M6 



NEW JERSEY. 



counties through which it is to pass must be 

 named iu their articles of agreement. The 

 inoorporators mast state their aggregate of 

 capital stock at not less than $10,000 for every 

 mile, with the privilege of issuing bonds not 

 exceeding the amount of the paid-up capital 

 stock. When at least $2,000 for every mile 

 of road is subscribed, and ten per cent, paid in 

 cash, an affidavit to that effect, and setting forth 

 that it is intended in good faith to build a road, 

 must be appended to the articles of agreement 

 and filed for record in the office of the Secre- 

 tary of State. That filing constitutes the char- 

 ter. The construction of the road must be be- 

 gun within six months after the date of organ- 

 i/ntion. If the road is not more than fifty 

 miles long, a track shall be ready for use in 

 two years ; if more than fifty miles, six months 

 additional are allowed for every twenty miles. 



No one can be a director who i not a stock- 

 holder. The stock shall be deemed personal 

 property, and shall bo transferable only after 

 all previous calls shall have been fully paid 

 thereon. No companies can nse their funds 

 for the purchase of their own or the stock of 

 any other corporation. Fare is fixed at three 

 cents a mile, and freight at six cents a ton for 

 each mile (the Legislature reserving the right 

 to reduce profits to ten per cent.), and the rate 

 charged for freight between way-stations, or 

 a terminal and a way-station, shall not be 

 greater in proportion than is charged for the 

 same between the terminal stations of such 

 roads. Wherever a company hold real estate 

 (and none is allowed to hold more than five 

 acres for one depot), it shall pay taxes the 

 same as individuals, and a tax of one-half of 

 one per cent, on cost, equipments, and append- 

 ages of the road, is to be paid annually. The 

 corporate existence of an association is to 

 cease if the construction of the road is not be- 

 gun within one year, or put in operation in 

 four years from the filing of its articles of as- 

 sociation. There are many other minor pro- 

 visions concerning the location of routes, and 

 settlement for damages; and also for the pay- 

 ment of officials, servants, and laborers, ami 

 tin- liability of stockholders and companies to 

 creditors. 



Immediately after the passage of the General 

 Railroad Hill, article" of association, and the 

 surveys, were filed by the National Company 

 for a new line between Philadelphia and New 

 York. The route extends from Yardleyvillo, 

 on the Delaware River, through Trenton to 

 Boondbrook, and thence by way of Newark 

 and the New-Jersey Central to the terminus at 

 Coramunipaw. A portion of the route had 

 already been surveyed, under the "Stanl. 

 charter of the previous year, and negotiations 

 made for the purchase of the property ; Imt 

 these operations were subsequently checked by 

 a judicial injunction. These legal restraints 

 having been removed by the passage of the 

 new law, work was at once resumed. The 

 New Jersey Railway Company was also or- 



ganized to construct a through-line 

 New York and Philadelphia, and engineers at 

 once entered upon the survey. The proposed 

 road will cross the Pennsylvania or Ni-w Jer- 

 sey Railroad at Waverly, and thence over the 

 meadows, and unite with the New Jersey 

 at West End, near Jersey City. The 1 

 ware will bo crossed at or near the ]>r 

 terminus of the Mercer & Somerset Railroad, 

 near Yardleyville, the route running thence to 

 Philadelphia in as direct a course as the nature 

 of the ground will permit. 



Another important railroad enterprise in 

 New Jersey is the Easton & Amboy road, 

 which is designed to form a new coal-route 

 across the State, with its terminus at Amboy, 

 where extensive purchases have been made for 

 a depot. Rapid progress has been made in 

 the construction, and it is expected that by 

 May 1, 1874, the company will have expended 

 in round numbers $6,000,000, and will have the 

 best coal-road in New Jersey. 



The proper mode of taxing railroad cor- 

 porations was a subject earnestly discu^cd 

 by the Legislature. Many of the railroad 

 charters exempt their property from local 

 taxation, in consideration of paying to the 

 State a certain rate upon capital or cost of 

 works. A law was passed by the Legislature 

 intended to establish an equitable system of 

 taxing railroad corporations. 



It provides, first, for payment of tax to the 

 State on cost, equipment, and appendages, at 

 the rate which had previously been fixed; or, 

 where no rate had been prescribed, after the 

 rate of one-half of one per cent, upon such 

 cost; and, secondly, for payment to munici- 

 palities on all real property therein, including 

 improvements, not by way of repairs (except 

 the main stem or road-bed and track, not ex- 

 ceeding 100 feet in width, and excepting, also, 

 ten acres or less at termini in one body), after 

 the rate of one per cent, on the valuation 

 thereof. The fourth section of the act pro- 

 vides for the appointment of a "commissioner 

 of railroad taxation," to assess and report the 

 value of railroad property in the State liable, 

 under the law, to municipal taxation. The 

 commissioner has made a report, and values 

 the property of railroad corporations liable to 

 municipal taxation in 162 townships and cities, 

 at more than $17,000,000. Fifty-two town- 

 ships and cities return "no property liable," 

 and thirty-nine more have not reported, but 

 in a majority of these it is known that there 

 is no taxable railroad property. The tenth 

 -i 'linn of the net provides that any railroad 

 corporation which claims exempt ion from all 

 taxation, other than is provided for by their 

 charters or by special laws. may. within six 

 months from the approval of the act, file in 

 the office of tin- Se.-rctary of State a declara- 

 tion surrenderim; all claim to such exemption, 

 and accepting the provisions of said act. Sev- 

 eral companies have availed themselves of 

 that section. 



