Chap. 63.—An ACT to amend and re-enact an act approved March 3, 1892, en-
titled an act to amend and re-enact section 2 of an act passed by the general
assembly of Virginia entitled an act to incorporate the Bland county land,
improvement, development and transportation company, approved February
22, 1890, and to amend and re-enact section 4 of said act approved February
22, 1890, entitled an act to incorporate the Bland county land, improvement,
development and transportation company; to amend, re-enact and change
the title of said last-named act, and to enlarge the powers of said company
so that it may have and exercise all the rights, powers and privileges of a rail-
way company.

Approved January 16, 1896.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That the
title to an act, entitled an act to incorporate the Bland county land,
improvement, development and transportation company, approved
February twenty-two, eighteen hundred and ninety, be, and the same
is hereby, amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows: An act
to incorporate the Bland county railway, land and development com-
pany.

2. That section two of said act, approved March three, eighteen
hundred and ninety-two be, and the same is hereby, amended and
re-enacted so as to read as follows:

§ 2. The capital stock of the said company shall not be less than
ten thousand dollars, and may be increased to any amount not ex-
ceeding seven million five hundred thousand dollars by the issue
and sale of shares, the par value of which shall not be less than one
hundred dollars, from time to time, under such regulations as the
board of directors of said company shall, from time to time, pre-
scribe; and the directors may receive real or personal property
suited to the business of the company in payment of subscriptions
to the capital stock, at such valuation as may be agreed upon be-
tween the directors and the subscribers, and otherwise sell or dis-
pose of said stock in such manner and upon such terms and at such
price as the board of directors may prescribe. The incorporators
named in said act approved February twenty-two, eighteen hundred
and ninety, and their associates, may organize thereunder at any
time within one year from the passage of this act.

3. Be it further enacted, that section four of said act approved
February twenty-two, eighteen hundred and ninety, be, and the same
is hereby, amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

§ 4. The said company is authorized and empowered to mine
coal, iron-ore or other minerals; to prepare the products thereof
for market; to make coke, and transport and sell the same; to
manufacture iron and steel and other metals, and articles composed
wholly or partly of iron, steel, or other metals, or of wood; to bore
for salt, oil or gas, and manufacture, transport and refine the same,
or to sell and dispose of the same; to erect blast-furnaces, roll-
ing mills, forges, mills, machinery, fixtures and buildings; to own,
operate and construct saw-mills, manufacture and sell all kinds of
timber and lumber, and the necessary appliances and appurtenances
required in the conduct of their business; to purchase, lease, hold
and control in any manner, grant, bargain, sell and convey iron-
ores, mineral, limestone and other lands, and rights and interest in
lands situated in the county of Bland and elsewhere in the state of
Virginia, not exceeding, however, thirty thousand acres of land in
any one county; to lay out develop and improve the same; and the
said company may locate, construct and operate, as a common car-
rier, a line of railroad, or railroads from a point in any county or
counties, in which are situate any of its lands or works, to any point
on any railroad or railroads now or hereafter constructed in or to the
said counties in which it is authorized to hold land, and may issue
bonds thereon, in the aggregate not to exceed ten million dollars,
and may secure the same by mortgage, trust-deed, or otherwise ; pro-
vided nothing herein contained shall be considered as exempting
the company from the provisions of the code of Virginia of eighteen
hundred and eighty-seven, if it shall engage in the construction or
operation of any railroad; and the said company may acquire, by
condemnation in the mode prescribed by law, the lands necessary
for the right of way of its railroad, and for necessary stations, depots
and sidings. And said company is authorized and empowered, when-
ever it shall have located any railroad hereunder, to merge or con-
solidate the same with any other corporation of this or an adjoining
state, owning or operating a line of railroad completed or in process
of construction, or which is located and about to be constructed
wholly or partly within this or an adjoining state, and may adopt
another name for its road thus merged or consolidated, by filing in
the office of the secretary of the commonwealth a declaration of the
adoption of such other name, which said merged or consolidated road,
under the name so adopted, shall succeed to, and become vested with,
all the rights, powers and privileges granted by this act; but such
merger or consolidation shall be made only upon such terms and
conditions as shall be agreed to by the stockholders owning a ma-
jority of the stock in each of the companies so merging or consoli-
dating; provided, however, that such merger or consolidation shall
not invalidate any action, suit, claim or demand against any or
either of the companies who are parties thereto; and any such
action, suit, claim or demand shall be held to be in full force against
the company owning such consolidated line of railroad; but in no
case shall any consolidation or merger take place except after ten
days’ notice published in some newspaper of general circulation pub-
lished in the county of Bland or in an adjoining county. The rail-
road or railroads authorized to be constructed hereunder, shall be
commenced within two years and completed within five years from
the passage of this act.

4. Be it further enao’.d by the general assembly of Virginia, That
all the rights, power. and privileges granted and conferred by said
original act, approved February twenty-second, eighteen hundred
and ninety, shall be vested in and exercised by the company organ-
ized and operating under this act, with full power to the company
named in said original act to organize under the name mentioned in
section one of this act, or under the said original act.

5. This act shall be in force from the date of its passage, but the
general assembly of Virginia reserves the right to alter or repeal this
act, or any part thereof, at, any time hereafter.