annual rents and profits of the several school lots shall be distributed among the schools kept in each respective township, by teachers to be approved of by the supervisor and commissioners constituted by the act to which this is an amendment, or a majority of them in said township, in proportion to the aggregate number of days which the scholars in each respective school shall have respectively attended such schools in the year immediately preceding such division.”

The fourth section of an act concerning the gospel and school lots passed in 1813, is as follows:

"And be it further enacted, That the rents, issues, and profits of the aforesaid lands, and the annual interest of the moneys arising from the sale thereof, shall be applied by the said trustees for the time being, to the support of the gospel and schools in their several towns in such manner, as the freeholders and inhabitants of the towns respectively, at their annual town meeting, shall order and direct, or as the legislature shall prescribe by law." Session Laws of 1813, p. 157.

In 1819, an act was passed in relation to the gospel and school lots which contains the following section :

:

"§ 2. And be it further enacted, That all moneys now due or hereafter to become due, and which shall have come into the hands of the aforesaid commissioners of public lots, and have not been applied and paid over to religious societies, shall be apportioned among the several school districts in the several towns of the aforementioned counties, [Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca] anything in the acts heretofore passed to the contrary notwithstanding."

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By section first of chapter 186, Laws of 1846, (No. 31 ante) "the office of trustees of the gospel and school lots in the several towns in this state is hereby abolished; and the powers and duties now by law conferred and imposed upon said trustees, shall hereafter be exercised by the town superintendent of common schools.”

By the provisions of chapter XV, Title IV, of Part I of the Revised Statutes, the trustees of the several Gospel and school lots were authorized and required,

"1. To take and hold possession of the gospel and school lot of their town:

“2. To lease the same for such time not exceeding twenty-one years, and upon such conditions as they shall deem expedient:

"3. To sell the same with the advice and consent of the inhabitants of the town, in town meeting assembled,for such prices and upon such terms of credit as shall appear to them most advantageous:

4. To invest the proceeds of such sales in loans secured by bond and mortgage upon unincumbered real property of the value of double the amount loaned.

"5. To purchase property so mortgaged upon a fore-closure, and to hold and convey the property so purchased, whenever it shall become necessary.

"6. To release the amount of such loans repaid to them, upon the like security.

"7. To apply the rents and profits of such lots, and the interest of the money arising from the sale thereof, to the support of the gospel and schools, or either, as may be provided by law, in such manner as shall be thus provided.

"8. To render a just and true account of the proceeds of the sales, and the interest on the loans thereof, and of the rents and profits of such gospel and school lots, and of the expenditure and appropriation thereof, on the last Tuesday next preceding the annual town meeting in each year, to the board of auditors of the accounts of other town officers.

“9. To deliver over to their successors in office, all books, papers and securities relating to the same, at the expiration of their respective offices and

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“10. To take therefor a receipt, which shall be filed in the elerk's office of the town.

"S 4. The board of auditors in each town shall annually report the state of the accounts of the trustees of the gospel and school lots in that town, to the inhabitants thereof, at their annual town meeting...

"8.5. Whenever a town having lands assigned to it for the support of the gospel or of schools, shall be divided into two or more towns, or shall be altered in its limits by the annexing of a part of its territory to another town or towns, such lands shall be sold by the trustees [town superintendent] of the town in which such lands were included immediately before such division or alteration; and the proceds thereof shall be apportioned between the towns interested therein in the same manner as the other public moneys, of towns, so divided or altered, are apportioned.

"S6. The shares of such moneys to which the towns shall be respectively entitled, shall be paid to the trustees of the gospel and school lots [Town Superintendents] of the respective towns, and shall thereafter be subject to the provisions of this Title..

"87. If in either of such towns, trustees of gospel and school lots [Town Superintendents] shall not have been chosen, or there be none in office, the share of such town shall be paid to the supervisor."

An Act relative to moneys in the hands of Overseers of the Poor.

PASSED April 27, 1829.

§ 1. It shall be lawful for the inhabitants of any town, in such counties as have abolished the distinction between county and town paupers, and in such counties as may hereafter abolish such distinction, at any annual or special town meeting, to appropriate all or any part of the monies and funds remaining in the hands of the overseers of the poor of such town, after such abolition, to such objects and for such purposes as shall be determined at such meeting.

§ 2. If any such meeting shall appropriate any such money or funds for the benefit of common schools in their town, the money so appropriated shall be denominated "the Common School Fund of such town," and shall be under the care and superintendence of the [Town Superintendent] of Common Schools of said town.

§3. If any such meeting shall appropriate such money or funds for the benefit of common schools, after such appropriaticn shall have been made, and after the town superintendent of common schools shall have taken the oath of office, the overseers of the poor of such towns shall then pay over and deliver to the said town superintendent such moneys, bonds, mortgages, notes and other securities remaining in their hands as such overseers of the poor, as will comport with the appropriation made for the benefit of common schools of their town.

§ 4. The said town superintendents of common schools may sue for and collect, in their name of office, the money due or to become due on such bonds, mortgages, notes or other securities, and also all other securities by them taken under the provisions of this

act.

$5. The monies, bonds, mortgages, notes and other securities aforesaid shall continue and be a permanent fund, to be denominated the common school fund of the town appropriating the same, the annual interest of which shall be applied to the support of common schools in such towns, unless the inhabitants of such town, in annual town meeting, shall make a different disposition of the whole of the principal and interest, or any part thereof, for the benefit of the common schools of such town.

§ 6. The said town superintendents of common schools, whenever the whole or any part of the principal of said fund shall come to their hands, shall loan the same on bond, secured by a mortgage on real estate of double the value of the monies so loaned, exclusive of buildings or artificial erections thereon.

§ 7. The said town superintendents of common schools may purchase in the estate on which the fund shall have been secured, upon the foreclosure of any mortgage, and may hold and convey the same for the use of said fund.

§ 8. The said town superintendents of common schools shall retain the interest of said common school fund, which shall be distributed and applied to the support of common schools of such town, in like manner as the public money for the support of common schools shall be distributed by law

§ 9. The said town superintendents of common schools shall account annually, in such manner and at such times as town officers are required by law to account, and shall deliver to their successors in office all moneys, books, securities and papers whatsoever relating to said fund, and shall take a receipt therefor, and file the same with the town clerk.

Lewiston School Fund.

[Laws of 1826, p. 239. 1 Rev. Stat. 614.]

§ 1. The property now belonging to the Lewiston School Fund shall remain a continual fund, the interest of which shall be inviolably appropriated to the support of common schools in the village of Lewiston, under the direction of the commissioners of the Lewiston school fund for the time being.

§ 2. The commissioners of the Lewiston school fund shall not exceed three in number, and shall hold their offices for two years, and until others shall be appointed. In case of vacancies in the office of such commissioners, the vacancies shall be filled and all appointments hereafter be made by the governor and senate, in the same manner that other appointments are made.

§ 3. All such commissioners hereafter to be appointed, shall continue in office for two years and until others shall be appointed, unless in cases of appointment to fill vacancies, where the term shall expire with that of the other commissioners.

§ 4. Every person hereafter appointed a commissioner of the Lewiston school fund shall, before he enters on the duties of his office, give to the trustees of the corporation of the village of Lew. iston, a bond in the penalty of fifteen thousand dollars, with two or more sureties, conditioned that he shall faithfully execute the duties of his office-which bond shall be deposited with the clerk of the said corporation.

§ 5. The commissioners of the Lewiston school fund shall have power and it shall be their duty,

1. To sell or lease the lots of land in the village of Lewiston, belonging to the said fund, on such terms as they may judge most conducive to the interests of the fund:

2. To certify to the commissioners of the Land office, on receiving payment for such sales, a description of the land sold, the price, the time when sold, the name of the purchasers, and that the consideration money and interest has been fully paid:

3. To loan all moneys which may come to their hands, belonging to the fund:

4. To take a bond on making such loans to themselves as such commissioners, secured by a mortgage on unincumbered real property, of at least double the value of the sum loaned, exclusive of buildings:

5. To collect all bonds and mortgages or other debts due to the fund:

6. To pay over to the trustees of common schools in the said village, all moneys received by the commissioners for interest on loans or rents of lands belonging to said fund:

7. To keep suitable books and accounts of all matters relating to the management of said fund, which shall be open to the inspection of the inhabitants of the village at all reasonable times : and

8. To deliver, at the expiration of their several offices, to the remaining commissioners or their successors in office, all the books and papers relating to said fund.

§ 6. Before the trustees of common schools in said village shall be entitled to receive such moneys from the commissioners, the trustees shall execute a bond to the supervisors of the town of Lewiston, in such penalty and with such sureties as the supervisor shall approve, conditioned that the trustees shall faithfully apply such moneys towards the support of schools in the village of Lewiston, for the benefit of such of its inhabitants as shall have resided in the village at least six months; and shall render a just aud true account of the expenditure of such moneys to the supervisor, when required.

§ 7. It shall be the duty of the trustees of the corporation of the village of Lewiston, in case of any breach of the conditions of the bond given by such commissioners, and of the supervisor of the town of Lewiston, in case of any breach of the conditions of the bond given by the trustees of common schools for the village of Lewiston, to sue for and receive on said bonds all damages which may have accrued by such breaches for the use of said schools.