TWENTY-SIXTH LEGISLATURE.

No. 13.

STATE OF MAINE.

HOUSE.

IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD ONE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND

FORTY-SIX.

AN ACT to incorporate the Georges Canal Company.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Represent

2 atives in Legislature assembled, as follows:

3 SECTION 1. John Miller, Atwood Levensaler, Ben4 jamin Carr, John O'Brien, Rufus C. Counce, Lewis 5 Bachelder, Francis Keating, William Keating, Samuel 6 Atkinson, John C. Knowlton, Gideon Richards, and 7 Daniel McCurdy, their associates, successors, and as8 signs, are hereby made and constituted a body politic 9 and corporate by the name of the Georges Canal 10 Company; with all the powers and privileges incident 11 to similar corporations so far as may be necessary 12 to carry into effect all the purposes of this act; to have 13 a common seal and to change the same; and to make 14 any by-laws for the management of their affairs not

Wm. T. Johnson, Printer to the State.

15 repugnant to the laws of this State. And the said 16 corporation are hereby authorized and empowered to 17 survey, locate, construct and finally complete, alter 18 and keep in repair, such canals, locks, flood gates, 19 docks, sluices, embankments, basins, piers, dams, 20 wharves and other works, as may be necessary or 21 convenient for the purpose of rendering the Gorges 22 river, and the ponds through which it runs, or with 23 which it is connected, navigable for boats from the tide 24 waters below the village in the town of Warren, to 25 Stevens' pond in the town of Liberty, including 26 the waters of Quantebacook pond in the town of 27 Searsmont and the stream connecting the same with 28 Georges river; and they shall have power to use and 29 employ as much of the water of said river and ponds 30 or of the streams which may be connected therewith, 31 as may be necessary or convenient for the use of said 32 locks and canals, and also to take and use such land 33 along the course of said river, ponds, locks and ca34 nals as shall be necessary for the purposes hereinafter 35 expressed, acquiring the same title thereto as is ac36 quired by the public to lands appropriated for public 37 highways, paying a just compensation therefor, and 38 also for all damages caused to any lands by means of 39 flowing occasioned by any of the said canals, locks,

,40 dams or other works erected or made by said company,

41 as hereinafter provided.

SEC. 2. When the said corporation cannot agree 2 with any other corporation or individual over or 3 through whose lands any of the aforesaid works may 4 be constructed or which may be damaged by flowing 5 occasioned by any of said dams, canals, locks or other 6 works, then in that case, the damages shall be esti7 mated by three disinterested arbiters to be agreed up8 on by the parties; or if they cannot agree upon such 9 arbiters, then in that case the district court for the 10 county in which any of such lands lie, upon the ap11 plication of either party, and on due notice to the 12 adverse party, shall cause the damages to be ascer13 tained by a committee of three disinterested! persons 14 to be appointed by said court, whose duty shall be 15 to view the premises, estimate the damages, and make 16 report thereof to said court; and if the same be not 17 objected to, it may be approved, and shall be final as 18 to the matter inquired of by said committee. But 19 if either party is dissatisfied with such report and 20 desires that the damages may be ascertained by 21 the verdict of a jury, said court may on such request 22 submit the question of damages and any other matter 23 of fact which may be raised by the pleadings or brief

24 statements of the parties, to a jury, to be empanneled 25 to try the cause, whose verdict shall be final on all such 26 matters of fact submitted to them; and on such trial 27 the report of the committee shall be prima facie evi28 dence of the amount of damages, but may be im29 peached by other evidence. And the notice to the 30 adverse party herein required shall be by causing him 31 to be served with an attested copy of such application, 32 fourteen days at least prior to the sitting of the court 33 at which such committee is to be moved for; and 34 such application may be filed in vacation in the clerk's 35 office of said court, whose duty shall be to issue an 36 order of notice thereon returnable to the next suc37 ceeding term thereof.

SEC. 3. The said corporation may tender, either be2 fore or after such application to the court, a reasonable 3 compensation for damages, or tender a default there4 for; and if the final determination shall not exceed 5 the amount so tendered or named in such offer, all 6 costs arising, after such tender or offer, shall not bar 7 the party making it from showing that a less amount 8 or no damages at all have arisen or may arise to the 9 party making claim thereto. And the said court 10 shall have power to award execution for the amount 11 of damages when ascertained as aforesaid, and also

12 for costs to the party entitled thereto; provided also, 13 that if the party objecting to the report of the com14 mittee shall not succeed in obtaining a verdict more 15 favorable to him, he shall pay the costs of such trial 16 to the adverse party.

4

SEC. 4. If any person or persons shall willfully and 2 maliciously take up, remove or injure any part of said 3 canal, dams, locks, sluices, or other works or appendages thereof, or divert the water from said canal or 5 locks or the streams supplying the same, such person 6 or persons for every such offense shall forfeit and pay 7 to said corporation treble damages, to be sued for in 8 a special action of the case and recovered in any 9 court of competent jurisdiction; and shall be further 10 liable to indictment for such offense, and on convic11 tion thereof before the supreme judicial court, shall 12 be sentenced to fine or imprisonment at the discretion 13 of the court.

SEC. 5. A toll is hereby granted to said corporation 2 according to the rates following, viz: through all the 3 locks and canals which may be necessarily constructed 4 for the purposes heretofore expressed between the 5 head of the Seven Tree pond, in Union, and the 6 head of the tide in Warren, for all plank, boards, 7 joists, or other sawed stuff, in rafts or otherwise, forty