all debts due from said towns of Woburn, Medford, and
West Cambridge, and shall be entitled to receive their just
and equitable proportion of the value of all property, real
and personal, and of all assets, now owned and held by said
towns of Woburn, Medford, and West Cambridge, respec-
tively; and the towns of Woburn, Medford, West Cam- Paupers.
bridge, and Winchester, shall be respectively liable for the
support of all persons who now need, or who shall here-
after need relief as paupers, whose settlement was gained
by, or derived from, a residence or settlement within their
respective limits. In case said towns, or any of them, shall
not agree in respect to a division of property, funds, debts,
town paupers, or state or county taxes, the court of common
pleas for the county of Middlesex, shall, upon the petition.
of either town, appoint three competent and disinterested
persons, to hear the parties and award thereon; and their
award, or the award of any two of them, being accepted by
said court, shall be final.

SECTION 4. Any justice of the peace, within and for the Town meeting. county of Middlesex, may issue his warrant directed to any principal inhabitant of the town of Winchester, requiring him to notify and warn the inhabitants thereof, qualified to vote in town affairs, to meet at the time and place therein appointed, for the purpose of choosing all such town officers as towns are by law authorized and required to choose at their annual meetings. Such justice, or in his absence such principal inhabitant, shall preside until the choice of a moderator, in said meeting.

gressional dis

SECTION 5. This act shall not affect the congressional Not to affect condistricts now existing, but the citizens of Winchester shall, trict. in all congressional elections, vote as heretofore, while the districts remain as at present; and shall take effect from and after its passage.

[1849, 193'; 1850, 3.]

April 30, 1850.

AN ACT authorizing the Medway Branch Railroad Company to change Chap. 256

the Location of their Road.

Be it enacted, &c., as follows:

The Medway Branch Railroad Company are hereby autho- New location. rized to change the existing location of their road, and to re-locate the same, as follows, viz.: commencing at the terminus of said road, as now located, at Medway Village; thence running south-easterly, through Medway, passing near to the house of Jasper Daniels, the north-easterly part of Franklin and the northerly part of Wrentham, to the Norfolk County Railroad, at or near to the North Wrentham depot of said road, and to construct the said Medway Branch Railroad upon the said line; and, when this location, shall

have been made, and the said road constructed thereon, the said company shall be liable to all the duties, and shall enjoy all the powers, rights and privileges, granted to them Location to be in their original charter: provided, that the location hereby authorized, shall be filed according to law, within six months from the passage of this act.

filed within six months.

Chap. 257

Tolls modified.

When to take effect.

Chap. 259

Corporators.

Name changed, 1856, 199.

Powers and duties.

[1851, 297; 1852, 117.]

[1846, 146; 1848, 120.]

April 30, 1850.

AN ACT concerning the Hancock Free Bridge Corporation.
Be it enacted, &c., as follows:

SECTION 1. The Hancock Free Bridge Corporation shall have the right to demand and receive the following tolls, instead of those heretofore established, viz. for each foot passenger or person passing either of the bridges of said corporation, one cent; for each single horse cart, wagon, sled, sleigh, chaise, sulky, or buggy, with one seat, five cents; for one person and horse, four cents; for each wheelbarrow, handcart, and every other vehicle, capable of carrying like weight, two cents; for each cab, carryall, buggy, or rockaway, with two seats, and drawn by one horse, ten cents; for each coach, chariot, phaeton, curricle, or carryall, drawn by more than one horse, fifteen cents; for every other wheel carriage, sled, or sleigh, drawn by more than one horse, or other beast, ten cents; for all neat cattle, or horses, passing over either of said bridges, exclusive of those ridden, or in carriages or teams, two cents each; swine and sheep, six cents for each dozen, and at the same rate for a greater or less number; for each single horse cart, wagon, or sled, only one person shall be allowed to pass free of toll.

SECTION 2. This act shall not take effect, until it shall have been accepted by said Hancock Free Bridge Corporation, at a meeting called for that purpose.

[1851, 39; 1853, 403; 1854, 254; 1855, 344.]

April 30, 1850.

AN ACT to incorporate the Female Medical Education Society. Be it enacted, &c., as follows:

SECTION 1. Timothy Gilbert, William I. Bowditch, and Samuel Gregory, their associates and successors, are hereby made a corporation, by the name of the Female Medical Education Society, for the purpose of providing for the education of midwives, nurses, and female physicians, with all the powers and privileges, and subject to all the duties, restrictions and liabilities, set forth in the forty-fourth and thirty-eighth chapters of the Revised Statutes.

SECTION 2. Said corporation may hold, for the purposes Real and personaforesaid, real estate not exceeding fifty thousand dollars, and personal estate not exceeding fifty thousand dollars.

[1856, 199.]

April 30, 1850.

Chap. 260

AN ACT to incorporate the Matfield Railroad Company.

Be it enacted, &c., as follows:

duties.

SECTION 1. James Brown, S. Dwight Eaton, J. M. Leon- Corporators. ard, their associates and successors, are hereby made a corporation, by the name of the Matfield Railroad Company, with all the powers and privileges, and subject to all the Powers and duties, liabilities and restrictions, set forth in the forty-fourth chapter of the Revised Statutes, and in that part of the thirty-ninth chapter of said statutes relating to railroad corporations, and in all other laws which have been or shall be passed relative to railroad corporations: provided, that Proviso. said company shall have no right to take any land for the purpose of constructing said road, except by contract with the owner of such land.

SECTION 2. Said company may locate, construct and Route of road. maintain a railroad, with one or more tracks, from some convenient point not more than three hundred feet from the iron works of the East Bridgewater Iron Company, in East East Bridgewater Bridgewater, to some convenient point on the Bridgewater and Abington Branch, of the Old Colony Railroad, northerly of, and not more than one thousand feet from, the present station house in East Bridgewater, at which point the said company may unite their railroad, by proper turn-outs and switches, with the said branch of the Old Colony Railroad: provided, that said company shall first obtain permission of Proviso. the Old Colony Railroad Corporation therefor.

SECTION 3. No shares in the capital stock of said corpo- Value of shares. ration shall be issued for a less sum or amount, to be actually

paid in on each, than the par value of the shares which shall

be first issued.

SECTION 4. The capital stock of said company shall Capital stock. consist of not more than one hundred shares, the number of which shall be determined, from time to time, by the directors of said company, and no assessment shall be laid thereon of a greater amount in the whole than one hundred dollars on each share; and said company may invest and hold such part of said capital stock in real and personal Real estate. estate as may be necessary and convenient for the purpose of their incorporation.

to file location and com

SECTION 5. If the location of said railroad shall not be one year filed, and said railroad shall not be completed, within one plete road. year from the passage of this act, the same shall be void. April 30, 1850.

Chap. 262

Power of city council.

Compensation,

&c.

Delegation of power.

Powers of engineers,

ment.

[1825, 52; 1826, 97; 1828, 123; 1831, 52.]

AN ACT relating to the Fire Department of the City of Boston.
Be it enacted, &c., as follows:

SECTION 1. The city council of the city of Boston may establish a fire department for said city, to consist of so many engineers and other officers, and so many enginemen and other members, as the city council, by ordinance, shall from time to time prescribe; and said city council shall have authority to make such provisions in regard to the time and mode of appointment, and the occasion and mode of removal, of either such officers or members, to make such requisitions in respect to their qualifications and period of service, to define their office and duties, to fix and pay such compensation for their services, and, in general, to make such regulations in regard to their conduct and government, and to the management and conduct of fires, and persons attending at fires, subject to the penalties provided for the breach of the city by-laws, as they shall deem expedient: provided, that the appointment of enginemen, hosemen and hook and ladder men shall be made by the mayor and aldermen exclusively.

SECTION 2. The powers and duties mentioned in the preceding section, or any of them, may be exercised and carried into effect by the said city council, in any manner which they may prescribe, and through the agency of any persons, or any board or boards, to whom they may delegate

the same.

SECTION 3. The engineers or other officers of the departthe fire department, so appointed as aforesaid, shall have the same authority, in regard to the prevention and extinguishment of fires, and the performance of the other offices and duties now incumbent upon firewards, as are now conferred upon firewards by the Revised Statutes, or the special acts relating to the city of Boston, now in force. They shall also have authority, in compliance with any ordinance of said city, to make an examination of places where shavings and other combustible materials are collected or deposited, and to require the removal of such materials, or the adoption of suitable safeguards against fire. And said city council are hereby authorized to make suitable ordinances upon this latter subject-matter, under the penalties enacted in the city charter.

Exemption of

officers and members.

Relief for bodily injury, &c.

SECTION 4. All officers and members of the fire department shall be exempted from military duty, or from serving as jurors or constables, during the time of their employment in said department.

SECTION 5. The city council aforesaid are hereby authorized, whenever and as often as they shall deem it expe

dient, to appropriate any sum or sums of money, in the
way that may be judged by said council most advisable, for
the relief or indemnity of any officer or member of the fire
department who may sustain corporal injury, or contract
sickness in the discharge of his duty, or consequent thereon.
SECTION 6. The act entitled "An Act to authorize the Repeal.
mayor and aldermen of the city of Boston to increase the
number of enginemen in certain cases," passed on the thir-
teenth day of January, in the year eighteen hundred and
twenty-three; the act entitled "An Act authorizing the
appointment of firemen in the town of Boston," passed
February seventh, in the year eighteen hundred and twenty;
the act entitled "An Act establishing a fire department in
the city of Boston," passed June eighteenth, in the year
eighteen hundred and twenty-five; the act entitled "An
Act in addition to an act entitled An Act establishing a
fire department in the city of Boston,'" passed March
second, in the year eighteen hundred and twenty-seven; the
act entitled "An Act in addition to an act establishing a
fire department in the city of Boston," passed March
third, in the year eighteen hundred and twenty-nine; and
the act entitled "An Act further in addition to an act
establishing a fire department in the city of Boston,"
passed June twenty-first, in the year eighteen hundred and
thirty-one, are hereby repealed.

effect.

SECTION 7. This act shall take effect from and after its When to take passage; but it shall not operate upon existing laws and ordinances, relating to the fire department of the city of Boston, until it shall have been adopted by the city council of said city.

May 1, 1850.

AN ACT to incorporate the Matfield Manufacturing Steam Mill Company. Chap. 264 Be it enacted, &c., as follows:

SECTION 1. James Brown, S. Dwight Eaton, Samuel G. Corporators. Alden, their associates and successors, are hereby made a corporation, by the name of the Matfield Manufacturing

Company, for the purpose of manufacturing lumber, grind- Purpose. ing grain, manufacturing iron, and for letting steam-power,

water.

duties.

to be located in East Bridgewater, county of Plymouth; In East Bridgewith all the powers and privileges, and subject to all the duties, restrictions, and liabilities, set forth in the thirty- Powers and eighth and forty-fourth chapters of the Revised Statutes. SECTION 2. Said corporation may hold real and personal Real and personestate, necessary and convenient for the purposes aforesaid, not exceeding in amount twenty-five thousand dollars. SECTION 3. No shares in the capital stock of said corpo- Value of shares. ration shall be issued for a less sum or amount, to be actually

paid in on each, than the par value of the shares which shall

be first issued.

[1853, 30, 260; 1855, 67.]

May 1, 1850.

al estate.