ARTICLE VII- Continued.

River canal, but they shall remain the property of the State and under its management forever. All funds that may be derived from any lease, sale or other disposition of any canal shall be applied in payment of the canal debt mentioned in the third section of this article.

Act providing for the use of waters of Skaneateles Lake to supply Syracuse with water, etc., valid. Matter of Comstock, 26 State Rep. 617. No prescriptive right to use the waters of the canals can be acquired by any citizen, under this section. Burbank v. Fay, 5 Lans. 397. This does not apply to an abandoned canal. People v. Stephens, 13 Hun, 17.

Salt springs.

SEC. 7. The Legislature shall never sell or dispose of the Salt Springs belonging to this State. The lands contiguous thereto, and which may be necessary and convenient for the use of the Salt Springs, may be sold by authority of law and under the direction of the Commissioners of the Land Office, for the purpose of investing the moneys arising therefrom in other lands alike convenient; but by such sale and purchase the aggregate quantity of these lands shall not be diminished.

This provision does not forbid the appropriation of such lands for public highways, canals or railroads. Purmalee v. Oswego & Syracuse R. R. Co.. 7 Barb. 599; 6 N. Y. 74.

One to whom such lands have been set apart under the statute, and who made expenditures and permanent erections for the manufacture of salt, acquired no inheritable estate thereby, and his heirs could not maintain partition. Newcomb v. Newcomb, 12 N. Y. 603.

Appropriation bills.

SEC. 8. No moneys shall ever be paid out of the treasury of this State, or any of its funds, or any of the funds under its management, except in pursuance of an appropriation by law; nor unless such payment be made within two years next after the passage of such appropriation act; and every such law making a new appropriation, or continuing or reviving an appropriation, shall distinctly specify

ARTICLE VII- Continued.

the sum appropriated, and the object to which it is to be applied; and it shall not be sufficient for such law to refer to any other law to fix such sum.

See Clark v. Sheldon, 106 N. Y. 104.

State credit not to be loaned.

SEC. 9. The credit of the State shall not, in any manner, be given or loaned to, or in aid of, any individual, association or corporation.

An act authorizing insurance companies to deposit a fund with the State Insurance Department, is valid. Attorney-General v. North Am. Life Ins. Co., 82 N. Y. 172.

Power to contract debts.

SEC. 10. The State may, to meet casual deficits or failures in revenues, or for expenses not provided for, contract debts, but such debts, direct or contingent, singly or in the aggregate, shall not at any time exceed one million of dollars; and the moneys arising from the loans creating such debts shall be applied to the purpose for which they were obtained, or to repay the debt so contracted, and to no other purpose whatever.

Debts to repel invasions.

SEC. 11. In addition to the above limited power to contract debts, the State may contract debts to repel invasion, suppress insurrection, or defend the State in war; but the money arising from the contracting of such debts shall be applied to the purpose for which it was raised, or to repay such debts, and to no other purpose whatever.

Limitation of legislative power in the creation of debts.

SEC. 12. Except the debts specified in the tenth and eleventh sections of this article, no debts shall be hereafter contracted by or on behalf of this State, unless such debt shall be authorized by a law, for some single work or

ARTICLE VII- Continued.

object, to be distinctly specified therein; and such law shall impose and provide for the collection of a direct annual tax to pay, and sufficient to pay, the interest on such debt as it falls due, and also to pay and discharge the principal of such debt within eighteen years from the time of the contracting thereof. No such law shall take effect until it shall, at a general election, have been submitted to the people, and have received a majority of all the votes cast for and against it, at such election. On the final passage of such bill in either house of the Legislature, the question shall be taken by ayes and noes, to be duly entered on the journals thereof, and shall be: "Shall this bill pass, and ought the same to receive the sanction of the people?"

The Legislature may at any time, after the approval of such law by the people, if no debt shall have been contracted in pursuance thereof, repeal the same; and may at any time, by law, forbid the contracting of any further debt or liability under such law; but the tax imposed by such act, in proportion to the debt and liability which may have been contracted, in pursuance of such law, shall remain in force and be irrepealable, and be annually collected, until the proceeds thereof shall have made the provision hereinbefore specified to pay and discharge the interest and principal of such debt and liability. The money arising from any loan or stock creating such debt or liability shall be applied to the work or object specified in the act authorizing such debt or liability, or for the repayment of such debt or liability, and for no other purpose whatever. No such law shall be submitted to be voted on, within three months after its passage, or at any general election, when any other law, or any bill, or any amendment to the Constitution, shall be submitted to be voted for or against.

ARTICLE VII- Continued.

The canal law of 1851, which authorized the raising of a loan to the State, on certificates pledging the canal revenues for payment of principal and interest, and excluding in terms any other liability on the part of the State than such as is contained in the law, with a provision that the State shall not be liable, in any event, to make up any deficiency in the revenues, and that the certificates should in no event, or contingency, be so construed as to create any debt or liability of the State, or the people thereof, within this section of the Constitution, is nevertheless repugnant to this section. Newell v. People, 7 N. Y. 9, 93.

An act making appropriations for a large number of different objects, and creating a debt for their payment, is unconstitutional; the fact that the act declares that such debt is for the "single object" of paying such appropriation" does not save it. People ex rel. Hopkins, v. Board of Supervisors of Kings Co. 52 N. Y. 556.

That act is also unconstitutional because in providing for a certain tax or so much thereof as may be necessary" for the purposes named, it does not distinctly state the tax.

ld.

This section relates only to State finances and taxes; not to taxes of municipalities for local improvements. People, ex rel. N. Y. & H. R. R. Co. v. Havemeyer, 3 Hun, 97; People v. Supervisors of Chenango, 4 Seld. 317; Dartington v. Mayor 31 N. Ý. 135.

An act authorizing the construction of certain roads in certain towns, and directing the issue of town bonds to defray the expense, without the consent of the inhabitants, is valid. People ex rel. McLean v. Flagg, 46 N. Y. 401.

Sinking funds.

*SEC. 13. The sinking funds provided for the payment of interest and the extinguishment of the principal of the debts of the State shall be separately kept and safely invested, and neither of them shall be appropriated or used in any manner other than for the specific purpose for which it shall have been provided.

Claims.

*SEC. 14. Neither the Legislature, Canal Board, Canal Appraisers, nor any person or persons acting in behalf of the State, shall audit, allow, or pay any claim which, as between citizens of the State, would be barred by lapse of time. The limitation of existing claims shall begin to run from the adoption of this section; but this provision shall not be construed to revive claims already barred by existing statutes, nor to repeal any statute fixing the time

As amended by vote of the people, November 3, 1874.

ARTICLE VII- Continued.

within which claims shall be presented or allowed, nor shall it extend to any claims duly presented within the time allowed by law, and prosecuted with due diligence from the time of such presentment. But if the claimant shall be under legal disability, the claim may be presented within two years after such disability is removed.

Claims which have been duly presented are not barred. Corkins v. State, 99 N. Y. 491.

ARTICLE VIII.

Creation of corporations.

SECTION 1. Corporations may be formed under general laws: but shall not be created by special act, except for municipal purposes, and in cases where, in the judgment of the Legislature, the objects of the corporation cannot be attained under general laws. All general laws and special acts passed pursuant to this section may be altered from time to time or repealed.

See People v. O'Brien, 111 N. Y. 2.

An act requiring a railroad corporation organized under the general railroad act to pay a tax upon gross receipts instead of a license fee previously exacted may be deemed an alteration and amendment of the charter and so within the power reserved to the Legislature by the above section. Mayor v. Twenty-third St. R. Co., 113 N. Y. 311.

This provision is permissive, not mandatory Matter of Tar-Payers of Kingston, 40 How. 444. This section abolishes the old and provides a new system; hence laws passed since 1846 are exclusive of those of prior date. Rochester v. Barnes, 26 Barb. 657.

An act for the reorganizing an old corporation is not within this provision: Moshier v. Hilton, 15 Barb. 657; nor is an act remedying a technical defect in the organization; Syracuse City Bank v. Daris, 16 Barb. 188; nor an act regulating an existing corpor tion; Atty.-General v. No. Am. Life Ins. Co., 82 N. Y. 172.

A special act for incorporation is not unconstitutional by reason of the existence of a general law; the necessity of the act is in the legislative discretion. People v. Bowen, 21 N. Y. 517.

The Legislature may impose such restrictions and conditions as the public good requires; thus, in case of a railroad company, the manner of building bridges, speed of trains, rates of fare, etc., although a charter has been granted without reserving power to amend. People, ex rel. v. Boston, etc., R. R. Co., 70 N. Y. 569.