126 SHELL-FISH COMMISSIONERS’ REPORT. [Jan., 
to the next session of the legislature a plan for an equitable taxa- 
tion of the property in said fisheries, and make an annual report 
of the state and condition of said fisheries to the legislature, and 
the said commissioners shall be empowered to appoint and employ 
a clerk of and for said board, and they shall each give a bond to 
the state with sufficient surety for the faithful performance of 
their duties, and for the payment to the state treasurer of all 
money that may come into their hands under this act in the sum 
of two thousand dollars. 
Src. 3. The said commissioners shall also be empowered, in 
the name and in behalf of the state, to grant by written instru- 
ments, for the purpose of planting and cultivating shell-fish, per- 
petual franchises in such undesignated grounds within said area 
as are not and for ten years have not been natural clam or oyster 
beds, whenever application in writing is made to them through 
their clerk by any person or persons who have resided in the state 
not less than one year next preceding the date of said application. 
The said application and the said grant shall be in manner and 
form as shall be approved by the chief justice of the state, and all 
such grants may be assigned to any person or persons who are or 
have been residents of the state for not less than one year next pre- 
ceding such assignment, by a written assignment, in manner and 
form approved by said chief justice ; and the said commissioners 
shall keep books of record and record all such grants and assign- 
ments therein, and the same shall also be recorded in the town 
clerk’s office in the town bounded on Long Island sound within 
the meridian boundary lines of which said grounds are located. 
Src. 4. When any such application is filed with the clerk of 
said commissioners, he shall note on the same the date of its re- 
ception and shall cause a written notice, stating the name and resi- 
dence of the applicant, the date of filing the application, the loca- 
tion, area, and description of the grounds applied for, to be posted 
in the office of the town clerk of the town bounded on the said 
Long Island sound within the meridian boundary lines of which 
said grounds are located, where such notice shall remain posted 
for twenty days. Any person or persons objecting to the granting 
of the grounds applied for, as aforesaid, may file a written notice* 
with the town clerk, stating the grounds of his or their objections, 
upon the payment to said town clerk of the sum of twenty-five 
cents, and at the end of said twenty days the said town clerk shall 
forward allsuch written objections to the clerk of said commission ; 
