CHAP. 44. 17. All road work shall be done by tender and contract; Road work to be except where the expenditure of the moneys by days' work lone by contract may be more advantageous to the public, and so testified to by the supervisor. or day's labor. Roads to which CHAPTER 44. OF LAYING OUT ROADS OTHER THAN CERTAIN GREAT ROADS. 1. The provisions of this Chapter shall be applicable chapter applies. to roads other than those mentioned in the last preceding Mode of laying ing old roads. Persons appoint sessions. To make agreeprietors. Chapter. 2. Twenty or more freeholders of any county or disout new or alter-trict may petition the sessions for the making of a new road or the alteration of an old one; and the sessions, if satisfied of the propriety thereof, shall order a precept to be directed to one or more competent persons, directing him or them within a convenient time to examine into the propriety of the desired new road or alteration, and, if satisfied thereof, to lay out and mark the same in the way most advantageous to the public, and least prejudicial to the proprietors of lands through which the same shall pass. 3. The persons so appointed shall examine into the ed to report to propriety of such road; and if by them deemed unnecessary shall report the same to the sessions; and if deemed for the public benefit may lay out and mark the same, and may make an agreement in writing with the propriement with pro- tors of the land through which the same shall run; which agreement shall state the length of the road and the amount agreed on for damages to soil, improvements and cost of fencing respectively, and shall have a plan annexed To annex plan. of the road and lands through which it shall run, to be filed with the Clerk of the Peace, with a full return of proceedings thereon, to be laid before the sessions. When no agree- 4. When no agreement shall be made, one appraiser praisers to shall be appointed by the Custos of the county, another by the owner or owners of the land, and on their default after three days notice by the persons who shall have laid out the road, who in any case shal! appoint a third; and the three appraisers shall be sworn before a justice of the peace to the faithful discharge of their duty, and shall enter upon the lands and appraise the damages to the owners for soil, improvements and fencing respectively; which appraisement shall be reduced to writing, and shall be returned to the Clerk of the Peace, accompanied by a be appointed and sworn. plan and admeasurement of the roads, to be laid before CHAP. 44. the sessions. proprietors. one proprietor, 5. If the proprietor of the land be absent from the Notice to absent Province no notice need be served; and, if he be absent from the county and within the Province, a notice may be forwarded to him by mail; and if, after fifteen days, he shall Rot appoint an appraiser, the Custos is authorized to appoint in either case an appraiser for the absent proprietor. 6. When the road shall run through the lands of more When more than than one proprietor, such of said proprietors who shall not appraisers how enter into an agreement as provided by this Chapter shall appointed. join in the appointment of one appraiser for the purpose of appraising damages to their respective lands, together with the two appraisers to be appointed as hereinbefore provided; and in case of the said proprietors disagreeing or neglecting or refusing so to do after seven days' notice, the Custos shall appoint one arbitrator, whose acts shall be binding on such proprietors touching such damages as if they had joined in such appointment. post notices of alterations. 7. The Clerk of the Peace shall post notices containing Clerk of peace to the substance of such returns in at least six places of new roads or public resort in the county or township, and also near the contemplated new road or alteration, for the space of thirty days previous to the next sessions. firm or disallow 8. At the next general sessions or any special sessions Sessions to concalled for that purpose, the proceedings shall be considered, proceedings. and objections, if any, heard thereto; and the sessions shall then confirm or disallow the proceedings, and if confirmed, they shall be recorded. apportion old 9. The persons appointed under the second section, in Appraisers to making their appraisement in case of alteration of a road, roads. may apportion the old road or parts thereof to proprietors of lands through which the alteration runs, and put a value thereon as compensation in whole or in part for the land taken for the alteration, and shall include the same in their return; but the land so apportioned must run through or adjoin the lands of the proprietor to whom it is appor tioned. width of. 10. The persons appointed under this Chapter to lay New roads, &c., out any new road or alter any old one, may lay out the same of a less width than sixty feet, if they shall consider such less width sufficient for the public convenience; and the sessions may confirm or disallow the same. ed property in whom allotted. 11. When the proceedings shall be finally confirmed, Land'apportionthe land apportioned under the ninth section shall become fee of person to the absolute property in fee of the person to whom the same shall have been allotted; but it shall not be shut up, or the public excluded from the free use thereof, until closed by order of sessions under the law in reference to the closing of old roads. CHAP. 44. Damages, &c., county charge. 12. The damages appraised and expenses incurred shall form a county charge. 13. In case of confirmation the proprietors of the land Compensation shall be entitled to receive compensation for fencing, on to proprietors, when made. Sites of roads when held as urrendered. Open and pent roads, how laid out. making oath that the fence has been put up at least half the full width of the road from the centre thereof, as so laid out; such oath being in other respects conformable to the provisions of this Chapter. 14. Where roads have been, or shall hereafter be altered or made without any demand for compensation made by proprietors of land through which the new road runs within one year from the opening thereof, such acquiescence on the part of the proprietors shall be held a voluntary surrender to Her Majesty forever for a public highway of all the land through which the new road passes to the width to which the said road was originally laid out. 15. The sessions may order the laying out of a private way either open or pent in the same manner as above prescribed; except that the application for such road need not be by twenty freeholders; and the damages in such Damages to be a case, or in any case where they have been hitherto allowed and have not been paid by the poor district through which the road runs, shall form a county or district charge, or shall be borne by the applicants, as the court in confirmation may order. county or district charge. ways by order of sessions. Gates on private 16. The sessions may direct gates to be placed on private ways and make regulations respecting the placing and keeping thereof; and persons guilty of a breach of breach of regula- such regulations shall for every offence forfeit not less than one dollar nor more than eight dollars. Penalty for tions. Fences to be made before 17. No compensation for fencing shall be made under compensation. this Chapter until the proprietor of the land shall have made oath before a justice that the fence has been put up in a proper manner, and at least one-half of the whole width from the centre of the road, and encloses in whole or in part some of his lands, and that the same shall not be removed with his assent. Public landings, making of. Quantity of land for. Justices in eligible for appointment. 18. A public landing upon the shore of any navigable water may be established or altered by the same means and in the same way as a new road may be made or an old one altered under this Chapter; and, in so far as the same may be applicable, the provisions of this Chapter shall extend to such landings and to roads connecting the same with the Queen's highway. 19. Any public landing laid off or established under this Chapter may include so much land as in the opinion of the committee may be sufficient for the purposes of such landing, not to exceed in all one acre. 20. No justice of the peace shall be appointed to act under the second section of this Chapter. CHAPTER 45. OF THE EXPENDITURE OF MONEYS ON ROADS. CHAP. 45. how appointed. 1. The Governor in Council shall annually before the Commissioners fifteenth day of May, and thereafter in cases of necessity, appoint commissioners for superintending the expenditure of moneys granted for the making and repairing of roads and bridges, and may remove them at pleasure and appoint others in their place; and the Provincial Secretary shall, within twenty days after the appointments, have the commissions and the bonds to be entered into by the commissioners, where required, transmitted ready for execution. bonds where 2. The commissioners, when the amount to be expended Commissioners shall exceed eighty dollars, shall, before entering upon the sums over duties of office, give security by bond, with two sureties to eighty dollars. the satisfaction of two justices of the peace for the county, in double the amount of the sum to be by them expended, faithfully to lay out and account for the money according to law; and the justices shall certify their approbation and the sufficiency of the sureties upon the back of the bond. 3. The Treasurer shall retain in his hands, where the amount shall not exceed eighty dollars, the whole, and in other cases two-thirds, of the amount to be expended, until the whole sum shall have been duly laid out. sums under eighty dollars expended; over not drawn till that amount one-third only. Money how to accounts; form 4. The moneys shall be expended, after sale by auction or by tender and contract, unless it shall appear to the better commissioner that the same or parts thereof cannot be so of oath, &c. advantageously expended in that manner as by days' work, in which case the moneys or parts thereof required may be expended by days' work: but the commissioner who shall expend any moneys by days' work shall render an account thereof in writing under oath to the Provincial Secretary, the oath to be administered by a justice of the peace without fee, and to be, as nearly as may be, as follows: "I, A.B., do swear that the annexed [or foregoing] account is just and true, and that the moneys by me expended have been fairly and honestly applied for the purposes for which they were granted: that I procured the best labor in my power to procure, and at the lowest rate of wages; and that the days' work charged in the account has been, in my opinion, more advantageous to the public than if the expenditure of the sum had been made by public sale or by tender and contract. CHAP. 45. and when be fulfilled. 5. Before entering into any contract the commissioner Contracts how to shall give notice thereof by advertisement posted up for be entered into, ten days previously in the places usual for public notices in the county; and he shall receive sufficient security from the contractor for the performance of the contract within the time specified; and he shall, where the whole amount to be expended exceeds eighty dollars, pay the contractor as the work shall be proceeded in moneys on account, until one-third of the amount of the contract shall have been paid; but shall not pay the remaining two-thirds until the work shall be completed agreeably to contract. Contracts shall be made to expire on or before the last day of September in the year in which they are entered into; except those for the opening of new roads and the improv ing such as have not been used for wheel carriages, and for erecting bridges, which may be extended until the thirty-first day of October; and the contracts shall be, as nearly as may be, in the following form, and shall be binding on the parties thereto : Form Contracts in cases under eighty dollars. Form. "Articles of agreement made this day of one thousand eight hundred and -, between A. B., commissioner of of the one part, and C. D. of and E. F. and G. H. of as sureties of the said C. D., of the other part, as follows, viz. the said C. D., E. F., and G. H. agree with the said A. B. that the said C. D. will, on or before the next, in a good and workmanlike manner, well and sufficiently to the satisfaction of the said A. B.; and the said A. B. agrees with the said C. D. that he, the said A. B., will pay unto the said C. D. the sum of in manner following, day of that is to say: one-third thereof from time to time as the work shall be proceeded in, and the remaining two-thirds when the work shall be completed according to this contract." 6. Where the sum to be expended on any particular work shall not exceed eighty dollars, it shall not be imperative on the commissioner to require the contractor to enter into the formal contract hereinbefore prescribed; but it shall be sufficient to make a memorandum in writing, which shall be binding upon the contractor and his surety for the due performance of the contract, and upon the commissioner for the payment of the moneys agreed on. And the memorandum shall be as nearly as may be in the words following: A. B., of - hereby agrees with C. D., of, to perform the following work, viz. : and to complete the same in a good and workmanlike manner, on or before next. For the due performance the day of whereof E. F., of hereby becomes surety for the |