other persons in a letter of instructions, which it will be the duty of said commissioner to furnish to each person who shall be appointed under this act: Provided, That if said Commissioner shall deem it for Provisothe best interests of the State, he may, by and with the advice and may be appointconsent of the Governor, appoint one or more persons as such ex- ed. amining agents, to act in the place of any supervisors, to make examinations in unsettled and unimproved localities. descriptions, SEC. 4. It shall be the duty of the Commissioner of the State To furnish plats, Land Office to furnish each of said agents with plats and descrip- etc., to agents. tions of all of the lands that it will be the duty of such agents to examine, together with all such other information and instruction relating to said lands, or to their duties as such agents, as may be sufficient to enable said agents, after careful personal examination of said lands, to report fully as to their character, value, and condition, at the time of examination; and in case any of said lands Reports of have been trespassed upon and their value deteriorated thereby, lands have been said agent shall carefully estimate and report the amount and trespassed upon. character of timber probably cut and removed, the date of the cutting, and by whom. agents when visions of this act, and its pow. ers and duties. SEC. 5. The Governor, the State Treasurer, and the Commis- Board of control gioner of the State Land Office, be and are hereby empowered and to carry out preconstituted a board of control, to carry out the provisions of this act, to examine and act upon the reports made by the said agent or agents; and if in the opinion of the board the best interest of the State would be promoted by changing the price, or terms, of these lands, the said board may alter, by reducing or advancing the price per acre, or conditions of payment: Provided, That not less than Proviso. twenty-five per cent. of the purchase money is paid at the time of purchase. And when the price and terms are so fixed, the said board shall fix the time when the change, if any, is made, will take effect, and cause the same to be published. SEC. 6. Said agents shall receive as compensation for their serv- Compensation of ices such sum or sums as the board of State auditors shall deter-agents, mine and allow, including necessary expenses, which bills for services and expenses shall be itemized and sworn to, and made upon forms furnished by the Commissioner of the Land Office, the same to be paid out of the general fund, and apportioned to the several funds, according to the expenses attending the examination of lands belonging to the different classes herein mentioned. SEC. 7. This act shall take immediate effect. Approved April 22, 1875. [No. 96. ] AN ACT providing for the location, establishment, and organizazation of a State house of correction, and making appropriation therefor. correction, ap SECTION 1. The People of the State of Michigan enact, That State house of the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars be and is propriation hereby appropriated for the purpose of the erection and construc- therefor. tion of a State house of correction according to the plans, specifications, and estimates of the commissioners appointed under act number one hundred and seventy of the session laws of eighteen hundred and seventy-three, subject to such alterations and modifications as may be made by the governor and the commissioners hereafter to be appointed under the provisions of section three of Appropriation, this act; which said sum of money shall be incorporated in the State tax as follows: seventy-five thousand dollars for each of the years one thousand eight hundred and seventy-five and one thousand eight hundred and seventy-six. how raised. Location. Board of commissioners and their duties. SEC. 2. The said State house of correction shall be located at Ionia, upon the site selected by the commissioners appointed under said act number one hundred and seventy of the session laws of eighteen hundred and seventy-three, and donated to the State under the provisions of said act. SEC. 3. The governor shall appoint three persons, who shall constitute a board of commissioners, whose duty it shall be to erect and construct said house of correction according to the plans, specifications, and estimates mentioned in section one of this act: Proviso, entire Provided, however, That the entire cost of said State house of correction shall not exceed, when completed, the sum of two hundred and seventy thousand dollars. cost limited. Board shall ad posals for constructing. to be let to the lowest responsible bidder. etc. SEC. 4. Said board of commissioners shall, as soon as practicable vertise for pro- after their appointment, advertise for a time not less than six weeks in such papers as they may select in this State for proposals for constructing said State house of correction or any portion thereof in accordance with the plans and specifications heretofore Certain contracts mentioned. All contracts for labor or materials to be used in the erection and construction of said State house of correction, requiring an expenditure of more than five hundred dollars, shall be let to the lowest responsible bidder or bidders; and advertisement of such shall be published in the Detroit daily papers not less than thirty days before the time appointed for opening bids, the advertisement thus provided for to specify the time and place when the bids or proposals made in pursuance thereof shall be Bids to be sealed, opened. All bids or proposals thus made shall be sealed, and shall not be opened at any time or place other than that designated in Commissioners the advertisement. All or any bids or proposals received by said commissioners may be by them rejected, and whether accepted or Where deposited. rejected shall, after decision thereon by said commissioners, be deposited in the office of the Secretary of State. No contract made Contracts to be by the commissioners shall be binding until approval of the GovGovernor. ernor in writing shall be endorsed thereon. When so approved To be filed with said contract shall be filed with the Auditor General, who shall Auditor General, file the same in his office, and shall make and certify a copy thereof and deliver such copy to the said commissioners: Provided, That, after the building of said State house of correction has so Proviso-prison- far advanced as to receive and keep prisoners, the said board of commissioners shall have power and authority, with the approval of the Governor, to buy materials for, and employ such prisoners upon, the completion of said work. may reject. approved by who shall fur nish certified copies to commissioners. ers may be em ployed. that may be paid SEC. 5. In letting contracts said commissioners shall not obli- Limit of amount gate the State to pay to any contractor any money other than that to contractor. to which said contractor may be justly entitled by reason of labor or materials already furnished and supplied, and in no event shall more than eighty-five per cent of the amount called for in any contract to be paid to the contractor named therein before the completion of his contract and its acceptance by the commissioners: Provided, That every contractor performing service or work or Proviso-confurnishing materials under this act, shall enter into such bonds bonds. with sureties, for the proper performance of his contract, as shall be required by said board of commissioners, and approved by the Governor. tractor to give and secretary. SEC. 6. The said board of commissioners shall appoint some Superintendent proper person, not of their number, to superintend under their direction the erection and construction of the State house of correction provided for in this act, and they shall also appoint a secretary, not of their number, whose duties shall by them be prescribed. Such superintendent and secretary thus appointed shall Compensation. each receive for his services a reasonable compensation, to be established by the board and approved by the Governor; and before To take oath and entering upon the discharge of his duties shall each take the oath prescribed by the constitution and laws of this State, and give boud for the faithful performance of the duties of his office in the penal sum of ten thousand dollars. give bond. members of board. SEC. 7. Each of the members of said board of commissioners Compensation of shall be entitled to receive his actual traveling expenses and the sum of three dollars per day for the time actually spent in the discharge of his duties under this act, which compensation and expenses shall be audited by the board of State auditors. made. SEC. 8. Payments for work or materials for said house of cor- Payments for rection shall be made as follows: vouchers for the amount to be work, etc., bow paid shall be certified by the said commissioners and presented to the Auditor General, who shall draw his warrant upon the State Treasurer for the amount to be paid. der accounts SEC. 9. It shall be the duty of the said secretary of the said Secretary to renboard of commissioners to render quarter-yearly to the Auditor current to AudiGeneral accounts current of all transactions, with an estimate and tor General, etc. statement showing the purpose for which payments have been paid, and an estimate showing the amount which has accrued to the contractors, and the amount of percentage retained. missioners, SEC. 10. Said commissioners, before they enter upon the dis- Oath of comcharge of the duties of their office, shall each take and subscribe where filed, the constitutional oath of office, and file the same in the office of the Secretary of the State, and the treasurer of said board of com- Treasurer to give bond. missioners shall give his bond to the people of the State of Michiigan in the penal sum of twenty thousand dollars, with two or more sufficient sureties, approved by the Governor, for the faithful performance of the duties required of him, and to properly account for all moneys received by him under this act. Commissioners SEC. 11. No commissioner appointed under this act shall be di- not to be interrectly or indirectly interested in any contract or contracts for the ested in con. tracts. Commissioners may draw from general fund for immediate use. erection or construction of said State house of correction or the furnishing of labor or materials for the same. SEC. 12. Said board of commissioners are hereby authorized at any time to draw from the general fund of the State Treasury such amounts of money within the appropriation made by this act, as they shall deem necessary for the immediate commencement and carrying on of the erection of said State house of correction. The amounts so drawn shall be considered as an advance to the said State house of correction upon the appropriation made by Reimbursement. this act, and such amounts shall be deducted from said State house of correction fund and returned to the general fund when such appropriation shall have been collected and paid into the State Treasury. SEC. 13. This act shall take immediate effect. [ No. 97. ] Setting of a spring gun, etc., demeanor. AN ACT to prevent the setting of guns and other dangerous devices. SECTION 1. The People of the State of Michigan enact, That deemed a mis. if any person shall set any spring or other gun, or any trap or device operating by the firing or explosion of gunpowder or any other explosive, and shall leave or permit the same to be left, except in the immediate presence of some competent person, he shall be Killing of person deemed to have committed a misdemeanor; and the killing of any person by the firing of a gun or device so set shall be deemed to be manslaughter. by gun so set deemed manslanghter. Sections smended. SEC. 2. This act shall take immediate effect. [ No. 98. ] AN ACT to amend section twelve of article two, and sections one, two, four, seven, thirteen, and fifteen of article four of act number one hundred and ninety-eight, of the session laws of eighteen hundred and seventy-three, entitled "An act to revise the laws providing for the incorporation of railroad companies, and to regulate the running and management, and to fix the duties and liabilities of all railroad and other corporations owning or operating any railroad in this State," approved May one, eighteen hundred and seventy-three. SECTION 1. The People of the State of Michigan enact, That section twelve of article two, and sections one, two, four, seven, thirteen, and fifteen, of article four of act number one hundred and ninety-eight of the session laws of eighteen hundred and seventy-three, entitled "An act to revise the laws providing for the incorporation of railroad companies, and to regulate the running and management, and to fix the duties and liabilities of all railroad and other corporations owning or operating any railroad in this State," approved May one, eighteen hundred and seventy-three, be amended so as to read as follows: ARTICLE II. must be kept nounced twice in cars. SEC. 12. All railroad companies shall keep their ticket offi- Ticket offices ces open for the sale of tickets at least twenty minutes immedi- open twenty ately preceding the departure of all passenger trains from every minutes. regular passenger station from which any such passenger trains are to start from or stop at, between the hours of seven o'clock in the morning and eleven o'clock in the evening; and the conduc- Stations antors of all such passenger trains shall announce, or cause to be announced, the name of the station in each passenger car of every such train, twice inside each passenger car of every such train, the door of said car being closed at the time of such announcement, within a reasonable time before the arrival of any passenger train at every station at which said train from notice given is to stop. At junctions, crossings, and points where trains leave in different Direction train is directions, at or near the same time, the conductor of each train to go announced. shall announce, or cause to be announced, distinctly, in each passenger car of his train, before starting, the direction in which his train is to go. For each violation of the provisions of this sec- Penalty for viotion, the railroad company whose employes do not comply with the ions of section. provisions of this section in every respect, shall forfeit the sum of one hundred dollars for each violation of the same. ARTICLE IV. lation of provis trains. SEC. 1. On and after the thirty-first day of October, eight- Air-brake upon een hundred and seventy-three, no regular passenger trains passenger shall be run in this State without an air brake or some equally effective device for checking the speed of the train, to be approved by the commissioner of railroads, which may be applied by the engineer to each passenger car composing the train; and every rail- Forfeiture for road company, person or corporation owning or operating a rail- without airroad in this State, which shall permit any such trains to be run on such road without such brake shall forfeit for every train so run, the sum of fifty dollars, to recover which, such company, person or corporation shall be liable in an action on the case, to be brought in behalf of the people of this State, and the money so realized shall be paid into the State treasury. brake. or bridge at SEC. 2. On and after July thirty-first, eighteen hundred and Flagman, gate, seventy-three, every company, person, or corporation owning or street crossings. operating a railroad within this State, shall construct and maintain a gate or gates, or bridge, or maintain a flagman to signal trains at every highway or street crossing on the line of such road, where the same shall be required by the commissioner of railroads, as hereinafter provided. Any company, person, or corporation Forfelture for neglecting or refusing to construct or maintain such gate or gates, or bridge, or to maintain such flagman where so required as not maintaining. |