printed for sale, &c. may be made and deeds in their respective counties, or of any part thereof, to be made by some competent person at the charge of their respective counties, upon 1856, 292, §§ 3, 4. such plan, and in such manner, as will in their judgment best facilitate references to the records; and may cause the copies of indexes, or new indexes, to be printed at the charge of their respective counties, for sale at a price not less than the cost of printing, paper, and binding. TITLE VII. OF TOWNS AND CITIES. Exchange of bonds 1876-238 CHAPTER 18. — Of the Powers of Towns, and the Election, Qualification, and CHAPTER 19. Of certain Powers and Duties of Cities. Of the Registry and Return of Births, Marriages, and Deaths. Of Watch and Ward. Of Fires and Fire Departments. Of Fences and Fence Viewers, Pounds, and Field Drivers. CHAPTER 18. OF THE POWERS OF TOWNS, AND THE ELECTION, QUALIFICATION, SECTION POWERS AND DUTIES OF TOWNS. 1. Towns, to be bodies corporate as hereto 2. Bounds of towns. itive out musicianfore. 1875-136 Dime of Cattle 1858220 Passing things brawhitys 18762122 Recurviste. 18708.139 3. Perambulations and renewal of boundaries, 4. Notice of perambulation to adjoining towns. 5. Monuments to be erected, except, &c. 6. Perambulations of towns adjoining other SECTION MEETINGS. AND 19. Qualifications of voters in town affairs. 21. Warrants shall issue for all meetings- may in- 22. Contents of the warrant, &c. 23. If selectmen refuse, meeting may be called by a justice of the peace. 24. If major part of selectmen die, resign, &c., the rest may call meetings. MODERATORS. 25 At certain meetings, moderator to be cho sen. 26. During election of moderator, town clerk to preside, &c. 27. Moderator's powers and duties. 28. No person shall speak without leave of the moderator, &c. 29. Penalty for disorderly conduct in meetings. 80. on moderator or other presiding officer for reading, &c., ballots, before the poll is closed. Towns to be bod- ies corporate. 13 Mass. 193. Town lines. R S. 15, § 1. Perambulation R. S. 15, § 2. 102 Mass. 151. 100 Mass. 62. he boundary lines of towns shall remain as now established. here shall be a perambulation of town lines, and they shall of town lines. e marks renewed, once in every five years, by two or more men of each town, or such substitutes as they in writing hat purpose. After every such renewal the proceedings -ded in the records of the respective towns. Previously to a perambulation, the selectmen of the most e contiguous towns shall give ten days' notice, in writing, men of the adjoining town, of the time and place of meetperambulation; and selectmen who neglect to give such notice of to adjoining towns. penalty for R. S. 15, § 3. Monuments to be R. S. 15, § 4. See 1861, 84. Perambulations Penalty for R. S. 15, §§ 4, 5, Towns may sue and be sued, &c. may hold prop- R. S. 15, § 11. 3 Mass. 360. 12 Mass. 417. 12 Cush. 103. 5 Allen, 576. the commonwealth, or by action of tort to the use of the town whose selectmen perform their duty. SECT. 5. The selectmen of the contiguous towns shall erect at the joint and equal expense of such towns, permanent monuments to designate their respective boundary lines at every angle thereof, except where such lines are bounded by the ocean or some permanent stream of water. The monuments shall be of stone, well set in and at least four feet high from the surface of the ground; and the initial letter of the respective names of such contiguous towns shall be plainly and legibly cut thereon; but it shall not be necessary to erect a new monument in a place where a permanent stone monument two feet in height above the surface of the ground already exists. SECT. 6. The selectmen of towns bordering on another state, where the lines between the states are settled and established, shall once in every five years give notice to the selectmen or other proper municipal officers of such towns in the other state as adjoin their towns, of their intention to perambulate the lines between their adjoining towns. Where such state lines are in dispute, the perambulations shall be made once in every five years after the lines are settled and established. If such notice and proposal are accepted by the officers to whom they are made, a perambulation shall be made in the same manner as between towns in this state. No boundary erected by authority of this state and an adjoining state, shall be removed by such selectmen or other municipal officers. SECT. 7. A selectman who refuses or neglects to perform any duty required of him by the three preceding sections, shall forfeit twenty dollars to the use of the commonwealth. SECT. 8. Towns may in their corporate capacity sue and be sued by the name of the town, and may appoint all necessary agents and attorneys in that behalf. SECT. 9. They may hold real estate for the public use of the inhabitants, and may convey the same, either by a vote of the inhabitants or 2 Pick. 351, 352. by a deed of their committee or agent; may hold personal estate for the public use of the inhabitants, and alienate and dispose of the same by vote or otherwise; may hold real and personal estate in trust for the support of schools and for the promotion of education within the limits R. S. 15, §§ 12, of the town; may make contracts necessary and convenient for the 16: 23, §9; 24, exercise of their corporate powers; and may make orders for the disposal or use of their corporate property as they may judge necessary or expedient for the interest of the inhabitants. 10 Allen, 182. $$ 70,7825,858, 1838, 38. 874 2 13 Mass. 272. 6 Pick. 101. 12 Pick. 227. 23 Pick 71. 10 Met. 508. 3 Cush. 530. 10 Cush. 252. 4 Gray, 502. 11 Gray, 340, 436. 1 Allen, 103. 6 Allen, 152. 11 Allen, 108. 103 Mass. 94, 104. R. S. 15, § 13. 3 Pick. 462. 1 Met. 130. 1 Cush. 494. SECT. 10. They may, at legal meetings, grant and vote such sums as they judge necessary for the following purposes: For the support of town schools; For the relief, support, maintenance, and employment, of the poor; For laying out, discontinuing, making, altering, and repairing, highways and town ways, and for labor and materials to be used thereon; For procuring the writing and publishing of their town histories; For burial grounds; For encouraging the destruction of noxious animals; For all other necessary charges arising therein; SECT. 11. They may make such necessary orders and by-laws, not repugnant to the laws of the state, for directing and managing the prudential affairs, preserving the peace and good order, and maintaining the internal police thereof, as they may judge most conducive to the welfare of the town; and may affix penalties for breaches of such orders and by-laws not exceeding twenty dollars for one offence. 97 Mass. 223. SECT. 12. All penalties for breaches of the orders and by-laws of a town may be recovered on complaint before a police court or a justice of the peace, and shall inure to the town, or to such uses as the town may direct. in by-laws, how SECT. 13. When a town in a by-law imposes a duty and affixes a Duties imposed penalty for refusal or neglect to perform the same, they may therein pro- performed. vide that in case of such refusal or neglect the duty may be performed 1855, 287. by officers therein named, at the expense of the party liable to perform the same, and such expense may be recovered of him by the town in an action of contract in the name of the treasurer, but the amount recovered shall not exceed the penalty fixed in the by-law. SECT. 14. Before any by-law takes effect, it shall be approved by By-laws to be apthe superior court, or in vacation by a justice thereof, and shall with perior court such approval be entered and recorded in the office of the clerk of R. S. 15, § 13. the courts in the county where the town is situated, or in the county 1855, 222, §§ 1, 2. of Suffolk in the office of the clerk of the superior court for civil business. proved by su 1847, 166. 185; 13 193. to bind all per sons in town. Pick. 157, 2 Cush 576. R. S. 15, § 15. Towns to provide 1858, 106, §§ 1, 2. book-case, &c. SECT. 15. Such by-laws shall be binding upon all persons coming within the limits of the town, as well as upon the inhabitants thereof. SECT. 16. All by-laws made by a town shall be published in one or more newspapers printed in the county where the town is situated. SECT. 17. Each town shall provide at its own expense some suitable cabinet or book-case for the safe preservation of such books, reports, and laws, as they receive from the commonwealth, and for every month's neglect shall forfeit ten dollars to the use of the commonwealth. SECT. 18. When a town is required to enter into a recognizance, the Recognizances by selectmen may by an order or vote authorize any person to enter into Rs. 15. §§ 88, 89. the recognizance in the name and behalf of the town, and it shall be Act of amendbinding like any other contract made by such town. No be required in such recognizance. shall surety towns. ment, § 4. MEETINGS. voters in town arts. 3, 20, 23. Met. 162, 298, 591. 11 Pick 538. 299. SECT. 19. Every male citizen of twenty-one years of age and upwards, Qualifications of (except paupers, persons under guardianship, and persons excluded by affairs. articles twenty and twenty-three of the amendments to the constitution,) Amend. const. who has resided within the state one year, and within the town in which R. S. 15, § 17. he claims a right to vote six months, next preceding a meeting for the 5 transaction of town affairs, and who has paid by himself, or his parent, master, or guardian, a state or county tax, which within two years next preceding such meeting has been assessed upon him in any town; and every citizen who is by law exempted from taxation, and in all other respects qualified as aforesaid, shall have a right to vote at such town meetings, upon all questions concerning town affairs; and no other person shall be entitled to vote at such meeting. SECT. 20. The annual meeting of each town shall be held in February, March, or April; and other meetings at such times as the selectmen may order. Meetings may be adjourned from time to time, and to any place within the town. 7 Gray, 2 9dass.417 Annual and other journed. R.S. 15, §§ 18, 25. ings. SECT. 21. Every town meeting shall be held in pursuance of a warrant under the hands of the selectmen, directed to the constables or some other persons appointed by the selectmen for that purpose, who R. S. 15, §§ 19, shall forthwith notify such meeting in the manner prescribed by the by- 10 Mass. 105. laws or a vote of the town. The selectmen may by the same warrant 13 Pick, 306. call two or more distinct town meetings for distinct purposes. SECT. 22. The warrant shall express the time and place of the meet- Contents of waring, and the subjects to be there acted upon; the selectmen shall insert R. S. 15, §§ 21, therein all subjects which may, in writing, be requested of them by any 1 Cush. 496. ten or more voters of the town, and nothing acted upon shall have a legal 11 Cush 295,487. operation, unless the subject matter thereof is contained in the warrant. 11 Gray, 340. SECT. 23. If the selectmen unreasonably refuse to call a meeting, any 99 Mass 472. justice of the peace of the county, upon the application of ten or more If selectmen relegal voters of the town, may call such meeting by a warrant under his may be called by 22. 3 Gray, 525. 11 Allen, 89. fuse, meeting a justice of the peace. R. S. 15, § 23. If major part of selectmen die, hand directed to the constables of the town, if any, otherwise to any of the persons applying therefor, directing them to summon the inhabitants qualified to vote in town affairs to assemble at the time and place and for the purposes expressed in the warrant. SECT. 24. If by reason of death, resignation, or removal from town, &c., the rest may a major part of the selectmen thereof originally chosen vacate their office, those who remain in office may call a town meeting. call meetings. R. S. 15, § 24. Moderators, how chosen; R. S. 15, § 26. See 1863, 198. during elec MODERATORS. SECT. 25. At every town meeting, except for the election of national, state, district, and county officers, a moderator shall first be chosen. SECT. 26. During the election of a moderator, the town clerk if tion, town clerk present shall preside; if he is absent or there is no town clerk, the selectinen shall preside; and the town clerk and selectmen respectively shall in such case have the powers and perform the duties of a mod to preside, &c. R. S. 15, § 27. 9 Mass. 262. powers and duties. 32. erator. SECT. 27. The moderator shall preside in the meeting, may in open R. 9. 15, §§ 28, meeting administer the oaths of office to any town officer chosen thereat, shall regulate the business and proceedings of the meeting, decide all questions of order, and make public declaration of all votes passed. When a vote so declared by him is immediately upon such declaration questioned by seven or more of the voters present, he shall make the vote certain by polling the voters or dividing the meeting, unless the town has by a previous vote or their by-laws otherwise provided. no person to speak without leave of, &c. R. S. 15, § 29. Penalty for disorderly conduct in meetings. R. S. 15, $ 30. 16 Mass. 385. on moderator, &c., for reading, &c., ballots, be fore poll is closed. R. S. 15, § 31. SECT. 28. No person shall speak in the meeting without leave of the moderator, nor while another person is speaking by his permission; and all persons shall at his request be silent. SECT. 29. If a person behaves in a disorderly manner, and after notice from the moderator persists therein, the moderator may order him to withdraw from the meeting; and, on his refusal, may order the constables or any other persons to take him from the meeting and confine him in some convenient place until the meeting is adjourned. The person so refusing to withdraw shall for such offence forfeit a sum not exceeding twenty dollars. SECT. 30. A moderator or other presiding officer who at a town meeting, before the poll is closed and without the consent of the voter, reads, examines, or permits to be read or examined, the names written on such voter's ballot, with a view to ascertain the candidate voted for by him, shall forfeit a sum not exceeding fifty dollars. Town officers to be chosen. R. S. 15, § 33. B S. 19, $ 16. 1858, 164. Town clerk. Selectmen. Assessors. 6 Met. 498. Overseers of the poor. Treasurer. Surveyors of highways. Constables and collectors. Field drivers. Fence viewers. Surveyors of ELECTION AND APPOINTMENT OF TOWN OFFICERS. SECT. 31. At the annual meeting every town shall choose from the inhabitants thereof, the following town officers, who shall serve during the year, and until others are chosen and qualified in their stead :— A town clerk, who if present shall be forthwith sworn, either by the moderator or a justice of the peace; Three, five, seven, or nine selectmen ; Three or more assessors, and, if the town deems it expedient, three or more assistant-assessors; Three or more overseers of the poor; A town treasurer; One or more surveyors of highways; Constables, who shall also be collectors of taxes unless other persons are specially chosen collectors; Field drivers; Two or more fence viewers; One or more surveyors of lumber; except that surveyors of lumber |