An Act to amend an act to establish the City of Portsmouth

SECTION 1. No member of city council to be elected or appointed to office.

2. No balloting to be commenced after sunset or before sunrise.

SEC. 1. Be it enacted, &c.

That no person shall be elected by the City Council or appointed by the Mayor and Aldermen to any office of emolument, who, when such appointment is made, is a member of the board of Aldermen or of the Common Council of said city.

SEC. 2. No balloting for state, county, city, or ward officers, or for representatives to the general court, at any election in said city, shall be commenced after sunset or before sunrise.

SEC. 3. When any bill or ordinance or joint resolution shall have passed the common council and the board of aldermen, the same shall be presented to the mayor, who, if he approves the same, shall sign the same, which shall thereupon become a law. But if he do not approve the same, he shall return it, with his reasons in writing, for not signing the same, to the branch in which it originated. If after the reading of said reasons, and an adjournment for not less than twenty-four hours, such bill, ordinance, or joint resolution shall pass both branches by the votes of two-thirds of the members elected to each branch, the same shall then become a law, as if the mayor had approved and signed it.

SEC. 4. [Repealed July 4, 1860.]

SEC. 5. The mayor and aldermen shall have full and exclusive power to appoint a collector of taxes, city treas.urer, city marshal, and assistant constables, and all other police officers, and all other subordinate officers needful to

carry into effect the objects and powers of the city charter, and the same at pleasure to remove: Provided, however, that said mayor and aldermen shall each have a negative upon the other, both in the appointment to and removal from office. And the officers so appointed shall hold their respective offices for one year, and until others are appointed and qualified in their stead, unless sooner removed. SEC. 6. Sections five and six of the act to amend the charter of the city of Portsmouth, approved July 12, 1850, and all acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act are hereby repealed.

Approved June 27, 1857.

An Act to authorize the City of Portsmouth to set out shade and ornamental trees and shrubbery.

SECTION 1. Mayor and aldermen authorized to set out and maintain shade trees and shrubbery in public squares and highways.

2. Appropriations for this object limited.

SEC. 1. Be it enacted, &c. The Mayor and aldermen of the city of Portsmouth are hereby authorized to set out and maintain trees and shrubbery on public squares and highways at the expense of the city.

SEC. 2. The said city of Portsmouth may appropriate annually for the purpose aforesaid a sum not exceeding twenty five cents for each of its ratable polls in the next year preceding that on which such appropriation shall be made.

Approved June 25, 1858.

An Act in amendment of an "act to establish the city of Portsmouth," approved July 6th, A. D. 1849.

SECTION 1. Time of holding municipal elections changed.

2. Commencement of municipal year, and its duties.

3. Time of appointing and tenure of office of city officers changed.

4. Assessors in ward one to be three instead of two.

SEC. 1 Be it enacted &c. That the annual meeting of the inhabitants of said Portsmouth for the choice of city and town officers shall be holden on the fourth Tuesday of November; and all city, ward and town officers who are chosen by the people shall be chosen by ballot, and shall hold their respective offices for one year from and includ ing the first Tuesday of January and until others are chosen and qualified in their stead. And the term of office of the present incumbents shall expire on the first Tuesday of January next, or as soon thereafter as other officers chosen in their stead shall be qualified; and all other proceedings in regard to such elections shall be as now prescribed in sections 6 and 8 of the act to which this is an amendment.

SEC. 2. The mayor, aldermen and common council shall meet in convention for the purpose of being qualified on the first Tuesday in January in each and every year, and the oaths of office shall be administered and the records made as prescribed in section 10 of the act to which this is an amendment. And on said day the city council shall, in convention and by joint ballot, elect a city clerk, whose duties and term of office shall be the same as now prescribed by section 23 of the act to which this is an amendment.

SEC. 3. All city officers, who are now required to be chosen or appointed by the mayor and alderman or by the city council in convention in the month of April annually, shall hereafter be chosen or appointed in the month of January. And the term of the present incumbents of said

offices shall expire as soon after the first Tuesday of Janu ary next as their successors shall be chosen and qualified.

SEC. 4. Ward one of said city shall hereafter choose three assessors of taxes instead of two as prescribed in the act to which this is an amendment.

Approved June 26, 1858.

An Act relating to the Police Court of the City of Portsmouth.

SECTION 1. Executions to be made returnable in sixty days.

2. Salary of Police Justice prescribed.

3. Act to take effect upon its passage.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted, &c. That executions on judg ments of said police court, in civil suits and actions, may be made returnable to said court within sixty days from the date thereof.

SEC. 2. That the justice of said court shall receive annually from said city, in quarterly payments, a salary not less than three hundred dollars, which shall be in full compensation for all services performed by him as such justice. SEC. 3. This act shall take effect on its passage. Approved June 27, 1859.

An Act in amendment of "An act to establish the city of Portsmouth."

SECTION 1. Mayor of Portsmouth to veto bills within fourteen days.

2. Superintendent of city farm, and fire engineers to bo appointed-manner of appointing city officers.

3. Mayor to have no vote except upon equal division.

4. Repealing clause.

5. Act to take effect in fifteen days after passage.

SEC. 1. Be it enacted, &c. That if the mayor shall neglect or omit to sign any bill, ordinance or joint resolution which shall have passed both boards of the city government, and shall not return the same within fourteen days to the board in which it originated, with his objections in writing, or file, in writing, his objections to the same, to the clerk of the board in which it originated, said bill, ordinance, or joint resolution shall become a law, the same as if the mayor had approved and signed it.

SEC. 2. The mayor and aldermen shall have power to appoint a superintendent of the city farm, chief engineer and assistant engineers, in the same manner in which they are now empowered to appoint other city officers; but if the mayor and aldermen shall not appoint the officers of the city, or any of them, in the manner provided in the fifth section of "An act to amend an act to establish the city of Portsmouth," approved June 27, 1857, within thirty days after the first Tuesday in January in any year, the city council in convention, shall, on the next Thursday evening, or as soon thereafter as may be, proceed to elect such officer or officers; and in such election the person having the largest number of votes shall be elected; and if the mayor and aldermen shall fail to appoint any of the said officers for the present year for the space of thirty days after the passage of this act, then the city council in convention, shall proceed to elect said officers in the manner above provided.