Chap. 105.—An ACT to ainend and re-enact the 67th seetion of the
charter of the eity of Kichinond.

Approved February 5, 1879.

1. Be it enacted by the Benera assembly of Virginia, That
the sixty-seventh section of an act approved May twenty- fourth,
eighteen hundred and seventy, entitled an act providing a char-
ter for the cit y of Richmond, as amended by an act approved
March twenty- ninth, eighteen hundred and seventy-five, be and
the same 1s hereby amended so as to read as follows

§ 67. The city council may, in the name and _ for the use of
the city, contract loans, or cause to be issued certificates of
debt or bonds, but such loans, certificates or bonds, shall not
be irredecmable for a period vroater than thirty-four years : pro-
vided, however, that they shall not contract such louns, or issne
such certificates of debt or bonds for the purpose of subserib-
ing to the stock, or appropriating money or bonds for the bene-
fitof any company incorporated for a work of internal improye-
ment or other purposes, withont first being authorized so to do
by three-fourths of the legal voters of the eity voting on the
question; and also, by a majority of the registered freelolders
of the city; and the council shall, when such debt or loan is
ereated, provide a sinking fund for the payment of the same.
Neither shall the city endorse the bonds of any such company
without the same authority: provided, however, that the said
council may issue, or cause to be issued, bonds for other pur-
poses than that for railroads or internal improvement companies ;
but the bonds, or interest-bearing debt of the city of Richmond,
shall not in the aggregate exceed eighteen per centum of the
assessed value of the taxable real estate of said city, and any
excess of such bonded or interest-bearing debt over and above
the limit herein prescribed, which may be created or issued in
violation of this provision, shall be void as to said city: and
provided further, that the council, if authorized by a majority
of the registered freeholders of the city voting on a day to be
fixed by the eouncil, may purchase the property and franchises
of the James river and Kanawha company, or any part thereof,
and issue bonds, contract loans, or cause to be issued certifi-
cates of debt or bonds, to an amount sufficient to raise the
money to pay for the same, and the amount of debt which may
be contracted for that purpose, shall not be included in the
said aggregate debt hmited to eighteen per centum of the as-
sessed value of the taxable realestate of the city. And in case
such purchase shall be made of the entire property, rights and
franchises which would pass on the foreclosure of any mortgage
on the same, the city of Richmond shall not only succeed to the
franchises, tights and privileges provided for by the forty-fourth
and forty-fifth sections of chapter sixty-one of the Code of
eighteen hundred and seventy-three, and be regulated thereby,
but shall also have the right to exercise all the fi anchises, rights
and privileges which may have been granted at the date of such
purchase to any internal improvement company, with a view to
the construction of a railroad along the line of the James river
and Kanawha canal to Clifton Forge and Lexington; and in
any organization which may follow such purchase, the city shall
be at liberty to retain, as her own, such part of said property,
rights and franchises as she may deem advisable.
2. This act shall be in force from itS passage.