66 ❝ Oil. 66 Pub. Sts., c. 57, § 1 66 66 c. 59, § 6 "Pressed or Bundled Hay and Straw for Slaughter "Vinegar Pub. Sts., c. 60, § 35 66 "Provisions and of Animals Intended Pub. Sts., c. 58, § 1 66 c. 27, § 33 Keeper of Lock-up Measurers of Upper Leather St. 1884, c. 298, § 15 "Boilers and Heavy Machinery 1 Registrars of voters and temporary registrars of voters "shall before entering upon the duties of their office, take and subscribe an oath faithfully to perform the same." St. 1890, c. 423, § 22. Whenever a person elected to an office is required to be sworn before entering upon the duties of the office, a person appointed to a vacancy in such office should also be sworn. FORM OF OATH. Every assessor, assistant assessor, or other person chosen to assess taxes, or determine or assist in determining the value of property for the purpose of taxation, shall, before entering upon the duties of his office, take an oath which shall be in substance as follows: I, having been chosen to assess taxes and estimate the value of property for the purpose of taxation for the town [or city] of , for the year [or years] ensuing, do swear that I will truly and impartially, according to my best skill and judgment, assess and apportion all such taxes as I may during that time assess, that I will neither overvalue nor undervalue any property subject to taxation, and that I will faithfully discharge all the duties of said office. St. 1885, c. 355, § 1. The following is a proper form of oath to be administered to all other officers required to be sworn: Having been elected [or appointed] of the town of for the year [or years] ensuing, you do swear that you will faithfully perform all the duties of that office. So help you God. If a person is conscientiously scrupulous of taking an oath he may be permitted to affirm. For all officers except assessors, and others named in St. 1885, c. 355, the following is a proper form of affirmation: Having been elected [or appointed] for the year [or of the town of years] ensuing, you do affirm that you will faithfully perform all the duties of that office. This you do under the pains and penalties of perjury. TENURE OF OFFICE. Most of the elective town officers hold their respective offices for one year and until the election and qualification of their successors. Overseers of Poor v. Sears, 22 Pick. 130; School District v. Atherton, 12 Met. 105; Dow v. Bullock, 13 Gray, 136. Members of the school committee, road commissioners, commissioners of the sinking funds, and trustees of the free public library, are chosen for three years. Towns may, when they have adopted certain statutes, choose selectmen, assessors, and overseers of the poor, for terms longer than one year. See pages 30-32. Most of the appointed officers are appointed to hold office for only one year. Probation officers, railroad and steamboat police officers are appointed to hold office until removed. Harbormasters are appointed to hold until their successors are appointed; assistant harbor-masters, until their successors are appointed or their appointments are revoked. Enginemen, gaugers of liquid measures, and police officers are appointed to hold office during the pleasure of the board appointing them, and cannot be appointed for a term to extend beyond the next annual meeting. Commonwealth v. Higgins, 4 Gray, 34. Keeper of the lock-up is appointed for one year unless the appointment is sooner revoked. Sealers of weights and measures, superintendent of hay scales, weighers of boilers and heavy machinery, and weighers of coal may be removed at any time. VACANCIES IN OFFICE. HOW CAUSED. A person removing from the town in which he holds a town office shall thereby vacate such office. Pub. Sts., c. 27, § 89; Barre v. Greenwich, 1 Pick. 129. If a person holding an elective town office resign that office and his resignation is accepted by the town or by such officers as are authorized to fill the vacancy, he ceases to hold such office and be such officer as soon as his successor is chosen and qualified, but not before. Pub. Sts., c. 27, § 78; Dill. Mun. Corp., § 224; Badger et al. v. United States, 93 U. S. 599. If a person holding an office by appointment of the selectmen or other board of officers, resign, the resignation takes effect as soon as it is re ceived by the appointing board. Gilbert v. Luce, 11 Barb. (N. Y.) 91; Olmsted v. Dennis, 77 N. Y. 379; Dill. Mun. Corp., § 224, note 2. By the common law, when two offices or public trusts are incompatible with each other, a person holding one is not disqualified to be appointed or elected to the other, but his acceptance of the second office is, in law, an implied resignation of the first, whenever it may be resigned by the mere act of the incumbent, without the assent or concurrence of a superior authority. Commonwealth v. Hawkes, 123 Mass. 525; Pub. Sts., c. 29, § 10; Dill. Mun. Corp., § 226. If one holding an elective town office is, by the voters of that town, elected to an incompatible office, such action on the part of the voters is a consent that the first office may be vacated; and if the second office be accepted, the first is at once and ipso facto determined. But, until acceptance, the former office is not vacated. Dill. Mun. Corp., § 226. If one holds, by election of the voters, an office which he is bound to accept, and for that reason cannot resign of his own will, he is not eligible to an incompatible office which may be filled by appointment by the selectmen or other appointing board. The foregoing propositions may be illustrated as follows: No person holding the office of auditor, park commissioner, or registrar of voters, in towns having three hundred or more voters, |