CHAP. CCCLVIII.-An Act amendatory of an Act concerning Roads and Highways in the Counties of Tuolumne, San Joaquin, Plumas, and Siskiyou, approved April nineteenth, eighteen hundred and fifty nine. [Approved April 25, 1863.] The People of the State of California, represented in Senate and SECTION 1. Section nine of said Act is hereby amended so as to read as follows:. sioners. Section 9. In case the Board of Supervisors, on the part of Damages. the county, or the person or persons claiming damages, shall be dissatisfied with the amount of damages allowed by the Viewers, the Board shall appoint a commission, consisting of three per- Commis sons, tax payers of the county, and disinterested in the proposed road, who shall, on a day to be named by the Board, go upon the ground, and personally examine the line of the proposed Duties. road, and hear any witnesses that may be offered regarding the value of the land through which the road will pass, and the damages that will be sustained by any party or parties in consequence of laying out the same; and shall, within a reasonable time, report to the Board, in writing, the amount of damage that will be sustained from any party or parties, severally, which report shall be in writing, and signed by at least two of the said Commissioners, and the damage so allowed may, if they deem it advisable, be ordered paid by the Board of Supervisors, and the Board of Supervisors shall have no power to allow more damages than those allowed by the Commissioners; and, pro- Proviso. vided, further, that the Board of Supervisors may empower any person they may select to draw from the Treasury of the county any amount of damages awarded by the Commissioners, and pay the same to the parties to whom it may be awarded. SEC. 2. Section twenty-two is amended so as to read as follows: Section 22. The Board of Supervisors shall have power to Road tax. levy an annual road tax on all able bodied men, between the ages of twenty-one and fifty years, not to exceed four dollars to each man; provided, that the Board of Supervisors may require the said tax to be paid exclusively in money; and, provided, Proviso. further, that in any year that the Supervisors do not require the tax aforesaid to be paid exclusively in money, it shall be, in the option of any person liable to pay the same, to pay it in labor on the road, under the direction of the Overseer, at the rate of two dollars a day. The provisions of this Act shall not apply to any incorporated city. SEC. 3. Section twenty-six is hereby amended so as to read as follows: Reports of SEC. 26. Each Road Overseer shall report to the Board of Supervisors, quarterly, the number of days he has been in actual Overseers. service, the condition of the roads in his district, the property and tools he has on hand belonging to the county, and may suggest any improvements to be made in the roads in his district, and shall report any information which the Board of Supervisors To apply Joaquin may require of him on the roads and management thereof in his district. SEC. 4. The provisions of this Act shall only apply to the only to San County of San Joaquin, and all Acts and parts of Acts in conflict with the same, so far as they apply to said county, are hereby repealed. County. SEC. 5. This Act shall take effect from and after its passage. Franchise. Tolls. Rates of. Proviso. City and purchase CHAP. CCCLIX.-An Act to authorize John F. Hill, William Bryan, and James C. Treadwell, their associates, and assignees, to construct and maintain a certain Macadamized Road in the City and County of San Francisco, and to levy and collect Tolls thereon. [Approved April 25, 1863.] The People of the State of California, represented in Senate and SECTION 1. John F. Hill, William Bryan, and J. C. Treadwell, For each led or drove horse or mule, five cents. For vehicle drawn by horse, mule, or other animal, ten cents. For vehicle drawn by two horses, mules, or other animals, twenty cents. For vehicles drawn by four or more horses, mules, or other animals, fifty cents. For drove of cattle, each, five cents. For sheep, hogs, and animals not above named, each two cents. Provided, that no toll gate shall ever be erected within the corporate limits of the City of San Francisco, as established by said Act of eighteen hundred and fifty-one, nor shall toll ever be collected upon or for the use of any part of said road that may be extended within said corporate limits, or over any part of any county road now established by law. SEC. 2. The Board of Supervisors of the said city and county county may shall have the right, whenever they may deem it necessary for the public good to make said road free, to purchase the same from the owners thereof, at a value, exclusive of this franchise, road. to be ascertained by two persons, one to be chosen by the said Board, and the other by the owners of said road, and in case they cannot agree, they shall have power to appoint a third party, and the appraisement of any two of said parties shall be considered the value of said road; and should the Board of Supervisors thereupon pay the owners of said road the value so ascertained, said owners shall assign and transfer said road to said city and county, and the franchise to collect toll thereon shall cease when such assignment is made. SEC. 3. Said road shall be completed and opened at the Conditions. expense of the persons hereby authorized to build the same, within one year and a half after the passage of this Act; and to insure the completion within that time, no toll gates shall be erected or tolls collected until the said road shall have been graded at least twenty-two feet in width throughout the whole distance, for the use of which tolls are authorized to be collected; provided, that if at any time during the continuance of this franchise, any portion of the lands through which the road herein provided for may be constructed, shall, by regular survey, be laid off into blocks and streets, the owners of this franchise shall, at their own expense, make the road herein provided for conform to and run upon said streets at their own expense, whenever required to do so by a majority in interest of the owners of property upon such portion of said road, the basis of estimate of such valuation being the assessment roll of the City and County of San Francisco next preceding the date of such requirement. company. SEC. 4. Any Toll Gatherer on said road may detain and pre- Rights of vent from passing through his gate, the persons leading or driving any animal or vehicle subject to toll, until they shall have paid the tolls respectively hereby authorized; and every person refusing to pay any of the toll before specified, or in any manner evading or attempting to evade the payment thereof, shall be liable to pay the owners of said road twenty dollars for each offence, to be recovered in any Court of competent jurisdiction. SEC. 5. This Act shall take effect from and after its passage. CHAP. CCCLX.-An Act to authorize the Board of Supervisors of El Dorado County to lease the Branch Wagon Road in said County for a term of years. [Approved April 25, 1863.] The People of the State of California, represented in Senate and SECTION 1. The Board of Supervisors of El Dorado County Powers of are hereby authorized and empowered to lease for any term of Supervisors time not less than two nor more than five years, a certain road known as the Branch Wagon Road, the construction whereof was authorized by an Act entitled an Act to authorize the con Award of lease. Contract. Lessees to make quar ments and terly state payments. Bond of lessees. struction of a branch wagon road in the County of El Dorado, and to authorize the Board of Supervisors of said county to levy a special tax for that purpose, passed March eighth, eighteen hundred and fifty-eight. SEC. 2. After advertisement for three successive weeks in some newspaper published in said county, for sealed proposals to lease said road, specifying the time and place at which said proposals will be received and opened, said Supervisors may award said lease to any person or persons having no stock or interest in any parallel or competing road, upon such terms and conditions as they shall deem expedient. SEC. 3. Upon making their award as aforesaid said Supervisors shall enter into a written contract with the lessee or lessees of said road, which contract shall specify and authorize the collection of such tolls as shall have been fixed and prescribed by said Supervisors, and shall require quarterly statements from said lessee or lessees of the income from any and all charges and tolls collected on said road; and any moneys received from said collections, over and above what shall be allowed to said lessee or lessees, according to the terms and stipulations of said contract, shall be paid into the County Treasury, and shall be drawn therefrom only on the warrant of said Supervisors, signed by the Clerk of said Board, to be applied in payment of such repairs and improvements on said road as shall, from time to time, be ordered and directed by them. SEC. 4. Said contract shall be accompanied with a bond, with at least two sufficient sureties, in such sum, not exceeding five nor less than two thousand dollars, as said Supervisors shall require and approve; said bond shall be in form payable to the County of El Dorado, and conditioned for the faithful performance of said contract, and said sureties shall justify as in case of official bonds. SEC. 5. This Act shall take effect from and after its passage. Franchise. CHAP. CCCLXI.-An Act to grant to the Bidwell Bridge Company [Approved April 25, 1863.] The People of the State of California, represented in Senate and SECTION 1. The Bidwell Bridge Company, a company incorporated A. D. one thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, under the general incorporation laws of this State providing for the incorporation of bridge companies, shall have and they are hereby granted, for the period of fifty years from and after the fourth day of November, A. D. eighteen hundred and fifty-four, the right to keep and maintain their present bridge, and any other that they may construct and establish, across Feather River, at the Town of Bidwell, or at any other point between the points hereinafter designated in Butte County, as a toll bridge, with all the rights, privileges, franchises, and immunities hereinafter mentioned. rights of company. SEC. 2. The said company are hereby authorized and empow- Powers and ered to build, erect, construct, or reconstruct, and maintain a public toll bridge or bridges across said Feather River, in the County of Butte, at a point or points anywhere between the junction of said river with the North Fork of Feather River, and one mile above the site of its present bridge, and to have and enjoy all the rights, privileges, franchises, and immunities thereto appertaining, and shall have the right of way across said river, and the privileges of using the same for the purposes aforesaid between the points designated on said river, which is hereby granted and ceded to said company for the term of fifty years from and after the fourth of November, A. D. eighteen hundred and fifty-four. SEC. 3. Any bridge owned and kept as a toll bridge by said Conditions. company under the provisions of this Act, shall be kept by said company in good repair and condition; and said company shall be responsible for all damages arising to persons or property crossing the same, caused by any neglect to keep the same in repair. SEC. 4. The said bridge company are hereby authorized and Tolls. empowered to charge and collect such rates of toll as the Board of Supervisors of the County of Butte may fix, which rates of toll may be regulated annually; and nothing in this Act shall impair any rights heretofore granted to said company by the Board of Supervisors of said county. SEC. 5. The said company may regulate and determine the Regulations number of animals in the team, number of wagons, and number of company. of stock cattle, that may pass on said bridge or bridges at any one time, which regulations, together with the rates of toll, shall be in some conspicuous place, and the company shall not be responsible for any injury or damage to person or property resulting from a violation of this regulation. SEC. 6. No person or persons shall ride or drive upon or Violations of. across any bridge owned and maintained by said company under this Act at a faster gait than a walk; and each violation of this section shall be a misdemeanor, and such person or persons so offending, on conviction before any Court of competent jurisdiction, shall be fined in any sum not exceeding fifty dollars, on which judgment execution may issue, as in civil cases, besides, he or they shall be liable to the owners of said bridge for such damages as said owners may sustain by reason thereof. SEC. 7. No ferry, ford, or bridge shall be established across said river within the limits of the aforesaid points, unless it be required by the public service; in that event, the owners of the aforesaid franchise shall be preferred to all others. SEC. 8. The said company, in consideration of the franchise, License tax. privileges, and immunities herein granted, shall pay, after the first of June, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, an annual tax of seventy-five dollars, as a license tax, into the County Treasury of Butte County, which Fund, together with any and all fines collected under this Act, shall be a special Road Fund to estab |