Chap. 234.—An ACT to amend the seeond section of an act entitled
an act to prescribe the manner in which the Norfolk and Cincin-
nati rulroad company shall pay its tax on its mortyage to secure
bonds hereafter to be issued, and to enlarge the powers of said Nor-
folk and Cincinnati railroad: company, approved December 21, 1885,

Approved May 14, 1887.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
the second section of an act entitled an act to prescribe the
mannerin which the Norfolk and Cincinnati railroud com-
pany shall pay its tax on its mortgage to secure bonds here-
after to be issued, and to enlarge the powers of said Nortolk
and Cincinnati railroad company, be and is hereby amended
and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

$2. The said company shall have power by vote of a

majority of its stockholders, to consolidate and merge its
franchises and property with those ot the Eastern Kentucky
railway of Kentucky, or any other railroad company orga-
nized under the laws of that State, which gives satistactory
promise of expeditious construction to the State line, and
with any railroad company whose chartered priv ileves
granted under the laws of this State, extend into the mineral
region of southwest Virginia, which it is the purpose of said
Nortolk and Cincinnati railroad company to aid in develop-
ing, and also with any railroad company connection with
whose lines may be made to reach the iron ores of eastern
Tennessee and western North Carolina, so as to utilize the
coke of Virginia. Such contracts as are necessary to the
effectual carrying out of the agreements aforesaid shall be
executed, and thereupon said contracts or duplicate copies
thereof, shall be filed in the office of the secretary of the com-
monwealth, and when so filed shall be taken as the acts of
consolidation of said companies, which are respectively there-
unto empowered by this act; and any consolidated company
thus formed by or under such name as it may adopt, and sct-
forth in said contract, shall be entitled to all the property,
rights, and franchises, and subject to all the liabilities of the
consolidated companies, and shall be taken to be a corpora-
tion of the State of Virginia: provided that tho privileges
conferred by this act are hereby granted and contirmed on
condition that in pursuance thereof not less than fifty miles
of railroad shall be constructed and in operation within one
year from the passage of this act, otherwise this act becomes
null and void and of no effect.

2. The privileges herein granted are on the express condi-
tion and agreement on the part of the said company to pay
its taxes to the State in lawful money of the United States:
and provided further, that the said railroad company and its
successors shall not have the right to the exclifsive occupancy
of any mountain pass in any of the counties through which
it ia authorized to construct its road.

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