Chap. 199.—An ACT to incorporate the Portsmouth Suburban Water Company.

Approved March 15, 1902.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That A. J.
Phillips, John L. Watson, H. L. Maynard, and T. J. Wool, of the city
of Portsmouth, Virginia; Gustavus Ober, of the city of Baltimore, Mary-
land ; James H. Dawes, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and W. D. Pender,
of Norfolk, Virginia, and such other persons as they may associate with
them, and their successors, are hereby created a body corporate and politic
under the name and style of the Portsmouth Suburban Water Company,
and by that name shall have perpetual succession, may sue and be sued,
contract and be contracted with, plead and be impleaded in all proper
courts and places, have a common seal, and change the same at pleas-
ure, and make all necessary by-laws and regulations for the government
of such company not inconsistent with the laws of the State of Vir-
ginia and the laws of the United States.

2. The capital stock of the said company shall not be less than ten thou-
sand dollars nor more than fifty thousand dollars, divided into shares of
the par value of one hundred dollars each, and the stockholders are au-
thorized to issue such portion of the capital stock as preferred stock as
they may desire, upon such terms and conditions as they may deem
proper, and the directors may receive lands, materials, services, or other
valuable considerations in payment for subscriptions to or purchase of
the capital stock at such valuation or price, and on such terms or condi-
tions, as may be agreed upon, and at, above, or below the par valuc
thereof, and the stock of the company so issued shall, for all purposes,
be treated as paid for at par in money, without any liability whatever
thereon or upon the holders thereof to pay any calls or assessments on
account thereof except as may be agreed upon.

3. The said company is authorized and empowered to purchase, take,
and hold real estate not to exceed one thousand acres at any one time; to
bore wells and extract water therefrom ; to take water from rivers, creeks,
springs, or ponds; to build cisterns, tanks, dams, and other means of
creating a water supply; to purchase water from any other company or
corporation, and to purchase lakes or ponds and the water supply thereof ;
to erect, equip, and operate a pumping plant or plants, stand pipe or
stand pipes, reservoir or reservoirs, for the purposes of pumping water
and storing the same; to lay and maintain pipe or pipes for conducting
water, and also to repair such pipe or pipes ; to connect any lakes or ponds
which may at any time be owned by the said company by canal or pipe
lines; to conduct water through pipes, and sell the same to individuals,
corporations, cities, towns, and counties, and to any institution or prop-
erty belonging to the State of Virginia or to the government of the
United States at such rates as it may deem expedient, and to collect such
rent or rents therefor; to manufacture, purchase, or otherwise acquire,
hold, own, mortgage, pledge, sell, lease, or let, assign, and transfer, in-
vest, trade, deal in with goods, wares, merchandise, stock, and bonds of
other corporations, and other evidences of indebtedness and property of
every class and description, and shall have the right to vote on all
shares of stock in other companies or corporations the same as an actual
person; also to collect dividends on stocks and interest on bonds the
same as an actual person.

4. The said company shall have the right to borrow money in such
amounts and at such times as to it may seem expedient, and may also
issue bonds and secure the same by mortgage or other lien upon its prop-
erty of every kind and description, and upon its franchise, and to make
and enter into contracts of every sort and kind with any individual, firm,
association, corporation, private, public, or municipal.

5. The said company is authorized to contract and agree with the
owner of any land for the convenient location of any of its works, or the
location of any of its pipe or canal lines in Norfolk, Nansemond, Isle of
Wight, and adjacent counties, and in case of a disagreement between the
said company and the owner of any land desired to be used, or if the
owner thereof be a feme covert under age, non compos mentis, out of the
State, or unknown, the said company shall have the right to condemn
the fee, or less than the fee, in such lands as may be necessary for laying
of its pipes, or any of them, in the manner prescribed by the forty-sixth
chapter of the Code of Virginia, edition eighteen hundred and eighty-
seven.

6. Each stockholder in the company shall at all meetings and elections
be entitled to one vote for each share of stock registered in his name,
and the stockholders of such company may enact such by-laws, rules, and
regulations for the management of the affairs of the said company as they
may deem proper and expedient.

?. The board of directors shall be stockholders of the said company,
and shall consist of such number as the stockholders may determine upon.
and shall be elected at the stockholders’ meeting, to be held on such davs
as the by-laws of the company may direct, and shall continue in office
for the term of one year from and after the date of their election. and
until their successors are elected and accept the duties of office, and they
shall elect one of their number president, and in case of the death, resig-
nation, or incapacity of any member of the board of directors during his
term of office the said board shall elect his successor for the unexpired
term.
8. The said company may connect or unite its property with that of
any other company or companies, or consolidate and merge its stock, prop-
erty, and franchises with and into those of any other company or com-
panies chartered by the general assembly of the State of Virginia, upon
such terms and under such name as may be agreed upon between the
companies so uniting or connecting, merging or consolidating; and for
that purpose power is hereby given to it, and such other company or com-
panies, to make and carry out such contracts as will facilitate and con-
summate such connection, merger, or consolidation, or any lease or sale:
provided, that a copy of every such contract of any consolidation and
merger be filed in the office of the board of public works, and the office of
the secretary of the Commonwealth.

9. All taxes due the Commonwealth by said company shall be paid in
lawful money of the United States, and not in coupons.

10. Nothing herein contained shall be taken to authorize said company
to condemn lands in any city or incorporated town of the Commonwealth,
or to establish or acquire water works in any city or incorporated town of
the Commonwealth without the consent first obtained of the council of
said city or town.

11. This charter shall be subject to amendment, alteration, or repeal
at the pleasure of the general assembly.

12. Nothing in this act shall be construed as authorizing the said com-
pany to construct, maintain, or operate its works, or any part thereof, in
the counties of Elizabeth City and Warwick, or in the city of Newport
News and towns of Hampton and Phebus. |

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