Chap. 259.

AN ACT to amend an act entitled "An act empowering railroad companies to employ police force," passed April 29th, 1863, so as to include steamboat companies.

Passed March 30, 1866.

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly do enact as follows:

SECTION 1. Section one of chapter three hundred and forty-six of the laws of one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, is hereby amended so as to read as follows:

Any railroad corporation on which road steam is used as the motive power, and any steamboat company, may apply to the governor to commission such person or persons as the said corporation may designate, to act as policemen for said corporation; but no more than one policeman shall be appointed at any one station of such company.

§ 2. Section three of said act is hereby amended so as to read as follows:

Every policeman so appointed shall, before entering upon the duties of his office, take and subscribe the oath prescribed in the twelfth article of the constitution; such oath, with a copy of the commission, shall be filed with the secretary of state, and a certificate thereof, by said secretary, be filed with the clerk of each county through or into which the railroad or steamboat for which such policeman is appointed may run, and in which it is intended the said policemen shall act; and such policemen shall severally possess all the powers of policemen in the several towns, cities and villages in which they shall be so authorized to act as aforesaid.

§ 3. Section four of said act is hereby amended so as to read as

follows:

Such police shall, when on duty, severally wear a metallic shield, with the words "railway police," or "steamboat police," as the case may be, and the name of the corporation for which appointed, inscribed thereon, and said shield shall always be worn in plain view, except when employed as detectives.

Chap. 560.

AN ACT for the preservation of the health of animals for human food.

Passed April 13, 1866.

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

SECTION 1. No railroad company in this state, in the carrying and transportation of cattle, sheep or swine, shall confine the same in cars for a longer period than twenty-eight consecutive hours, unless delayed by storms or other accidental causes, without unloading for rest, water and feeding, for a period of at least ten consecutive hours. In estimating such confinement, the time the animals have been confined without such rest on connecting roads from which they are received shall be computed, it being the intention to prevent their continuous confinement beyond twenty-eight hours, except upon the contingencies herein stated. Nothing in this act contained shall require the unloading of cattle, sheep or swine from the cars of the Buffalo and State Line railroad before their arrival at Buffalo, and the Atlantic and Great Western railroad, before they arrive at Salamanca.

§ 2. Provided the owner or person in charge of said animals refuses or neglects to pay for the care and feed of animals so rested, the railroad company may charge such expense to the owner or consignee, and retain a lien upon the animals until the same is paid; and provided further, that no claim of damages for detention shall be recovered by the owner or shipper of any animals for the time they are detained under the provisions of this act.

§ 3. Any railroad company, owner, consignee, or person in charge of said cattle, sheep, or swine, who shall violate any provision of this act, shall, for each and every such violation, be liable for and forfeit and pay a penalty in the sum of one hundred dollars, to be sued for and collected in any court having jurisdiction, by any person, in the name of the people of the state of New York; one-half of the penalty, when collected, to belong to the informer, and the balance to be paid to the state treasurer of the state of New York.

§ 4. This act shall take effect immediately.

Chap. 697.

AN ACT supplementary to the act entitled "An act to authorize the formation of railroad corporations, and to regulate the same," passed April 2d, 1850.

Passed April 20, 1866.

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

SECTION 1. It shall be lawful for any number of persons, not less than ten, to form themselves into a company for constructing, maintaining, and operating a railway for public use, in the conveyance of persons and property, by means of a propelling rope or cable attached to stationary power, and upon compliance with the provisions of the first three sections of the act to which this is supplementary, they shall become a body corporate and politic, according to the provisions of said act; Provided, That the directors of any such company may be limited to any number not less than five, to be specified in the articles of association.

§2. Any such company may style itself by the name of the inventor or patentee of the particular method of propulsion used, together with such local designation as the associates may seem desirable, and shall, by such name set forth in their articles of association, have and enjoy all the powers and privileges and be subject to the liabilities mentioned in the aforesaid act, passed April second, eighteen hundred and fifty, so far as the same are comprised in the first twenty-six sections and the twenty-eighth section thereof.

§ 3. Companies formed under the provisions of this supplementary act may fix and collect rates of fare on their respective roads, not exceeding five cents for each mile or any fraction of a mile, for each passenger, and with right to a minimum fare of ten cents.

§ 4. It shall be lawful for any company formed under this act to construct and operate and maintain a road or roads in any other state or country in which the same does not conflict with the laws of such state or country; provided the assent of inventors or patentees are first obtained in the same manner and extent as would be necessary within the United States.

§ 5. Any company heretofore formed, or hereafter to be formed under the provisions of the act entitled "An act to authorize the formation of railroad corporations, and to regulate the same," passed April second, eighteen hundred and fifty, or the acts amendatory thereof, may extend the time for the continuance of such company

beyond the time mentioned in the original articles of association for such purpose, by the consent of two-thirds in amount of the stock held by the stockholders of said company in a certificate to be signed and proved or acknowledged by the stockholders signing the same, so as to entitle it to be recorded, which certificate shall be filed in the office of the secretary of state, who shall, upon such filing, record the same in the book kept in his office for the record of articles of association of railroad companies under said act, and make a memorandum of such record in the margin of the original articles of association in such book; and thereupon the time of the existence of such company shall be extended as designated in such certificate. § 6. This act shall take effect immediately.

Chap. 254.

AN ACT in relation to railroads held under lease.

Passed April 3, 1867; three-fifths being present. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

SECTION 1. Any railroad corporation created by the laws of this state, or its successors, now being the lessee of the road of any other railroad corporation, may take a surrender or transfer of the capital stock of the stockholders or any of them in the corporation whose road is held under lease, and issue in exchange therefor the like additional amount of its own capital stock at par, or on such other terms and conditions as may be agreed upon between the two corporations; and whenever the greater part of the capital stock of any such corporation shall have been so surrendered or transferred, the directors of the corporation taking such surrender or transfer, shall thereafter, on a resolution electing so to do, to be entered on their minutes, become ex officio the directors of the corporation whose road is so held under lease, and shall manage and conduct the affairs thereof as provided by law; and whenever the whole of the said capital stock shall have been so surrendered or transferred, and a certificate thereof filed in the office of the secretary of state, under the common seal of the corporation to whom such surrender or transfer shall have been made, the estate property, rights, privileges and franchises of the said corporation whose stock shall have been so surrendered or transferred, shall thereupon vest in and be held and enjoyed by the said coporation to whom

such surrender or transfer shall have been made, as fully and entirely, and without charge or diminution, as the same were before held and enjoyed, and be managed and controlled by the board of directors of the said corporation to whom such surrender or transfer of the said stock shall have been made, and in the corporate name of such corporation. The rights of any stockholder not so surrendering or transferring his stock, shall not be in any way affected hereby, nor shall existing liabilities or the rights of creditors of the corporation, where stock shall have been so surrendered or transferred, be in any way affected or impaired by this act.

§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately.

Chap. 483.

AN ACT to prevent injury and loss of life to persons on railroad cars, and in relation to a uniform for the employes thereof.

Passed April 22, 1867.

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

SECTION 1. It shall be the duty of every railroad company or corporation in this state, and every railroad company or corporation running, or that may hereafter run its passenger cars in this state, to cause the platforms upon the ends of all passenger cars to be so constructed that when said cars shall be coupled together, or made up into trains and in motion, danger of injury to persons or loss of life between the ends of said cars, by falling between the platforms of said cars while passing from one car to another, shall, so far as practicable, be avoided. It shall be the duty of every railroad company operating a railroad in this state by the power of steam, to designate and prescribe such peculiar uniform or external apparel, to be worn by its officers, agents and employes, engaged in or about its passenger offices or stations, or on or about its trains upon its tracks, as shall plainly, to all travelers, distinguish all such persons; and such uniform or apparel shall also plainly indicate or distinguish the position or rank of the wearer in the employment of such company. It shall be the duty of every such person to provide and wear such apparel or uniform when employed as aforesaid. And every such company that shall fail to designate and prescribe such apparel or uniform, and to also cause