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Art. 243. Any railroad corporation or association organized for the purpose shall have the right to construct and operate a railroad between any points within this State, and connect at the State line with railroads of other States. Every railroad company shall have the right with its road to intersect, connect with or cross any other railroad, and shall receive and transport each the other's passengers, tonnage and cars, loaded or empty, without delay or discrimination.

Art. 244. Railways heretofore constructed, or that may hereafter be constructed in this State, are hereby declared public highways, and railroad companies common carriers.

Art. 245. Every railroad or other corporation, organized or doing business in this State under the laws or authority thereof, shall have and maintain a public office or place in this State for the transaction of its business, where transfers of stock shall be made, and where shall be kept for public inspection books in which shall be recorded the amount of capital stock subscribed, the names of owners of stock, the amounts owned by them respectively, the amount of stock paid, and by whom, the transfers of said stock, with the date of transfer, the amount of its assets and liabilities, and the names and places of residence of its officers.

Art. 246. If any railroad company, organized under the laws of this State, shall consolidate, by sale or otherwise, with any railroad company organized under the laws of any other State or of the United States, the same shall not thereby become a foreign corporation, but the courts of this State shall retain jurisdiction in all matters which may arise, as if said consolidation had not taken place. In no case shall any consolidation take place except upon public notice of at least sixty days to all stockholders, in such manner as may be provided by law.

Art. 247. General laws shall be enacted providing for the creation of private corporations, and shall therein provide fully for the adequate protection of the public and of the individual stockholder.

Art. 248 The police juries of the several parishes and the constituted authorities of all incorporated municipalities of the State shall alone have the power of regulating and slaughtering of cattle and other live stock within their respective limits: Provided, No monopoly or exclusive privilege shall exist in this State, nor such business be restricted to the land or houses of

any individual or corporation: Provided, The ordinances designating the places for slaughtering shall obtain the concurrent approval of the board of health or other sanitary organization.

PAROCHIAL AFFAIRS AND BOUNDARIES.

Art. 249. The General Assembly may establish and organize new parishes, which shall be bodies corporate, with such powers as may be prescribed by law; but no new parish shall contain less than six hundred and twenty-five square miles, nor less than seven thousand inhabitants; nor shall any parish be reduced below that area or number of inhabitants.

Art. 250. All laws changing parish lines or removing parish seats shall, before taking effect, be submitted to the electors of the parish or the parishes to be affected thereby, at a special election held for that purpose, and be adopted by a majority of votes of each parish cast at such election.

Art. 251. Any parish may be dissolved and merged by the General Assembly into a contiguous parish or parishes, twothirds of the qualified electors of the parish proposed to be dissolved voting in favor thereof, at an election held for that purpose: Provided, That each of the parishes into which the dissolved parish purposes to become incorporated consents thereto by a majority of its qualified electors voting therefor.

Art. 252. Whenever a parish shall be enlarged or created from territory contiguous thereto, it shall be entitled to a just proportion of the property and assets and liable for a just proportion of the existing debts or liabilities of the parish or parishes from which such territory shall be taken.

CITY OF NEW ORLEANS.

Art. 253. The citizens of the city of New Orleans or any political corporation which may be created within its limits. shall have the right of appointing the several public officers necessary for the administration of the police of said city, pursuant to the mode of election which shall be provided by the General Assembly.

Art. 254. The General Assembly, at its next session after the adoption of this Constitution, shall enact such legislation as may be proper to liquidate the indebtedness of the city of New Orleans, and apply its assets to the satisfaction thereof. It shall have authority to cancel the charter of said city, and remit

its inhabitants to another form of government if necessary. In any such new form of government no salary shall exceed three thousand five hundred dollars.

Art. 255. The General Assembly shall pass necessary laws to prevent sailors or others of the crew of foreign vessels from working on the wharves and levees of the city of New Orleans: Provided, That there is no treaty between the United States and foreign powers to the contrary.

AMENDMENT AND REVISION OF THE CONSTITUTION. Art. 256. Propositions for the amendment of this Constitution may be made by the General Assembly at any session thereof, and if two-thirds of all the members elected to each house shall concur therein, after such proposed amendments have been read in such respective houses on three separate days, such proposed amendment or amendments, together with the yeas and nays thereon, shall be entered on the journal, and the Secretary of State shall cause the same to be published in two newspapers published in the parish of Orleans and in one paper in each other parish of the State in which a newspaper is pub lished, for three months preceding the next election for represen tatives, at which time the said amendment or amendments shall be submitted to the electors for their approval or rejection; and if a majority voting on said amendment or amendments shall approve and ratify the same, then such amendment or amendments so approved and ratified shall become a part of the Constitution.

When more than one amendment shall be submitted at the same time, they shall be so submitted as to enable the electors to vote on each amendment separately. The result of said election shall be made known by the proclamation of the Governor.

SCHEDULE.

Art. 257. The Constitution of this State, adopted in 1868, and all amendments thereto, is declared to be superseded by this Constitution, and in order to carry the same into effect, it is hereby declared and ordained as follows:

Art. 258. All rights, actions, prosecutions, claims and contracts, as well of individuals as of bodies corporate, and all laws in force at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, and not inconsistent therewith, shall continue as if the said Constitution

had not been adopted. But the monopoly features in the charter of any corporation now existing in the State, save such as may be contained in the charters of railroad companies, are hereby abolished.

Art. 259. In order that no inconvenience may result to the public service form the taking effect of this Constitution, no officer shall be superseded thereby, but the laws of the State relative to the duties of the several officers-executive, judicial and military - shall remain in full force though the same be contrary to this Constitution, and the several duties shall be performed by the respective officers of the State, according to the existing laws, until the organization of the government under this Constitution and the entering into office of the new officers to be appointed or elected under this government, and no longer. Art. 260. Appointments to office by the executive under this Constitution shall be made by the Governor to be elected under its authority.

Art. 261. All causes in which appeals have been or may be hereafter taken or now pending in the Supreme Court under the Constitution of 1868, and of which jurisdiction has been vested by this Constitution in the courts of appeal, shall, after the adoption of this Constitution, be transferred for trial to the Court of Appeals of the circuit from which the appeal has been or may be taken.

All other causes that may be pending in the Supreme Court, under the Constitution of 1868, shall be transferred to the Supreme Court created by this Constitution as soon as it shall be organized.

All causes that may be pending in all other courts, under the Constitution of 1868, upon the adoption of this Constitution and the organization of the courts created by this Constitution, shall be transferred to the courts respectively having jurisdiction thereof under this Constitution.

Art. 262. Immediately after the adjournment of this convention the Governor shall issue his proclamation, directing the several officers of the State, authorized by law to hold elections for members of the General Assembly, to open and hold a poll in every parish in the State, at the places designated by law, upon the first Tuesday in the month of December next, 1879, for the purpose of taking the sense of the good people of this

State in regard to the adoption or rejection of this Constitution; and it shall be the duty of said officers to receive the votes of all persons entitled to vote under the Constitution of 1868.

Each voter shall express his opinion by depositing in the ballot box a ticket, whereon shall be written or printed, "For the Constitution," or "Against the Constitution," or some such words. as will distinctly convey the intention of the voter.

It shall also be the duty of the Governor in his said proclamation, to direct the said officers authorized by law to hold elections to open and hold a poll at the above stated time and places for the election of Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, members of the General Assembly, Secretary of State, Attorney-General, State Auditor and Superintendent of Public Education, and of all other officers whose election by the people is provided for in this Constitution; and the names of the persons voted for shall be written or printed on the same ticket and deposited in the same box as the votes "For or against the Constitution."

And the said election for the adoption or rejection of the Constitution and for the said officers shall be conducted and the returns thereof made in conformity with existing laws upon the subject of State elections.

Upon the receipt of said returns, or on the last Monday in December, 1879, if the returns be not sooner received, it shall be the duty of the Governor, the Lieutenant-Governor, the Secretary of State and the Attorney-General, in the presence of all such persons as may choose to attend, to compile the votes given at the said polls for ratification or rejection of this Constitution; and if it shall appear from said returns that a majority of all the votes given on the question of adoption and rejection of the Constitution is for ratifying this Constitution, then it shall be the duty of the Governor to make immediate proclamation of that fact, and thenceforth this Constitution shall be ordained and established as the Constitution of the State of Louisiana, and the General Assembly elected in 1878 shall thereupon be dissolved. Whether this Constitution be adopted or rejected, it shall be the duty of the Governor to cause to be published in the official paper of the Convention the result of the polls, showing the number of votes cast in each parish for and against the said Constitution.

If the Constitution be ratified it shall be the duty of the Secretary of State to examine and compile the returns and publish

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