Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 March 1895 — SOME NEW LAWS. [ARTICLE]

SOME NEW LAWS.

The state legislature has done a good deal of good work, this session, but the bulk of it, so far, has been in killing off bad bills rather than in passing good ones. The following is a brief summary of all the acts of general interest, which had received the Governor’s signiture up to last Saturday. The first act passed was that appropriating SIOO,OOO for the expenses of the Legislature, which is $6,000 less than the preceding Legislature appropriated for that purpose. The second act was appropri-

ating money to meet the expenditures of the Governor for the support and t ransportation of - the mijita to enforce the laws, mainly during the Debs strike. A bill approved Feb. 16, provides for the opening, vacating and change of highways; provides that the auditors of counties shall require sheriffs to notify the viewers of proposed roads, for their location or discontinuance, who shah, after being swOrn, proceed to that duty. Highways of public utility shall be laid out on the best ground, but shall not run through any person’s inclosure of one year’s 77 standing without the owner’s consent, unless a good way cannot otherwise be had. Where roads are laid out on the dividing lines of individuals, each shall give half the road. A bill which defines the course to be pursued by churches, benevolent institutions and education a 1 societies to attain property by gift or purchase by the agency of trustees. A bill which forbids the running of railway tracks through cemeteries, and it has an emergency clause. Another which provides that when gravel roads have been built by order of the county commissioners, and the viewers shall depart from the line of such highway and construct portions upon a new line, the abandoned portions shall be deemed vacated and shallreverttotheowner. Emergency. Legalizing the acts of notaries who, acting in good faith, had no commissions when papers were certified, or who are inelgible from any cause. Emergency. Providing that cemetery property, shall not be taxed except the, corporation derives a pecuniary benefit or profit therefrom. ■Senate enrolled act No. 1, created a State Soldiers Home at Lafayette, appropriating $75,000 for administrative buildings and the fitting up of the grounds, and provides for a commandant and adjutant and a board of trustees to serve without pay. It also provides for the support of any veteran and his wife actually at the Home.

Relating to the cutting of hedges and other live fences along dividing lines. It provides that hedges shall be trimmed, to five feet in height and three feet in width each year, and w’liencomplaint is made by one of the parties in interest that the other fails to comply with the law, the township trustee, after due notice, shall cause the to be trimmed and.begin a suit against the .owners of the property. An act, relating to taxation, being an amendment of Sections 11, 114,115’ 125 and 129 of the act of March 6, 1891. It defines specifically when property shall be taqed, provides for county boards of review, composed of auditor, assessor and treasurer and two freeholders, and defines its powers and extends the session of the State Board of Review. Approved March 1. An act which forbids the attaching of the 80 per cent, insurance clause to contracts. An act which calls for an account of the proceeds of the swamp land fund by the Treasurer of State. An act which materially changing the old law regarding the publication of libels in newspapers. The new law requires the aggrieved party to serve a notice on the publisher, giving the statements whiolf he claims to be defamatory. If after suit shall be brought it appears upon trial that the article was published in good faith, and that its falsity was due to mistake and that a full and fair retraction was published within three days, if a daily, and ten days if a weekly paper, in a conspicious place and type the plaintiff shall receive only actual damages. This was approved March 2 and had an emergency clause. Requiring insurance companies to add cash to their capital until it shall be equal to SIOO,OOO. Approved March 2. Defining the manner for payingdrain and sewer assessments and affords the privilege of paying the same bv installments.