Amending ch. 425, Laws 1855. 3 Edm. 765 Stockholders. Capital stock. CHAP. 512. AN ACT to amend an act entitled "An act to facilitate the forming of agricultural and horticultural societies," passed April thirteenth, eighteen hundred and fifty-five. PASSED June 7, 1875. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: SECTION 1. Section four of an act entitled "An act to facilitate the forming of agricultural and horticultural societies," passed April thirteenth, eighteen hundred and fifty-five, is hereby amended so as to read as follows: § 4. Any person who shall pay into the treasury of said society annually a sum not less than fifty cents, as prescribed by the by-laws of said society, shall be a stockholder and entitled to all the privileges and immunities thereof, or any society may, by a majority vote and by filing a certificate to that effect in the county clerk's office of the county where it is located, divide the amount of real and personal property authorized by section two of this act into shares of not less than ten dollars each and sell the said shares at not less than the par value thereof to raise money for the purpose contemplated in this act, or may cause books to be opened by said directors for the subscription of capital stock to said corporation at such time and places and in such manner as they deem best. The capital stock of said corporation to be subscribed for under this section shall not exceed forty thousand dollars, and shall not be less than five thousand dollars, and shall be divided into shares of ten dollars each and shall be paid in cash by the subscribers thereto at the time of such subscription, and the moneys so raised shall be subject to the provisions of section two of this act, and any person owning one or more of said shares of stock shall be a member and stockholder of said society, and may have one vote for each share so owned by him at any stockholders' meeting Dividends. of said society. Dividends may be made from the earnings of said society and paid to the owners of said stock to the amount of ten per cent per annum, but no such dividend shall be made when the society is in debt. Superseded by ch. 346, L. 1876, post, p. 309. When trustees may deter mine to elect CHAP. 514. AN ACT to provide for the election of police justices in villages. PASSED June 7, 1875; three-fifths being present. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: SECTION 1. Upon the application in writing of not less than twentyfive electors, inhabitants of any incorporated village in this State, in which no provision now exists for the election of a police justice, the police jus board of trustees of such village may determine, by resolution to be entered in their minutes of proceedings, that a police justice shall be tice. Election cations. and quali Term of office. Vacancy elected for such village; and if they shall so determine, the electors of the village may at their then next annual election, or at a special election to be called for the purpose and to be conducted in the same manner as the annual election, choose a police justice who shall be a resident elector of the village, and shall enter upon the discharge of his duties as soon as he shall be duly notified of his election and shall take and file in the office of the village clerk the Constitutional oath of office, and a bond with sureties in such sum as the board of trustees shall prescribe and to be approved by such board, conditioned for the faithful performance of his official duties. Such police justice shall hold his office until the thirty-first day of December in the third year succeeding his election. Thereafter the term of such office shall be three years, commencing with the first day of January, and at the annual charter election next preceding the expiration of a regular term, a police justice shall be elected on the same ticket with other elective village officers. Whenever a vacancy shall occur in the office of such police justice, it shall be filled by appointment to be made by the board of trustees; and the person thus appointed shall hold his office till his successor, who shall be chosen at the next annual election, for the unexpired portion of the term, shall have taken and filed the Constitutional oath of office and bond as herein before provided. §2. Such police justice shall have the same powers and jurisdiction Powers within the village for which he shall be elected or appointed and shall perform the same duties and be subject to the same liabilities in criminal cases as justices of the peace in towns, and his judgments and proceedings may be reviewed in such cases in the same manner as in the sase of such justices of the peace. He shall have power to try actions brought to recover fines, penalties and forfeitures for the violation of any by-law, ordinance, rule or regulation of such village and to give and enforce judgment thereon. He shall also have authority to take affidavits in all matters of village administration, but shall have no other civil jurisdiction. He shall receive for his services an annual salary, to be fixed by the board of trustees, which shall not be increased or decreased during his term of office, but shall not retain to his own use any costs or fees. and jurisdiction. Amended 1876, ch. 308, post. Salary. § 3. It shall be the duty of the said police justice to provide a suit- Records. able book, and therein to enter and keep a record of the several complaints made before him, in which a warrant or other process for the arrest of any person accused shall be granted, and of all cases in which the offender or person accused shall be brought before him without process; which record shall contain, under the proper date, a brief statement of the names of the parties, the nature of the offense charged, the action of the said police justice thereon; and an accurate account of all fines, penalties and costs imposed and collected by him or which may be ordered to be paid by any offender. And annually, at least two weeks before the time appointed for holding the charter election of said village, and oftener when required by resolution of the board of trustees, he shall make a report in writing to the clerk of the village of all fines, penalties and costs imposed and collected by him; and the same day on which he shall make such report he shall pay over to the treasurer of such village all fines, penalties and costs in his hands belonging to said village. The provisions of this act shall not apply to any village in the county of Madison. § 4. This act shall take effect immediately. *So in the original. Report. Ante, vol. 6, p. 229. CHAP. 518. AN ACT to amend chapter fifty-one of laws of eighteen hundred and sixty-four, entitled "An act in relation to the Bureau of Military Statistics." PASSED June 7, 1875. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: SECTION 1. Section one of chapter fifty-one of laws of eighteen sixty-four*, entitled "An act in relation to the Bureau of Military Statistics," is hereby amended so as to read as follows: § 1. The books, records and other property deposited in the Bureau of Military Statistics shall be open to free inspection and use at all reasonable hours, but no book or article shall be taken therefrom. § 2. This act shall take effect immediately. When appoint trustees. CHAP. 519. AN ACT providing for the appointment of trustees of the estates of persons absenting themselves from their domiciles in this State and remaining unheard of, or suddenly disap pearing. PASSED June 7, 1875. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: SECTION 1. Whenever any person having a domicile in this State court may shall remain beyond the sea, or shall have remained beyond the sea, or shall absent himself in this State or elsewhere, or shall have absented himself in this State or elsewhere, and shall remain, or shall have remained, unheard from for the space of three full year* next preceding the time of the application herein in this section provided for, or whenever any person having a domicile within this State shall suddenly or mysteriously disappear, or shall have suddenly or mysteriously disappeared, under such circumstances as shall satisfy the court that there is reasonable ground to believe that such person is lost, or has become insaure and cannot be found, or is dead, or has been made way with, then, and in any such case, on the application by petition of any of the nearest relatives of such person, or if there be no relatives of such person within this State who shall so apply, then, upon the application of any creditor of such person or upon the application of the county treasurer of the county in which shall be or shall have been the last known domicile of such person, the Supreme Court shall appoint a trustee or two or more trustees of the estates, real and personal, of such person. Trustees to give bonds. § 2. Before entering upon the duties of the trust, the trustee or trustees so appointed shall execute and file with the county clerk of the county where was the last known domicile of such person, a bond in such penalty and with such surety or sureties as shall be approved of in the manner directed and provided for in the order appointing such *So in the original. trustee or trustees, which bond shall provide for the faithful performance of the duties of the trust for a just and true accounting whenever thereunto required by the said Supreme Court, and for a full and complete transfer and delivery or distribution of all property and estates which may come into the hands of such trustee whenever thereunto required by the said Supreme Court. tees. § 3. Such trustee or trustees shall become and be vested with all the Functions property, real and personal property, rights, things in action and of trusevidences of property and indebtedness which were or may be of such person so absent or having so disappeared, and shall have power and authority to enter into and upon and to take possession of all such property, real and personal, to receive payment and discharge any and all debts, dues and demands to, or in favor of such person, to sue in any and all courts for the recovery, enforcement and collection of such property, rights, things in action, evidences of property or indebtedness and of all debts, dues and demands to or in favor of such person or such trustee or trustees. Court to estate. § 4. The Supreme Court may make such direction as to it shall seem equitable, for the application of the estate or property or any portion control thereof in the hands of such trustee or trustees to the payment of any judgment creditor of the person or estate of such person so absent or having so disappeared, or to the support and maintenance of the family of such person, and shall have power to direct such trustee or trustees to dispose of such estate or property as the law and the rights of parties interested may require. tees to surrender § 5. In case the person so absent or disappearing shall prove to be When trus alive, said trustee or trustees shall surrender to him all property and effects which shall have come into the hands of such trustee or trus- property. tees, and in case letters testamentary shall be granted upon the last will and testament of the person so absent or having so disappeared, or in case letters of administration upon his estate shall be issued, such trustee or trustees shall surrender to the executors or administrators receiving such letters of administration or such letters testamentary, all property, effects and estates of such person as under their appointment such executors or administrators may lawfully demand or receive, and under the direction of said Supreme Court, shall surrender to the heirs at law, devisees or legatees of such person, such property, effects and estates, as said executors or administrators may not lawfully demand or receive; and under the direction of the court shall render a full account of the property so received by them. § 6. Such trustee or trustees shall be allowed out of the estate and property in his or their hands all lawful disbursements in and about the discharge of the duties of such trust, and shall also be allowed commissions upon the estate and property which shall come into his or their hands, equal in amount to the commissions allowed by law to executors or administrators. Commissions. § 7. From any order made pursuant to the provisions of this act an Appeals. appeal may be taken in the manner and with the effect provided by the Code of Procedure in civil actions in the Supreme Court, and the said Supreme Court may direct a reference in respect to any of the matters in this act provided for. §8 This act shall take effect immediately. Repealed by L. 1880, ch. 245. See Co. Civ. Proc., § 2668, etc. CHAP. 520. AN ACT relative to the civil code. PASSED June, 7, 1875. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: SECTION 1. The commissioners appointed by virtue of chapter thirty-three of the laws of eighteen hundred and seventy to revise the statutes of this State are hereby authorized to incorporate in, and make part of such revision, the civil code, heretofore reported to the Legislature by the commissioners of the code, or so much thereof as the said commissioners for the revision of the statutes may deem advisable, with the same effect as though the said civil code were now a part of the statutes of this State. Societies may bind out children on consent of court. Indentures. CHAP. 522. AN ACT to authorize the various associations and societies. incorporated under the laws of the State of New York for the purpose of taking care of and protecting destitute infant minor children, to bind out by indenture destitute children who are in their care and keeping. PASSED June 7, 1875. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: SECTION 1. Every society or association incorporated under the laws of this State for the purpose of taking care of and protecting destitute infant minor children may, with the consent of any justice of the Supreme Court, or of the county judge in the county wherein such society or association may be situated, such consent to be expressed in writing on the indentures, bind out any destitute minor child or children, which have been in their care and keeping for three months, of the age of eight years and upward, by indenture, to serve as clerk, apprentice, or servant in any profession, trade or employment; if a male, for a period which shall not be beyond his twenty-first year, and if a female, for a period which shall not be beyond her eighteenth year. § 2. Such indenture shall be executed under seal and signed by such officer of such society or association as shall be authorized by the directors or trustees of such society or association to sign such indenture, and shall be signed also by the person employing such apprentice or minor child. § 3. The age of every infant so bound and the sum of money paid or agreed for, with, or in relation to the binding out of such minor child shall be inserted in the indenture, and such age shall be taken prima facie to be the true age without further proof thereof. § 4. The indenture shall contain an agreement on the part of the person to whom such child shall be bound, that he will cause such child to be instructed to read and write, and if a male, shall cause him to be instructed in the general rules of arithmetic, and shall contain such |