vey away or conceal any goods or property, and shall not forthwith deliver the same or give information thereof to the owner if known, otherwise to one of the firewards or selectmen, he shall be deemed guilty of larceny.

SEC. 8. The firewards of any town may establish such regulations respecting the kindling, guarding and safe keeping of fires, for the prevention and extinguishment of fires, and for the removing of shavings and other combustibles from any building or place as they shall think expedient. Such regulations shall be signed by the major part of the firewards, recorded by the town clerk, and copies of such record attested by the town clerk, posted up in two or more public places in the town, thirty days before they shall take effect.

SEC. 9. Penalties not exceeding twenty dollars for each offence, may be prescribed by the firewards for the breach of such regulations, and such regulations shall remain in force until altered or amended by law or by the firewards of the town.

SEC. 10. The firewards shall appoint enginemen and hosemen not exceeding eighteen to each engine or hose company. greater number is necessary to any engine in the judgment of the selectmen, the firewards with the selectmen may appoint not exceeding twenty-two additional men. They shall be appointed by warrant signed by the chairman and clerk of the firewards, and by the selectmen when they join in the appointment, and recorded by such clerk.

SEC. 11. Such appointments shall continue in force until they shall resign, remove from town or be discharged by the firewards and such discharge recorded by their clerk, and they shall be exempted from serving on juries and from military duty, as provided in the law relating to the militia.

SEC. 12. Every house or building with fireplaces or stoves shall have thereon a good secure ladder or ladders reaching from the ground to the ridge pole, and shall be provided with one leathern bucket of such size and form as the firewards may prescribe, for every two fireplaces or stoves in such house; and if the owner shall not provide and keep in repair such buckets and ladders, he shall be liable to a penalty of six dollars for every three months' neglect.

SEC. 13. In case of such neglect the firewards may give notice to the owner or to the occupant, if the owner is unknown or does not reside in town, to provide such buckets and ladders, and if the same shall not be provided within thirty days after, they shall provide the same at the expense of the town, and the town may recover the same of the owner or of the occupant, if the owner is unknown or does not reside in town, by an action of debt, to be brought by the firewards in the name of the town.

SEC. 14. Any tenant who shall be obliged by virtue of this act to pay any money which the lessor ought to have paid, may retain

the same out of his rent or recover the same of the lessor by action.

SEC. 15. The major part of the firewards present at any fire, may cause any building or thing whatever to be pulled down, blown up or removed that they shall judge necessary to stop the progress of such fire, and any fireward may require assistance from any person present at such fire for that purpose.

SEC. 16. The selectmen on application shall appraise the damage done to any building or thing, by order of the firewards as aforesaid, assess a tax for the payment thereof and make compensation therefor to the owner, unless it shall appear that the fire began in such building or that the same must have been burned if it had not been destroyed or removed.

SEC. 17. Upon the refusal of the selectmen or their neglect for three months after such application, to appraise such damage and assess such tax, the party injured may petition the court of common pleas for redress, and such court after due notice to the town shall ascertain such damages, and render judgment and issue execution therefor and for costs against the town.

SEC. 18. The firewards shall give written notice to the owner of any building by them deemed to be dangerous by reason of decay, want of repairs, or otherwise, to repair or alter the same, which notice shall contain a particular account of repairs or alterations required to be made.

SEC. 19. If the owner do not reside in the town, such notice may be given to the occupant, if any, and if there is no occupant, such notice may be posted up in at least three public places in such town.

SEC. 20. The notice required to be given by sections 17 and 18 of chapter 111 of the revised statutes (eighteen and nineteen of this chapter,) may be given by causing the same to be published in two or more of the principal newspapers published in the town of Portsmouth; and a notice, such as is prescribed by said sections, if published three weeks successively in said newspapers, shall in all cases be taken and deemed as good and sufficient a notice to the owners of the buildings in said sections named, as the notice therein prescribed, provided said property is situated in said Portsmouth; and all parts of said sections inconsistent with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed. (Laws of 1846, chap. 341.)

SEC. 21. If such repairs or alterations are not made within thirty days after such notice given or posted up, the firewards may cause the same to be made at the expense of the town, and the town may recover the expense thereof of such owner or occupant in an action of debt, to be brought by the firewards in the name of the town.

SEC. 22. The firewards, when in their opinion the public safety may be greatly endangered unless such repairs or alterations are immediately made, may limit a shorter period than thirty days, and notice thereof being given as aforesaid, may upon neglect of

the owner make such repairs or alterations at the expiration of the time so limited.

SEC. 23. If such building shall in the opinion of the firewards be so ruinous as to be not worth repairing, and such repairs are not made within sixty days after such notice, they may demolish the same at the expense of the town, and file with their clerk a particular account of such expense, and if the same is not paid within five days from such filing, they may sell at public auction the materials of such building, and after deducting the said expense and the cost of the sale, shall pay the proceeds into the town treasury, to be paid over to the owner of the building upon request.

SEC. 24. The selectmen shall advance to the firewards such sums as may be necessary to carry this act [chapter] into effect, and the firewards shall in March, before the annual town meeting, render to the selectmen an exact account of their receipts and expenditures, to be laid before the town, in which all penalties recovered by virtue of this chapter shall be accounted for.

SEC. 25. All penalties incurred by any breach of the provisions of this chapter or of any regulation prescribed by the firewards, may be recovered by action of debt, to be brought by the firewards in the name of the town. Such penalties shall be applied to the purchase of engines or instruments proper to be used in case of fire, or paid into the treasury of the town.

SEC. 26. Every engineman who shall personally perform all the duties required by law, shall receive in the month of November annually, the sum of one dollar and fifty cents for his services, to be paid by the selectmen of the town in which he resides, upon satisfactory evidence being given to them that he has so performed his duty provided that no compensation shall be granted to any member of any engine company unless such company shall at all times keep their engine in such condition as shall be satisfactory to the selectmen or firewards of their respective towns. (Laws of 1848, chap. 727, sec. 1.)

SEC. 27. Every commanding officer of an engine company shall, in the month of October annually, make a list of the persons who have faithfully performed all the duties of his company, and certify under oath, that said list contains the names of such persons, and no others, and return the same to the selectmen of the town in which such company is located, and payment shall be made to those only whose names are upon said list. (Laws of 1848, chap. 727, sec. 2; amended by laws of 1849, chap. 866.)

SEC. 28. This chapter shall be in force only in such town as shall at a legal meeting adopt the same; but any town may adopt a part thereof only, and may exempt from the operation of the eleventh section [twelfth of this chapter] such persons as live remote from the compact part thereof.

SECTION 1. It shall be the duty of the selectmen in each town, in the month of March annually, to appoint a chief engineer, and as many assistant engineers as they shall think proper, not exceeding twenty, who together with the chief engineer shall compose the board of engineers for the fire department of such town.

SEC. 2. It shall be the duty of the chief engineer to keep or cause to be kept in order all apparatus provided by such town for the extinguishment of fire, and to cause all cisterns and fountains of water prepared for the fire department, to be fully supplied and kept in perfect order.

SEC. 3. It shall be the duty of the chief engineer to regulate the action and determine the location of all fire engines at any fire, and to direct the mode of operating the same, or of any other apparatus connected with the fire department.

SEC. 4. It shall be the duty of the assistant engineers to aid the chief engineer in all things which he may direct relating to the subduing of fires. In case of the absence of the chief engineer, the senior assistant engineer present shall perform the duties of the chief engineer, and possess all his power and authority.

SEC. 5. It shall be the duty of the chief engineer to report annually to the town the state of all apparatus under his care belonging to the town, and the amount expended thereon for repairs.

SEC. 6. All necessary repairs for any part of the apparatus provided for the extinguishment of fires, shall be paid by the selectmen, the bills being first approved by the chief engineer.

SEC. 7. The chief engineer shall be paid for his services such compensation as the selectmen shall think reasonable and proper. SEC. 8. The board of engineers authorized by this act shall be a substitute for the board of firewards now constituted by law, and shall possess all the powers in addition to this act which are

conferred by chapter one hundred and eleven of the revised statutes. (114 of this compilation.)

SEC. 9. This act shall be in force only in such towns as may adopt the same at any legal meeting.

1. Selectmen upon petition to fix pre- 5. Firewards of precincts, powers and

2. Selectmen to notify meetings in pre- 6. Voters in precincts may choose en

SECTION 1. Upon petition of ten or more legal voters, inhabtants of any village situated in any town, or in two or more towns in this State, for that purpose, the selectmen of such town or towns shall fix by suitable boundaries a village precinct, for the purposes hereinafter mentioned, including therein the said village and such parts of said town or towns adjacent thereto as may seem to them convenient, and make a record thereof.

SEC. 2. And the said selectmen shall notify a meeting of the legal voters residing in said village precinct, in the same manner in which town meetings are required by law to be called, and the notice for such meetings shall be posted at two public places in such village, and said selectmen shall from time to time call like meetings, upon the petition of ten or more legal voters of said village, in the same manner.

SEC. 3. The said legal voters at such meetings may, by a major vote, adopt the provisions of this act, which shall thereupon take effect and be in force in said village precinct.

SEC. 4. And said legal voters may, by a major vote, adopt chapter 143 of the pamphlet laws, [chap. 115 of this compilation.] which shall thereupon apply to and be in force in said village precinct. The firewards in such village precinct shall be chosen by the legal voters thereof; and in case of their omission to make such choice, said firewards shall be appointed by said selectmen. (Amended by laws of 1852, chap. 1312.)

SEC. 5. The said firewards and the enginemen and hosemen