incorporated under the laws of this state for the purpose of owning, constructing, using and maintaining a line or lines of electric telegraph within this state or partly within and partly beyond the limits of this state, are hereby authorized, from time to time, to construct and lay lines of electrical conductors under ground in any city, village or town within the limits of this state, subject to all the provisions of law in reference to such companies not inconsistent with this act; provided that such company shall, before laying any such line in any city, village or town of this state, first obtain from the common council of cities, the trustees of villages, or the commissioners of highways of towns, permission to use the streets within such city, village or town for the purposes herein set forth. [Thus amended by Laws of 1881, ch. 483.]

30. Act, how to be construed.

§ 2. Nothing in this act contained shall be so construed as in any way to limit, alter or affect the provisions or powers relating or granted to telegraph companies heretofore created by special act of the legislature of this state, except in so far as to confer on any such company the right to lay electrical conductors under ground; and nothing in section seven of title three of chapter eighteen of part one of the Revised Statutes shall be so construed as to apply to any telegraph company heretofore incorporated under a special act of the legislature of this state. [Thus amended by Laws of 1881, ch. 483.]

31. Telegraph companies to make return; what the return to state; duty of assessors; of treasurer. (Laws of 1881, ch. 597-An act to provide for fixing the manner of assessing certain real estate of telegraph companies.)

SECTION 1. It shall be the duty of the several telegraph companies owning a line or lines of telegraph within this state to return under the oath of its president or secre

tary or treasurer, on or before the first day of May, in each year (or at least twenty days before the time required by law for the delivery of the assessment-rolls by the assessors), to the comptroller of the state, and also to the treasurer of each county in which any portion of the lines of such company is located (in the city of New York, such return to be made to the commissioners of taxes and assessments thereof), a statement showing the total length of such lines within each county with the cost of construction, including all equipments or what would be the cost of reconstruction thereof on the first day of January preceding the date of such return, and it shall be the duty of the assessors in each assessment district in which such property is located, to insert in the assessment books thereof, for the purposes of taxation, as the value of such property within said district, such proportion of the cost of construction or reconstruction as the length of the lines of such company within such district bears to the aggregate length of all the lines of such company within the county. The treasurer of such county shall notify all town and city clerks by sending to them a copy of the sworn statement received by him from any telegraph company as herein provided.*

See RAILROADS, V.

TEMPERANCE.

See CLUBS.

TOWING COMPANIES.

1. Objects and mode of incorporation.

(Laws of 1864, ch. 337.)

SECTION 1. Any three or more persons may organize and form themselves into a corporation in like manner,

*Telegraph poles, wires and appurtenances are taxed locally as real estate. See ante, Part I., 279.

for the purpose of constructing, owning and using vessels and machines to be employed for hire in towing vessels, carrying freight and passengers, and in aiding, protecting and saving vessels and their cargoes, wrecked or in distress on any of the navigable rivers and lakes in or bordering upon the state of New York, or on the high seas, or in the various arms of the seas and rivers running into the same, with all the rights appertaining by law to private individuals performing service as salvors.

2. Duties and obligations.

§ 2. Every corporation so formed shall be subject to all the provisions, duties and obligations contained in this act, and shall be entitled to all the benefits and privileges thereby conferred, except that such corporations shall not be confined in their operations to the county in which their certificate shall be filed.

3. Towing by animal and steam power.*

(Laws of 1880, ch. 241.)

§ 2. The organization of any corporation for the purpose of towing or propelling canal boats, vessels, rafts or floats on the canals and navigable rivers of the state of New York, by animal or steam power, their operations not to be confined to the county in which their certificates shall be filed, formed since the passage of chapter three hundred and seventy-four, of the laws of eighteen hundred and seventy-seven, and all the acts of the trustees of any such corporation, organized in compliance with the provisions of such last-named chapter, are hereby made as legal in all respects as if the said last-named chapter

* The business of towing or propelling canal boats, vessels, rafts or floats on the canals and navigable rivers of the state of New York, by animal or steam power, was inserted in section one of the manufacturing act of 1848 by the Laws of 1877, ch. 374, but omitted when the section was amended in 1879 (ch. 290), and reinserted by amendinent of 1880, ch. 241, § 1.

had remained in full force, and every such corporation so organized is hereby declared to have existence and to have the same powers and privileges in all respects as if the said act, being chapter three hundred and seventyfour of the laws of eighteen hundred and seventy-seven, had been in full force in all respects at the time of the formation of any such corporation.

See MANUFACTURES, II.

TRANSPORTATION.

1. Tickets to be furnished by steamboats.

(Laws of 1868, ch. 573--An act to afford the same facilities to passengers or property transported by steamboat on the Hudson River as is afforded by railroad.)

SECTION 1. The proprietors of any steamboat, or line of steamboats, navigating the Hudson river, are hereby authorized and empowered to furnish tickets, upon being paid therefor, for the transporation of passengers from any station on the line of any railroad terminating at the city of Albany or Troy, for the conveyance of such passengers from the city of Albany or Troy to the city of New York, on their said steamboats. On such tickets being furnished to any such railroad company it shall be their duty to require their ticket agent, at any station on the line of their road, to sell such tickets, and to any passenger who shall make application therefor, at a price which shall be equal to the amount of fare charged upon such road to the city of Albany or Troy, with the addition of such price as shall be fixed by the proprietor of such steamboat for the transportation of such passenger from Albany or Troy to New York.

2. Baggage checks.

§ 2. The proprietors of said steamboat, or line of steamboats, are also authorized and empowered to furnish

baggage checks for the transportation of any passenger's baggage through to the city of New York by the way of their said steamboats, and on such checks being furnished to the baggage-master, at any station on the line of said railroads, it shall be his duty to check baggage on the application of any passenger through to the city of New York, which baggage, on its arrival in the city of Albany or Troy, shall be delivered up to the authorized agent of any steamboat, or line of steamboats, to be transported from the railroad to the steamboat, on which such passenger contemplates going, without the check being removed from such baggage. And said baggage shall be transported from railroad station to steamboat landings, and from steamboat landing to railroad station, by said steamboat owners, free of charge.

3. Tickets to be furnished by railroads.

§3. It is hereby made the duty of every railroad company, which terminates at the city of Albany or Troy, on application being made therefor by the proprietor of any steamboat, or line of steamboats, navigating the Hudson river, to furnish them with tickets for the transportation of passengers from the city of Albany or Troy to any point on the line of their respective roads, to be sold by such steamboat proprietors in their respective offices, and to receive and transport the baggage of any passenger which shall be checked through to any point beyond the city of Albany or Troy; such tickets to be hold and paid for to the railroad or steamboat company, which shall furnish the same at the price charged by such company for the conveyance of such passenger to the place which such ticket purports to carry him. The object and intent of this act being to compel railroad companies to furnish the same facilities to passengers going to or from the city of New York by boat as is afforded those who go by the railroad.