Chap. 132.—An ACT to amend and re-enact, extend and renew the
charter of the Portsmouth Gas Company, passed February 11, 1854.

Approved February 19, 1884.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
the charter granted by the general assembly entitled an act
to ine orporate the Portsmouth gas company, passed Fe ebruary
eleventh, eighteen hundred and fifty-four, 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.

That the first. second, fourth, fifth and sixth sections of
the said act first above recited, be amended and re-enacted so
as to read as follows:

$1. Beit enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
it shall be lawful at such time as any three of the eommis-
siuners hereinatter named may appoint, to open books of sub-
Scr iption inthe city of Portsmouth, under the superintendence
of Gieorwe W. Grice, G. A. Perdicaris, James Hoy, Samuel M.
Wilson, W. H. H. Hodges. G. Henderson, W. Watts, J. A.
Jenkins, Joseph Bourke, ‘and William H. W ilson, or any three
of them or of. their successors, to receive subscriptions of
stock in shares of fifty dollars each, to an amount not exceed-
ing one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, for the purpose of
public and private lighting and heating and for power, both
within the corporate limits of the city of Portsmouth, and
Without the same in Norfolk county, adjacent to said city,
with gas, electricity, or other material manufactured from
bituminous coal or other substances.

$2. That when seven hundred shares have been sub-
scribed, the subscribers and their successors shall be a body,
politic and corporate under the name and style of The Ports-
mouth Gas Company, and shall have power to construct
suitable works and machinery, either in said city or county,
tor manufacturing and distributing gas, electricity, or other
like materials, 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, tor 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
fittv-six and fifty-seven of the Code of Virginia, except so far
as this act may otherwise prescribe.

$4. The said company is hereby authorized to open streets,
lanes, allevs, avenues, highways, public parks and squares in
said city and county, for the purpose of distributing gas, elec-
tricity, and other like materials; but the said company shall
repair any injury done thereby, at its own cost, in such man-
ucr as mav be prescribed by the city council or county board
of supervisors, respectively.
§ 5. Any person who shall wilfully open a communication
with street gas main, or other gas pipe. of said company,
without authoritw from the president and directors thereof,
or shall wilfully let on the gas after it) bas been stopped by
order of the president and directors for repair or any other
purpose, or who shall put up any pipes or burners in addi-
tion to the pipes and burners originally put up and inspected,
or introduce gas into any of them without authority as afore-
said, or shall wilfully do or cause to be done any act whereby
the works of said company, or any portion of its machinery
or apparatus shall be obstructed, interfered witb, injured or
destroyed, such person shall forteit for each offence not less
than ten dollars nor more than thirty dollars, to be recovered
betore the mayor or any Justice, one-half to the informer and
the other half to the treasurer of said city or county, respect-
ively, for its own use; and shall, moreover, forteit and pay to
said company 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,

§ 6. The council of said city and the board of supervisors
of said county, respectively, shall have power to prevent in-
jury 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 betore
the said company or their agents or employees shall erect or
plant any poles in the streets of the said city of Portsmouth,
they shall first obtain the consent of the council of the said
city to do so, and shall erect them subject to such regulations
as the said city council may prescribe.

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