leased to farmers. Certain provisions of law relating to hours of labor of persons employed under act not to apply. hundred thousand dollars, to be expended subject to the approval of the governor and council by the state board of agriculture in the purchase of farm machinery and in operating the same or in leasing it to farmers, for use in this commonwealth, upon such terms and for such periods as the board may deem expedient. SECTION 2. The provisions of chapter four hundred and ninety-four of the acts of nineteen hundred and eleven, as amended by chapter two hundred and forty of the General Acts of nineteen hundred and sixteen, relating to the hours of labor of public employees, shall not apply to persons employed under the provisions of this act. SECTION 3. This act shall take effect upon its passage. Chap. 91 AN ACT RELATIVE TO THE TAKING OF LAND FOR TRANSMISSION 1914, 742, § 128, etc., amended. Taking of land for transmission lines by electric companies. LINES BY ELECTRIC COMPANIES. Be it enacted, etc., as follows: SECTION 1. Section one hundred and twenty-eight of chapter seven hundred and forty-two of the acts of nineteen hundred and fourteen, as amended by chapter one hundred and forty-one of the General Acts of nineteen hundred and seventeen is hereby further amended by striking out the word "it", in the sixth line, and substituting the words: - electricity to itself or, so as to read as follows: Section 128. An electric company may, from time to time, apply by petition to the board for authority to construct and use or to continue to use as constructed or with altered construction a line for the transmission of electricity for distribution in some definite area or for the purpose of supplying electricity to itself or to another electric company or to a municipal lighting plant for distribution and sale, or to a railroad, street railway or electric railroad, as respectively defined by law, for the purpose of operating it, and shall represent that such line will or does serve the public convenience and is consistent with the public interest. The company shall file with such petition a general description of such transmission line and a map or plan showing the cities and towns through which the line will or does pass and its general location. The company shall also furnish an estimate showing in reasonable detail the cost of the line and such additional maps and information as the board may require. The board, after notice and a public hearing in one or more of the cities or towns affected, for transmission may determine that said line is necessary for the purpose alleged, and will serve the public convenience and is consistent with the public interest. If the company has acquired or Taking of land thereafter shall acquire rights in the public ways or lanes of lines by electric the cities or towns through which said line will or does pass, companies. or over private lands therein, for the construction of not less than one half of the total length of said line and shall file with the board a map or plan of the transmission line showing the rights acquired and the cities and towns through which it will or does pass, the public ways, railroads, railways, navigable streams and tide waters in the city or town named in said petition which it will cross, and the extent to which it will be located upon private land or upon, under or along public ways and places, the board, after notice by publication or otherwise as it may direct, shall give a public hearing or hearings in one or more of the cities or towns through which the line passes or is intended to pass and may by order authorize the company to take such lands, not exceeding one hundred and fifty feet in width, or such rights of way or other easements therein as may be necessary for the construction and use or continued use as constructed or with altered construction of the remainder of such line along the route prescribed in the order of the board: provided, however, that not- Proviso. withstanding the company has not acquired easements for such purpose in one half of the total length of said line, yet the board may by such order authorize the taking of any easements in private lands which may be necessary to effect only the alteration of construction of an existing line. The board shall transmit a certified copy of its order to the company and the clerk of each such city or town. The company may at any time before such hearing change or modify the whole or a part of the route of said line, either of its own motion or at the instance of the board or otherwise, and, in such case, shall file with the board maps, plans and estimates as aforesaid showing such changes. If the board shall dismiss the petition at any stage in the proceedings herein before set forth, no further action shall be taken thereon, but the company may file a new petition after the expiration of a year from such dismissal. A description of the lands, rights or Description of easements taken, sufficiently accurate for identification, land, etc., taken containing the name or names of the owners thereof, so far as known, and a statement of the purpose for which the taking is made, signed by the president of the company and accompanied by a copy of the order of the board, shall be recorded to be recorded. Bond, etc., to be filed with treasurer and re ceiver general. in the registry of deeds for each county or district in which any of such cities or towns are situated, and such recording shall operate as a taking of the lands, rights or easements therein described. No taking shall be valid unless it complies with the foregoing requirements. When such taking is effected, the company may forthwith proceed to erect, maintain and operate thereon said line. The board may, by its order, require the company to deposit with the treasurer and receiver general such sum of money as may be necessary to secure the payment for any land, rights or easements taken by it, or in lieu of such deposit to give bond to the commonwealth to an amount and with sureties satisfactory to the board, conditioned for the payment of such compensation as may be awarded for such taking. If the company shall not enter upon and construct such liné upon the land so taken within one year thereafter, its right under such taking shall cease and determine. The company shall pay all damages sustained by any person or corporation by the taking of any lands, rights or other easements therein under the authority Failure to agree of this act. A person or corporation sustaining damages as When right to take land shall cease. on damages, how deter mined. aforesaid and failing to agree with said company as to the SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon its passage. Chap. 92 AN ACT RELATIVE TO STATE PAY FOR CERTAIN RESIDENTS OF State pay for certain residents of commonwealth in military or naval service. THE COMMONWEALTH IN THE FEDERAL SERVICE. Be it enacted, etc., as follows: SECTION 1. The provisions of chapter two hundred and eleven of the General Acts of nineteen hundred and seventeen, as affected by chapter three hundred and thirty-two of the General Acts of nineteen hundred and seventeen, providing state pay for certain soldiers and sailors in the federal service, shall be construed to apply to all persons, male or female, voluntarily enlisted in the military or naval service of the United States since the beginning of the present war with the German Empire as defined by said chapter three hundred and thirty-two, or drafted into the military forces under the pro visions of the federal selective service act, whether a part of the quota of this commonwealth or not, provided that such Proviso. persons, at the time of their entry into said service, were residents of this commonwealth. The treasurer and receiver Evidence of general may accept as prima facie evidence of the facts service, etc. relating to the allotment and service of any applicant, his statement in writing, sworn to before any commissioned officer above the rank of lieutenant in the military service and above the rank of ensign in the naval service. furnish evi claimants. SECTION 2. The written statement of an assessor of a Assessors may city or town that a soldier or sailor claiming pay or on whose dence as to account pay is claimed by a dependent or allottee, under the residence of provisions of said chapter two hundred and eleven, as construed by this act, was a resident thereof on the first day of April, nineteen hundred and seventeen, shall be prima facie evidence of the fact of such residence, but the treasurer and receiver general may accept such other evidence of residence as he may consider adequate. The assessors of the several cities and towns shall, at the request of the treasurer and receiver general, forthwith furnish such information relative to such residence as their records may disclose. etc., construed. SECTION 3. The following words and phrases, as used in Certain words, said chapter two hundred and eleven, shall be construed follows: defined. "Muster-in", as relating to service in the navy, shall mean "Muster-in," the date on which the enlisted man is sworn into the federal service, and as relating to service in the army, the date of call to active duty, and in both cases shall correspond, as nearly as possible, to the date upon which federal pay began to run. of service," de "Termination of service" shall mean the date of discharge, "Termination or of promotion to a rank above that of non-commissioned fined. or petty officer, or of release from school attendance, or such other releases as the federal government may from time to time allow. sioned officer," "Non-commissioned officer" shall in the army include all "Non-commisofficers below the rank of lieutenant except field clerk, and defined. in the navy, all officers below the rank of warrant officer. SECTION 4. Whoever knowingly makes a false statement, Penalty. oral or written, relating to a material fact in supporting a claim to pay under the provisions of said chapter two hundred and eleven, as construed by this act, shall be punished by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars, or by imprisonment for not more than one year. Whoever, being entitled in part to the benefits of said chapter two hundred and eleven as SECTION 5. This act shall take effect upon its passage. Chap. 93 AN ACT RELATIVE TO CONVEYANCES AND TRANSFERS BY A Conveyances, etc., by person another, etc., permitted. PERSON TO HIMSELF AND OTHERS. Be it enacted, etc., as follows: SECTION 1. Real estate, including any interest therein, to himself and may be transferred by a person to himself jointly with another person or persons in the same manner in which it might be transferred by him to another person. SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon its passage. Approved March 26, 1918. Chap. 94 AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR THE GRANTING Of certificates of Certificates of honor to mem bers of militia performing duty. HONOR TO MASSACHUSETTS' SOLDIERS WHO SERVED ON THE Be it enacted, etc., as follows: SECTION 1. The adjutant general is hereby authorized and directed to procure and furnish to each officer and enlisted Mexican Border man of the Massachusetts national guard who performed border duty under the call of the president of the United States in the years nineteen hundred and sixteen and nineteen hundred and seventeen a certificate of honor, emblematic of the said service, as a mark of the appreciation of the people of the commonwealth. In carrying out the provisions of this act there may be expended out of the treasury of the commonwealth, from the ordinary revenue, a sum not exceeding sixteen hundred dollars. SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon its passage. Approved March 26, 1918. Chap. 95 AN ACT RELATIVE TO THE POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE SUR R. L. 60, § 15, amended. VEYOR GENERAL OF LUMBER. Be it enacted, etc., as follows: SECTION 1. Chapter sixty of the Revised Laws is hereby amended by striking out section fifteen and substituting the |