May vote on question of railroad aid.

If vote is for taking stock, bonds to bo issued.

CHAPTER 157.

[Published March 2, 1868.]

AN ACT to authorize the county of Douglas to aid in the construc. tion of a railroad.

The people of the state of Wisconsin, represented in senate and assembly, do enact as follows:

SECTION 1. At a regular election for town officers to be held in the county of Douglas in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the town or towns comprised in said county, the legal voters thereof may deposit ballots upon which shall be written or printed the words, "for taking stock in the railroad," or, "against taking stock in the railroad." Such ballots shall be deposited in a separate box provided for that purpose by the inspectors of election, and shall be counted, canvassed, and returned to the proper officers as in other elections, and as provided under the elec tion laws of the state of Wisconsin applicable thereto : provided, that no such ballots shall be cast as aforesaid unless the county board of supervisors of said county shall have caused notice of the proposed submission of such question to said voters to be posted up ten days previous to said election in five public places in each and every town in said county.

SECTION 2. If a majority of the ballots cast in said county be "for taking stock in the railroad," the county board of supervisors thereof shall have power and it is hereby made the duty of said board to cause bonds with coupons attached to be issued and delivered as hereinafter provided to the amount of one hundred thousand dollars to that railroad company or corpora tion which shall first construct, equip and complete within four years from the date of this act a railroad, beginning at or on the bay and harbor of Superior within the town of Superior and county of Douglas and running thence southwesterly or southerly to the St. Croix or Mississippi rivers. Such bonds when authorized to be issued as aforesaid shall be delivered to said railroad company as follows, to wit: fifty thousand dollars thereof when said railroad company beginning as aforesaid shall have completed all their

road bed, including culverts, bridges and masonry lying within the limits of the county of Douglas ready for the ties and iron, and the remaining fifty thousand dollars of said bonds shall be delivered when said company shall be regularly transporting passengers and freight over said railroad from the bay and harbor of Superior, Wisconsin, to the waters of either of the rivers aforesaid.

SECTION 3. All bonds issued under the provisions How bonds to of this act shall be signed by the chairman of the said be executed. county board of supervisors in his official capacity, and countersigned by the clerk of said board and shall be of the denomination of one thousand dollars each, redeemable at the end of twenty years from the date thereof, with interest coupons attached, executed in like manner, drawing interest at the rate of seven per cent. per annum, payable semi-annually; principal and interest to be paid in the city of New York, at such place as the treasurer of the state shall designate, of which due notice shall be given. The said bonds. shall be made payable to said railroad company or its assigns, and such bonds and coupons shall be engraved and printed in the usual form of public securities, the cost of which the said county board is hereby authorized to pay out of the county treasury. The same shall be numbered from one, consecutively, to the highest number issued and shall be carefully registered in the office of the register of deeds of said county in a book to be provided and preserved for that purpose.

SECTION 4. Such bonds, according to the purpose How delivered. for which their issue is authorized, may be delivered in payment, at the value expressed on their face for shares of the capital stock of such railroad company to be subscribed by the chairman of the county board of supervisors aforesaid for the benefit of the county of Douglas, and the railroad company so receiving said bonds shall issue to said county therefor, certificates for a like amount of its paid up capital stock. The county of Douglas is hereby authorized to own, control and dispose of such stock in the same manner as an individual might do and vote upon the same by its agents duly empowered by said county board of supervisors, at any election held by the stockholders of said company.

21-P. & L. LAWS.

Faith of county pledged.

Tax to be levied

When special

How moneys to be invested.

SECTION 5. The faith and credit of said county, together with all the shares of stock in such railroad company thus taken by said county, and the dividends arising therefrom, and all proceeds of any sale thereof with the interest thereon, are hereby and shall remain inviolably pledged for the payment of the principal and interest of the bonds delivered by said county for said stock.

SECTION 6. The county board of supervisors of said county shall annually cause to be levied and collected as state taxes are collected, a sum of money sufficient to pay the interest existing and accruing by reason of the bonds which said county may issue under the provisions of this act, and such further amount as may be necessary to defray the expenses of collecting the same and paying it over to the state treasurer, who shall receive the same and apply it to the payment of the said interest at the time and place when and where the same shall become due.

SECTION 7. From and after the fifth year after the tax to be levied. issue of said bonds the said county board of supervis ors shall annually cause to be levied and collected, as a special tax for that purpose in the same manner as state taxes are collected, a sum of money not exceeding five per cent. of the amount of bonds which may have been issued or which may remain outstanding at such time. The amount so annually collected in said county as aforesaid shall be paid over by the county treasurer thereof to the state treasurer and by him safely kept as a sinking fund and applied in payment and liquidation of said bonds at maturity. The state treasurer, by and with the advice and consent of the governor of the state shall safely invest in good interest paying state or United States stocks, the amount so annually paid to him as provided in this section, and in like manner shall receive the income of the investments from time to time as the same may accumulate, and re-invest such income in such stocks. He shall make annually on the first day of January a full report to the county board of supervisors aforesaid, of the condition of the funds thus invested for a sinking fund, and during the year previous to the maturity of said bonds the state treasurer shall call in the investments so made and the income thereon, and at least one year before the maturity of said bonds, shall notify the said county board of the

probable amount thereof and the deficiency, if any, which will remain, after applying such amount so realized in payment of said bonds together with all proper costs and charges. It shall be the duty of the said county board of supervisors of said county to cause to be levied and collected, realized and paid over to the state treasurer during the year previous to the maturity of said bonds, a sufficient sum to make up the said deficiency, if any, and the state treasurer shall

faithfully apply the moneys herein provided to the payment of the interest and bonds aforesaid when the same shall become due.

made.

SECTION 8. For the purpose of promptly meeting Temporary the first installment of interest, or of any future deficien- loans may be cy before the taxes herein and by this act provided, shall be collected, the said county board of supervisors shall have power to make temporary loans at lawful interest for any term not exceeding six months, but such loan or loans shall not exceed seventy-five per cent of the tax levied and assessed for the purpose for which scuh loan or loans may be made, and such temporary loan or loans shall be paid by the state treasurer out of the tax when collected. SECTION 9. In case of any future dismemberment Dismemberof the present territory of Douglas county by the erection of a new county or counties or otherwise, the tion or portions detached shall continue to be responsible for the payment of the principal and interest of any bonds which may be issued under the provisions of this act, and to be taxed for the purposes herein and by this act provided, the same as if such detachment had not been made and according to the value of the property therein; and such taxes shall be levied, collected and paid over by the proper authorities for the purposes and in the manner herein before prescribed.

por

not to release

ment of county

from responsibility.

SECTION 10. If from any cause the said question is special election not submitted to the electors of Douglas county at the may be called. annual election aforesaid, specified in section one of this act, it shall be submitted at a special election or town meeting called for that purpose, when any ten electors of said county shall file with the clerk of the county board of supervisors a petition therefor. when such petition is thus filed the said clerk shall give public notice of the proposed submission of such question in the same manner as notices of general

And

Revised Statutes to apply.

elections are now required by law to be given by the sheriff. Such election shall be conducted and the votes shall be deposited, canvassed, certified and returned in all respects as herein before provided and with like. effect.

SECTION 11. All the provisions of chapter seven of the revised statutes of this state and the amendments thereof relating to elections and qualifications of electors, penalties for illegal voting and forms of oath to be administered, shall apply to any and all elections held under the provisions of this act.

SECTION 12. This act is hereby declared to be a public act and shall take effect from and after its passage and publication, and all acts or parts of acts hereto fore passed authorizing Douglas county to aid in railroads (be and the same) are hereby repealed.

Approved February 29, 1868.

Name and pow

poration.

CHAPTER 158.

AN ACT to incorporate the chamber of commerce in the city of
Milwaukee.

The people of the state of Wisconsin, represented in senate and assembly, do enact as follows:

SECTION 1. The persons now composing the chamers of the cor- ber of commerce of the city of Milwaukee, are hereby created a body corporate, under the name and style of the "chamber of commerce of the city of Milwaukee," and by that name may sue and be sued, implead and be impleaded, acquire and hold property and effects, real and personal; may have a common seal, and alter the same from time to time, and make such rules and by-laws, with power to alter the same from time to time, as may seem proper or necessaay for the good government of the corporation hereby created; such rules and by-laws not to contravene the laws of this state or of the United States.

Constitution and by-laws to be continued in force.

SECTION 2. The present constitution of said chamber of commerce shall remain the constitution thereof until this act shall be accepted as its charter by a