wise improve the same, and to sell, lease, mortgage or otherwise dispose of its corporate property and any parts thereof.

Sect. 3. The capital stock of said corporation shall not exceed one million dollars, divided into shares of one hundred dollars each: provided, however, that no liability shall be incurred until two hundred thousand dollars, of the capital stock bas been paid in in cash.

SECT. 4. This act shall take effect upon its passage. [Approved March 14, 1884.

[CHAP. 84.] An Act to legalize the doings of the town of Wakefield in accepting a be

quest under the will of Cornelius Sweetser, and in raising Money to

purchase and beautify a Public Park in said town. Be it enacted, etc., as follows:

Sect. 1. That all votes passed and acts performed by the town of Wakefield between the first day of April, A. D. eighteen hundred seventyone and the first day of February, A. D. eighteen hundred eighty-four, for the purpose of raising or hiring money to purchase land and beautify the same to be used as a public park by said town, and the vote of said town passed on the seventh day of May, A. D. eighteen hundred eighty-three, and all acts under the same accepting a bequest of ten thousand dollars with the conditions thereto annexed under the will of Cornelius Sweetser, late of Saco in the state of Maine, deceased, and authorizing the treasurer of said town with the approval of the selectmen to hire the sum of ten thousand dollars to comply with said conditions and issue the notes of the town therefor in the sum of one thousand dollars each, payable one note in each year for the next ten years, are hereby ratified, confirmed and made valid.

SECT. 2. This act shall take effect upon its passage. [Approved March 14, 1884.

[CHAP. 85.] An Act authorizing the New York and New England Railroad Company

to make certain application of the proceeds of the sales of its Second

Mortgage Bonds, and to issue Preferred Stock. Be it enacted, etc., as follows:

SECT. 1. The New York and New England Railroad Company is hereby authorized, in addition to the existing authority, to use the proceeds of the sales of the second mortgage bonds of said company, authorized by chapter two hundred and forty of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and eighty-two and not yet issued, for the purpose of paying any present or future liabilities of said company, or to use said second mortgage bonds as collateral security for money borrowed for that purpose.

Sect. 2. Said railroad company is authorized, by vote of a majority in interest of its stockholders present and voting at a meeting duly called for that purpose, to issue not exceeding fifty thousand shares of preferred stock of the par value of one hundred dollars each, the holders of which shall be entitled to receive out of the net earnings of the company dividends of seven per cent. per annum, the same to be paid in semi-annual instalments in such sums as the directors of said corporation may determine; and, if the net earnings of any year shall not be sufficient to pay said dividends, the same shall be cumulative and payable out of the net

earnings of any subsequent year, but without interest; said dividends and accumulations to take priority over the dividends on all other stock of the company, until, in addition to said dividends on said preferred stock, there shall be paid an equal dividend upon the common stock, after which any dividend declared by said company shall be divided equally between said preferred and common stock.

Sect. 3. Said preferred stock may be paid for wholly in cash or by payment of fifty dollars in cash and two shares of the common stock of said company for each share of preferred stock.

SECT. 4. Said common stock taken in payment for said preferred stock shall be immediately cancelled when received by said company,

Sect. 5. Owners of said preferred stock shall have all the rights of voting and transfer which are or may be enjoyed by the owners of said common stock, and said preferred stock shall be counted with the common stock in all questions of majorities and quorums.

SECT. 6. No legal or equitable right of any holder of any second mortgage bond heretofore issued under the authority of chapter two hundred and forty of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and eighty-two, shall be in any way affected or impaired by the provisions of this act or by the issue of any bonds hereafter to be issued under the same, until he shall have signified his consent to the provisions of this act by filing such consent in writing with the trustees under said mortgage, specifying therein the numbers and amounts of the bonds held by him, and by endorsement of such consent on said bonds. The consent of the Commonwealth as a holder of said bonds shall not be implied by the passage of this act, but may hereafter be given by the treasurer of the Commonwealth, with the approval of the governor and council, when in their judgment the interests of the Commonwealth require it.

Sect. 7. The provisions of sections fifty-eight and fifty-nine of chapter one hundred and twelve, and of section twenty of chapter one hundred and five of the Public Statutes, shall not apply to the shares of preferred stock which may be issued under this act.

Sect. 8. This act shall take effect on its acceptance by the stockholders of said railroad company at a meeting called for that purpose, provided such meeting is called within one year from the passage of this act, at which meeting said stockholders may also vote upon the question of issuing said preferred stock. [Approved March 14, 1884.

[CHAP. 86.] An Act to amend the Charter of the city of Chelsea relating to the elec

tion of Assessors. Be it enacted, etc., as follows:

Sect. 1. The assessors to be elected in the city of Chelsea during the current year shall be elected to serve one for one year, one for two years and one for three years, and until their successors are elected and qualified ; and thereafter the city council shall annually elect an assessor to serve for three years and until his successor shall be elected and qualified. Any vacancy occurring in the board of assessors may be filled at any time, and the member so elected shall hold office only for the unexpired term of the member who has ceased to hold office.

Sect. 2. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed.

SECT. 3. This act shall take effect upon its passage but shall become void unless accepted by the city council of Chelsea within thirty days thereafter. [Approved March 17, 1884.

[CHAP. 87.] An Act to authorize the incorporation of the Meigs Elevated Railway

Company. Be it enacted, etc., as follows:

SECT. 1. Joe V. Meigs, William S. Butler, William A. Russell, Roland Worthington, Thomas W. Pierce, Henry Hastings, Nathan Appleton, Franklin E. Gregory, Edgar E. Dean, George A. Alden, George E. Harrington, Frank Jones, J. W. Johnson, George J. Carney, Charles E. Powers, their associates and successors, may associate and become a corporation as the Meigs Elevated Railway Company in the manner provided by chapter one hundred and thirteen of the Public Statutes and acts in addition thereto, subject to all the duties, restrictions and liabilities contained therein, so far as the same can be applied thereto, except those parts referring to the “ gauge" of the road, the amount of its capital stock, and the manner of paying in the same, for the purpose of building, maintaining and operating an elevated railway between some point in the city of Cambridge and Bowdoin Square in the city of Boston. The location of said road across the Charles River shall not be south of the southerly line of West Boston Bridge, and shall thence proceed in the most direct practicable route to Bowdoin Square in Boston, and there terminate : provided, however, that the board of aldermen of the city of Boston may, for reasons of public necessity and convenience, to avoid unnecessary damage to property deflect the route from the most direct line.

For the purpose of applying said provisions of said chapter one hundred and thirteen to the corporation hereby authorized, it shall be deemed a street railway corporation.

SECT. 2. The amount of its capital stock shall not be less than one hundred thousand dollars for each mile of road. Not less than ten per cent. of said stock shall be paid in before a certificate of incorporation is issued, and the whole capital stock shall be paid in in cash before the construction of the road shall be commenced.

SECT. 3. Locations for tracks shall be petitioned for between the points named in section one of this act, and after fourteen days' notice, of which notice a copy shall be left with the owner or occupant of each estate on the line of the proposed location, seven days before the hearing, a hearing shall be had before the board of aldermen of the city in which the location is asked, as provided in section seven of said chapter one hundred and thirteen, and after such hearing the board of aldermen may refuse the location asked for, or grant the same, in whole or in part, under such restrictions as they shall deem the public interests require, and the board of aldermen of either of said cities of Cambridge or Boston may, on like notice and hearing, revoke any location after the expiration of one year from the granting of the same, if, in their judgment, the public interests so require, and in case of such revocation may require the structures of the company to be removed and the location to be restored to its original condition at the expense of the corporation, in the same manner and with like requirements as in the revocation of locations for street railways under sections twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five and twenty-six of said chapter one hundred and thirteen.

Sect. 4. No location for tracks shall be petitioned for in the city of Boston until at least one mile of the road has been built and operated, nor until the safety and strength of the structure and the rolling stock and motive power shall have been examined and approved by the board of railroad commissioners or by a competent engineer, to be appointed by them, and to be paid by said corporation a price fixed by said board.

SECT. 5. The Meigs elevated railway shall not be built after the manner of the New York elevated railways, but shall be built according to the plans, methods and inventions of Joe V. Meigs, a copy of which shall be filed with the secretary of state within sixty days of the passage of this act; and upon granting a location, the board of aldermen shall prescribe the height at which the lowest part of the girder shall be above the the ground, and the width of the track, provided that its greatest width shall not exceed twenty-two and one-half inches.

Sect. 6. The provisions of sections thirteen and fourteen of chapter one hundred and thirteen, and sections thirty-eight to forty inclusive, and sections forty-three to forty-five inclusive, of chapter one hundred and twelve of the Public Statutes, and of chapter two hundred and sixtyfive of the acts of eighteen hundred and eighty-two, shall apply to said corporation. The corporation may take, in the manner prescribed in sections ninety-one to ninety-three inclusive, of chapter one hundred and twelve of the Public Statutes, as much land as may be necessary for the proper construction and security of the road, or as may be necessary for depot and station purposes.

Sect. 7. The owner of any property taken for such railway, or of any property abutting on streets through which said railway may pass, not so taken, in any manner injuriously affected or lessened in value, whether by smoke, noise, obstruction of light, air or access, disturbance of quiet enjoyment or otherwise, by the construction, maintenance or operation of said railway, may petition for assessment of his damages, and his petition shall be heard and determined in the same manner and with like effect as now provided by law when real estate is taken for public highways. But said corporation shall not acquire title to any land, nor enter upon any street, until all damages to the owners of land and abutters on any part of a street occupied, or to be occupied, by its structure have been paid or secured in a manner satisfactory to the owner, or to be fixed by the superior court or any justice thereof, sitting in equity for the county where the land lies, upon the petition of either party and summary hearing. And the erection of the structures authorized by this act in any street shall be deemed a new servitude, for which damages may be claimed by any owner of land having a fee or an easement appendant or appurtenant to his land, in, on or over such street, or by any tenant of such owner. But all persons claiming interests in the same estate shall join in one petition. And such petition for damages on any street shall be filed before the expiration of one year after the structures authorized by this act are built or operated in that part of such street contiguous to the petitioner's estate.

SECT. 8. The damages and costs recoverable by the persons petitioning therefor, as herein before provided, shall become and be a first lien without priority to any of said petitioners as among themselves, on all the property of the said corporation, having priority of payment in full, except over debts and taxes due to or assessed by the United States or the Commonwealth, or any county, city or town in the Commonwealth; said lien may be enforced for damages and costs, in equity. If any damages recovered against said corporation, other than damages recovered by owners of land and abutters on any part of a street occupied by any structure of said corporation, or their tenants, as such owners, abutters or tenants, remain unpaid for thirty days after final judgment therefor, the superior court may, by injunction or other suitable process in equity, prohibit and restrain the corporation from continuing the operation of said road, or maintaining any structure in any place or manner injurious to the person applying for such relief.

SECT. 9. Whenever said corporation shall make any excavation in or near any public highway, or shall set any foundation, pier or post, in or near the same, the surface of the street, sidewalk or other ground shall be restored, as soon as practicable, to the condition it was in before the excavation was made, as near as may be; and no interference shall be had with, or change made in, water or gas mains or pipes, sewers, drains or other subterranean works, except with the concurrence of the board of aldermen first had and obtained, and upon condition that the same shall be immediately restored to a serviceable condition, as good as before the change or disturbance, and at the sole cost and expense of said corporation. And the superior court in equity may summarily enforce the provisions of this section by injunction or other appropriate remedy.

SECT. 10. The provisions of section three of chapter one hundred and five of the Public Statutes shall apply to the corporation hereby authorized.

SECT. 11. This act shall take effect upon its passage. [Approved March 18, 1884.

[CHAP. 88.]

AN ACT requiring notice to authorities of Cities and Towns upon applications for commitment or admission to the Massachusetts School for the Feeble-Minded.

Be it enacted, etc., as follows:

SECT. 1. Whoever applies for the commitment or for the admission of a pupil or an idiot to the Massachusetts School for the Feeble-Minded, under the provisions of chapter two hundred and thirty-nine of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and eighty-three, shall first give notice in writing to the mayor, or one or more of the selectmen of the place where the pupil or idiot resides, of his intention to make such application; and satisfactory evidence that such notice has been given shall be produced to the judge in cases of commitment.

SECT. 2. This act shall take effect upon its passage. [Approved March 18, 1884.