the provisions of this act, or the constitution and laws of

this state, or of the United States.

ings to be held.

4. And be it enacted, That said corporations shall have General proviso power to provide suitable rooms for the transaction of their business, and also to provide and maintain a corps of men, with proper officers, whose duty it shall be, so far as practicable, to discover and prevent fires; with suitable apparatus to save life and preserve property, at or after a fire; and the better to enable them so to act with promptness and efficiency, full power is hereby granted to such corps, and its officers, to enter any building on fire, or which in their judgment is exposed to or in danger of taking fire from other burning buildings, to protect and save life and property therein; and to remove such property or any part thereof, at or after a fire: nothing in this act, however shall warrant any interference with the action of the firemen in their duties in extinguishing a fire; nor shall this act in any way be construed to justify the owners of any building or personal property in the abandonment of their property. 5. And be it enacted, That in each year after the formation Annual meetof such corps, an annual meeting of the corporation shall be held, on ten days' notice, in one or more papers in such city, giving date, time, and place of such meeting, at which meeting each incorporated insurance company or association doing business in said city, whether its officers or its agents be members of this corporation or not, shall have the right to be represented by one of such Who may vote. officers or agents, and each organization represented at such meeting shall be entitled to one vote for every one thousand dollars gross premium receipts from insurance on property located in such city, for the year ending December thirty-first next preceding; a majority of the whole number of votes cast shall decide upon the question of sustaining the corps hereinbefore mentioned, and of fixing the maximum amount of expenses which shall Majority of be incurred therefor during the fiscal year next to ensue; amount of exand the whole of such amount, or so much thereof as incurred &c. may be necessary, may be assessed upon the organizations belonging to said corporation, and upon all other organizations and agencies doing business in such city, in proportion to the several amounts of premiums returned,

Votes to decide

penses to be

ing for the pay

employed.

as received by each, under oath, as hereinafter provided; and such assessment shall be collectible by said corporation in any court of law of competent jurisdiction in the state of New Jersey.

Mode of provid- 6. And be it enacted, That to provide for the payment of ment of persons persons employed, and to maintain the apparatus for saving life and property, provided in pursuance hereof, any corporation organized under this act is empowered to require a statement to be furnished, semi-annually, by all corporations, associations, underwriters, agents or persons, of the aggregate amount of premiums received for insuring property in the said cities for and during the six months next preceding the thirtieth day of June and the thirty-first day of December of each year, which statement shall be sworn to by the president or secretary of the corporation or association, or by the agent or person so acting and effecting such insurance in said cities, and shall be handed to the treasurer of said corporation within thirty days after the dates to which such returns are to be made.

Proceedings in case of failure

ment.

7. And be it enacted, That it shall be lawful for the to furnish state-treasurer or other appointed officer of said corporation, within ten days after the first day of July and the first day of January in each year, by written or printed demand signed by him, to require from every corporation, association, underwriter, agent, or person engaged in the business of fire insurance in the said cities, the statement provided for in the last preceding section of this act; and every officer of such corporation or association, and every individual, agent, or underwriter who shall for thirty days after such demand neglect to render the account, shall forfeit fifty dollars for the use of the corporation created by this act; and shall also forfeit for their use, five dollars in addition for every day he shall so neglect after the expiration of said thirty days; and such additional penalty may be computed and recovered up to the time of the trial of any suit for the recovery thereof, which penalty may be sued for and recovered with costs of suit in any court of competent jurisdiction within this state.

Penalty.

Right of way.

8. And be it enacted, That the officers and men of said fire-patrol or protective association, with their teams and

apparatus, shall have the right of way, while going to a fire, through any street, lane or alley in the said cities, subject to the rights of the fire departments, and any violation of the rights of the said fire-patrol or protective association shall be punished in the same manner as is provided for the punishment of violations of the rights of the fire departments of said cities.

9. And be it enacted, That this act shall take effect immediately.

Approved March 4, 1879.

CHAPTER LII.

A Further Supplement to an act to secure to mechanics. and others payment for their labor and materials in erecting any building, approved March twenty-seventh, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-four.

WHEREAS, it is the practice of owners of lots or tracts of Preamble. land to dispose of the same to a builder or builders, taking therefor a mortgage or mortgages in excess of the purchase money price of said lot or tract of land, the mortgagee agreeing to pay such excess to the aforesaid builders from time to time as the building or buildings progress, such mortgages being known as advance money mortgages; therefore,

or materials &c.

1. BE IT ENACTED by the Senate and General Assembly of Lien for labor the State of New Jersey, That in all such transactions the to be a prior building or buildings so erected shall be liable for the lien, &c. payment of any debt contracted and owing to any person or persons for labor performed or materials furnished for the erection and construction thereof, which debt shall be a lien on such building or buildings and on the land whereon they stand, including the lot or curtilege

Proviso.

whereon the same are erected, and that the lien for laborperformed or materials furnished for the erection and construction of any such building or buildings shall be a prior lien to the lien of any mortgage created on such building or buildings and lot or tract of ground to secureeither in whole or in part any advances in money to be used in and about the construction of such building or buildings (except only so much of the amount of said mortgage as shall be for the purchase money of the lot or tract of land whereon the said building or buildings shall be erected); provided, that nothing in this act shall interfere with a mortgage or mortgages to secure bona fide loans of money not advances as aforesaid, such bona fide loans to be paid in full, anything in this act to the contrary notwithstanding.

2. And be it enacted, That this act shall take effect immediately.

Approved March 4, 1879.

CHAPTER LIII.

An Act to amend an act entitled “An act to amend an act entitled 'An act to authorize the formation of railroad corporations and regulate the same,' approved April second, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-three," approved February nineteenth, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight.

1. BE IT ENACTED by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey, That section two of the act entitled "An act to authorize the formation of railroad corporations and regulate the same," approved April second, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, as amended by the act entitled "An act to amend an act entitled 'An act to authorize the formation of railroad corporations and regulate the same,' approved April second, one

thousand eight hundred and seventy-three," approved February nineteenth, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight, and which amended section is as follows:

amended re

"2. And be it enacted, That such articles of association Section to be shall not be filed and recorded in the office of the secre- cited. tary of state, until at least two thousand dollars of stock for every mile of railroad proposed to be made, is subscribed thereto and paid in good faith, and in cash, to the directors named in articles of said association; nor until the said directors shall have deposited the said moneys so subscribed and paid to them, with the treasurer of the state of New Jersey, who shall be the custodian of the same, and shall hold the same subject to be repaid to the directors of the said company, or to the treasurer thereof, in sums of two thousand dollars for each mile of said railroad, upon the construction of which it shall be proved to his satisfaction that the said company have expended at least the sum of two thousand dollars, nor until there is endorsed on such articles of association, or annexed thereto, an affidavit, made by at least five of the directors named in said articles, that the amount of stock required by this section has been in good faith subscribed and paid in cash as aforesaid, and that it is intended in good faith to construct, or to maintain and operate the road mentioned in such articles of association, which affidavit shall be recorded with the articles of association as aforesaid; provided, that the articles of association heretofore filed in the office of the secretary of state, pursuant to the terms of the act to which this act is amendatory, by any corporation which shall not at the date of the passage of this act have fully completed at least three miles of their proposed railroad, as located and filed in the office of the secretary of the state, shall be absolutely null and void, and of no effect whatsoever, and the corporate powers vested in such corporation by the filing of such articles shall become extinct, and such corporation shall become ipso facto dissolved, unless such corporation shall, within twenty days after the passage of this act, fully comply with the terms thereof; provided, nevertheless, that such corporations organized under the act to which this is amendatory, as shall have completed at the date of the passage of this act more than three