for the judge presiding at the trial to order a judgment of non-suit to be entered if, in his opinion, the plaintiff shall have given no such evidence as in law is sufficient to maintain the action, with leave, nevertheless, to move the court in banc to set aside such judgment of non-suit; and in case the said court in banc shall refuse to set aside the non-suit the plaintiff may remove the record by writ of error into the supreme court for revision and review, in like manner and with like effect as he might remove a judgment rendered against him upon a demurrer to evidence.

APPROVED-The 11th day of March, A. D. 1875.

J. F. HARTRANFT.

No. 9.

AN ACT

To extend the time for the completion of railroads authorized to be constructed by railroad or railway corporations of this commonwealth under any general law.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted, &c., That the time for completing all railroads in this commonwealth, commenced by railroad or railway companies incorporated under or in pursuance of any general law of this commonwealth, be and the same is hereby extended for the further period of five years, from and after the time limited for the completion of the same by any general law under and by virtue of which any such corporation may have been incorporated: Provided, Any railroad or railway company enjoying the benefits and privileges of this act shall hereafter hold its charter subject to the provisions of the constitution of this commonwealth.

APPROVED-The 17th day of March, A. D. 1875.

J. F. HARTRANFT.

No. 10.

A SUPPLEMENT

To an act, entitled "An Act dividing the cities of this state into three classes, regulating the passage of ordinances, providing for contracts for supplies and work for said cities, authorizing the increase of indebtedness and the creation of a sinking fund to redeem the same, defining and punishing certain offences in all of said cities, and providing for the incorporation and government of cities of the third class," approved May twenty-third, Anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and seventy-four.

non-accepting

SECTION 1. Be it enacted, &c., That the following parts of Parts of former act any clauses of sections of the act to which this is a supple- may extended to ment, may, by a two-third vote of the city councils, after of third class. publication in the city or county paper or papers for two weeks, be extended and applied to cities of the third class which have not accepted the said act, and shall remain in

Of extension of part

be levied.

Passage of a loan bill.

force as to each city of said third class until such city shall have accepted the provisions of the said act and no longer, namely:

The following part of section eleven :

That for the purpose of creating a sinking fund for the of section eleven. gradual extinguishment of the bonds and funded debt of the respectives cities of this commonwealth, the councils of each thereof shall annually, (until payment of the bonds and Sinking fund tax to funded debt be fully provided for,) levy and collect, in addition to the other taxes of said corporation, a tax of not less than one mill and not exceeding three mills, upon the assessed value of the taxable property of each of said cities, to be called the sinking fund tax, which shall be paid into the city How to be applied. treasury, and shall be applied towards the extinguishment of said bonds and funded debt in the order of the date of maturity thereof, and to no other purpose whatever; and said bonds, when purchased, shall be conspicuously stamped to show that they were purchased for the sinking fund of said city; and the interest on said bonds shall be collected and used in like manner with the taxes collected for said sinking fund: Provided, That no money shall hereafter be borrowed on the faith and credit of said cities unless the ordinance or other authority authorizing the same shall have been introduced at one stated meeting of the common council, and the draft thereof published in at least two of the newspapers of the city, daily, four weeks before the final consideration and passage thereof by the said common council: And provided also, That the specific purpose or purposes for which the said loan is authorized shall be distinctly set out in the said ordinance; and that the moneys received for said loan shall not be used for any purposes other than those so stated: And City to provide tax provided further, That the said city shall, at or before the time of authorizing the said loan, provide for the collection of an annual tax sufficient to pay the interest and also the principal of said loan within thirty years; also the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth clauses of section twenty of the said act to which this is a supplement as follows:

to pay loan within

thirty years.

Extension of parts of section twenty.

Power to enact ordi

streets, building bridges, &c.

Clause 1. To open and improve streets, avenues and alleys, nances for opening make sidewalks and build bridges, culverts and sewers within the city, and for the purpose of paying for the same, shall have power to provide for the payment of the same from the general revenue or by assessments on real estate benefited thereby, as provided in clauses thirty-two and thirty-three of this section, and also to make assessments therefor as provided in clauses three and four, to wit:

To impose poll tax.

Levy and collect license taxes.

Clause 2. To impose a poll tax, not exceeding one dollar, on all able-bodied males between the ages of twenty-one and fifty years.

Clause 3. To levy and collect license tax on auctioneers, contractors, druggists, hawkers, peddlers, bankers, brokers, pawnbrokers, merchants of all kinds, grocers, confectioners, restaurants, butchers, taverns, public boarding houses, dram shops, saloons, liquor sellers, billiard tables, bowling alleys and other gaming tables, drays, hacks, carriages, omnibusses,

carts, wagons, street railroad cars and other vehicles used in the city for pay, lumber dealers, furniture dealers, saddle or harness dealers, stationers, jewelers, livery stable keepers, pavement stands, real estate agents, express companies or agencies, telegraph companies or agencies, shows, theatres, and all kinds of exhibitions for pay, and regulate the same by ordinance.

Clause 4. To restrain, prohibit and suppress tippling shops, Suppress tippling billiard tables, bowling alleys, houses of prostitution and houses, &c. other disorderly houses and practices, games and gambling houses, desecration of the Sabbath day, commonly called

Sunday, and all kinds of public indecencies.

Clause 5. To make regulations to prevent the introduction Make sanitary reguof contagious diseases into the city, to make quarantine laws lations. for that purpose, and enforce the same within the corporate

limits of the city.

Clause 6. To erect, establish and regulate hospitals, work- Establish hospitals, houses and poor-houses, and to provide for the government &c. and support of the same.

Clause 7. To make regulations to secure the general health Prevent nuisances. of the city, and to remove and prevent nuisances.

for second class

SECTION 2. That the judges of the court of common pleas Court to appoint number two, of the county in which any city of the second board of assessors class is situated, shall immediately after the passage of this cities. act, and every third year thereafter, appoint three resident citizens of such city as a board of assessors to make, revise or alter assessments of all subjects of taxation for taxation for city

purposes, who shall serve for a term of three years from the date Terms of members of their appointment; one of said assessors shall be designated of board.

by said court as chief assessor, and shall receive an annual Compensation. salary of twenty-five hundred dollars; the other members of the board shall receive as compensation five dollars per day for each day of actual service, to be determined by the affidavit of the assessors before the city controller; and said board shall immediately after their appointment be severally To be sworn. sworn by the said court of common pleas to faithfully perform the duties pertaining to their office; any vacancy oc- Vacancies. curring in said board by death, resignation or otherwise, shall be filled by an appointment by said judges for the unexpired term.

of board.

SECTION 3. The said board of assessors shall make an assess- Duties and powers. ment of all the subjects of taxation now by law or hereafter made subject to taxation for city purposes; and shall take as the basis of such assessment the assessments as returned by the ward assessors of the several wards of said city to the county commissioners, a copy of which shall be furnished to said board by said county commissioners of the county in which said city is situated; and shall have power to revise, equalize or alter such assessments, by increasing or reducing the valuations, either in individual cases or by wards or parts of wards; to add to such lists of assessments any subject of taxation, subject to taxation as aforesaid, omitted therefrom, and attach a valuation thereto; and it shall be their duty to rectify all errors, and if deemed necessary to require the attendance of ward assessors or other citizens before them for

Further duties of board.

examination under oath or affirmation; they shall hear and determine all appeals of tax-payers from their assessments, made under such rules and regulations as they shall prescribe, subject to an appeal from their decision to the court of common pleas number two of the county, whose decision shall be final; and if the appeal shall be groundless the appellant shall pay all the costs of the appeal.

SECTION 4. When said board shall have altered and amended the lists of all taxable property, so as to arrive at its true cash value, they shall then ascertain the aggregate amount of the value of the entire taxable property of said city, which valuation shall remain the lawful valuation for purposes of city taxation, until altered as herein provided; the said board shall then proceed to classify the real estate so assessed, in such manner and upon such testimony as may be adduced before them, so as to discriminate between built up property, rural or suburban property, and property used for agricultural or farm purposes, including untillable land, respectively, and certify to the councils of said city, during the month of January of each year, the aggregate valuation of city, rural and agricultural property subject to taxation; it shall be the duty of said councils, in determining the rate of taxation for each determining rate of year, to assess a tax upon said agricultural, farm and untillable land, equal to one-half (1) of the highest rate of tax required to be assessed for said year, and upon said rural or suburban property a tax not exceeding two-thirds (3) of the highest rate required to be assessed as aforesaid, so that upon the said classes of real estate of said city there shall be three rates of taxation.

Duty of councils in taxation.

Chief assessor to have custody of books.

SECTION 5. The said chief assessor shall have custody and control of all books relating to the assessment of taxes, and keep them arranged according to wards and dates; and he shall furnish the city treasurer, on or before the first day of surer a list of taxa- June of each year, an alphabetical list of all

To furnish trea

bles.

And report amount

persons taxable

for city purposes, with the amount of tax levied by councils for the current year, and report the aggregate amounts of of taxes to control- said taxes assessed to the city controller at the time said books are placed in the hands of the city treasurer.

ler.

Board may administer oaths.

Assessments when

made, to remain uncounty valuation.

til next triennial

Councils of second

class cities may li

SECTION 6. The said board shall have the power to administer oaths or affirmations for all purposes necessary in the discharge of their duties; the said assessments, when first made, shall remain until the next triennial county valuation, subject only to such additions and transfers, and other incidental alterations, as said board shall deem necessary to perfect the assessments for each year's tax levy; and thereafter it shall be the duty of said board, each year in which the triennial county valuation is made, to alter, revise and equalize valuations as aforesaid, with the power to make in the intermediate years, the said additions and transfers and other incidental alterations.

SECTION 7. The councils of any city of the second class cense pawnbrokers. shall have power to license pawnbrokers to do business within the corporate limits thereof, under such regulations and upon payment of such fees as shall be prescribed by ordinance of said councils.

sion heretofore cre

SECTION 8. The councils of any city of the second class City hall commismay, by ordinance, dissolve any city hall commission here- ated, may be distofore created, and all duties hitherto performed by any such solved. commission shall thenceforth devolve upon and be performed by the select and common council of such city.

Powers of councils

provements.

SECTION 9. The councils of any city of the second class shall have the power, whenever any street or avenue therein shall over any street imhave been heretofore directed to be improved under the provisions of any special law, to curtail the length or width of such street or avenue improvement; and in exercising this power they shall prescribe such regulations as will permit the provisions of said special law to be carried into effect; and said councils shall power to determine whether the whole May determine or any part of the sidewalks of any street or avenue, improved whether side-walks under general or special law, shall be paved.

shall be paved.

SECTION 10. That in lieu of any existing authority the Of the supervision councils of any city of the second class shall have exclusive of conduct of city supervision of the official conduct of all city officers, and officers. shall examine the grounds of all reasonable complaints made against any of them, (with the exception of police officers,) and shall cause all their violations and neglect of duty to be promptly punished or reported to the proper tribunal for correction, and for the purposes aforesaid they are hereby authorized to issue subpoenas, attested by the presidents and clerks of councils, under the scal of the city, for the attendance of such witnesses as they may deem necessary: Provided always, That nothing in this section shall be deemed in any way to interfere with the power of the law courts over city officers: And provided further, That any citizen sustaining damage by reason of the acts of any city official may institute proceedings in any of the law courts for redress of the injuries complained of.

APPROVED-The 18th day of March, A. D. 1875.

J. F. HARTRANFT.

No. 11.
AN ACT

To provide for the ordinary expenses of the executive, legislative and judicial departments of the commonwealth, interest on the public debt, and for common schools, for the year Anno Domini one thouand eight hundred and seventy-five.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted, &c., That the following sums be and the same are hereby specifically appropriated to the sev eral objects hereinafter named, for the year commencing on the first day of June, Anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, and to be paid out of any moneys in the treasury not otherwise appropriated:

Appropriations.

expenses of depart

SECTION 2. For the payment of the salaries of the state salaries of officers officers, the clerks and employees in the several departments and employees, and of the state government, and for the incidental expenses of ments. the said departments, the sum of one hundred and seventyfive thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may

be necessary,