SECTION 1. At every town meeting the first or senior selectman present, and if no selectman be present, the town clerk shall preside until a moderator is chosen, and shall have the powers and perform the duties of moderator. (R. S., chap. 33, sec. 1.)

SEC. 2. When there are no selectmen or town clerk of the town, it shall be the duty of the justice calling such meeting to attend and preside until a moderator is chosen. (R. S., sec. 2.)

SEC. 3. At any town meeting in any town or place in this State, the moderator of said meeting shall be chosen by the vote of a plurality of the legal voters present and voting for said officer, [Laws of 1847, chap. 490,] who shall be sworn and shall preside in and regulate the business of the meeting; may prescribe rules of proceeding therein, which may be altered by the town; shall decide all questions of order and make a public declaration of all the votes passed. (Part of R. S., sec. 3.)

SEC. 4. When any vote declared by any moderator or other officer presiding in town meeting shall immediately, and before any other business is commenced, be questioned by seven or more of the voters present, the moderator or other presiding officers, shall make the vote certain by a poll of the voters. And if any moderator or other officer presiding in town meeting, shall wilfully neglect or refuse to make any vote certain by a poll of the voters, when required as aforesaid, or shall wilfully violate or neglect to enforce any rule of proceeding in town meeting which shall have been established by vote of the town or otherwise, he shall for each offence be punished by a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding six months. (Laws of 1847, chap. 494, sec. 1.)

SEC. 5. Whenever any moderator of any town meeting shall from any cause resign or leave his place as moderator and cease to preside in the meeting before the adjournment or dissolution thereof, the voters present may proceed forthwith to choose by ballot a

new moderator, who shall be sworn and proceed in the meeting to the close thereof, in the same manner as the moderator first chosen might have done; and the first or senior selectman present, and if no selectman be present, the town clerk shall preside until such new moderator shall be chosen. (Laws of 1847, chap. 494, sec. 2.)

SEC. 6. No person shall speak in any meeting without leave of the moderator, nor when any person is orderly speaking; and all persons shall be silent at the desire of the moderator, on pain of forfeiting one dollar for each offence, for the use of the town. (R. S., chap. 33, sec. 5.)

SEC. 7. If any person shall conduct in a disorderly manner, and after notice from the moderator shall persist therein, or shall in any way disturb the meeting or wilfully violate any rule of proceeding therein, the moderator may command any constable or any legal voter of such town to carry such disorderly person out of the meeting and detain him until the business of the meeting is finished. (R. S., chap. 33, sec. 6.)

SEC. 8. Every constable shall obey the orders and commands of the moderator for the preservation of order, and may command such assistance as is necessary; and if any constable shall neglect to perform any of the duties imposed by this or the preceding chapter, he shall forfeit the sum of forty dollars, one half for the use of the town, the other half to any person who will sue for the same. (R. S., chap. 33, sec. 7.)

SECTION 1. Every town at the annual meeting shall choose by ballot and by major vote a town clerk, whose duty it shall be to record all votes passed by the town while he may remain in office, and to discharge all the duties of the office according to law.

SEC. 2. At such meeting three or more selectmen, not exceed

ing nine, shall be chosen by ballot and by major vote, who shall manage all the prudential affairs of the town, and shall perform all the duties by law prescribed. A majority of the selectmen shall be competent to act in all cases.

SEC. 3. Any town may choose assessors by ballot and by major vote, who shall constitute, with the selectmen, a joint board for the assessment of taxes; and all questions arising at such board shall be decided by a major vote of the joint members thereof.

SEC. 4. Any town may choose by major vote one or more agents, overseers of the poor, a treasurer, firewards and health officers. If such officers are not chosen, the selectmen shall discharge the duties and have the powers of those officers.

SEC. 5. Every person who shall be elected or appointed to the office of town treasurer, shall within six days after his election or appointment, and before entering upon the duties of his office, give a bond with sufficient sureties to the acceptance of the town or of the selectmen for the faithful performance of his said official duties; and in default thereof the office shall become vacant. (Laws of 1850, chap. 993.)

SEC. 6. If any town at its annual meeting shall fail to elect a treasurer, it shall be the duty of the selectmen of such town within fourteen days thereafter to appoint a treasurer, and they may appoint one of their number to that office if they shall deem it expedient. (Laws of 1850, chap. 993.)

SEC. 7. Every town may choose, by major vote, one or more constables; one or more collectors of taxes; surveyors of highways; fence-viewers; a clerk of the market; sealers of weights and measures; hog-reeves; a pound-keeper; measurers of wood; surveyors of lumber; cullers of staves; and every other officer who may be directed by law to be chosen, and such other officers as they may judge necessary for managing their affairs, who shall severally perform the duties prescribed by law.

SEC. 8. All town officers shall continue in office until the next annual meeting for the choice of town officers, and until others shall be chosen and sworn in their stead, except in cases when the law shall otherwise direct.

SECTION 1. Every town officer shall take the oath of office by law prescribed before the moderator, the town clerk, one of the selectmen or a justice of the peace, who are hereby authorized to administer such oath.

SEC. 2.

The form of the oath to be administered to town officers shall be: "You do solemnly swear that you will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent on you as a according to the best of your abilities, agreeably to the rules and regulations of the constitution and laws of the State of New Hampshire. So help you God."

SEC. 3. Any person chosen to any office may be notified by the moderator, town clerk or one of the selectmen, in open meeting, to take the oath of office; and such person, if present, shall immediately, in open meeting, take such oath or declare his refusal; and any person so chosen and notified not exempt from serving in such office, who shall refuse or neglect for one hour to take such oath, shall incur a penalty of five dollars, one half for the use of the town, the other half for the use of any person who will sue for the same.

SEC. 4. The town clerk shall forthwith, after the choice of any town officers, by a precept under his hand, direct a constable to notify the persons so chosen, whose names and the offices to which they are chosen shall be designated therein, to appear before him within six days from the day of the notice given, and take the oath by law prescribed; and the constable shall within four days give personal notice to the persons therein named, or leave a notice in writing at the usual place of abode of each of them, and make return of such precept and his doings therein to such town clerk within ten days.

SEC. 5. Any constable neglecting his duty in any of the foregoing particulars, shall incur a penalty of five dollars, one half to

the use of the town, the other half to the use of the person who will sue for the same.

SEC. 6. Every person so chosen and notified, not by law exempt from serving therein, who shall neglect for six days after personal notice, or after notice left at his usual place of abode, or after his return in case he was absent when such notice was left, to appear before said town clerk and take such oath, shall incur a penalty of five dollars, to be recovered and appropriated as in the preceding

section.

SEC. 7. Any person so chosen and notified, who shall take the oath of office before one of the selectmen or a justice of the peace, and file a certificate thereof with the town clerk within said six days, shall be exempted from such penalty.

SEC. 8. The town clerk shall make a record of every oath of a town officer taken in open town meeting at the time of the election, and of every such oath taken before him at any other time and place, the import of which record may be that the officer took the oath of office prescribed by law, and he shall record and keep on file every certificate filed with him pursuant to the preceding

section.

SEC. 9. No person shall be obliged to serve in any town office two years successively, nor shall any person in any case be compelled to serve as a collector of taxes.

SECTION 1. When any person elected to any town office shall not accept the same, or shall die, resign, remove from town, or become insane in the judgment of the town, or when no annual meeting shall have been holden for the choice of town officers, or no choice has been made, or when there shall be a vacancy in any other way, the town may choose such officer at any legal meeting