THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 127 
nual report of the state and condition of said fisheries to the legisla- 
ture, 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. 
SEC. 3. The said commissioners shall also be empowered, in the name 
and in behalf of the State, to grant by written instruments, for the pur- 
pose of planting and cultivating shell-fish, perpetual 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 preceding such assignment, by a written assignment, in 
manner and form approved by said chief justice; and the said commis- 
sioners shall keep books of record and record all such grants and as- 
signments 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. 
SEc. 4. When any such application is filed with the clerk of said 
commissioners, he shall note on the same the date of its reception and 
shall cause a written notice, stating the name and residence of the ap- 
plicant, the date of filing the application, the location, area, and de- 
scription 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 per- 
sons 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 all such written objections to the clerk of 
said commission; and in case such objections are so filed and forward- 
ed the said commissioners, or a majority, shall upon ten days’ notice in 
writing, mailed or personally delivered to all the parties in interest, 
hear and pass upon such objections at the town in which such grounds 
are located as aforesaid, and if such objections are not sustained and 
