thereof, or of any of the proceedings thereof, shall be deemed to be a bet or wager within the meaning of this chapter. SEC. 8. If any person shall receive any money or property won by him upon any bet or wager as aforesaid, he shall be liable to the person losing the same, in an action of assumpsit, trover, or other form proper to recover the same. SEC. 9. The fees of sheriffs for the return of votes to the secretary of state shall be ten cents per mile travel each way from the place of their residence to the capitol in Concord, estimating toll bridges as three miles travel each, but allowing only one travel for all returns made annually; and the secretary, on proper evidence thereof, may pay the same and present his account thereof to the governor, who shall, by and with the advice and consent of the council, draw his warrant on the treasurer therefor. TITLE VII. OF TOWNS AND TOWN OFFICERS. CHAPTER 32. Of the powers of towns. Of the establishment of public libraries. CHAPTER 33. Of the oaths of town officers. 6. Towns may make by-laws as to pru- 8. Towns may make by-laws respecting fires and removing combustibles. dential affairs. 7. Towns may make by-laws respecting 9. By-laws remain in force till annulled. cattle, &c. SECTION 1. The inhabitants of every town in this State are declared to be a body corporate and politic, and by their corporate name may sue and be sued, prosecute and defend in any court or elsewhere. SEC. 2. All places incorporated by the name of parishes, with town privileges, are declared to be towns, and entitled to the privileges, vested with all the powers and subject to all the liabilities of towns. SEC. 3. Towns may purchase and hold real and personal estate for the public uses of the inhabitants, and may sell and convey the same; and may make any contracts which may be necessary and convenient for the transaction of the public business of the town. SEC. 4. Towns may at any legal meeting grant and vote such sums of money as they shall judge necessary for the support of schools; for school houses; for the maintenance of the poor; for laying out and repairing highways; for building and repairing bridges; for the repair of meeting houses owned by the town, so far as to render them useful for town purposes; and for all the necessary charges arising within the town. SEC. 5. Towns may vote such sums of money as may be neces sary to fulfil any existing contract made between the town and any settled minister before the first day of July, 1819: provided, no person shall be taxed for the purpose of fulfilling such contract, who shall have filed with the town clerk, before the assessment of such tax, a certificate declaring himself not to be of the religious persuasion or opinion of such minister. SEC. 6. Every town may make rules and by-laws for managing and ordering the prudential affairs of such town, and may annex penalties thereto not exceeding four dollars for one offence, and enuring to such uses as they may direct. SEC. 7. Any town may make by-laws to prevent horses, mules, asses, neat cattle, sheep and swine from going at large in any street, highway or common, or in any public place in the town, at any time of the year therein provided, on penalty that the owner shall forfeit a sum not exceeding four dollars for any breach thereof. SEC. 8. Each town may, at any town meeting legally called for that purpose, make and establish such rules and regulations respecting the kindling, guarding and safe keeping of fires, and for the removing all combustible materials from any building or place, as the safety of the property in such town may require; and may appoint in such manner as may be prescribed in such regulations, all such officers as may be necessary to carry such regulations into effect, and may affix penalties not exceeding ten dollars for any one offence, to be recovered in such manner and appropriated to such use as the town may direct. (Laws of 1845, chap. 242.) SEC. 9. By-laws adopted by any town shall continue in force until altered or annulled by vote of the town or by law. CHAPTER 33. OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES. SECTION IDENTICAL WITH Chapter 861, Laws of 1841. SECTION 1. Towns or cities may raise money to 3. Towns or cities may receive gifts, &c., establish public libraries. 2. Libraries to be free. for library.. 4. Libraries established under this act to receive laws, jourňale, &c. • SECTION 1. Any town in this State, at any legal meeting notified and holden for the purpose, and the city council in any city in this State, may raise and appropriate money to procure books, maps, charts, periodicals, and other publications, for the establishment and perpetual maintenance within the limits of such town or city of a public library, for the purchase of such land and the erection of such buildings as may be necessary for the suitable accommodation thereof, and for the compensation of such officers or agents as may be necessarily employed in the establishment and management of such library. SEC. 2. Every public library established under the provisions of this act, shall be opened to the free use of every inhabitant of the town or city where the same exists, for the general diffusion of intelligence among all classes of the community, subject to such rules and regulations for the well ordering and careful preservation thereof, as may be established and ordained by such town or city. SEC. 3. Any town or city may receive, hold and possess, or sell and dispose of, all such gifts, donations, devises, bequests and legacies as may be made to such town or city, for the purpose of establishing, increasing or improving any such public library, and may apply the proceeds, interests, rents and profits accruing therefrom, in such manner as will best promote the prosperity and utility of such library. SEC. 4. Every town or city in which a public library shall be established under the provisions of this act, shall be entitled to receive annually a copy of the laws, journals, and all other works published by authority of the State, for the use of such library ; and the secretary of state is hereby authorized and required to furnish the same from year to year to such town or city. SECTION 1. The annual meeting of every town shall be holden on the second Tuesday or other day, in March annually, for the choice of town officers and the transaction of all other town business. A town meeting may be warned by the selectmen when in their opinion there shall be occasion therefor. SEC. 2. The warrant for any town meeting shall be under the hands and seal of the selectmen, and shall prescribe the place, day and hour of the meeting. The subject matter of all business to be there acted upon shall be distinctly stated in the warrant, and nothing done at any meeting shall be valid unless the subject thereof was so stated. SEC. 3. The selectmen, upon the written appication of ten or more voters or of one sixth of the voters in the town, shall insert in their warrant for the annual, or any other meeting, any subject specified in such application, or shall warn a meeting therefor, if requested in such application. SEC. 4. The selectmen may address their warrant to the inhabitants of the town qualified to vote in town affairs, in which case they shall post up an attested copy of such warrant, at the place of meeting, and a like copy at one other public place in the town fifteen days before the day of meeting. SEC. 5. Warrants for town meetings may be directed to a constable of such town, requiring him to notify the inhabitants; and such constable shall post up an attested copy of such warrant, as provided in the preceding section. SEC. 6. Any town may by vote prescribe a different method of warning meetings; and the meetings warned in pursuance of such vote shall be legal and valid. SEC. 7. The selectmen, or the constable serving any warrant, shall return the same at the time and place of meeting, with a certificate of the service thereof, to the town clerk, or in his absence to one of the selectmen. SEC. 8. In case of the death or removal of any of the selectmen of a town, the major part of those who remain in office shall have power to warn meetings. SEC. 9. If the selectmen shall unreasonably neglect or refuse to warn a meeting, or to insert any article in their warrant, a justice of the peace, upon application in writing of one sixth part of the voters of such town, may issue a warrant for such meeting. SEC. 10. If the annual meeting in any town shall not have been holden, or if there has never been any legal meeting of such town, a justice of the peace, on application of ten voters or of one sixth part of the voters of the town, may issue a warrant for such meeting. SEC. 11. The warrant of a justice of the peace for a town meeting shall be under his hand and seal, directed to a constable of the town, if any there be, otherwise to one of the voters applying; shall specify the time, place and object of such meeting, and shall be served and returned in the same manner as warrants issued by selectmen. SEC. 12. If any selectmen shall neglect to issue a warrant for the holding of meetings for the choice of state, county or town officers, electors of president and vice-president of the United States, and representatives in Congress; or shall neglect to cause copies of such warrant, if not directed to a constable, to be duly posted up, or notice of such meeting to be given agreeably to any vote of the town, they shall for each offence forfeit the sum of fifty dollars, one half to the use of the town, the other half to any person who may sue for the same. |
