particular business and object of said incorporation, the name of the incorporated city or village, or the town in which said company proposes to act, the number of trustees, directors or managers to manage the same, and the names of the trustees, directors or managers for the first year of its existence, and the number of years said company shall exist, not to exceed fifty years, but such certificate shall not be filed unless there shall be annexed thereto a certified copy of a resolution of the board of trustees of the village, or approval of the mayor of the city in which said company is situate, or if said company be not located in an incorporated city or village, then a resolution of the board of town auditors of the town, consenting to such incorporation; provided that such corporations shall only engage in or conduct such business as properly belongs to fire, hose or hook and ladder companies, and only in the incorporated city or village, or the town named in the aforesaid certificate; and provided further, that in taking part in the prevention and extinguishment of fires in cities and villages, said corporations shall be under the control and subject to the orders of the city or village authorities or officers, who by law have or may have control over the prevention or extinguishment of fires in incorporated cities or villages in which said corporations shall conduct their business.

2. Upon filing certificate, persons to become a body corporate; corporate powers.

§ 2. Upon filing a certificate as aforesaid, together with such resolution of approval, the persons who shall have signed and acknowledged such certificate, and their associates and successors, shall thereupon, by virtue of this act, be a body politic and corporate by the name stated in such certificate, and by that name they and their successors shall and may have succession, and shall be capable in law of suing and being sued; and they and their suc

cessors by their corporate name shall, in law, be capable of taking, receiving, holding and purchasing real estate for the purposes of their incorporation, and for no other purpose, to an amount not exceeding the sum of fifty thousand dollars in value, and personal estate for like purposes to an amount not exceeding the sum of fifty thousand dollars in value; to make by-laws for the management of its affairs not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of this state or of the United States, to elect and appoint the officers and agents of such company for the management of its business, and to allow them a suitable compensation, and to prescribe the qualifications of membership of said company.

3. Annual election of trustees, etc.

§ 3. The company so incorporated may annually elect from its members its trustees, directors or managers, at such time and place, and in such manner as may be specified in its by-laws, who shall have the control and management of the affairs and funds of said company, and a majority of whom shall be a quorum for the transaction of business. Whenever any vacancy shall happen among said trustees, directors or managers, by death, resignation or neglect to serve, such vacancy shall be filled in the manner provided in the by-laws of said company.

4. Failure to hold election.

§ 4. In case it shall at any time happen that an election of trustees, managers or directors shall not be made on the day designated by the by-laws, said company shall not for that cause be dissolved, but it shall and may be lawful on any other day to hold an election for trustees, directors or managers, in such manner as said company may determine.

5. May take property by devise, etc.

§ 5. Any corporation formed under this act may take, hold or receive any property, real or personal, by virtue of any devise or bequest contained in any last will and testament; provided, that no person leaving a wife, child or parent shall devise or bequeath to such corporation more than one fourth of his or her estate, after payment of all debts existing against said estate, and such devise or bequest shall be valid to the extent of such one fourth only.

6. Liability of trustee.

§ 6. The trustees of any company or corporation organized under the provisions of this act shall be jointly and severally liable for all debts due from said company or corporation, contracted while they are trustees; provided said debts are payable within one year from the time they shall have been contracted; and provided further, that a suit for the collection of the same shall be brought within one year after the debt shall become due and payable.

7. Certificate and inventory to be annually made and filed.

§ 7. It shall be the duty of the trustees, directors or managers of all corporations formed under this act, or a majority of said trustees, directors or managers, on or before the fifteenth day of January in each year, to make and file in the county clerk's office where the certificate of incorporation is filed, a certificate under their hands, stating the names of the trustees and officers of such corporation, with an inventory of the property and effects and liabilities thereof, with an affidavit of said trustees, directors or managers of the truth of such certificate and inventory; and also a like affidavit that such corporation has not been engaged, directly or indirectly, in any

other business than such as is set forth in the certificate of incorporation.

8. General powers.

§ 8. Every corporation formed under this act shall possess the general powers conferred by and be subject to the provisions and restrictions of the third title of the eighteenth chapter of the first part of the Revised Statutes.

9. Right to repeal.

§ 9. The legislature may at any time alter, amend or repeal this act, or any part thereof.

[Section 10 prescribes time when act took effect.]

10. Exemption from taxation.

§ 11. The members of any fire company organized under the provisions of this act, and situated within any incorporated village, may be exempted from taxation to the amount of five hundred dollars on any village assessment for village purposes, and from highway poll tax in addition to the exemptions now enumerated by law, and the real and personal property of any such company may be exempted from like village taxation, provided that at any general election or at any special election called for that purpose, a majority of the legal voters of such village shall vote in favor thereof, and at any such election the vote shall be by ballot, and the ballots shall be indorsed "for" or "against exemption from taxation of the members of the fire company," and a similar ballot indorsed "for" or against the exemption of the real and personal property of the fire company." Such election shall be held in the same manner and by the same officers as at a general election in said village. [As amended by Laws of 1879, ch. 250.]

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FIRE INSURANCE.

(OMITTED.)

FISH CULTURE.

See ANIMAL CULTURE.

GAS-LIGHT COMPANIES.

1. Companies, how formed.

(Laws of 1848, ch. 37.)

SECTION 1. Any three or more persons who may desire to form a company for the purpose of manufacturing and supplying gas for lighting the streets and public and private buildings of any city, village or town, or two or more villages or towns, not over five miles distant from each other, in this state, may make, sign and acknowledge before some officer competent to take the acknowledgment of deeds, and file in the office of the clerk of the county in which the business of the company shall be carried on, and a duplicate thereof in the office of the secretary of state, a certificate in writing, in which shall be stated the corporate name of the said company, and the objects for which the company shall be formed, the amount of the capital stock of the said company, the term of its existence, not to exceed fifty years, the number of shares of which the stock shall consist, the number of directors, and their names, who shall manage the concerns of said company for the first year, and the name of the town and county in which the operations of the said company are to be carried on. [Thus amended by Laws of 1871, ch. 95.]

2. Powers of corporation; may borrow money and mortgage corporate property.

2. When the certificate shall have been filed as afore