[No. 26.] AN ACT to provide for the incorporation of Methodist The People of the State of Michigan enact: may organize. SECTION 1. It shall be lawful for any number of persons What number of full age, not less than five, residing within the bounds of the charge in which the proposed church is to be located, to organize and procure the incorporation of a Methodist Protestant church. executed. SEC. 2. The persons desiring to organize such church, Articles, how shall execute and acknowledge before any person authorized to take acknowledgments of deeds, articles of association, in writing, whereby they shall agree to organize a church which shall be governed by the discipline, rules and usages of the Methodist Protestant church. SEC. 3. Said articles of association shall contain the fol- What to lowing items: First, The name of said church; Second, The township, village or city and the county in which it shall be located; Third, An agreement to worship and labor together according to the discipline, rules and usages of the Methodist Protestant church. Said articles may be in the following form: We, the undersigned, desiring to become incorporated under the provisions of act number .... of the public acts of entitled "An act to provide for the incorporation of Methodist Protestant churches," do hereby make, execute and adopt the following articles of association, to-wit: First, The name assumed by this corporation, and by which it shall be known in law, is "The Protestant church;" ... Methodist Second, The location of said church shall be in the Third, The members of said church shall worship and labor together, according to the discipline, rules and usages of the Methodist Protestant church, as from time to time authorized and declared by the general conference of said church, and the annual conference within whose bounds said corporation is situated; Fourth, The trustees of this corporation shall be in number. At the first election of trustees of said church .... for a term of one year, for a term of two years, and elected for a term of three years, and trustees shall be shall be elected at each annual election thereafter; trustees contain. of Fifth, The annual meeting of this society shall be held on in each year, for the purpose of electing trustees, and transacting such other business as may properly come before it. In witness whereof, we, the parties associating for the purpose of giving legal effect to these articles, hereunto sign. our names and places of residence. Done at the of day of (Signatures.) Where recorded; fee. State of Michigan, County of SS. .... day of a On this before me, in and for said county, personally appeared SEC. 4. Said articles of association shall be recorded in the office of the county clerk of the county wherein such church, or their place of worship, is located, such record to be made in a book provided by said clerk for that purpose; and such clerk shall be entitled to ten cents for each folio for Body politic. recording the same. When said articles of association shall have been recorded, the said persons so signing said articles of association, and their associates and fellow members of said church, and all who may thereafter become members of said church, according to the rules, usages and discipline of the Methodist Protestant church, shall thereby become and thenceforth be a body politic, or corporation, by the name expressed in the said articles of association, with all the pow ers, rights and privileges appertaining to religious corporations by the laws of this State. Subject to church government, etc. Secular affairs. SEC. 5. Said church, when so organized, shall be in all matters of church government and ecclesiastical polity subject to the discipline, rules and usages, and ministerial appointments of the Methodist Protestant church, as from time to time authorized by the general conference of said church, and the annual conference within whose bounds said corporation may be situated. SEC. 6. The secular affairs of said church shall be managed by a board of trustees, consisting of not less than three, nor more than nine members of the association, elected and organized according to the provisions of the discipline of the Methodist Protestant church, who shall hold office until their successors have been elected and enter upon the duties of the office, SEC. 7. Said corporation may have a seal and alter the Rights and same at pleasure. It may, in its corporate name, sue and be privileges. sued in all courts of this State. It shall have power to acquire, hold, sell or convey property, both real and personal, in accordance with this act, and it may hold and recover all debts, demands, rights, privileges and all property, whether real or personal, of whatsoever sort it may be, belonging or appertaining to said church in whatsoever manner the same may have been acquired, and in whosesoever hands the same may be held, the same as if the right and title had originally been vested in said corporation. The board of trustees may Officers to authorize certain officers of said board to affix the name and affix seal. seal of said corporation, and to execute and attest conveyances, notes, obligations, acquittances and all necessary legal documents. It may sell, mortgage or otherwise dispose of May sell propits personal property, and it may, under restrictions herein- erty, etc. after provided, sell, mortgage or otherwise dispose of or encumber its real estate, but not for current expenses. It may Land, may hold so much land as may be needed for the proper purposes church purof the church and its parsonage. It may also hold for a poses. period not to exceed ten years, real estate, which may be conveyed or devised to it, or to said trustees, to be sold and the proceeds to be used in any way for the benefit of said church, as directed in the conveyance or will. Said corporation shall at all times permit all ministers belonging to the Methodist Protestant church, as shall from time to time be duly authorized by the annual conference, within whose bounds the said corporation may be, to preach and expound God's Holy Word therein, and shall permit presidents and pastors, duly ap pointed, to execute the discipline of the Methodist Protestant church and to administer the sacraments therein. hold for chase, lease, sent of presi SEC. 8. The trustees shall have power, according to the Power to purterms and limitations of the discipline of the Methodist etc. Protestant church, as from time to time authorized and declared by the general conference of said church, to purchase, build, repair, lease, sell, rent, mortgage, encumber or otherwise dispose of property: Provided, That in case of selling, Proviso, conmortgaging or otherwise encumbering or disposing of real dent of conestate, the consent of the president of the annual conference, within whose bounds the said corporation may be, shall be obtained: And Provided further, That in case the said presi- Further prodent shall refuse, or withhold his consent to the selling, mortgaging, encumbering or disposing of real estate, appeal may be had to the said conference at its next session, and said appeal shall be final. ference. viso, appeal. conference. SEC. 9. In all cases where property belonging to any When title to church society incorporated under the provisions of this act pass to annual has been abandoned, or is no longer used for the purpose for which said property was acquired or for the benefit of said church society, and has not been conveyed by said society under the provisions of this act, or said corporation has dis License to sell. solved or become extinct, the title to said property belonging to said corporation shall pass to the annual conference within whose bounds said property is located. And said annual conference may, by such officer or committee as said conference may designate for that purpose, apply to the circuit court for the county in which said property may be, for license to sell the same. And such license may be granted by said court, after such notice of said application, as the court may direct, and thereupon said property may be sold and the proceeds of such sale disposed of as provided in the book of Corporation, discipline of the Methodist Protestant church; and said court, upon the hearing of said application, may dissolve said corporation when it shall appear by proof that said society has ceased to support a pastor, or perform the usual functions of a church, for a period of two years. when may be dissolved. Process, how served. Amendments to articles. Society heretofore incorporated. Former acts, how construed. SEC. 10. In all suits or legal proceedings brought against corporations organized under the provisions of this act, process may be served upon the chairman or any member of the board of trustees. SEC. 11. It shall be lawful for any church society incorporated under the provisions of this act, at a meeting called for that purpose, of which four weeks' notice shall have been given by announcement at a regular service, by a vote of two-thirds of all the qualified members present and voting, to amend its articles of association in any way not inconsistent with the provisions of this act, or the book of discipline of the Methodist Protestant church; and such amendment shall become operative when said amended articles are executed and acknowledged in the same manner as stated in sections two and three of this act and the same has been recorded, or left for record as provided in section four of this act. SEC. 12. Any Methodist Protestant church society heretofore incorporated, or the trustees of which have heretofore exercised the powers of a body corporate, may, by a twothirds vote of its qualified members, place itself under the provisions of this act, the same as if originally incorporated under it, by two-thirds of the qualified members executing articles of association as herein before provided and recording the same as also hereinbefore provided. SEC. 13. In all proceedings or suits that may arise or be brought in any of the courts of this State, touching or in any way concerning churches that may be incorporated under this act, or by a vote of the qualified members have placed themselves under its provisions, all other acts or parts of acts inconsistent herewith shall be interpreted and construed in such manner as to give full force and effect to all the provisions of this act, and to all the rights and privileges granted by this act to churches incorporated or placed thereunder. SEC. 14. It is further provided that the execution by the trustees of said corporation, of any deed, mortgage, note, appointment. bond or other obligation, or contract of said corporation in Officers, prima facie evidence of proper form shall be prima facie evidence of the proper ap- This act is ordered to take immediate effect. [No. 27.] An act to repeal act number one hundred seventy-nine of the public acts of eighteen hundred eighty-three, entitled "An act to regulate the width of wagon tires to be used with lumber wagons," being compiler's sections four thousand two hundred twenty-six and four thousand two hundred twenty-seven of the Compiled Laws of eighteen hundred ninety-seven. The People of the State of Michigan enact: SECTION 1. Act number one hundred seventy-nine of the Act repealed. public acts of eighteen hundred eighty-three, being compiler's sections four thousand two hundred twenty-six and four thousand two hundred twenty-seven of the Compiled Laws of eighteen hundred ninety-seven, is hereby repealed. This act is ordered to take immediate effect. Approved March 26, 1907. [No. 28.] AN ACT to prohibit the killing of deer for a period of five years in the county of Arenac. The People of the State of Michigan enact: SECTION 1. For a period of five years from and after the Protection passage of this act, it shall be unlawful to kill any deer in deer. the county of Arenac. violation. SEC. 2. Any person who shall be found guilty of violating Penalty for the provisions of section one of this act shall be liable to a fine of not less than fifty dollars nor more than one hundred dollars for each deer which he may have killed, or, in default of the payment of such fine, imprisonment in the county jail, of |