of funds corporated monument tions. § 123. Any unincorporated association which shall have been or- Transfer ganized solely for the purpose of raising funds to be devoted to the of uninerection of a monument or memorial to perpetuate the memory of associa the soldiers and sailors who served in the defense of the union in the late war, may by a majority vote of all its members who shall be present and voting at a meeting thereof, called as in this section provided, transfer to and vest in any incorporated association which shall have been organized under a general statute, or under the foregoing sections of this article for the sole purpose of erecting a like monument or memorial in the same town or village where such unincorporated association is located, any or all money which it shall have accumulated for such object, except as hereinafter provided, provided that such transfer does not conflict with any provision of the constitution or by-laws of such association, and that it shall be made and the money so transferred shall be accepted by such incorporated association in trust to apply the same, or the income thereof, exclusively for the purposes mentioned in section one hundred and twenty-one of this article. Any member of such unincorporated as Right of sociation who shall have contributed individually to fund so raised, and paid such contribution into the treasury of such association, the same appearing upon the books of the treasurer, shall be entitled to demand and receive the amount of such contribution from the treasurer of such association, in case such transfer shall be made and before the same shall be consummated upon filing with the president or secretary of such unincorporated association his or her affidavit to the effect that he or she has not approved of such transfer by vote or otherwise. No Vote upon vote upon the question of transferring the funds of such unincor- transfer. porated association as hereinbefore provided for shall be had or taken except at a meeting of such association especially called for that purpose by the president or secretary or other managing officer thereof, upon notice given at least ten days before the time fixed for such meeting, personally or by mail to each member of such association whose residence or post-office address is known, which notice. shall state the object of the meeting to be the consideration of making such transfer pursuant to this section. § 2. This act shall take effect immediately. Vol. I 32 members the to receive contributions paid. question of Chap. 329. AN ACT to amend chapter six hundred and eighty-six of the laws of eighteen hundred and ninety-two, entitled "An act in relation to counties, constituting chapter eighteen of the general laws," and the act amendatory thereof, relating to fire districts. Became a law April 23, 1897, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, three-fifths being present. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: Section 1. Section thirty-seven of chapter six hundred and eighty-six of the laws of eighteen hundred and ninety-two as amended by chapter nine hundred and two of the laws of eighteen hundred and ninety-six is hereby amended so as to read as follows: § 37. Fire districts outside of incorporated villages.- Each board of supervisors may, on the written, verified petition of the taxable inhabitants of a proposed fire district outside of an incorporated village or city, and within the county, whose names. appear on the last preceding assessment-roll of the town within which such proposed fire district is located, as owning or representing more than one-half of the taxable real property of such district, or as owning or representing more than one-half of the taxable real property of such district owned by the residents thereof, establish such district as a fire district. No such district shall extend in any direction to exceed one mile from the nearest engine or hook or ladder-house located within the district. When any such fire district has been established in the manner above provided, the legal voters thereof may elect not less than three nor more than five residents thereof to be the fire commissioners, for a term of five years, or such less term as a majority of such voters at the time of any such election may express on their ballots; and may also elect a treasurer in such fire district for a term of three years, who shall be entitled to receive and have the custody of the funds of the district and pay out the same for the purposes herein provided for, on the order of the fire commissioners, which treasurer before entering on the duties of his office, shall give such security as the board of supervisors may require. The first election for such fire commissioners and treasurer, shall be called by the clerk of the town within which any such district shall be established, within thirty days from the establishment of such district, and upon such notice, and in the same manner as required for by special town meetings. All subsequent elections shall be called in the same manner by the clerk of the town, not less than thirty days prior to the expiration of the term of office of any such commissioners or of the treasurer; special elections to fill any vacancies shall be called in the same manner, within thirty days after any such vacancy shall occur. Any such district, when established, shall be known by such name as the fire commissioners thereof may adopt at their first meeting for organization, and thereafter such fire commissioners shall be authorized and empowered to purchase apparatus for the extinguishment of fires therein; rent or purchase suitable real estate and buildings for the keeping and storing of the same; and to procure supplies of water, and have control and provide for the maintenance and support of a fire department in such district; and shall have the power to organize fire, hook, hose, ladder, axe and bucket fire patrol companies; and to appoint a suitable number of able and respectable inhabitants of said district as firemen, and to prescribe the duties of the firemen and the rules and regulations for the government of such companies and of the fire department; and who shall have power to make any and all contracts within the appropriations voted by the resident taxpayers of the district for the purpose of carrying out the authorization and powers herein granted. Whenever the fire commissioners in any such fire district shall submit a request in writing for an appropriation of any sum of money for the purposes herein authorized, the clerk of the town in which such fire district shall be located, shall call a meeting of the resident taxpayers of the district for the purpose of voting upon the question of appropriating such money; such meeting to be called by a notice posted conspicuously in at least two of the most public places in such fire district, at least ten days before the holding of any such meeting, which notices shall state the time, place and purposes of the meeting. At any such meeting such resident taxpayers may appropriate the amount requested by the fire commissioners, or any less amount, and when any such appropriation is made, the amount appropriated shall be assessed, levied and collected on such district, in the same manner, at the same time and by the same officers as the taxes of the town in which the district is located are assessed, levied and collected, and when collected shall be paid over immediately by the supervisor of the town to the treasurer of the fire district; and the town shall be responsible for any and all sums so collected until the same shall be paid over to such treasurer. All meetings of any such district called for the election of officers, or for the appropriation of money, shall be presided over by a resident taxpayer to be designated by the fire commissioners, except at the first meeting after any such fire district shall have been established shall be presided over by a resident taxpayer selected by the legal voters at the meeting; and all elections for fire commissioners and for treasurer shall be by ballot, in the same manner as is provided for the election of other town officers. The board of supervisors in any county in which any such fire district shall have been heretofore or shall be hereafter established, may at any time, upon the written verified petition of the taxable inhabitants of any such district, whose names appear upon the last preceding assessment-roll of the town within which such district is located as owning or representing more than one-half of the taxable real property of such district, or as owning or representing more than one-half of the taxable real property in such district owned by the residents thereof, discontinue such district as a fire district, and upon such action being taken by the supervisors, the fire commissioners of such district, where it is wholly within a village incorporated since said district was formed shall turn over to any fire corporation organized by the trustees of said village all the property thereof, such village to pay all the debts thereof, and in other than such last named districts the fire commissioners shall proceed to sell the property belonging to such district at public sale; three notices of such sale shall be posted conspicuously in three of the most public places in the district, for a period of thirty days prior to the sale, and the proceeds of such sale shall be paid over by the treasurer of the district to the supervisor of the town, and the sum so paid over shall be credited to the taxable real property located in such district, in the next succeeding assessment of town taxes. Whenever any portion of any such fire district heretofore or hereafter established shall be incorporated into the corporate limits of any incorporated village or city, the board of supervisors of the county in which such district is located upon the written verified petition of more than one-half in assessed valuation of the taxable inhabitants of such incorporated portion of the fire district, change the boundaries of such district in such manner as shall exclude such incorporated portion of the district, and thereafter such incor porated portion of the district shall not be entitled to the protec tion, nor liable to be assessed or taxed for the support of the fire department of such district. Where any two fire districts not within any incorporated village adjoin each other, the boundary line between such districts may be changed by the board of supervisors of the county in which they are located, upon a written verified petition of the taxable inhabitants of the portion of the fire district applied to be changed, whose names appear upon the last preceding assessment-roll of the town within which said portion of said fire district is located, as owning or representing more than one-half of the taxable property of such portion of said fire district, provided the taxable inhabitants of both said fire districts and within the county, whose names appear upon the last preceding assessment-roll of the town or towns, owning or representing more than one-half of the taxable property of said district shall consent in writing to such change. § 2. This act shall take effect immediately. Chap. 330. AN ACT to amend the fisheries, game and forest law, and the act amendatory thereof, in regard to use of nets. Became a law April 23, 1897, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, three-fifths being present. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: Section 1. Section one hundred and thirty-four of chapter four hundred and eighty-eight of the laws of eighteen hundred and ninety-two, the title to which was amended by chapter three hundred and ninety-five of the laws of eighteen hundred and ninety. five to read "An act relating to game, fish and wild animals, and to the forest preserve and Adirondack park, constituting chapter thirty-one of the general laws and to be known as the fisheries, game and forest law," as amended by chapter nine hundred and seventy-four of the laws of eighteen hundred and ninety-five, is hereby amended to read as follows: § 134. Meshes of nets used in Lakes Erie and Ontario and Cattaraugus creek.-The meshes of nets used in Lake Erie and Lake Ontario and Cattaraugus creek shall not be less than one and one |