AN ACT RELATING TO SAFETY APPLIANCES IN HOTELS AND PUBLIC Be it enacted, etc.: BUILDINGS. hotels and SECTION 1. All hotels, boarding and lodging houses, subject to Watchmen in the provisions of chapter two hundred and fifty-one of the acts of the boardingyear eighteen hundred and eighty-three, adopting a system of electric houses. watch-clocks, that shall register at the office the movements of the watchman throughout the house, or adopting in the rooms any system of thermostats, or fire-alarm bells that shall be approved by the inspector of factories and public buildings, or in the city of Boston by the inspector of buildings, shall be exempt from maintaining more than one watchman, in addition to the regular night-clerk and porters. SECT. 2. The provisions of this act, and of said chapter two hun- Family hotels. dred and fifty-one of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and eighty three, shall apply to family hotels. SECT. 3. This act shall take effect upon its passage. AN ACT CONCERNING THE ELECTION OF ALDERMEN IN THE CITY OF Be it enacted, etc.: BOSTON. districts. SECTION 1. The city of Boston is hereby divided into twelve Aldermanic aldermanic districts, and wards one and two shall constitute one district, to be known as the first aldermanic district; wards three, four, and five, shall constitute one district, to be known as the second aldermanic district; wards six, seven, and eight, shall constitute one district, to be known as the third aldermanic district; wards nine and ten shall constitute one district, to be known as the fourth aldermanic district; wards eleven and sixteen shall constitute one district, to be known as the fifth aldermanic district; wards twelve and thirteen shall constitute one district, to be known as the sixth aldermanic district; wards fourteen and fifteen shall constitute one district, to be known as the seventh aldermanic district; wards seventeen and eighteen shall constitute one district, to be known as the eighth aldermanic district; wards nineteen and twenty-two shall constitute one district, to be known as the ninth aldermanic district; wards twenty and twenty-one shall constitute one district, to be known as the tenth aldermanic district; wards twenty-three and twenty-five shall constitute one district, to be known as the eleventh aldermanic district; and ward twenty-four shall constitute one district, to be known as the twelfth aldermanic district. to be made by SECT. 2. It shall be the duty of the city council, after any new New divisions division of said city into wards, to cause a new division of the city city council. to be made into twelve aldermanic districts, in such manner as to include in such districts whole and contiguous wards (except so far as the same may be separated by natural water-channels connected by bridge or bridges), and an equal number of voters and inhabitants as nearly as convenience permits, and until such new division be made the districts shall remain as established by this act. be elected in SECT. 3. The qualified voters of each of said aldermanic districts One alderman to shall, at the annual municipal election, be called upon to give in their cach district. votes for one able and discreet person, being a legal voter and an inhabitant of the district, to be a member of the board of aldermen for the ensuing year; and all such votes so given shall be sorted, counted, declared, and recorded, and returns thereof made to the cityclerk, in the same manner as is now provided by law for the choice of aldermen of said city. Whereupon, the same proceedings shall be had to ascertain and determine the person chosen as alderman for each district as are now provided by law in regard to the choice of aldermen. And a new election shall be ordered in any such district, in case of any failure by such district to elect an alderman as herein provided, or in case of any vacancy by death, resignation, or other cause; and each alderman so chosen shall be duly notified as is now provided by law. SECT. 4. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed. SECT. 5. This act shall take effect upon its passage. [1854, 448, § 19.] May 21, 1884. Names of public ways in Boston. Hearing to be had. 1884. — CHAPTER 278. AN ACT IN RELATION TO NAMES OF PUBLIC WAYS IN THE CITY OF Be it enacted, etc.: SECTION 1. The first section of chapter sixty-seven of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and eighty, relating to names of public ways in the city of Boston, is hereby amended by inserting after the word "may" in the seventh line the words "in the discretion of the board of street commissioners of said city." SECT. 2. The second section of said chapter sixty-seven is hereby amended by adding after the word "board" in the third line thereof the words "after a hearing upon a public notice stating the name proposed to be given." SECT. 3. This act shall take effect upon its passage. Preservation of ballots. Order for delivery of box of ballots. City-clerk to receive boxes containing baliots. AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR THE SAFE-KEEPING OF BALLOTS IN THE CITY Be it enacted, etc.: OF BOSTON. SECTION 1. It shall be duty of the board of aldermen of the city of Boston to provide at the city hall or elsewhere within the limits of said city, a suitable safe or fire-proof vault of sufficient capacity to contain all the boxes or envelopes in which the ballots cast at the state and municipal elections are deposited; the key of said safe to be in the sole custody of the city-clerk of said city. SECT. 2. No box of ballots thus deposited or held shall be delivered by the custodian of said safe, except upon the written order of a duly authorized committee on elections on part of said board of aldermen, the common council, the school committee, or a committee of the legislature. SECT. 3. Said city clerk shall, in person, receive the boxes or envelopes in which said ballots may be deposited, from the perɛon or persons whose duty it may be to deliver them to the city clerk. SECT. 4. Whoever wilfully violates any of the provisions of this Penalty. act shall be punished by fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, or imprisonment in the house of correction not exceeding one year. SECT. 5. This act shall take effect upon its passage. AN ACT AUTHORIZING THE CITY OF BOSTON TO BUILD A PILE STRUCTURE Be it enacted, etc.: Charles river. SECTION 1. The city of Boston may cover with a pile structure Pile structure in the parcel of flats in Boston covered by the waters of Charles river and bounded by the new Warren bridge, the pile structure of the Fitchburg Railroad Company, and the line of the southerly side of the draw openings in said bridge and the bridge of said railroad company, and may maintain the same; all new piles for said structure required in addition to the existing piles shall be driven in such places as the board of harbor and land commissioners shall designate. SECT. 2. Except as provided in this act chapter nineteen of the public statutes shall not apply to the structure herein authorized. SECT. 3. This act shall take effect upon its passage. June 4, 1884. 1885. CHAPTER 83. AN ACT RELATING TO THE SIGNING AND RECORDNG OF LICENSES FOR THE Be it enacted, etc.: SECT. 2. This act shall take effect upon its passage. March 19, 1885. Police commisand cause liquor sioners to sign licenses to be recorded. [1878, 244; 1885, 323.] 1885. CHAPTER 129. AN ACT TO AMEND AN ACT TO AUTHORIZE THE CITIES OF BOSTON AND Be it enacted,etc.: form in width to The first section of the one hundred and fifty-fifth chapter of the Draw to conacts of the year eighteen hundred and eighty-two, entitled "An Act draws in to authorize the cities of Boston and Cambridge to construct and bridges below. maintain a bridge over Charles River," is amended so as to require that said bridge shall have a draw with a clear opening of at least thirty-six feet in width for the passage of vessels, and shall not be required to have a draw of greater width, until the several bridges over Charles River below said bridge are required to have draws of a greater clear opening than thirty-six feet, when the draw in said bridge shall be widened so as to conform thereto. [1882, 155.] April 3, 1885. May maintain a floating boathouse on Charles River. AN ACT TO AUTHORIZE GEORGE FAULKNER TO MAINTAIN A FLOATING Be it enacted, etc.: SECTION 1. Permission is hereby given to George Faulkner, of the city of Cambridge, to locate and maintain a floating boat-house on Charles River in the city of Boston, near the Essex Street or Brookline Bridge, so called outside the harbor line established by law, subject to the approval in writing of the board of harbor and land commissioners and of the mayor and aldermen of the city of Boston as regards the mode of construction and location of said boathouse, the manner of anchoring or securing the same, and the term or terms of time for which the same may be maintained, and to all the provisions of chapter nineteen of the Public Statutes applicable thereto. SECT. 2. This act shall take effect upon its passage. April 10, 1885. Tax rate limited. Indebtedness limited. Injunctions to enforce or pre this act. AN ACT TO LIMIT THE MUNICIPAL DEBT OF AND THE RATE OF TAXA- Be it enacted, etc.: SECTION 1. The taxes assessed on property in the city of Boston exclusive of the state tax and of the sums required by law to be raised on account of the city debt shall not exceed in any year nine dollars on every one thousand dollars of the average of the assessors' valuations of the taxable property therein for the preceding five years, the valuation for each year being first reduced by the amount of all abatements allowed thereon previous to the thirty-first day of December in the year preceding said assessment. Any order or appropriation requiring a larger assessment than herein first above limited shall be void. SECT. 2. The limit of indebtedness of the city of Boston shall hereafter be two and one-half per cent. up to and until the first day of January in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-seven and thereafter shall be two per cent. on the average valuation prescribed in section one of this act, instead of three per cent. on the last preceding valuation as provided in section four of chapter twenty-nine of the Public Statutes. SECT. 3. Any court or justice having equity jurisdiction, sitting vent violations in the county of Suffolk, shall, upon the application of the mayor or of provisions of of ten taxable inhabitants of the city, at all times, whether in term time or vacation, have power to issue injunctions mandatory or otherwise, decrees, or other process against the city council or otherwise, which such court or justice may think needful to enforce the provi sions of this act or to prevent the violation thereof. SECT. 4. This act shall take effect upon its passage. April 17, 1885. 1885. CHAPTER 249. AN ACT TO AUTHORIZE THE CITY OF BOSTON TO TAKE LAND FOR ITS Be it enacted, etc.: system of sew. SECTION 1. The board of aldermen of the city of Boston, for the May take land purposes of building and maintaining the system of sewers of said for improved city and discharging sewage therefrom, may from time to time take erage. in fee for the city of Boston any land that they deem necessary for the said purposes on or near the line of the sewer and tunnel described in section one of chapter one hundred and thirty-six of the acts of eighteen hundred and seventy-six. SECT. 2. Said board of aldermen shall within sixty days from the taking of any lands as aforesaid, otherwise than by purchase, file and cause to be recorded in the registry of deeds for the county in which such lands are situate a description of the lands so taken, as certain as is required in a common conveyance of lands, with a statement of the purposes for which the same were taken, which description and statement shall be signed by the mayor. SECT. 3. The city of Boston shall pay all damages that shall be sustained by any person in property by the taking of any lands as aforesaid; and if any person sustaining damages fails to agree with such city as to the amount of damages sustained, the damages shall be assessed and determined by a jury of the superior court for the county in which such lands are situate, on the written application of either party therefor, to be made within two years after the taking of such lands; but no such application shall be made after the expiration of said two years; and upon said application, after such notice as said court shall order to the adverse party, a trial may be had at the bar of said court, in the same manner as other civil cases are there tried by jury; and costs shall be taxed for the prevailing party as in other civil cases. SECT. 4. This act shall take effect upon its passage. [1876, 136; 1879, 230; 1882, 256.] May 22, 1885. AN ACT TO AMEND THE CHARTER OF THE CITY OF BOSTON. Be it enacted, etc.: boards to be firmed by alder SECTION 1. The mayor of the city of Boston shall appoint, subject Officers and to confirmation by the board of aldermen, all officers and boards now appointed by elected by the city council or board of aldermen, or appointed by mayor and conhim subject to confirmation, and all whose offices may hereafter be men. established by the city council or board of aldermen, for such terms of service respectively as are or may be fixed by law or ordinance; and he may remove any of said officers or members of such boards for such cause as he shall deem sufficient and shall assign in his order for removal. No appointment made by the mayor shall be Appointment acted upon by the board of aldermen until the expiration of one week upon for one after such appointment is transmitted to said board. not to be acted week. certain officers SECT. 2. The foregoing section shall not apply to the city mes- Not to apply to senger, clerk of committees of the city council, or such other clerks and attendants as may be employed by the city council or either branch thereof, or any subordinate officers in the several departments. The assistant assessors of taxes shall be appointed by the assessors |