306 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



St. 1908, c. 200, was entitled "An Act to provide for the protection of 

 forest or sprout lands from fire," and provided in section 1 that in a town 

 which accepted its provisions or had accepted corresponding provisions of 

 earlier laws no fires should be set in the open air between the first day of 

 April and the first day of December, except by the written permission of 

 the forest warden, except that debris from fields, gardens and orchards, 

 or leaves and brush from yards, might be burned on ploughed fields by 

 the owners, their agents or lessees, provided such fire was at least 200 

 feet from any forest or sprout lands, and was properly attended until it 

 was extinguished. Section 5 provided that the selectmen of every town 

 should cause the act to be submitted to the voters for their acceptance at 

 the next annual meeting of the town after the passage thereof; and that 

 a majority vote of the legal voters present and voting at such meeting 

 should be required for its acceptance. These sections were amended by 

 St. 1911, c. 244. Section 1 repealed the whole of the first section of the 

 earlier act and substituted in its place a provision that — 



It shall be unlawful within any city, or within any town which accepts the pro- 

 visions of this act, for any person to set a fire in the open air between the first 

 day of March and the first day of December except by the written permission of 

 the forest warden, or the chief of the fire department or, in cities that have such 

 an official, the fire commissioner: . . . 



This section was substantially similar to the section struck out, but 

 contained the additional exception that persons above eighteen years of 

 age might maintain a fire for a reasonable purpose upon sandy or barren 

 land if the fire was enclosed within rocks, metal or other non-inflammable 

 material, and was otherwise slightly changed in phrase therefrom. Section 

 3 of chapter 244 repealed section 5 of the earlier act and substituted 

 therefor the following new section: — 



The selectmen of every town may submit this act to the voters for their accept- 

 ance at any annual or special town meeting. The vote shall be taken by sepa- 

 rate ballot, and shall be "Yes" or "No" in answer to the following question 

 printed upon the ballot: "Shall an act passed by the general court in the year 

 nineteen hundred and eight, entitled 'An Act to provide for the protection of 

 forest or sprout lands from fire,' be accepted by this town? " A majority vote 

 of the legal voters present and voting at such meeting shall be required for the 

 acceptance of this act; and upon such acceptance the provisions of section twenty- 

 four of chapter thirty-two of the Revised Laws shall cease to apply to any town 

 which has previously accepted that section. 



I am of opinion that the amendments so enacted do not disclose any 

 intention upon the part of the Legislature to require an additional accept- 

 ance thereof from towns which had accepted the statute amended. Where 

 an act, the operation of which in any particular municipality or division 

 of government is conditioned upon acceptance by such municipality or 

 other division of government, has been accepted, it becomes a law, and, 

 apart from questions affecting the constitutionality of the subject-matter 



