FLORIDA. 



297 



An act to prevent the careless use of fire- 

 arms on the public highways. 



An act to prohibit the fishing for shad dur- 

 ing certain periods of tune herein specified. 



An act to amend chapter 3147 of the acts 

 of 1879, entitled " An act to protect the food- 

 fishes of the State and to regulate fisheries," 

 approved March 11, 1879. 



An act to provide for the appointment of 

 boards of health for incorporated cities and 

 towns in this State containing 300 or more 

 registered voters. 



An act to incorporate the Tropical Peninsu- 

 lar Railroad Company. 



An act to incorporate the Florida Midland 

 and Georgia Railroad Company, and to grant 

 certain lands to the same. 



An act to incorporate the Blue Spring, Or- 

 ange Ridge, and Atlantic Railroad Company. 



An act to incorporate the Monticello and 

 Georgia Railroad Company. 



An act to incorporate the Okeehumkee and 

 Panasof kee Railroad Company. 



An act to incorporate the Atlantic and Gulf 

 Coast Canal and Okechobee Land Company. 



The following are the essential portions of 

 the act for the dissolution of municipal corpo- 

 rations : 



SECTION 1. That, whenever any city or town in this 

 Stite incorporated under the act for the incorporation 

 of cities and towns, approved the 4th day of Febru- 

 ary, A. D. 1869, is indebted to the amount of one hun- 

 dred thousand dollars, the interest of which has re- 

 mained unpaid for five years or longer, the charter of 

 such city or town shall be and the same is hereby 

 declared to be repealed, and the incorporation thereof 

 dissolved, which dissolution shall take etfect on the 

 proclamation of the Governor of the State, to be made 

 as hereinafter provided. . . . 



SEC. 3. ... Provided, however. That the officers 

 of such dissolved corporation shall continue to be the 

 custodians of the books, records, papers, money, evi- 

 dences of debt, and property of every nature and de- 

 scription, both real and personal, of such corporation, 

 and shall continue to exercise the functions of their 

 respective offices, so far as may be necessary to pre- 

 serve the peace and good order of such city or town, 

 until the establishment of another government and 

 the appointment and qualification of officers under it, 

 to whom it shall be the duty of the officers of such 

 defunct corporation to transfer and deliver promptly, 

 on demand, all books, records, papers, evidences or 

 debt, money, and property of every nature and de- 

 scription, both real and personal. . . . 



SEC. 5. That at any time after the first publication 

 of the Governor's proclamation, as provided for in 

 section 3 of this act, on the petition of twenty or more 

 persons residing within the limits of any city or town 

 in this State, the charter of which has been repealed 

 and the incorporation dissolved under this act, it shall 

 be the duty of the Governor, with the advice and con- 

 sent of the Senate, to appoint a mayor and five alder- 

 men, residents of such city or town, who shall exer- 

 cise the powers and functions hereinafter provided, 

 and shall hold their office for two years, and until 

 their successors are appointed and qualified. 



SEO. 6. That all such cities and towns for which a 

 mayor and aldermen shall be appointed, as provided 

 for in section 5, are hereby declared to be provisional 

 municipalities, the boundaries of which shall be co- 

 extensive with the boundaries of such defunct cities 

 and towns. And the said mayor and aldermen, and 

 such officers as may be appointed by them, and the 

 inhabitants within the limits of such cities and towns, 



shall be vested with all the powers and authority, 

 rights and privileges, and charged with all the duties 

 which are conferred on the mayor and aldermen and 

 other officers and the inhabitants, under and by vir- 

 tue of the said act to provide for the incorporation of 

 cities and towns, approved 4th February, A. D. 1869, 

 chapter 1688, and the amendments thereto, except as 

 hereinafter provided, and as may be inconsistent with 

 this act. 



SEC. 9. That the mayor and aldermen shall be au- 

 thorized to compromise and settle the existing indebt- 

 edness of such defunct corporations upon the best 

 terms obtainable, and which they may approve, hav- 

 ing regard to the amount of such indebtedness and 

 the means and the ability of the inhabitants and prop- 

 erty-holders of such city or town, and for this pur- 

 pose they arc authorized to issue bonds bearing an 

 annual interest of not more than four per cent for the 

 first five years, and not more than six per cent for any 

 subsequent period, the said bonds to mature in twen- 

 ty-five years, which bonds shall be used for no other 

 purpose than the settlement of said existing indebted- 

 ness. 



SEC. 12. That, out of the amount of taxes now au- 

 thorized by law to be assessed by the cities and towns, 

 at least one half of one per cent shall be annually ap- 

 propriated to the extinguishment of the said indebted- 

 ness and the interest on the same, or such substituted 

 obligations as shall be given therefor. 



Another law, with similar provisions, in- 

 cluding substituted bonds at not more than 

 seven per cent interest, enacted 



That the charters of all cities and towns incorpo- 

 rated or that shall hereafter be incorporated under any 

 of the laws of this State, which have a bonded indebt- 

 ednesSj such bonds being past due and unpaid, and 

 for which a fund for their payment has not been pro- 

 vided, shall be and the same are hereby declared to 

 be repealed and dissolved^ such dissolution to take 

 effect on the proclamation of the Governor of the State, 

 to be made as hereinafter provided. 



This law was subsequently declared by the Su- 

 preme Court to be unconstitutional. 



The act to enable settlers on State lands to 

 obtain titles thereto is as follows : 



SECTION 1. That from and after the passage of this 

 act, actual settlers on any of the public lands belong- 

 ing to this State subject to entry may and are hereby 

 permitted to enter the lands on which they reside or 

 nave in cultivation, not to exceed one hundred and 

 sixty acres, to be taken in a compact form according 

 to legal subdivisions, at the prices now or hereafter 

 established for such lands, by paying one third of the 

 purchase-money at the time of making entry, one third 

 of the same within two years thereafter, and the re- 

 maining one third in three years after the date of en- 

 try. 



SEC. 2. The person applying for the benefit of the 

 preceding section shall make affidavit before some of- 

 ficer authorized to administer oaths that such applica- 

 tion is made for his or her exclusive use and benefit, 

 and that his or her entry is made for the purpose of 

 actual settlement or cultivation, and not either directly 

 or indirectly for the benefit of any other person, and 

 that the lands applied for do not embrace the resi- 

 dence, cultivated lands, or improvements of any other 

 person, and shall prove by the affidavits of two cred- 

 ible witnesses that he or she is residing upon the land 

 applied for or has a part of the same in actual cultiva- 

 tion. 



SEC. 3. No person shall be entitled to make more 

 than one entry under the provisions of this act. 



SEC. 4. In case of a failure to pay any of the install- 

 ments upon any entry made under the provisions of 

 this act for ninety days after the same shall become 

 due, the entry shall become null and void, and that 

 portion of the purchase-money already paid shall be 

 forfeited. 



