Chap. 919.—An ACT to incorporate the Princess Anne telephone company.

Approved March 38, 1898.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That J. W.
Bonney, Jonathan Woodhouse, Thomas 8. Land, J. B. Etheridge and
John T. Woodhouse, together with such persons as may become stock-
holders, associates and successors, be, and they are hereby, created and
constituted a body corporate by the name of the Princess Anne tele-
phone company, by which name it shall have perpetual succession, a
common seal, may sue and be sued, contract and be contracted with,
and shall have all the rights and privileges of a corporation under the
general Jaws of Virginia, including all such rights as are by the laws
given to telephone companies and other works of internal improvement,
and be subject also to all the rules, regulations and restrictions imposed
hy the laws of V irginia inyrelation to joint stock companies.

ee |
2. The purposes for which the said company is incorporated is to
conduct a general telephone business; to erect all poles and wires, and
maintain the same, that are necessary and proper for the successful
conduct of such business; to establish all offices and exchanges re-
quired for the same; to have power to connect or make traffic arrange-
ments for the interchange of business with any other telephone or tele-
graph companies heretofore incorporated or to be hereafter incorporated,
and to acquire and hold all necessary patents and property, and acquire,
by purchase or lease, any property or rights of any other telephone
company, and make any contract with such company consistent with
the laws of Virginia.

3. The capital stock of said company shall not be less than two thou-
sand dollars nor more than ten thousand dollars, divided into shares
of one hundred dollars each, and it shall not be necessary to give any
notice of the opening of books of subscription to said stock, but the
same may be subscribed at such times and in such manner as to a
majority of the corporators shall seem best.

4. The said company shall have power to acquire all estates or
easements necessary for the convenient erection and maintenance of
its lines, officers, and so forth, and for the general conduct of its busi-
ness, and may erect its poles and wires on and along all public highways,
roads, Janes, streets and alleys, and so forth in the counties of Norfolk
and Princess Anne, and the city of Norfolk, Virginia: provided, that the
consent of the city council of said city of Norfolk, Virginia, be first
obtained and the approval of the boards of supervisors and of the county
courts of said counties of Norfolk and Princess Anne, respectively, sub-
ject to the fee simple rights of the abutting landowners who, for the ad-
ditional servitude, shall be justly compensated. Said company shall
have the power to lay cables under the waters of any rivers in the said
counties of Norfolk and Princess Anne, provided the same do not obstruct
navigation.

5. The officers of the said company shall be president, vice-president,
secretary, treasurer, and a board of directors of -not less than five per-
sons: provided, that the secretary and treasurer may be the same person
and the officers may all be members of the board of directors.

6. The first meeting of the stockholders shall be held as soon as con-
venient after the passage of this act, and annually thereafter on the first
day of January of each year and at such other times as the stockholders
may be convened by the board of directors upon notice to the stock-
holders, or upon publication of said notice for at Jeast one weck in some
newspaper published in the city of Norfolk, Virginia.

7. At the first meeting of stockholders the officers and board of direc-
tors, who shall serve until January first, eighteen hundred and ninctv-
nine, shall be elected; and their successors shall be elected annually
thereafter at the first meeting in each year: provided, that the board of
directors and all other officers shall serve until their successors shall
have been elected, and at each election each share shall be entitled to
one vote in every mecting of the stockholders,

8. Said company, through its directors, shall have power to make all
by-laws and rules for its government not inconsistent with the laws of
this state.

4
9. All taxes, debts, or demands becoming due by this company to the
state of Virginia shall be paid in currency of the United States and not
In coupons.

10. The said company shall begin the construction of its works within
two years from the passage of this act and to complete the same within
four years from the said passage.

11. The general assembly reserves the right to change, alter, amend,
or repeal this charter at its pleasure.

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