CHAP. 97.—An ACT to authorize the United States government
to acquire title and jurisdiction to land on Smith’s island, in
the county of Northampton, as a site for a lighthouse station.

Approved January 26, 1892.

Whereas the government of the United States desires to
acquire title to certain land on Smith’s island, in the
county of Northampton, as a site for the Cape Charles
light station; therefore, °

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia,
That the consent of this commonwealth be, and is hereby,
given to the acquisition of the said title, so that congress
may exercise such authority and jurisdiction over the said
land when the title to the same shall have been acquired,
as is within the contemplation of the seventeenth clause of
the eighth section of the first article of the constitution of
the United States.

2. This state retains concurrent jurisdiction with the
United States over the said land, so far as it lawfully can
consistently with this act, and its courts, magistrates, and
officers may take such cognizance, execute such process,
and discharge such other legal functions within the same
as may not be incompatible with the true intent and
meaning of this act.

3. If the purposes of this grant shall cease, or if there
shall be for five years consecutively a failure on the part
of the United States to use said land for the purposes
herein expressed, then the jurisdiction herein granted
shall cease.

4. The said land so acquired shall not exceed twenty-
five acres for the purposes aforesaid; and the said land,
and the buildings and improvements to be erected thereon
for the purposes aforesaid, are hereby, exempted from all
taxes imposed by this state, or by the county of North-
ampton, so long as the same shall be held and used by
the United States, for the purposes hereinbefore mentioned
and no longer.

5. Should the property herein granted be used for any
other purposes than those specified herein by the United
States government, or under its authority, then the same
shall be subject to taxation as other property in the state.

6. This act shall be in force from its passage. :