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7. To require services of persons, with or with

out compensation:

In military duty;

In jury duty;

As witnesses;

As town or village officers;

In highway labor;

In maintaining the public peace;

In enforcing the service of process;

In protecting life and property from fire, pestilence, wreck and flood;

And in such other cases as are provided by

statute.

Original and ultimate title.

Escheat.

CHAPTER II.

RIGHTS OVER PROPERTY.

SECTION 249. Original and ultimate title.

250. Escheat.

251. Lands under water and mines.

252. Enumeration of mines.

253. Mines, minerals and fossils upon lands of the state.

254. What mines belong to the owners of the land.

255. Discoverer, &c., when exempt.

256. Notice of discovery to secretary of state.

257. Privilege of discoverers.

258. Qualification.

259. Intruders on public lands.

260. Acquisition by taxation and assessment.
261. By right of eminent domain.

§ 249. The original and ultimate right to all property, real and personal, within the limits of this state, belongs to the people.

§ 250. All property, real and personal, within the limits of this state, which does not belong to

any person, belongs to the people. Whenever the title to any property fails for want of heirs or next of kin it reverts to the people.

under water and mines.

§ 251. All lands below common high water Lands mark, where the tide flows, and all mines such as are enumerated in the two following sections, belong to the people.

tion of mines.

§ 252. The following mines, now or hereafter Enumera discovered, are the property of the people in their right of sovereignty:

1. All mines of gold and silver;

2. All mines of other metals, upon lands owned by persons not being citizens of the United States;

3. All mines of other metals, upon lands owned by a citizen of the United States, the ore of wichh, upon an average, contains less than two equal parts in value of copper, tin, iron and lead, or any of those metals.

The provisions of this and subsequent sections, relating to mines, are to the same effect as those of 1 R. S., 537; but it is submitted that they have become of doubtful expediency, and it were better that they should be repealed.

§ 253. All mines, and all minerals and fossils, Mines,

now or hereafter discovered, upon any lands belonging to the people of this state, are the

pro

minerals and fossils

upon lands

of the state.

What mines belong to

the owners

of the lands.

Discoverer, &c. who

exempt.

Notice of

discovery to secretary of

state.

Privilege of discoverers.

perty of the people, subject to the provisions
hereinafter made to encourage the discovery
thereof.

1 R. S., 557, § 2.

§ 254. All mines, of whatever description, other
than mines of gold and silver, now or hereafter
discovered, upon any lands owned by a citizen of
the United States, the ore of which, upon an ave-
rage, contains two equal third parts or more in
value of copper, tin, iron and lead, or any of these
metals, shall belong to the owner of such land.
1 R. S., 557, § 3.

§ 255. The discoverer and subsequent proprietor
of
any mine of gold or silver are exempt from pay-
ing to the state any part of the proceeds thereof,
for the term of twenty-one years from the time of
giving notice of such discovery in the manner
hereinafter directed.

Ib., § 4.

§ 256. No person discovering a mine of gold or silver within this state shall work the same until he gives written notice thereof to the secretary of state, describing particularly the nature and situation of the mine. Such notices shall be registered in a book to be kept by the secretary for that purpose.

Ib., § 5.

§ 257. After the expiration of the term above specified, the discoverer of the mine, or his repre

I

sentatives, shall be preferred in any contract, for the working of such mine, made with the legislature or under its authority.

1 R. S., 555, § 6.

tion.

§ 258. Nothing contained in this title shall affect Qualifica any grants heretofore made by the legislature to the discoverers of mines, nor be construed to give any person a right to break up or enter upon the lands of any other person, or of the people of this state, or to work any mine in such lands, unless the consent, in writing, of the owner thereof, or of the commissioners of the land office, when the lands belong to the people of this state, be previously obtained.

on public

lands.

§ 259. If any person, under pretense of any Intruders claim, inconsistent with the sovereignty and jurisdiction of the state, intrudes upon any of the waste or ungranted lands of the state, the district attorney of the county must immediately report the same to the governor, who shall thereupon, by a written order, direct the sheriff of the county to remove the intruder; and, if resistance to the execution of the order is made or threatened, the sheriff may call to his aid the power of the county, as in cases of resistance to the writs of the people. 1 R. S., 5th ed., 84, §§ 4, 5.

by taxation

260. The state may acquire title to property Acquisition by taxation and assessment in the modes autho- and assess. rized by statute.

ment.

By right of eminent domain.

§ 261. It may acquire, or authorize others to acquire, title to property, real or personal, for public use, by right of eminent domain, in the cases and in the mode authorized by statute.

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therein.

II. Navigation.

III. Floating lumber.

IV. Wrecks.

V. Sandy Hook pilots.

VI. Hellgate pilots.

VII. New York port-wardens.

VIII. New York harbor-masters.

IX. Special regulations respecting the port of New York.

X. Albany harbor-master.

ARTICLE I.

GENERAL PROVISIONS RESPECTING PUBLIC WATERS AND

OBSTRUCTIONS THEREIN.

SECTION 262. What waters are public ways.

263. Certain streams.

264. Penalty for felling trees into public waters.

265. Use of nets in the channel of the Hudson above New

York city.

266. Use of nets, &c., in the Hudson, out of the channel.

267. Obstructions in the port of New York.

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