128 FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. 
the area of ground is not, in the opinion of the commissioners, of un- 
reasonable extent, they may for the actual costs of surveying and 
mapping of such grounds, and the further consideration of one dollar 
per acre, paid to the said commissioners to be by them paid over to 
the treasurer of the State, grant a perpetual franchise for the planting 
and cultivating shell-fish in such ground or in any part of the same in 
the manner aforesaid, and where no such objections are made such 
grants may be made for the considerations hereinbefore named. At 
all hearings authorized by this act the said commissioners may, by 
themselves or their clerk, subpoena witnesses and administer oaths as 
in courts of law. | 
SEC. 5. The said commissioners shall, previous to the delivery of 
any instrument conveying the right to plant or cultivate shell-fish on 
any of said grounds, make or cause to be made a survey of the same, 
and shall locate and delineate the same, or cause it to be located and 
delineated upon the map aforesaid, and upon receipt of said instru- 
ment of conveyance the grantee shall at once cause the grounds there- 
in conveyed to be plainly marked out by stakes, buoys, ranges, or 
monuments, which stakes and buoys shall be continued by the said 
grantee and his legal representatives, and the right to use and occupy 
said grounds for said purposes shall be and remain in said grantee 
and his legal representatives; provided, that if the grantee or holder 
of said grounds does not actually use and occupy the same for the 
purposes named, in good faith, within five years after the time of receiv- 
ing such grant, the said commissioners shall petition the Superior Court 
of the county having jurisdiction over the said grounds to appoint a 
committee to inquire and report to said court as to the use and occu- 
pancy of such grounds in good faith, and said court shall in such case ap- 
point such committee, who, after twelve days’ notice to the petitioners 
and respondents, shali hear such petition and report the facts thereon to 
said court, and if it shall appear that said grounds are not used and 
occupied in good faith for the purpose of planting or cultivating shell- 
fish, the said court may order that said grounds revert to the State, and 
that all stakes and buoys marking the same be removed, the costs in 
said petition to be paid at the discretion of the court. 
SEC. 6. When, after the occupancy and cultivation of any grounds 
designated as aforesaid by the grantee or his legal representatives, it 
shall appear to said commissioners that said grounds are not suited 
for the planting or cultivation of oysters, said grantee, upon receiving 
a certificate to that effect from said commissioners, may surrender the 
same or any part thereof, not less than one hundred acres, to the State, 
by an instrument of release of all his rights and title thereto, and shall 
