Chap. 43.—An ACT to amend, re-enact, extend and renew the char-
ter of the Staunton Gas Company.

Approved January 21, 1886.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
the charter granted by the general assembly, entitléd an act to
incorporate the Staunton Gas Company, passed February six-
teenth, eighteen hundred and fifty-three, be and the same is
hereby amended, re-enacted, renewed and extended for a period
of thirty years from and after the date of the passage of this
act, so as to read as follows:

§ 1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
it shall be lawful, at such time as any three of the commission-
ers hereinafter named may appoint, to open books of subscrip-
tion in the city. of Staunton, under the superintendence of
Michael G. Harman, Benjamin Crawford, Jno. B. Breckin-
ridge, James A. McClung, Davis A. Kayser, Henderson M.
Bell, Jno. D. Imboden, Jefferson Kinney, Edwin M. Taylor,
Thomas T. Eskridge, William H. Harman and Joseph N.
Woodward, or any three of them, or of their successors, to
receive subscriptions of stock, in shares of fifty dollars each,
to an amount not exceeding one hundred thousand dollars,
for the: purpose of public and private lighting and heating and
for power, both within the corporate limits of the city of Staun-
ton and without the same in Augusta county, adjacent to said
city, with gas, electricity, or other material manufactured from
bituminous coal or other substances. |

§ 2. That when three hundred shares have been subscribed,
the subscribers and their successors shall be a body politic and
corporate, under the name and style of the Staunton Gas
Company, and shall have power to construct suitable works
and machinery, either in the said city or county, for manufac-
turing and distributing gas, electricity, or other like materials
and agents, through said city and county adjacent thereto, and
to sell and dispose of the same for private and public uses.
The said company shall have power to acquire and hold for
the purposes aforesaid, real estate not exceeding five acres, and
shall be invested with all the powers conferred, and be subject
to all the provisions prescribed by chapters fifty-six and _fifty-
seven of the Code of Virginia, except so far as this, act may
otherwise prescribe.

§ 3. Each and every share of stock shall entitle the owner
thereof to one vote thereon, in person or by proxy.

§ 4. The said company is hereby authorized to open streets,
lanes, alleys, avenues, highways, public parks and squares in
the said city and county, for the purpose of distributing gas,
electricity and other like materials and agents; but the said
company shall repair any injury done thereby at its own cost,
in such manner as may be prescribed by the city council or
board of supervisors respectively.

§ 5. Any person who shall wilfully open a communication
with a street gas-main or other gas-pipe of said company,
without authority from said company, or shall wilfully let on the
gas after it has been stopped by order of said company for repairs
or any other purpose, or who shall put up any pipes or burners
in addition to the pipes and burners originally put up and in-
spected, or introduce gas into any of them without authority,
as aforesaid, or shall wilfully do or cause to be done any act
whereby the works of said company, or any portion of its ap-

aratus or machinery shall be obstructed, interfered with, in-
jured or destroyed, such person shall forfeit, for each offence,
not less than ten dollars nor more than thirty dollars, to be re-
covered before the mayor, or any justice of said city or county,
according as the offence may have been committed in the
city or in the county, one-half to the informer and the other
half to the’ treasurer of said city or county, respectively, for its
own use ; and shall, moreover, forfeit and pay to said compan
double the amount of damages sustained by reason of such
offence or injury, to be recovered by action or motion in any
court of record of said city.

§ 6. The council of said city, and the courts of said county,
respectively, shall have power to prevent injury to the works
and property of the said company, and to punish any person
who may violate the same, by fine not exceeding fifty dollars
for each offence: provided, that before the said company, or
their agents or employees, shall erect or plant any poles in the
streets of the said city of Staunton, they shall first obtain the
consent of the said city to do so, and shall erect them subject
to such regulations as the said city council may prescribe.

2. All taxes, debts and demands due from the said company
to the state of Virginia, shall be paid in currency, and not in
coupons. ° |

3. This act shall be in force from its passage.