AN ACT TRANSFERRING TO THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BOSTON SUBSTANCES. neers of fire de council. Be it enacted, etc.: SECTION 1. All powers and duties conferred by existing statutes Powers of engiupon the engineers or board of engineers of the fire department of partment transthe city of Boston, or upon any member of said board, are hereby fered to city transferred to the city council of said city; and said powers and duties may be exercised and carried into effect by said city council in R.O. c. 21. such manner as it may from time to time prescribe, and through the agency of any persons, board, or boards, to whom it may from time to time delegate the same. SECT. 2. This act shall take effect upon its passage. AN ACT CONCERNING THE RELOCATION OF STREETS AND WAYS IN THE Be it enacted, etc.: CITY OF BOSTON. streets and SECTION 1. Whenever the board of street commissioners of the Relocation of city of Boston deem it necessary to locate anew a street or way in ways. said city, either for the purpose of establishing the boundary lines of such street or way, erecting monuments thereon, or of making alterations in the course or width thereof, they may so locate such street or way by giving notice, and proceeding in the manner prescribed by law for laying out streets or ways in said city. damages. SECT. 2. Any person sustaining damage in his property by the lo- Assessment of cation of a street or way, as provided in the preceding section, shall have his damages assessed and paid in accordance with the provisions of law in respect to laying out, altering, and discontinuing, streets and ways in the city of Boston. SECT. 3. This act shall take effect upon its passage. be taken from permit. SECTION 1. Whoever takes any shell-fish from the shores or flats Shell-fish not to of Thompson's island, in Boston harbor, without the permit of the Thompson's managers of the Boston asylum and farm school for indigent boys, island without or the chief of the police of the city of Boston, shall, for every offence, pay a fine of not less than five dollars or more than ten dollars, and costs of prosecution; said fine to be recovered by complaint before the municipal court of the city of Boston. SECT. 2. Any constable or police officer of the city of Boston may, Offender may be without a warrant, arrest any person whom he finds in the act of taking arrested without a warrant. shell-fish in violation of the provisions of the preceding section of this act, or in the act of carrying away shell-fish so taken, and detain him in some place of safe-keeping until a warrant can be procured against such person upon a complaint for said offence: provided, that such detention shall not exceed twenty-four hours. March 23, 1878. Trustees of the public library incorporated. May hold real and personal estate not ex 000. Investments. 1878. CHAPTER 114. AN ACT TO INCORPORATE THE TRUSTEES OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY OF Be it enacted, etc.: SECTION 1. The trustees of the public library of the city of Boston, for the time being, are hereby made a corporation by the name of the Trustees of the Public Library of the City of Boston; and said trustees and their successors in office shall continue a body corporate for the purposes hereinafter set forth, with all the powers and privileges, and subject to all the duties, restrictions, and liabilities, in the general laws relating to such corporations. SECT. 2. Said corporation shall have authority to take and hold real and personal estate to an amount not exceeding one million ceeding $1,000, dollars, which may be given, granted, bequeathed, or devised, to it, and accepted by the trustees, for the benefit of the public library of the city of Boston, or any branch library, or any purpose connected therewith. Money received by it shall be invested by the treasurer of the city of Boston under the direction of the finance committee of said city; and all securities belonging to said corporation shall be placed in the custody of said treasurer: provided, always, that both the principal and income thereof shall be appropriated according to the terms of the donation, devise, or bequest, under the direction of said corporation. Proviso. Trustees to be seven in number. Appointment. Removal from office. SECT. 3. The trustees of the public library shall be seven in number. In the month of April, in the year eighteen hundred and seventyeight, and annually thereafter, in the month of January, the city council shall elect, by concurrent vote of the two branches, one member of the board of aldermen, and one member of the common council, to be members of said board of trustees, to hold office during the remainder of the municipal year in which they are elected, and until others are elected in their places. And in the month of April, in the year eighteen hundred and seventy-eight, the mayor shall appoint, subject to the confirmation of the city council, five citizens of Boston, not members of the city council, to be members of the board of trustees of the public library, one of whom shall hold office for five years, one for four years, one for three years, and one for two years, and one for one year; and, upon such election, and such appointment and confirmation, the terms of office of the trustees of the public library then holding office, shall cease and determine. And annually thereafter, in the month of April in each year, the mayor shall appoint, subject to the confirmation of the city council, one citizen at large, as a trustee of the public library, to serve for a term of five years from the first Monday in May in the year in which he shall be appointed. The trustees shall at all times be subject to removal from office for cause, by a vote of two-thirds of each branch of the city council present and voting thereon. Whenever any vacancy shall occur in said board of trustees by death, resignation, or otherwise, said vacancy shall be filled by the election, or appointment, in the manner aforesaid, of another trustee, who shall hold office for board of trus the residue of the unexpired term. No member of sail board of trustees shall receive any pecuniary compensation for his services. SECT. 4. The members of said board shall meet for organization Organization of on the first Monday of each May, and choose one of their number as tees. president. They shall have power to make such rules and regulations relating to said public library and its branches, and its officers and servants, and to fix and enforce penalties for the violation of such rules and regulations, as they may deem expedient: provided, that the same shall not be inconsistent with the provisions of this act, and shall be subject at all times to such limitations, restrictions, and amendments, as the city council may direct. care and control branches. SECT. 5. The said trustees shall have the general care and control Trustees to have of the central public library now located in Boylston street in said of the central city, and of all branches thereof, which have been, or which may library and its hereafter be, established, together with the buildings and rooms containing the same, and the fixtures and furniture connected therewith, and also of the expenditures of the moneys appropriated therefor. SECT. 6. The said board of trustees may appoint a superintendent May appoint or librarian with such assistants and subordinate officers as they may assistants, and think necessary or expedient, and may remove the same, and fix fix their com their compensation: provided, that the amount thus paid shall not Proviso. exceed the sum appropriated by the city council for that item of expense, and the income of any moneys which may lawfully be appropriated for the same purpose from funds or property held by said trustees under the provisions of this act. librarian and pensation. may pass or SECT. 7. The city council shall have power to pass such ordi- City council nances not inconsistent herewith, or repugnant to other laws of the dinances as to commonwealth, as to the duties and authority of said board, as they may from time to time deem expedient. SECT. 8. This act shall take effect upon its passage. April 4, 1878. [1853, 38; 1873, 286; 1880, 222; 1882, 143; 1883, 141.] 1878. CHAPTER 129. AN ACT IN RELATION TO THE INDEXES IN THE REGISTRY OF DEEDS OF Be it enacted, etc.: duties of board. sioners to be ap perior court. reenactment, SECTION 1. The powers and duties of the aldermen of Boston Index commisunder sections one hundred and three and one hundred and four of pointed by chapter seventeen of the general statutes, shall hereafter be exercised justices of su by a board of index commissioners, who shall serve without pay. The justices of the superior court, or a majority thereof, shall appoint, Repealed by within one month from the time of the passage of this act, three such P.S. For commissioners to hold office for the terms of one, two, and three, years see post, p. 321. respectively, beginning with the first day of April of the current year, and shall appoint annually thereafter, during the month of March, one such commissioner, to hold office for the term of three years, beginning with the first day of April following. In the performance of their Not to expend duties said board shall not expend an amount in excess of the sum authorized. authorized by the board of aldermen of Boston. Any of said board Removal from of commissioners may be removed by the justices aforesaid, for good cause shown, as provided for the removal of a register of deeds, by section eighty-eight of said chapter; and in case of a vacancy in said Vacancies may board by reason of death, resignation, or removal, it shall be filled by appointment by the justices aforesaid for the unexpired term. SECT. 2. This act shall take effect upon its passage. in excess of sum office. be filled. April 9, 1878. May pay fees and charges for collection of certain taxes. Repeal. AN ACT RELATING TO THE DISPOSITION OF CERTAIN FUNDS IN THE Be it enacted, etc.: SECTION 1. The city of Boston is authorized to pay to the persons authorized to collect taxes, betterments, rates, and assessments, in said city, prior to the first day of September, in the year eighteen hundred and seventy-five, such amount of the fees, charges, and commissions thereon, allowed by law, as had accrued, or were earned but were unpaid, prior to said first day of September, and have since actually been paid into the treasury of said city, between said date and the date of the passage of this act. SECT. 2. So much of chapter one hundred seventy-six of the acts of the year eighteen hundred seventy-five as is inconsistent herewith is hereby repealed. SECT. 3. This act shall take effect upon its passage. [1875, 176.] April 23, 1878. Stables may be rebuilt. AN ACT RELATIVE TO THE REBUILDING AND IMPROVEMENT OF STABLES Be it enacted, etc.: SECTION 1. Any stable now, or hereafter, legally existing in the city of Boston may, with the consent of the mayor and aldermen of said city, be rebuilt, enlarged, and improved, in accordance with the provisions of chapter two hundred and eighty of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and seventy-one, and the several acts in amendment thereof, regulating the construction of buildings in said city. SECT. 2. This act shall take effect upon its passage. [1810, 124; 1869, 369.] April 26, 1878. Voting precincts to be established. 1879, 163. 1878. CHAPTER 243. AN ACT IN RELATION TO REGISTRATION AND Be it enacted, etc.: OF BOSTON. ELECTIONS IN THE CITY SECTION 1. On or before the first day of September in the current year, each ward of the city of Boston shail be divided by the board of assessors of taxes in said city, into voting precincts, each consisting of compact and contiguous territory within said ward, and containing as nearly as may be five hundred registered voters. The registration in the year eighteen hundred and seventy-seven shall be taken as the Precincts to be basis of such division. Said precincts shall be designated by numbers or by letters of the alphabet. In the year eighteen hundred and eighty-six, as soon as practicable after the division of the city into new wards as now provided by law, and every fifth year thereafter, the said wards shall be divided by said board of assessors into voting precincts on the basis of the registration of voters in the preceding year. designated by numbers or letters. Warden and clerk to be SECT. 2. In each voting precinct, there shall be the following In case of Vacancies. election officers: that is to say, at the annual city election, except in elected in each precinct. the current year, one person shall be chosen in each precinct as 1881, 291. warden, and one person as clerk; and the mayor, at some time before the first day of October in each year, except the current year, shall, with the approval of the board of aldermen, appoint, for each voting precinct, two inspectors, qualified voters in the ward of which Two inspectors to be appointed. such precinct forms a part, who shall be men of good repute and standing, and from different political parties. Each of these officers shall be sworn to the faithful discharge of his duties, and shall hold office for one year from the said first day of October. any vacancy in the office of inspector, or in case either of said inspectors shall decline to act in that capacity before the first day of November in any year, the mayor may, with the approval of the board of aldermen, make an appointment of some person of good repute and standing to fill said office; and in making such appointment it shall be his duty to select some person of the same political party with the original incumbent of said office; and every person so appointed shall be sworn to the faithful discharge of his duties. In case of a vacancy in the office of warden, clerk, or inspector of a precinct, on the day of any election, such vacancy shall be filled, pro tempore, by the voters of said precinct by nomination and hand vote. The wardens, clerks, and inspectors, appointed or elected as herein provided, shall have the same purposes, and, except as hereinafter provided, be subject to the same duties and liabilities, as the wardens, clerks, and inspectors, now holding office in said city. annual state vision of wards. SECT. 3. The terms of office of all ward officers heretofore chosen Warden, clerk, and inspectors, shall expire on the day before the next annual state election; and to be appointed the mayor and aldermen shall, previous to that date, appoint from the to act at next legal voters in each ward, one warden, one clerk, and two inspectors, election. for each precinct within said ward, who shall officiate in their several capacities on the day of said state election. The inspectors so appointed shall be selected from different political parties, and shall hold office until the first day of October of the following year; and the wardens and clerks so appointed shall hold office only during the state election of the current year. At said state election there shall be chosen a warden and clerk in each precinct, who shall hold office until their successors are chosen as provided in the foregoing section. And, in every year in which a new division of the wards into voting Terms of office precincts is made, as hereinbefore provided, the terms of office of upon a new dithe election officers then holding office shall expire before the next annual state election, and the same proceedings shall be had in the appointment and election of officers for the new precincts as are herein provided for the precincts established in the current year. SECT. 4. The board of aldermen shall, at least ten days before Warrants for any election, issue their warrants for the legal voters of each or any R.O. c. 10. ward, as may be required, to assemble at the several polling-places within said ward, at the time and for the purpose stated in said warrants; and it shall be the duty of the officers of each precinct to receive, sort, and count, the ballots cast at such election, and to make returns in the manner provided by law, to the city clerk, of the results Precinct officers of such election, and of the number of votes cast for each officer, except the warden and clerk of said precinct. When an election is held in any precinct for a warden or clerk of said precinct, it shall be the duty of the officers presiding at such election, to send a certificate of election to the person chosen to either of said offices. election. to make returns to city clerk. aldermen. SECT. 5. The board of aldermen shall, thirty days at least before Polling-places to the day of each election, designate and appoint the polling-place in be designated by each of the voting precincts in the city, and procure the same for such purpose, and cause it to be fitted up and prepared therefor. |