12 



until the respective county commissioners shall have first furnished, 

 under oath or affirmation, to the Auditor General, a written itemized 

 statement of such expense, and until the same is approved by the Au- 

 ditor General: Provided, That no county shall be liable to pay for 

 this purpose, in any one year, an amount exceeding five hundred dol- 

 lars. 



Section 2. Any person who being called upon by the fire warden 

 of his township to furnish assistance in extinguishing forest fires, 

 as provided in section one, shall, without reasonable cause, refuse 

 to render such assistance, upon conviction thereof shall pay a fine 

 not exceeding ten dollars, or undergo imprisonment not exceeding 

 thirty days, or both, at the discretion of the court. 



Section 3. The fire wardens of each township throughout the Com- 

 monwealth shall, in the first week of each term of the court of quar- 

 ter sessions of their respective counties, make returns to said court, 

 under oath or affirmation, of all violations occurring within their 

 respective townships, which may come or be brought to their notice, 

 of any of the provisions of any law now enacted, or hereafter to be 

 enacted, for the purpose of protecting forests from fire, and it shall 

 be the special duty of the judge of said court to see these returns 

 are faithfully made; and on failure of any fire warden to comply 

 with this provision, or if it be found upon examination or inquiry 

 by said court that any fire warden has either wilfully or negligently 

 omitted to report all such violation occurring within his township, 

 or having failed to perform his duty as set forth in section one of 

 this act, such fire warden or constable shall be deemed guilty of 

 wilfully or negligently making a false return, or neglect of duty, and 

 the court shall suspend him from office and direct the district at- 

 torney to indict and try him, and if found guilty, he shall be fined in 

 a sum not exceeding fifty dollars, and undergo an imprisonment not 

 -exceeding three months, both or either, at the discretion of the 

 court. 



Section 4. The term forest herein used shall not, for the purposes 

 of this bill, be held to include an area of timber land or brush land 

 of less than fifty acres in extent, unless such said area shall, by 

 proximity to other timber land, be liable to convey fire to an area of 

 bi-ii sli land or timber land containing at least fifty acres. 



Approved The 30th day of March, A. D. 1897. 



DANIEL H. HASTINGS. 



