Chap. 218.—An ACT Declaring the Rights and Franchises of the Trus-
tees of Willis River Forfeited, and Providing for Restoring the Navi-
vation of Willis River, by the Incorporation of the Willis Navigation
Company.

Approved March 18, 1872.

Whereas, It manifestly appears by the petition of many citi-
zens of Buckingham and Cumberland counties, recently pre-
sented to this general assembly, and the affidavits accompany-
ing the same, that the navigation company incorporated by act
of assembly, dated January twenty-cight, eighteen hundred
and seventeen, under the name and title of the Trustees of
Willis River, for clearing, improving and extending the naviga-
tion of Willis river, from its junction with ‘James river to any
place above Ca Ira, have, since January first, eighteen hundred
and sixty-five, entirely abandoned said navigation, and have
neither the purpose nor the means of further keeping the same
open, and that said navigation has in consequence been almost
entirely broken up by fallen trees, sand bars, &c.; and whereas,
it is of vast importance to the industrial interests of that sec-
tion of the state that this navigation should be restored: now,
therefore, “

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
all the chartered rights and franchises of the said company,
entitled the Trustees of Willis River, have been and are hereby
declared to have become forfeited to the commonwealth of
Virginia.

2. Be it further enacted, That Philip A. Hubard, John R.
Palmore, B. B. Woodson, J. C. Blanton, D. C. Randolph,
Edward T. Page, J. Taylor Gray, William Wilson, Richard H.
Walton, Wm. H. Mayo, T. D. Irving, Mayo B. Carrington,

and are hereby appointed commissioners, who, or
any three of whom may, at such time as they may designate,
open books of subscription at Cartersville, Ca Ira, or Cumber-
land court-house, to the capital stock of a new navigation com-
pany, for the purpose of restoring and keeping in order the
navigation of the Willis river, from its confluence with the
Jaines river, to such point on said Willis river, at or above Ca
Ira, as suid company shall determine. The said company may
have a capital stock of twenty thousand dollars, divided into
shares of fifty dollars cach: but so soon as five hundred dol-
lars of bona tide subscription shall have been made, and ten
per centum of that amount actually paid to the commissioners,
they shall, or any three of them may, call a meeting at Ca Ira,
who may then proceed to organize, elect officers and adopt
by-laws for the government é6f the company. As soon as an
organization shall have been so effected, said company shall be
and become a corporation under the name and title of the Wil-
lis Navigation Company; and shall from thenceforth be fully
and completely invested with, and be entitled to exercise and
enjoy all the rights, privileges, franchises and powers, conferred
upon the trustees of Willis river, by said act of January twen-
ty-eight, eighteen hundred and seventeen, or acquired by them
under the provisions of said act, except, in so far as any of the
sections of said act of January twenty-eight, eighteen hundred
and seventeen are hereinafter altered by amendment or
expressly repealed.

3. Be it further enacted, that sections four, six, seven, nine
and fifteen of the said act of January twenty-cight, eightcen
hundred and seventeen, be and the same are hereby amended
and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

. § 4. If any person, his or her personal representatives, &c.,
shall fail to pay the amount of his or her subscription to the
,

stock of the said company, at such time as the same shall be
required to be paid, it shall be lawful for the said company to
recover the amount so remaining unpaid, with the costs, and
with interest on the said amount, from the time the same
became due and payable, by motion, upon ten days’ previous
notice, in the court of the county in which such person resides,
or the said company may, at its election, proceed to sell such
delinquent share or shares at public auction, after ten days’
public notice; and after retaining the sum due, with costs and
charges of sale, they shall refund the surplus, if any, to the
former owner.

§ 6. It shall be lawful for the said company to acquire, in the
mode prescribed by the fifty-sixth chapter of the Code of Vir-
ginia (edition of eighteen hundred and sixty), and the acts
amendatory thereof, in regard to internal improvement compa-
nies, so much land as may be necessary for extending and im-
proving the navigation of Willis river, or for the construction
of warehouses, toll-houses, or houses for their officers or agents.

§ 7. After the said company shall have restored the naviga-
tion of the said river, the same shall be deemed and taken to
be a public highway. And in consideration of the expense of
restoring the said navigation, and keeping it open, it shall be
lawful for said company, after said river shall have been made
and so long as the same shall continue navigable, and afford
easy passage in dry seasons for boats drawing eight inches of
water, to demand and have, at such place or places upon Willis
river, or (by agrecement with the James river and Kanawha
company,) upon the James river canal, or its basin at the city
of Richmond, as the company may deem most convenient, for
all comniodities transported up or down Willis river, tolls
according to the following table of rates: Every pipe or hogs-
head of wine, rum or other spirits, containing more than sixty-
five gallons, and every hogshead of tobacco, one dollar. Every
cask between sixty-five and thirty-five gallons, fifty cents, and
barrels and kegs proportionally less, according to quality and
quantity of their contents of wine or other spirits, tierces of
tobacco, fifty cents; casks, &c. of oil, molasses, sugar, bacon,
&c., same as wine, &c. Every bushel of wheat, peas, beans
or grass seed of any kind, five cents. Every bushel of indian
corn, oats or other grain, three cents. Every barrel of flour,
fifteen cents. Every ton of hemp, potash, bar or manufactured
iron, one dollar and twenty-five cents. Every ton of pig iron
or castings, fifty cents. very ton of copper, lead or any ore,
other than iron ore, seventy-five cents. Every ton of stone or
iron ore, twenty-five cents. Every hundred bushels of lime,
seventy-five cents. Every chaldron of éoals, twenty cents.

‘Every hundred pipe staves, ten cents. Every hundred hogs-

head staves, or pipe or hogshead heading, five cents. Every
hundred barrel staves or barrel heading, three cents. Every
hundred cubic feet of plank or scantling, thirty cents. Every
hundred cubic feet of other timber, fifteen cents. Every ton
of guano or manipulated manure, one dollar. Every gross
hundred weight of all other commodities or packages, five
cents. Every boat or vessel which has not commodities on
board to yield so much, one dollar; except, that an empty boat
or vessel returning from a trip on which tolls have been regu-
larly paid upon its load, shall re-pass toll free: provided, the
said company may demand and receive one-fourth, one-half or
three-fourths of the above toll rates, so soon as they shall have
restored the navigation one-fourth, one-half or three-fourths,
respectively, of the distance from the mouth of Willis river to
Ca Iva: and provided further, that the general assembly may,
from time to time, alter any of the foregoing rates. In case
any person shall rcfuse or neglect to pay the tolls at the time
of offering to pass the place appointed for the payment thereof,
the collector of said tolls may lawfully refuse passave to the
vessel of such person; and if any vessel shall pass without
paying toll, then the said collector may scize such vessel where-
soever found, and sell the same at public auction for cash,
which so far as is necessary shall be applied towards paying
said tolls and all expenses of seizure and sale, aud the balance,
if any, shall be paid to the owner of the vessel; and the person
owning or having the direction of such vessel, shall be lable
for such toll, if the same is not paid by the sale of such vessel.

§ 9. Each stockholder shall have one vote for every share of
stock owned by him, at all mectings of stockholders. Said
stock shall be deemed personal property, and shall pass like
other personal property.

§ 15. If the said company shall not commence work on the
Willis river within two years from the passave of this act, or
shall not re-open the navigation as herein provided, from the
mouth of Willis river to Ca Ira, within tive years from such
period of commencement, they shall then and thereupon forfeit
all rights and special privileges hereby conferred upon them.

4. Sections one, two, three, five, eight, thirteen and fourteen.
of the act of January twenty-eight, eighteen hundred and
seventeen, and all other acts and parts of acts inconsistent with
the provisions of this act, are hereby repealed.

5. This act shall be in force from its passae.

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