laying out or altering any private road, together with the costs of such assessment, are paid by the applicants for such road. The costs of appeals and reassessments are paid by the unsuccessful party. All orders for the appointment of commissioners or referees are filed and recorded in the office of the town-clerk of the town in which the road is located. All damages which are finally assessed or agreed upon by the commissioners of highways for the laying out of any road, except private roads, are laid before the board of supervisors by the supervisor of the town, to be audited with the charges of the commissioners, justices, surveyors, or other persons or officers employed in making the assessment, and for whose services the town is liable, and the amount is levied and collected in the town in which the road is located, and the money so collected is paid to the commissioners of such town, who pay to the owner the sum assessed to him, and appropriate the residue to satisfy the charges aforesaid. It is the duty of boards of town auditors to make annually brief abstracts of the accounts, and deliver the same to the clerk of the board of supervisors, who causes the same to be printed with the other statements required by law. justice, and render their verdict, | damages which may be assessed for in writing under their hands, which is certified by the justice, and delivered to the commissioners of highways of the town, and is final. Any person conceiving himself aggrieved by any determination by the commissioners of highways, either in laying out, altering, or discontinuing any road, or in refusing to lay out, alter, or discontinue any road, may at any time, within sixty days after such determination has been filed in the office of the town-clerk, appeal to the county judge of the county; and thereupon this judge, or in case of his residence in the town, or of his interest in the lands through which the road is laid out, or in case he is of kin to any of the persons interested in said lands, or in case of his disability for any cause, then one of the justices of the sessions, after the expiration of said sixty days, appoints, in writing, three disinterested freeholders who shall not have been named by the parties interested in the appeal, and who shall be residents of the county, but not of the town, wherein the road is located, as referees to hear and determine all the appeals that may have been brought within the said sixty days, and notifies them of their appointment, and delivers to them all papers pertaining to the matters referred to them. Upon receiving notice of appointment, these referees possess all the powers and discharge all the duties of judges. Before proceeding to hear the appeals, they are sworn by some officer authorised to take affidavits to be read in courts of record, faithfully to hear and determine the matters referred to them. Each referee receives $2 for every day occupied in trying the appeals. Their decisions shall remain unaltered for the term of four years from the time they are respectively filed in the office of the town - clerk. All The supervisors and justices of the peace for the time being of any town may appoint, in writing, any number of the inhabitants of the town, not exceeding forty, to each fireengine procured for the extinguishing of fires in the town. These persons are firemen of the town, but no such company is formed in any incorporated city or village; and all such firemen, and all the members of any fire company, or of any hook and ladder company, while they are such firemen or members, are exempt from serving on juries in courts of record, and, except in cases of war, insurrection, or invasion, from militia duty. After five years' service they are for ever after exempt. Each fire company chooses a captain and clerk, and may establish such by-laws and regulations as may be necessary to enforce the performance by the firemen of their duty, and may impose such penalties, not exceeding $5 for each offence, as may be necessary for that purpose. These penalties may be collected by and in the name of the captains, in any court having cognisance thereof, and when collected are expended for the repair and preservation of the engines and apparatus. The electors of any town in which there is not a town-house, at any annual town meeting, may, by resolution, vote a sum of money for the purchase of a site for and the building of a town-house, not exceeding in number of dollars twice the number of electors in said town, provided that notice of intention to propose such a resolution has been posted within fifteen days of, and not less than ten days preceding, said meeting in five of the most public places in the town. Upon proper representation of such action, the board of supervisors may cause the sum so voted to be collected with the other expenses of the town, or may require the question to be again submitted to the electors of the town at the next annual town meeting. Conveyances for sites are made to the town; sites are purchased and houses erected by the supervisor, town-clerk, and the justices of the peace, or a majority of them; and the electors may from time to time vote such sums of money as may be necessary to keep any townhouse in repair and insured. Whenever a town has a public debt, consisting of bonds, &c., issued on the credit of the town, it is the duty of the supervisor thereof and he is required to make a report to the board of supervisors of the county at every annual session thereof of the amount of such public debt. This report is in tabular form, specifying the different Acts under which the bonds or debts were issued, with the rate of interest thereon, the amount unpaid at the time of the election of such supervisor, and the amount of debt paid at the date of his said report and coming due during his term of office. This report is published in the annual report of the proceedings of the board of supervisors. The supervisor has also, at the expiration of his term of office, at the annual town meeting for the election of town officers, to make and present thereto a duplicate of his said report, including and adding thereto the amount of bonds issued, and the amounts and interest paid since the date of that report up to the day and date of his term of office, duly attested before a justice of the peace of the town, and this report is filed in the town-clerk's office of the town, subject to the inspection, when required, of any elector thereof. Bonds and coupons paid are cancelled and burned by the town auditors of the town at a meeting held for that purpose within ten days previous to the annual town meeting, and a record thereof is filed, signed by the board, in the office of the clerk of the town. A supervisor neglecting or refusing to perform his said duties is deemed guilty of a misdemeanour, and forfeits, upon conviction, $250, and is imprisoned not exceeding sixty days. The electors of each town have power at their annual town meeting to direct the erection of one or more houses of detention or lock-ups, and to direct such sums to be raised in such town by tax for the expense of building or of maintaining the same as they may deem necessary. The electors have also power at any annual town meeting to choose three or five persons to act as a board of trustees of any burying-grounds within the limits of and belonging to the town as said electors may designate, and to authorise and direct the supervisor of the town to convey by deed to this board and their successors in office lands acquired, or to be acquired, for the purpose of burying-grounds. The board of trustees lay out into burial lots these buryinggrounds; and within one year after the conveyance to them, cause to be recorded in the office of the clerk of the county in which they reside a plot or plots of the grounds so laid out by them, clearly indicating the number and location of the several lots. These plots are duly certified to under the hands and seals of the chairman and secretary of the board, and acknowledged before an officer authorised to take proof and acknowledgment of deeds. Certain lots are designated and set aside as free for the interment of deceased indigent persons, and, under the direction of a majority of the board, burial lots are sold and conveyed, under the hands and seals of its chairman and secretary, on such terms as may be agreed upon between the parties; and the moneys so realised are expended in improving and preserving the particular burying-ground in which the lots sold are. These provisions do not affect any rural cemetery association, nor any burying-ground for which a special Act of the legislature has made provisions inconsistent therewith. It is not lawful for a member of the common council of any city in the State of New York, or of a trustee of any village, or the supervisor of any town, to become a contractor under any contract authorised by the common council, board of trustees, or board of supervisors of which he is a member, or be in any manner interested, directly or indirectly, either as principal or surety, in such contract; and no town, county, city, or state officer shall be interested in any contract made by such officer, or be a purchaser or seller, or interested in any purchase or sale by such officer in the discharge of his official duty. All such contracts may be declared void at the instance of the city, county, village, or town interested, or of any other party interested, except such officers themselves. Whenever any building or other real or personal property is destroyed or injured in consequence of any mob or riot, the city or county in which such property was situated is liable for the damages sustained by reason thereof, provided such destruction or injury was not occasioned, or in any manner aided, sanctioned, or permitted, by the carelessness or negligence of the party or corporation, the party whose property was thus destroyed or injured; and provided such party has used all reasonable diligence to prevent such damage, and has notified the mayor of such city, or the sheriff of such county, immediately after being apprised of any threat or attempt to destroy or injure his or their property by any mob or riot, of the facts brought to his knowledge. Upon receipt of such notice, it is the duty of such officer to take all legal means to protect the property attacked or threatened; and any such officers refusing or neglecting to perform such duty are liable to the party aggrieved for such damages as he may have sustained by reason thereof, provided he elects to bring his action against such officer, instead of such city or county; and these provisions do not prevent action being brought against each and every person engaged, or in any manner participating, in the riot or mob. Suit must be brought within three months after the loss or injury. Each town and city and village | may, by resolution duly adopted by their common council, board of trustees, and town auditors respectively, establish and maintain a free public library therein, with or without branches, for the use of the inhabitants thereof, and provide suitable rooms therefor, under such regulations for its government as may from time to time be prescribed by the board of town auditors of the town, or the city council, or the board of trustees of the village. When any village establishes a library thus, it is exempt from any charge for the establishment or maintenance of any library in the town in which it is situated. Any town or city or village may appropriate money for suitable buildings or rooms, and for the foundation of the library a sum not exceeding $1 for each of its legal voters who voted at the last annual election therein; and may also appropriate annually for the maintenance and increase thereof, or of any public library duly organised under the laws of the state, in said town, city, or village, a sum not exceeding 50 cents for each of its legal voters as aforesaid; and may receive, hold, and manage any devise, bequest, or donation for such free public library. The moneys thus appropriated are audited, assessed, levied, and collected as other town, village, or city charges. But no such money is appropriated unless a majority of all the taxable inhabitants of the town, city, or village where the library is to be located petitioned for its establishment. In obtaining signatures or consents to this petition, reference is had only to the last preceding assessment roll of the town, city, or village; and when the genuineness of the signatures, and the fact that the signatures constitute a majority of the taxpayers as aforesaid, are proven to the satisfaction of the judge of the county in which the library is to be located, the sufficiency of which proof is certified by such county judge, the petition or consent, together with the certificate, is filed by the clerk of such town, city, or village, in the county clerk's office of the county in which the library is to be established. If twenty-five freeholders in any town or incorporated village present to any justice of the supreme court, having jurisdiction therein, an affidavit subscribed and sworn to by themselves, setting forth that they are freeholders and have paid taxes on real estate within one year, and that they have reason to believe that the moneys of such town or incorporated village are being unlawfully or corruptly expended, it is the duty of such justice, upon ten days' notice to the supervisor, or supervisors, if more than one, and the particular disbursing officer, if any, of such town making the expenditure, or the trustees and treasurer of such incorporated village, to make a summary investigation into the financial affairs of such town or incorporated village; and experts may be appointed to make this investigation, and the results are published in the manner the judge deems proper. The supervisor of each town, ward, city, or district for which a supervisor is elected, on or before the 1st day of May in each year, makes an accurate list of every corporation, joint-stock company, and association, incorporated by this or any other state or country, located or doing business in such town, ward, city, or district for which he is elected, and forthwith forwards it to the comptroller of the state, verified by oath, to the effect that such list is full and complete, to the best of his knowledge, information, and belief. No municipal corporation shall in any manner loan or give its credit to or in aid of any individual association or corporation; and no municipal corporation of any city or village shall borrow money or contract debt except in the manner provided by law, and every evidence of debt issued by any such corporation is void unless issued in conformity to law. No municipal corporation of any city or village shall contract any debt the amount of which, exclusive of the debt owing at the passing of chap. 603 of the laws of 1853, shall exceed at any time a sum equal to 5 per cent; nor, inclusive of such debt, shall the same exceed 8 per cent of the aggregate valuation of the real estate within its bounds, to be ascertained by such last corrected valuations of the assessors of such corporation, as established by the board of trustees, common council, or board of supervisors, as the case may be. No money shall be borrowed on temporary loan except in anticipation of the taxes of the current fiscal year, and the same shall always be made payable, and shall be paid, within eight months from the time when made. No funded debt shall be contracted by any municipal corporation unless it be for a specific object expressly stated in the ordinance proposing the same, nor unless such ordinance shall have been passed by two-thirds of all the members elected to the common council or board of trustees, and shall have been submitted to, and approved of by, a majority of the taxpayers of any such city or village at a special election appointed for that purpose by the common council or board of trustees, nor unless the legislature shall by law have ratified such ordinance, and shall have provided for levying and collecting annually a tax which shall be sufficient to pay the interest accruing upon the debt; and also an additional sum which shall be equal to at least 5 per cent of the total amount of the debt, which latter An sum shall constitute a sinking fund for the redemption of the principal of the debt. This sinking fund shall be and remain sacred and inviolate for that purpose, and the annual tax shall be levied and collected until sufficient is realised to pay and extinguish the principal and the funded debt, and the interest thereon. By chapter 300, laws of 1870, in all cases where bonds of any town, village, or other municipal corporation are issued according to law, and the payment of the principal or interest is not otherwise paid or provided for, the same are a charge upon the real and personal property of such towns, villages, or municipal corporations, and shall be assessed, levied, collected, and paid in like manner as other debts, obligations, and charges against such town, village, or municipal corporation, except that in villages a particular mode is prescribed. Act of 1874 authorised a majority of the electors voting at any annual town meeting, or any charter election of the village, to raise by tax the sum specified by the vote for the purpose of buying and cancelling said bonds, or of providing a sinking fund for the ultimate payment of the bonds. The town board, consisting of the supervisor, town-clerk, and justices of the peace in towns, or the village trustees in villages, meet at least twenty-five days before the annual town meeting or village election, and determine by a majority what amount shall be so annually raised, and give notice of such voting by posting at least five notices in public places in the town or village, setting forth the time of such voting, the amount to be raised, and the purpose for which the same is raised. The result of the voting is operative until changed by another vote of the electors. The money so raised is used in buying the bonds at their par value, or if that cannot be done, it is paid over to the county |