shall be at least one such voting place in every ward thereof. Oath of mayor. Oath of aldermen Vacancies in office of mayor Vacancies in office of alder men. Refusal to qualify a misde meanor. Jurisdiction of mayor. Jurisdiction of mayor. SEC. 15. Before entering upon the duties of this office, the mayor shall take and subscribe before some person authorized by law to administer oaths, the following oath: "I...., do solemnly swear that I will perform to my best skill, judgment and ability all and every the duties of the office of mayor of the City of Salisbury while I continue in said office, and will cause to be executed, as far as my power lies, all laws, ordinances and regulations made for the government of said city, and in the discharge of my duties I will do justice in all cases. So help me, God." Said oath shall be by him immediately filed in his office. SEC. 16. Each alderman, before entering upon the duties of his office, shall take, before the mayor, an oath that he will truly and impartially perform the duties of an alderman of the City of Salisbury according to his best skill, judgment and ability. SEC. 17. If the person elected mayor of said city shall neglect or refuse to qualify at the time provided therefor, or if after he shall have qualified there shall occur any vacancy in the office of mayor of said city, or if the mayor shall become a non-resident of said city, or for three consecutive months shall absent himself therefrom, the aldermen of said city shall, at their next regular meeting, declare said office of mayor vacant, and shall, at their next regular meeting thereafter, choose by ballot some competent person as mayor of said city for the term, or the unxpired portion of the term, as the case may be. In like manner all vacancies in the office of aldermen shall be filled by the remaining aldermen. SEC. 18. That any person elected mayor or alderman who shall neglect or refuse to qualify and act as such, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be fined fifty dollars or imprisoned thirty days. SEC. 19. The mayor of the City of Salisbury is hereby constituted a special court, with all the jurisdiction and powers in criminal offenses, occurring within the limits of said city, which are now or may hereafter be given to justices of the peace, and shall also have exclusive original jurisdiction to hear and determine all misdemeanors consisting of a violation of an ordinance or ordinances of said city, except where legally the mayor and mayor pro tempore are incompetent to try the same, in which case the cause shall be, upon application of the defendant, removed for trial to such other court in the county of Rowan as would, but for this section, have jurisdiction of the same; and such legal incompetency shall be construed to mean only such incompetency as would disable a judge of a superior court to try under similar circumstances a cause pending in such last-mentioned court. The proceedings of said mayor's court shall be the same as are now, or may hereafter be, prescribed |