1848, 196, repealed.

When this act shall take effect.

Power of legislature.

Chap. 188

Abutters to grade streets and ways

use.

Proceedings

ing six per cent. per annum, on all the old stock of said company, held by stockholders and remaining unsurrendered; and if there remain any surplus of said net earnings after the payment of all the dividends aforesaid, the same shall be equally divided among the stockholders, upon all the stock of said company, new and old, share and share alike.

SECTION 6. The act passed by the legislature, April twenty-sixth, eighteen hundred and forty-eight,. and approved by the governor, April twenty-seventh, eighteen hundred and forty-eight, entitled "An Act to increase the capital stock of the Norwich and Worcester Railroad Company," shall be and the same hereby is repealed, whenever this present act, in accordance with its provisions, shall go into effect.

SECTION 7. This act shall not take effect until the same has been passed by the general assembly of the State of Connecticut, and accepted by a vote of two-thirds of the stock represented at a stockholders' meeting, specially convened for that purpose.

SECTION 8. This act may be altered, amended, or repealed, at the pleasure of the legislature.

[1853, 336; 1854, 134, 287; 1855, 462; 1857, 244;

April 13, 1850. 1859, 70.]

AN ACT concerning Streets and Ways in the City of Worcester. Be it enacted, &c., as follows:

SECTION 1. When any street or way which now is or given to public hereafter shall be opened, in the city of Worcester, over any private land by the owners thereof, and dedicated to, or permitted to be used by the public, before such street shall have been accepted and laid out according to law, it shall be the duty of the owners of the lots abutting thereon, to grade such street or way at their own expense, in such manner as the safety and convenience of the public shall, in the opinion of the mayor and aldermen of said city require; in and if the owners of such abutting lots shall after reasonable case of neglect or notice given by the said mayor and aldermen, neglect or refuse to grade such street or way in manner aforesaid, it shall be lawful for the said mayor and aldermen to cause the same to be graded as aforesaid, and the expense thereof shall, after due notice to the parties interested, be equitably assessed upon the owners of such abutting lots, by the said mayor and aldermen in such proportions as they shall judge reasonable; and all assessments so made shall be a lien upon such abutting lands in like manner as taxes are now a lien upon real estate: provided, that any such grading of any street or way by the mayor and aldermen aforesaid, shall not

refusal.

Proviso.

be construed to be an acceptance of such street or way by

the city of Worcester.

SECTION 2. No street or way shall hereafter be opened as No street less aforesaid in said city, of a less width than forty feet, except

with the consent of said mayor and aldermen, in writing,

first had and obtained for that purpose.

than 40 feet.

SECTION 3. This act shall take effect in thirty days from When to take the passing thereof, unless the city council of said city shall effect. within that time vote not to accept the same.

April 13, 1850.

[1838, 9; 1839, 50, 70; 1841, 131; 1844, 6, 33; 1845, 72; 1847, 266 ]

AN ACT relating to the Income of the Western Railroad Stock Sinking Chap. 189

Be it enacted, &c., as follows:

Fund.

The income of the Western Railroad Stock Sinking Fund To be paid into shall, after the present year, be paid into the treasury, and appropriated to the current expenses of the Commonwealth.

[1851, 300; 1858, 100.]

the treasury of Commonwealth.

April 13, 1850.

Chap. 190

AN ACT to incorporate the Conway Tool Company.

Be it enacted, &c., as follows: SECTION 1. Alonzo Parker, Horace Hubbard, Daniel Corporators. Rice, 2d, their associates and successors, are hereby made a corporation, by the name of the Conway Tool Company, for the purpose of manufacturing joiners' bench and moulding tools, and the running of a saw mill for the manufacture of lumber in the town of Conway, in the county of Franklin, with all the powers and all the privileges, and subject Powers and to all the duties, restrictions and liabilities, set forth in the thirty-eighth and forty-fourth chapters of the Revised Statutes.

duties.

SECTION 2. Said corporation may, for the purposes afore- Real estate. said, hold real estate not exceeding thirty thousand dollars,

and the whole capital stock shall not exceed one hundred Capital stock. thousand dollars.

April 15, 1850.

AN ACT in addition to an Act to establish the City of Worcester.

Be it enacted, &c., as follows:

Chap. 191

SECTION 1. The city council shall annually, as soon after Chief engineer. their organization as may be convenient, elect by joint bal

lot in convention, a chief engineer of the fire department, and as many assistant engineers, not exceeding six in

number, as they shall deem necessary.

SECTION 2. The qualified voters of each ward, at their School committee respective annual ward meetings, shall elect by ballot two

persons in each ward, who shall be residents of the ward, Repealed, 1857, to be members of the school committee; and shall also cast

95.

Sidewalks.

Mill Brook.

Election of city officers.

Of the term of office of warden,

tions.

their ballots for eight persons from the city at large, to be members of the school committee; and the persons thus chosen, together with the mayor, shall constitute the school committee of the city.

SECTION 3. The city council shall have power to lay out sidewalks, and fix the width, height, and grade of the same, and require all persons owning land abutting on such sidewalks, to pave the walks with brick or stone, as they may direct, the city first setting the curbstones and paving the gutters; and, in case any person owning land as aforesaid, shall neglect or refuse to comply with the requirement of the city council, the city council shall have power to cause said sidewalks to be paved according to said requirement, and may recover of said owner, by an action on the case, in the name of the city, the expense of paving the same.

SECTION 4. The city council shall have power to fix the boundaries of Mill Brook in said city, between the factory buildings of Rice, Fox, and Company, and Grove Mills, and to alter, widen, and deepen the channel thereof, as the public good may require. And any damages sustained by any person in his property by reason thereof, shall be assessed in the same manner, and upon the same principles, as damages are assessed in the laying out of town ways.

SECTION 5. The election of city and ward officers shall take place on the second Monday of December of each year, and the municipal year shall begin on the first Monday of January following. This change shall take effect on the second Monday of December, in the year eighteen hundred and fifty-one, and the term of office of the officers elected on the first Monday of March next, shall expire on the first Monday of January, eighteen hundred and fifty-two.

SECTION 6. The term of office of the warden, clerk, and clerk, and in inspectors of elections, is so far changed that they shall hold spectors of elec- their offices till the close of the municipal year for which they are respectively elected, and until others are chosen in their stead; and in case of a failure to elect any one or more of said officers, at the annual meeting of any of said wards, then said ward meetings may be adjourned, from time to time, until such election is completed.

Vacancies.

Lists of jurors.

SECTION 7. Any vacancy in the office of overseer of the poor, assistant assessor, or school committee, may be filled in the manner provided in the sixth section of the act to which this is in addition, for filling vacancies in the common council.

SECTION 8. The list of jurors in the city of Worcester shall be prepared by the mayor and aldermen of the city,

in the same manner as is required, in the ninety-fifth chapter of the Revised Statutes to be done by the selectmen, within and for their respective towns; and the lists, when made out by the mayor and aldermen, shall be submitted to the common council for concurrent revision or amendment.

SECTION 9. The said mayor and aldermen, and the clerk Same. of the city, shall severally have, and exercise, all the powers and duties, with regard to the drawing of jurors, in the city of Worcester, and all other matters relating to jurors therein, which are, in the ninety-fifth chapter of the Revised Statutes, required to be performed by the selectmen and town clerks, in their respective towns; and all venires for jurors, to be returned from Worcester, shall be served on said mayor and aldermen.

highways.

SECTION 10. The city council shall have authority to Surveyors of elect surveyors of highways, for any and all highway districts which now exist, or which may hereafter be established by the city council, with the same powers, and subject to the same liabilities, as surveyors of highways elected by towns.

SECTION 11. The city clerk shall forthwith record the Records by city returns required to be made to him by the provisions of clerk.

the sixteenth section of "An Act to establish the city of Worcester," or a plain and intelligible abstract of the same, as they are successively received.

SECTION 12. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with Repeal.

the provisions of this act are hereby repealed.

SECTION 13. This act shall be void unless approved by when to take ef the voters of the city of Worcester, at meetings held simul- fect. taneously in the several wards, upon notice duly given,

at least seven days before the time of said meetings, and within sixty days after the passage of this act.

[1855, 313; 1856, 272; 1857, 95.]

[1848, 303.]

April 15, 1850.

Av Act in addition to an Act to incorporate the Springfield Aqueduct Chap. 192

Be it enacted, &c., as follows:

Company.

part of North

SECTION 1. The Springfield Aqueduct Company shall May take that have the right to take, on the land now owned by them, Brook called the the spring or stream of water known as, and called the Vanhorn Spring. Vanhorn Spring, being a part of North Brook, so called, in Springfield, and convey the same by the most convenient route across the land of several persons into their present aqueduct.

SECTION 2. Said aqueduct company, their successors or Liable for all assigns, shall be liable for all damages occasioned either by

damages.

Damages, how to be ascertained.

Of referees to ascertain damages.

Of expenses in reference to damages.

No application to be made to legislature for ten years, to take any

more of the water of North Brook.

Rights of the company.

taking said stream or spring, or by laying the logs or pipes to convey the same across the land of the several owners, or in examining and repairing the same, from time to time, as may be necessary.

SECTION 3. All damages occasioned under the operation of this act, claimed by any person or corporation, may be ascertained, determined and recovered, in the time and manner provided by law in case of land taken for highways, unless the said aqueduct company, their successors or assigns, and the persons or corporations claiming damages, have made, or shall hereafter make an agreement, in writing, to submit said question of damages to three referees, the award of whom or any two of whom, shall be final and conclusive upon the parties, and to be paid within twenty days after the same is made and published.

SECTION 4. In case there should be a vacancy for any cause whatever, in any board of referees that may be agreed upon by the parties for ascertaining and determining the damages aforesaid, and the parties cannot agree in filling the same, the county commissioners for the county of Hampden, on application from either party, and on notice to the other party, are hereby authorized and directed to appoint some suitable person or persons to fill such

vacancy.

SECTION 5. All the expenses incurred in settling any question of damages, arising under this act, shall be paid by said company, except the travel and attendance of parties, and counsel fees.

SECTION 6. Said aqueduct company, their successors or assigns, shall not at least for the term of ten years from the passage of this act, make any application to the legislature, directly or indirectly, for the right to take any more of the water of said North Brook, or of any of the springs or streams running into the same, than is taken under this act; and the grant in this act is made subject to the foregoing conditions in this section, and will be void whenever it shall be broken.

SECTION 7. Said aqueduct company, their successors or assigns, are hereby authorized to take any spring or stream of water and convey the same into their aqueduct, which they shall acquire by purchase of all persons interested therein. April 15, 1850.

[1834, 185.]

Wharf.

Chap. 193 AN ACT to authorize the South Wharf Corporation to extend their

In Boston.

Be it enacted, &c., as follows:

The South Wharf Corporation, proprietors of wharves lying on the easterly side of Sea Street, in Boston, are