An Act to amend the Act entitled, “ An Act to Incorporate the town of Dartmouth.”
(Passed the 12th day of April, A. D., 1877.)
SECTION.
1. Incorporation.
2. Powers of Corporation.
3. Boundaries of Town.
4. Rules, bye-laws, etc., confirmed.
5. Docks, etc., to be included in Town.
6. Extra expenditure may be assessed for.
7. Poll tax.
8. Explanation of certain terms in bye-laws.
9. Assessment of property under control of executors
10. Town Clerk to give notices of valuation
11. Bye-laws amended.
12. Informality not to affect general assessment.
13. Presumptive evidence of rates being due.
14. Town treasurer may proceed for taxes against persons about to leave Town.
15. Failure to levy poll tax not to affect assessment.
16. Bye-laws amended.
17. Fences.
18. Penalty.
19. Slight alteration in forms not to vitiate them.
20. Process of municipal court
21. Clerk of ditto
22. Certain powers of ditto
23. Councillors and officers exempt from jury
24. Appeals.
25. Proceedings on appeal.
26. Council may make bye-laws, etc.
27. Regulations as to ice on lakes.
28. As to bathing in harbor.
29. Penalties, how recoverd.
30. Estimates not to exceed $15,000.
31. Inconsistent law, etc., repealed.
Be it enacted by the Governor, Council and Assembly as follows:
Incorporation:
1. The inhabitants of the town of Dartmouth are constituted and declared to be a body corporate and politic by the name of the Town of Dartmouth.
Powers of corporation:
2. They shall as a corporation have perpetual succession and a Common Seal, changeable at pleasure, and shall be capable of suing and being sued in all Courts of Justice, and of acquiring, holding and conveying any description of property, real, personal or mixed, and shall have all the other rights usually had and enjoyed by corporations.
Boundaries of Town:
3. The Town of Dartmouth shall be bounded as follows:
Beginning on the Eastern side of the harbor of Halifax, to a point in such harbor distant three hundred feet Westward from the South-Western corner of a lot of land formerly owned by Judge Johnstone, and by him conveyed to John Esdaile ; thence to run Eastwardly till it strikes the road leading to the property of the late John Esson, thence by the centre of such road and following the course thereof Eastwardly to such Esson property; thence along the Western boundary of such property Southwardly to the South-Western corner thereof, thence Eastwardly to Gaston’s Road, and crossing such road to a point at right angles with the extension of a new road laid out by J. W. Watt, through Manor Hill Farm, thence Northwardly to such road, and by such road for the length thereof; thence Northwardly to the Western extremity of the Causeway at Hurley’s on the First Lake; thence North-Westwardly through Taylor’s barn on the opposite side of the Lake until it strikes the Southern side line of the road which connects with the new road laid out by George A. S. Crichton, thence following the Southern line of said road until it reaches the main road leading from Dartmouth to Bedford ; and from thence crossing said road in a straight line following the said line of the said new road until it extends three hundred feet into the harbor of Halifax, and thence Southwardly to the place of beginning to be called
and known as “The Town of Dartmouth.”
Rules, bye-laws, etc., confirmed.
4. All the rules, bye-laws, ordinances, and regulations adopted by the Town Council of the Town of Dartmouth, and approved of by the Governor in Council previous to the passing of this Act, are hereby ratified and confirmed, and declared to have the full force and effect of Law, and the same shall continue in full force and effect.
Docks, etc., to be included in Town:
5. All docks, quays, wharves, slips and erections, connected with the shores within the corporate limits of the Town, shall be included in and called the “Town of Dartmouth.”
Extra expenditure may be assessed for:
6. In addition to the objects already provided by the Assessments, any extraordinary expenditure for additional improvements and services in the Town authorized by any Annual Meeting of the Town, or incurred or authorized under any law, bye-law or regulation, shall be provided for by assessment and be included in the sum to be annually assessed on the inhabitants and property within the Town.
Poll-tax:
7. Every male resident of the Town between the ages of sixteen and sixty years, except engine men, axemen, ministers in charge of congregations, school teachers, Superintendant of Education, shall pay an annual poll tax of Two Dollars, which may be collected as an ordinary debt at the suit of the Town in the Dartmouth Municipal Court, or in any other Court, if the party shall remove from Dartmouth, or by warrant of distraint in the same way that other taxes of the Town are collected. All other sections of the Act of Incorporation, bye-laws and ordinances, imposing any other or additional poll tax are hereby
repealed.
Explanation of certain terms in Bye-Laws:
8. The term personal property and personal estate as defined by Section eleven of the bye-laws and ordinances of the Town Chapter III entitled, Assessment, shall embrace and include shares and interests in ships or vessels owned by persons residing or doing business in the Town whether such ships or vessels be at home or abroad at the time of assessment.
The words “and all other property except land” on the sixth and seventh lines of said Section eleven hereinbefore referred to are hereby repealed.
Assessment of property under control of executors:
9. With respect to assessment of real and personal property under the control of executors, administrators, trustees, guardians, agents; or of persons exercising control over the separate property of married women and of minors, the Town may sue and obtain a judgment in the Municipal Court of the Town against such parties respectively, in respect of the rates rated on such property, and such judgment when recorded by certificate under the hand of the Recorder, in the office of the Registry of Deeds at Halifax, shall bind such property, and the said Town may have all the remedies against the said property, as are now possessed by any person holding a registered judgment against any property real or personal.
Town clerk to give notices of valuation:
10. The Town Clerk shall, as soon as the whole amount Town Clerk to of real and personal property, on which any person, company or corporation is to be assessed within any Ward of the Town is determined, shall serve or cause to be served a notice of such valuation, upon the person assessed or his agent, or on the Company or corporation or their agent, resident or doing business in the Town, or the representative of any party who shall have died before the Roll for the year shall have been made out and adjusted ; or shall leave the same at the residence of any party assessed, or in case of unoccupied land, shall mail the same to him by depositing it to his or their address in the Dartmouth Post Office; and shall mail to every non-resident so assessed, a notice of the actual or yearly value at which his real property, and at which his personal property have been valued. A compliance with this Section shall be a sufficient notice upon which the rate may be collected and enforced, but this Section shall not operate to relieve any assessable property from taxation, where the owner or party liable to assessment cannot be found.
Bae-laws amended:
11. The thirty-seventh Section of said Chapter III., entitled “Assessment,” is hereby repealed, and the following substituted in lieu thereof:
In case a party or firm, or company whose taxes are in arrears and unpaid shall make an assignment or become bankrupt or be unable to pay said rates in full, the Town Treasurer may with the approbation of the Warden and Council join in any compromise or accept any dividend or part payment, as the same may appear for the interests of the Town.
Informality not to affect general assessment:
12. No error, informality, or irregularity on the part of assessment. the Town Council, the Assessors, or other Town Officers, shall affect or prejudice the validity of any general assessment made and levied in such Town. The invalidity, illegality, or irregularity of any individual rate or assessment shall not extend to or affect the general assessment or any other individual rate or assessment.
Presumptive evidence of rates being due:
13. In any suit pending in any court for the collection rates being due. of taxes of the Town, the Treasurer’s certificate in writing that the party appears on the Assessment Roll, and the rate has not been paid, shall be presumptive evidence of the rate being due and unpaid, and shall be sufficient to entitle the Town to a judgment without further proof, unless a good and just defence can be made thereto.
Town Treasurer may proceed for taxes against persons about to leave Town:
14. Upon the Town Treasurer or acting Town Treasurer taxes against having reasonable cause to apprehend that any person out to indebted to the Town of Dartmouth for rates and taxes is about to leave the Town before the time allowed by law shall have elapsed when he shall have been served with notice to pay, such Town Treasurer is hereby authorized, notwithstanding that the time in the notice shall not have expired, to either distrain upon the goods and chattels of the person who he believes intends so to leave the Town, or to issue or cause to be issued a capias against such person, in order to recover the rates and taxes so due to the Town, upon making an affidavit before the Stipendiary Magistrate or one of the Councillors that he verily believes the person is about to leave the Town.
Failure to levy poll tax not to affect assessment:
15. The failure to levy any poll tax has not affected nor shall it affect or diminish the validity or legality of any assessment made and levied.
Bye-Laws amended:
16. Section thirty-two of Chapter III. of Bye-laws and Ordinances of Assessment is hereby amended by substituting two and one-half per cent. instead of five per cent. deduction from the amount of taxes when paid within the fourteen days from the receipt of notice.
Fences:
17. The owner or occupier of every vacant lot abutting on any street, lane, road, or other highway within the Town of Dartmouth shall fence in the same within twenty days after receiving notice to that effect from the Town Clerk ; and shall keep and maintain such fence in perfect repair to the satisfaction of the Streets Committee.
Every such fence shall be board, picket, or stone fence, or such other material as may be approved of by the Streets Committee, but shall be sufficient to protect the street and the public from all nuisance or inconvenience.
Penalty:
18. Any person violating the provisions of the preceding section of this Act shall, upon conviction before the Stipendiary Magistrate or Councillor presiding at the Police Court, forfeit and pay a penalty not exceeding fifty dollars for each offence; and in default of payment a warrant of distraint shall issue against the goods and chattels of the offender for the amount, and if no such goods and chattels be found, then the offender shall be imprisoned for a period not to exceed three months in the County Gaol.
Slight alteration in forms not to vitiate them:
19. Where forms are prescribed slight alterations thereupon not affecting the substance or calculated to mislead not to vitiate shall not vitiate them.
Process of municipal court:
20. The Municipal Court shall, in civil cases, use as its Process of process writs of summons, capias, execution and subpoena Municipal under a stamp, which the Stipendiary Magistrate of said Court is hereby authorized to make, adopt, and use, and in such forms as have been used or shall be established by the Stipendiary Magistrate—and to be directed to the Police Constable of the Town.
Clerk of ditto:
21. The Town Clerk shall be the Clerk of the Municipal Courts, Civil and Criminal, and of the Police Court.
Certain powers of ditto:
22. The Municipal Court shall have the same power of certain powers amendment of proceedings therein as the Supreme Court, or any Judge thereof has in cases in the Supreme Court.
Councillors and officers exempt from jury:
23. Members of the Town Council and the Officers of Councillors and the Town shall be exempt from serving on any special or petit jury.
Appeals:
24. Appeals from the Municipal Civil Court shall be to the County Court for District No. 1.
Proceedings on appeal:
25. In appeals from the Municipal Civil Court the affidavit and form shall be in the form as prescribed by the app Act of the Province relating to Justices of the Peace for the County in civil cases; and in cases of capias issued out of the Municipal Court, the form of bond shall be the same as in the Magistrates Court; provided, however, that the affidavits and bonds shall be entitled in the Municipal Court of Dartmouth, and such alteration made to adapt them to such Court.
Council may make bye-laws etc:
26. The Town Council shall have power to make Bye-laws to regulate the keeping of dogs within the Town, and may make regulations relative to the taxation of dogs, and may fix the amount to be paid annually by owners of dogs, not exceeding one dollar for each dog, and to direct the destruction of any dog illegally kept; and such regulations shall be published thirty days before the same shall come into operation. Such Bye-law to be passed by the Town Council shall impose the penalty and appoint the mode of collection.
Regulations as to ice on lakes:
27. The Town Council shall by Bye-law make regulations respecting the cutting of ice on the lakes and rivers within the Town limits, for putting down or continuing bushes or other marks for defining such cutting, and to prevent the removal or destruction of such bushes or other marks, and may affix a penalty for the breach of any such regulations, not exceeding four dollars for each offence.
which said Bye-law shall appoint the mode of collection.
As to bathing in the harbor:
28. No person shall swim or bathe in the waters of the harbor, near to any open wharf, slip or dock, or to any street or road in the Town, or otherwise in such a situation as to be exposed to the view of spectators, under a penalty of not less than one dollar, nor more than twenty for each offence, or on non-payment of confinement in the County Goal for a period not exceeding thirty days.
Penalties, how recovered:
29. Whenever a penalty is imposed and no particular mode pointed out in which the same may be sued for or collected, the same shall be sued for in the Police or Municipal Criminal Court, before the Stipendiary Magistrate or other
person presiding.
Estimates not to exceed $15,000:
30. At the Annual Meeting of the Ratepayers of the Town to be convened under Section forty-two of the Act of Incorporation, the sum to be voted for the estimates, including ordinary and extraordinary expenses, shall not exceed in any year the sum of fifteen thousand dollars; and no additional sum shall be expended unless specially authorized by legislative enactment.
Inconsistent law etc., repealed:
31. So much of the existing law, or of any Bye-laws, regulations, rules or ordinances respecting the Town of Dartmouth, as is inconsistent with this Act; and also so much of all existing Statutes of the Province as are inconsistent with this Act, the “Act to Incorporate the Town of Dartmouth,” the rules, ordinances, bye-laws, and regulations adopted and approved by the Governor in Council, are hereby repealed.
“To amend the Act to incorporate the town of Dartmouth”, 1877 c40