purpose, with proper indices, for which service he shall be not entitled to receive any extra pay or additional pay, said books shall be deemed a public record of such ordinances and resolutions and shall be signed by the chairman, or acting chairman, of the council and said clerk; copies of all papers duly filed in his office and transcript thereof, and of the records and proceedings of the councilmen, and copies of the law or ordinances of said town, certified by him under the corporate seal, shall be evidence in all courts and places. 12. And be it enacted, That the official term of the several Term of office. persons who shall be elected in pursuance of this act, shall commence on the last Monday of March after their election, and shall continue in office the time for which they were elected. competent as juror. 13. And be it enacted, That upon the trial of any issue, or No person inupon the judicial investigation of any question to which issue witness or or investigation the town of Absecom is a party, or in which it is interested, no person shall be deemed an incompetent judge, witness or juror by reason of his being an inhabitant, freeholder or freeman of said town. receipts and to be pub 14. And be it enacted, That the councilmen shall, at least Statement o once a year, not more than twenty nor less than fifteen days expenditures before the annual town election, publish a full statement of lished. all the receipts and expenditures of every description for the fiscal year preceding such statement, including all the moneys which have passed through the hands of the treasurer for any purpose whatsoever, together with the different sources of revenue; and the amount received under each, with all such other information as may be necessary for a full understanding of the financial concerns of the town. taxes. 15. And be it enacted, That all taxes for the purpose of Assessment of the town shall be assessed by the assessor who shall be elected in pursuance of this act, upon all the property, both personal and real, situated in the corporate limits of said town, in the manner and within the time directed by the laws of this state for assessing township, county and state taxes, and no pro- No property perty whatsoever, situated within the bounds of said town, shall exempt. be exempt from taxation, excepting only such property as may be held or owned by said town of Absecom in corporate capacity, and all churches and school houses and church and school property in said town. 16. And be it enacted, That the assessor authorized to be county board elected by this act shall have the like vote which the assessors of assessors. Opening, laying out, &c, of streets, roads or ave nues. Costs and expenses to be assessed. Expenses to be paid by of townships may have by the laws of this state in the county board of assessors. 17. And be it enacted, That on the application, in writing, of ten freeholders of the town asking for the opening, laying out, widening, altering, grading, graveling or guttering any street, road or avenue in said town, or any part thereof, it shall be lawful for the board of councilmen, by resolution, to direct the surveyor of highways to make survey of such road, and file the same, together with a map and estimate of the probable cost of such road, with the town clerk, within thirty days from the date of such order; the clerk thereupon shall issue notice, by five notices put up in conspicuous public places in said town, at least ten days previous, calling a town meeting for the purpose of passing upon such application or applications, and if a majority of the legal voters present at such town meeting, shall sanction the opening, laying out, widening, altering, grading, graveling or guttering any street, road or avenue in said town, or any part thereof, the same shall be passed by the councilmen at their next meeting. 18. And be it enacted, That all expenses and costs of the proceedings for improvements in laying out, opening, altering, widening, grading, altering the grade, or refilling, guttering streets, roads and avenues, and repairing the same, shall be taxed and assessed to the whole town of Absecom. plicant if relaying jected by town meeting. Authority to raise money poses. 19. And be it enacted, That if the application for opening, out, altering, widening, filling up, grading, altering the grade or guttering of any street, road or avenue in said town be rejected by the town meeting, called for the purpose of acting upon such applications, then the said expenses shall be paid by the persons applying for the same, and if remaining unpaid after twenty days after the rejection of said application, the same shall be entered as a lien against the property of such applicant. 20. And be it enacted, That the legal voters of said town. for town pur- shall have power and authority in their annual meetings in each year to raise by plurality of votes such sum or sums as they may think proper and necessary for the support and maintenance of the poor of said town, for the support of common schools, for the making and repairing of roads and highways, and for an amount requisite for all other town purposes, which said sums, when assessed and collected, shall be applied by said councilmen to the purposes designated by the people of such town meeting, nor shall any part of the same be used or applied to any other purposes whatsoever. one school dis 21. And be it enacted, That the said town of Absecom constituted shall constitute one school district, to be governed by the trict. general school law of this state in regard to schools; and it shall be lawful for a two-third majority of the lawful and legal voters present, at any meeting called by the trustees for the purpose, by putting up in five of the most public places in said district, notices of such meeting, to authorize the trustees of said district to raise money to purchase a site for school house, and to build a school house thereon for the use of said district, the amount so ordered to be assessed and collected as other taxes are assessed and collected in said town; and it shall be lawful for said trustees to issue bonds Trustees to of the said district for the amount so ordered to be raised, and to borrow money on said bonds, the interest in no case to exceed lawful interest. issue bonds. and lease pro 22. And be it enacted, That it shall be lawful for the said May purchase corporation hereby created, to purchase or lease such real or perty, &c. personal property as they may deem necessary and proper for the purpose of said town, and the same or any part thereof to lease, mortgage, sell, or otherwise dispose of as to them may seem proper. for indebted 23. And be it enacted, That the several parts of said Town Hlable town, as hereby created, shall be liable for the payment of ness. their proportion of the indebtedness of the township from which the same is created by this act, which indebtedness is now outstanding. and township meet to divide 24. And be it enacted, That the councilmen of the town of Councilmen Absecom and the township committees of Egg Harbor and committees to Galloway townships, be and they are hereby empowered to funds, &c. meet on the second Monday in April next, at Walter's Hall, in Absecom, in late the township of Galloway, at the hour of nine o'clock in the forenoon of that day, and then and there proceed ratably to impose, divide and apportion the liabilities, funds, revenues and estates of said townships hereby divided between the said town of Absecom and the residue of the townships of Egg Harbor and Galloway, in proportion to the taxable property and ratables as taxed by the assessors within their respective limits at the last annual assessment; and the inhabitants of the town of Absecom shall be liable to pay their just proportion of the debts as ordered and directed at the last annual town meetings of Egg Harbor and 7 Galloway townships; and should any such committee or members thereof fail to attend, then a majority may proceed to make such division and apportionment, setting forth the same in writing for publication in the first subsequent annual report of said town and townships, and such convention of committees or members thereof shall have power to adjourn from day to day until the completion of said division be made, and their decision, or a majority of them, shall be conclusive and final, and the passage of this act shall be sufficient notice of the time and place of such meeting. 25. And be it enacted, That the legislature may at any time alter, amend or repeal this act, and that this act shall be deemed a public act, and shall take effect immediately. Approved February 29, 1872. Preamble. CHAPTER CVI. A Further Supplement to an act entitled "An Act to set off from the town of Bergen a new township, to be called the township of Greenville," approved March eighteenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-three. WHEREAS, the legal voters of the said township of Greenville, at the last annual spring election, voted to raise by taxation the sum of three thousand nine hundred and eighty-five dollars, for the use of the public school in said township; and whereas, the assessor neglected to assess the said sum, whereby the said school was in danger of being closed, to prevent which the legal voters in said township, in pursuance of notice legally given, did on the twenty-third day of December, eighteen hundred and seventy-one, assemble, and by vote, appropriate the said sum of three thousand nine hundred and eighty-five dollars, and by resolution authorize the board of education to borrow the said sum; therefore, 1. BE IT ENACTED by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey, That the proceedings of said inhabitants ratified and at the special meeting held on the twenty-third day of De- Proceedings cember, eighteen hundred and seventy-one, be and the same legalized. is hereby ratified and legalized, and that the said sum so appropriated, together with interest thereon, and all necessary expenses shall, in addition to what may be appropriated by the vote of said inhabitants, at the next annual spring election be included in the next tax levy, and be assessed and collected in the same manner as other taxes are assessed and collected. 2. And be it enacted, That this act shall take effect immediately. Approved February 29, 1872. CHAPTER CVII. A Supplement to an act entitled "An Act to charter the to extend rail. 1. BE IT ENACTED by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey, That the New Jersey West Line Empowered Railroad Company are hereby authorized and empowered to road. extend their railroad from its proposed terminus in Essex county, as now authorized, to some point in line with the most easterly exterior line for solid filling, established in the Hudson river by the act of eighteen hundred and sixty-nine, commonly known as the Riparian Commission act. May build lines. 2. And be it enacted, That it shall and may be lawful for the said company to build connecting lines, or branches, from connecting some point on their road near the borough of Clinton, in the county of Hunterdon, and from any other convenient point or points in said county, or any county through which their road may pass, except the counties of Morris, Essex and Hudson, connecting in Warren county at or below the town. of Phillipsburg or in any counties through which their road. may pass, or counties adjoining the same, with any railroad now built or hereafter to be built; provided, that no point |