OF CANALS. CHAPTER 145. OF CANALS. AN ACT to amend the act to renew and to amend the act entitled an Act to Incorporate the Agricultural Canal Company of Baltimore Hundred, Sussex County, Delaware. SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Delaware in General Assembly met, (two-thirds of each branch thereof concurring,) that James CorporaH. Law, Jacob A. Wilgus, Zadoc J. Evans, John Wilgus, tors. John W. Daisey, Charles C. Rickards, Isaac D. Rickards, Peter W. Bennett, Stephen Rickards, Smyth W. Floyd, Mary D. McCabe, Charles W. Daisey, Joshua T. Evans, Thomas Dukes, Maria L. Tire, Lucinda A. Daisey, Catharine P. Bennett, Mack C. Long, E. H. Derickson, L. H. Derickson, Lemuel Lynch, James Anderson, and such other persons as now are or may hereafter become the taxables and owners of the low grounds drained by the said Agricultural Canal in Baltimore Hundred, Sussex County, as the same has been heretofore laid out and surveyed and confirmed under the existing laws of the State of Delaware, are declared to be a corporation and body politic by the name of the Agri- Corporate cultural Canal Company of Baltimore Hundred, and by that name may have succession and successions, and may have a common seal, sue and be sued, implead and be impleaded in all courts of record in the State and elsewhere, and shall have the right and the power and legal authority which shall be necessary to carry into effect the said corporation, but the said company shall not exercise banking powers. na me. meeting. SECTION 2. And be it further enacted, That the said taxables and owners so as hereinbefore described in order to effect the objects of said corporation they shall meet on the first Saturday of May next in the school-house in District No. 119, Sussex County, or some other place as near as call Time and be obtained to said school-house, and on the first Saturday of place of May annually thereafter, between the hours of two and four o'clock, P. M., and elect from among the taxables aforesaid two managers and one treasurer to serve for one year and Managers until their successors shall be duly chosen and qualified, that elected. at such election each voter shall be entitled to one vote for each and every dollar of tax paid by him, her or them for the last assessment made before the election at which such persons shall offer to vote. Notice of the time and place of Notice. meeting shall be posted for ten days in five of the most public to be OF CANALS. places in the neighborhood of said canal signed by the managers and treasurer, or one or more of them, or in the case of the death or disqualification or the refusal or neglect of the said managers and treasurer to advertise the said annual meeting then any two of said taxables are authorized to advertise the same as directed herein. SECTION 3. And be it further enacted, That the said taxables or corporators shall, at their first meeting to be held as aforesaid, choose by ballot and by a plurality of votes How chosen three substantial and disinterested freeholders of Sussex Commissioners. powers. County aforesaid, having no interest in any of the lands drained or benefitted by said canal, as commissioners to go on the aforesaid canal, and if in their judgment shall deem it prudent and necessary for the draining of any of the low Duties and lands of the taxables or corporators of said canal they shall lay off, widen, deepen or extend any new or old branch or branches of said canal; the said commissioners shall have a right to vacate any branch or branches of said canal that they deem unnecessary, and to call a surveyor to run out and survey any or all new branches only, and to make a valuation of the lands drained or benefitted by said canal, and the said commissioners are hereby further authorized and required to go upon and view all the lands which, in their opinion, or in the opinion of a majority of them, are drained or benefitted by said canal; and to ascertain all of the said owners of the said lands drained or benefitted by the said canal and the quantity of such lands held by each owner or by the joint or common owners (if any be held undivided,) and to appraise all the said lands which in their opinion, or in the opinion of a majority of them, are drained or benefitted by the said canal, and shall determine the value of the said lands according to the situation thereof, and upon such principles as will do equal justice to all the owners thereof, which said appraisement shall be the basis of assessment for all the taxes levied under this act for the period of five years next ensuing the date of making said appraisement; and if, at the expiration of said period of five years, the said taxables or corporators ment to be shall by ballot and by a plurality of votes at a stated annual made every meeting of said taxables or corporators, determine to make a new appraisement of said lands drained or benefitted by said canal as a basis for all their subsequent assessments of taxes, they shall choose by ballot and a plurality of yotes three other like commissioners for the purpose of making such appraisement, who shall have all the powers vested in and perform all the duties herein required of those first chosen Appraise five years. OF CANALS. under this act, and whose appraisement, when duly certified to a meeting of the said taxables or corporators shall continue for five years thereafter as a basis for all their subsequent taxation under this act; but if the said taxables or corporators shall otherwise determine at said meeting, the appraisement first made under this act shall continue as a basis of all the then subsequent taxation under this act for the period of five years thereafter, and so on in succession as above mentioned. sioners shall tificate of in thirty appoint SECTION 4. And be it further enacted, That the said Commiscommissioners, or a majority of them, shall within thirty days return cerfrom the day of their appointment call a special meeting of appraise the said taxables or corporators by giving five day's public ment withnotice in writing, posted as aforesaid, to which said meeting days after the said commissioners, or a majority of them, shall return a cer- ment. tificate made under their hands, or the hands of a majority of them, containing the names of the respective owners of the said lands, the quantity of said lands held by each owner or by joint owners (if any be undivided), and the appraisement of the said several quantities or parcels of said lands by said commissioners to be named as aforesaid; and the said commissioners are hereby further authorized and required after viewing the said Agricultural Canal to estimate the probable expense of cleansing and repairing the said canal, and the said commissioners, or a majority of them, shall within thirty Shall certidays after their appointment certify to the managers for the gers an esti time being the amount of such estimate; if any of the said of cleaning commissioners shall die, resign, remove from Sussex County, or refuse to act before all the said duties of the said commissioners shall have been completed, then and in that case the said taxables or corporators may at any annual, adjourned or occasional meeting, choose a commissioner or commissioners How filled. to fill the vacancy or vacancies, and the commissioners shall swear or affirm each other to discharge the said duties faith- Must be fully and impartially according to the best of their skill and affirmed. judgment, and every commissioner shall for each and every day's service in and about the business of said company under this act be entitled to receive of said company the sum of one dollar and fifty cents. SECTION 5. And be it further enacted, That for the purpose of raising the necessary sums of money for answering the purposes by this act intended, it shall and may be lawful for the managers for the time being and they are hereby authorized and required (after the appraisement and valuation aforesaid shall be made and returned as aforesaid, and the es fy to mana mate of cost canal. sworn or Shall levy and assess amount necessary for cleaning canal. given of the will be begun. OF CANALS. timate of probable expenses shall be made and returned and certified to them as aforesaid) to levy and assess the amount of money resolved to be raised for cleansing, opening and and cutting cutting the said Agricultural Canal at the annual ineeting, on the basis of the assessment last made and returned by the commissioners, and the same shall be levied by the said managers within the said month of May of each and every year after the election of said managers; that the said managers shall give five days' notice to the several taxables Notice to be (or those in possession of the said low grounds where the owntime when do not reside in the county) of the time when they will proproceedings ceed with the work of cleansing, opening or cutting said canal, that said taxables and owners shall then have the right to contribute in work under the directions of the managers to the amount of tax levied on them. That if the said taxables after being thus notified shall neglect or refuse to perform the Treasurer work or labor, then it shall be the duty of the treasurer upon notice given him by the said managers or either of them to proceed within twenty days thereafter to collect the said taxes and for that purpose he shall have the same powers and authority to collect as are given to the collector of a hundred for the collection of county taxes, and the said managers may employ other persons to do and perform such work for which they shall give orders drawn by them on the treasurer, and the said managers and treasurer shall settle their accounts annually with the said taxables at their annual meeting, and may receive such compensation as the taxables in the preceding annual meeting may have allowed and fixed to be paid therefor. to collect taxes. Accounts to be settled annually. Persons obstructing of the WH damages. SECTION 6. And be it further enacted, That if any perthe passage son or persons shall obstruct or hinder the passage of the ter lile to water through said Agricultural Canal such person or persons shall become liable in damages to any taxable or owner damaged thereby, and to the said managers for the use of the said company the amount paid or contracted to be paid for the removal thereof to be recovered in either case before any Justice of the Peace within Sussex County, in the same manner as debts of one hundred dollars are recoverable by law, and that it may be lawful for any taxable of said company, or the managers thereof, to enter upon any lands through which the said Agricultural Canal passes for the purpose of removing such obstructions of whatever kind that hinders the free passage of water through the same. When recovered. SECTION 7. And be it further enacted, That all acts OF CANALS. and parts of acts not consistent with this act are hereby repealed. Inconsistent acts repealed. SECTION 8. And be it further enacted, That this act shall be deemed and taken to be a public act and the power Public act. of revocation is hereby reserved to the Legislature. Passed at Dover, March 9, 1887. CHAPTER 146. OF CANALS. AN ACT to amend an act entitled "An act to incorporate a company for the purpose of cutting and making a canal between the Chesapeake Bay and Bay or River Delaware, or the waters thereof," approved January 28, 1801, and to ratify and confirm to the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Company the title to lands purchased by it and for other purposes. f net to incorporate for the pur ting and canal and Dela river SECTION I. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Delaware in General Assembly met two-thirds of each branch thereof concurring herein: That so much of Section XI of an act entitled an "Act to in- section XI, corporate a company for the purpose of cutting and making a canal between the Chesapeake Bay and the Bay or River a company Delaware, or the waters thereof," approved January 29, 1801,se of cutwhich reads as follows: "And be enacted that the said making a president and directors, or the majority of them are hereby en the authorized to agree with the proprietors for the purchase of a hesapeake quantity of land not exceeding one acre at or near convenient waye Bay places for the receipt of tolls aforesaid for the purpose of Delaware erecting necessary buildings, and in case of a disagreement or amended. any of the disabilities aforesaid, or the proprietor being out of the State, then such land may be valued, condemned and paid for as aforesaid for the purpose aforesaid, and the said company shall upon payment of the valuation of the said land be seized thereof in fee simple as aforesaid," be and the same is hereby amended to read as follows: And be it enacted, That the President and Directors of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Company, or a majority of them, are hereby authorized to agree with the proprietors for the purchase of |