An Act in amendment of an act entitled "An Act to regulate the Militia."

SECTION

1. Each regimental company may elect one captain and one lieutenant in ad

SECTION

dition to their other officers. 2. When act shall take effect.

It is enacted by the General Assembly, as follows:

SECTION 1. In addition to the commissioned officers by law provided for each regimental company on the peace establishment, each regimental company is hereby empowered, at the time by its charter or by law provided, to elect one captain and one lieutenant, to be commissioned by the governor, for the term by the charter of such regimental company or by law required; who shall not necessarily be appointed adjutant, quarter-master or paymaster of such regimental company by the colonel thereof.

SEC. 2. This act shall go into effect immediately after the rising of the general assembly; and the first election of a captain and lieutenant under the same may be made by the several regimental companies at any time within the term of sixty days after the rising of the general assembly; and upon return of such elections made to the governor, he is hereby authorized and requested to issue commissions to the officers so elected.

Passed June session, 1844.

An Act for the preservation of Oysters and other Shell Fish within this Stute.

It is enacted by the General Assembly, as follows:

SECTION 1. No person shall take any oysters from the free and common oyster fisheries in any of the waters of this state, or expose any oysters for sale taken therefrom within this

state, at any time between the fifteenth day of May and the fifteenth day of September in each year, on pain of forfeiting the sum of twenty dollars for each offence; to be recovered by complaint and warrant before any justice of the peace, one half thereof to and for the use of the complainant, and the other half to and for the use of the state.

SEC. 2. No person shall take any quahaugs or clams from Long Bed, West Bed, or from Great Bed, so called, in Providence river, between the fifteenth day of May and the fifteenth day of September in each year, on pain of forfeiting the sum of twenty dollars for each offence; to be recovered in the manner and to the uses aforesaid.

SEC. 3. No person shall take from any of the free and common oyster fisheries within the waters of this state, excepting the free and common oyster fisheries in Point Judith ponds in the town of South-Kingstown, during each twentyfour hours, more than three bushels of oysters, including shells, for each person actually engaged in taking the same, on pain of forfeiting the sum of twenty dollars for every bushel so taken over and above said three bushels; and no person shall plant upon any private bed any oysters taken from the free and common oyster fisheries of this state, on pain of forfeiting twenty dollars for every bushel so planted; each penalty of twenty dollars to be recovered by separate complaint and warrant in the manner and to the uses aforesaid.

SEC. 4. No person shall within any of the waters of this state take any oysters with dredges, or with any other instrument, or by any other method more destructive to oyster beds than the usual method of taking them by oyster tongs, or shall with such dredge or other instrument as aforesaid rake over any oyster bed under any pretence or for any purpose whatever, or shall have such dredges or other instrument as aforesaid on board any boat or vessel employed in taking oysters within the waters of this state; on pain of forfeiting the boat or vessel with its tackle, apparel and furniture, and all implements thereto belonging, on board of which such dredge or other instrument aforesaid may have been used, or may be or may have been found; and in addition thereto, each and every person on board such boat or vessel shall forfeit and pay the sum of three hundred dollars. Said forfeiture and penalties shall be recovered by indictment before any court of competent jurisdiction, in which indictment all or any of the persons on board such boat or vessel may be joined; the one half part of the price of such boat or vessel with its tackle, apparel, furniture and implements, upon sale ordered by the court, and

of said penalties, to be recovered to and for the use of the state, and the other half part thereof to and for the use of the · person who shall prosecute for the same.

SEC. 5. Any justice of the peace within this state may, on complaint made to him on oath, setting forth that the complainant believes that any dredge or other instrument as aforesaid hath, within the waters of this state, been used from, or is or has been within the waters of this state, on board of any boat or vessel employed in taking oysters within the waters of this state, may issue a warrant directed to the sheriff or his deputy of the county in which such justice resides, commanding him to seize and hold such boat or vessel, with its tackle, apparel, furniture and implements as aforesaid, and to bring before him, or some other lawful authority, to be bailed or committed for want of bail, all persons on board the same; in order that said persons and property may be proceeded with in manner aforesaid, before some court of competent jurisdiction to try the same. The court for trial before whom said persons may be bailed or committed, before final trial, in term time, or any justice thereof in vacation, may deliver such boat or vessel, with its tackle, apparel, furniture and implements, to the claimant thereof, upon appraisal and bond. Upon conviction of all or any of the persons on board said boat or vessel, the same, with its tackle, apparel, furniture and implements aforesaid, shall be sentenced to be sold by the sheriff or his deputy seizing the same, in the same manner as personal property levied on execution; whether the owner of such boat or vessel was on board the same at the commission of the offence, or sanctioned such unlawful use of the same, or not: provided, however, that nothing in this or the preceding section mentioned shall be so construed as to prevent any citizen of this state from taking oysters in Point Judith ponds, in South-Kingstown, by a certain instrument long used in said ponds, known by the name of an under-rake, and described as follows: the handle of said rake being fifteen to twenty feet in length, the head from one to two feet in length, filled with iron teeth from six to ten inches in length, and mostly used through holes cut in the ice.

SEC. 6. No person shall take any oysters, quahaugs, clams or other shell fish within the waters or on the shores of this state unless he be an inhabitant thereof, and domiciled therein; and every citizen of any other state or country who shall at any time take any oysters, quahaugs, clams or other shell fish within the waters or on the shores of this state, shall

forfeit and pay the sum of one hundred dollars for each and every offence; and every boat or vessel commanded or owned in whole or in part by any person not a citizen of this· state, and used or in any way employed in the taking of oysters or shell fish within the waters or on the shores of this state, shall, together with its tackle, apparel, furniture and implements on board, be seized and forfeited; said forfeiture and penalties to be recovered in the same manner and to the same uses and like proceedings therefor in all respects to be had, as for the forfeiture and penalties in the two preceding sections mentioned: provided, however, that nothing in this section contained shall be construed to prevent any citizen of the commonwealth of Massachusetts from taking quahaugs or clams on the east shore of Providence bay or river, between high and low water mark, wherever the territorial line of Massachusetts runs along the shore of said bay or river; and in such other places as by other special acts of the general assembly are or may be provided.

SEC. 7. Every person who shall knowingly and wilfully break up, damage or injure any bed of oysters within the waters of this state, shall forfeit and pay the sum of five hundred dollars for each and every offence; to be recovered by indictment before any court of competent jurisdiction, one half thereof to and for the use of the state, and the other half thereof to and for the use of him who shall prosecute for the

same.

SEC. 8. At the annual general election the general assembly shall choose three persons, citizens of and domiciled within this state, to be commissioners of the shell fisheries; who shall hold their offices for one year, and until others are elected in their places; and shall be commissioned by the governor, and engaged on their commissions to the faithful execution of the duties of their office. It shall be the duty of said commissioners to watch over the oyster and other shell fisheries of this state; to prosecute for all breaches of the law in relation to the same, and from time to time to recommend to the general assembly such action as in their opinion will tend to preserve and increase the value of such fisheries.

SEC. 9. Said commissioners, or any two of them, may upon application of any suitable person or persons, being inhabitants of and domiciled within this state, in the name of the state, and under their hands and seals as such commissioners, lease to such person or persons, for a term not less than five, nor more than ten years in duration, any piece of land covered by the public waters of this state, (excepting

Point Judith ponds in the town of South-Kingstown,) lying south of a line running east and west from Field's Point, in Providence River, across the state, and including Fuller's Rocks, so called, as a private or several oyster ground or oyster fishery, for the planting of oysters, upon such terms and restrictions as to the importing and planting of oysters therein, and upon such rent reserved to the state and annually payable to the general treasurer thereof, as they shall think just and expedient; so that no one person shall have more than one acre of land, and no company more than one acre to each member of the same, so covered with water leased to him or them as aforesaid. Said leases shall be executed by said lessee or lessees as well as by said commissioners in two parts, one part thereof to be delivered to said lessee or lessees, and the other part thereof to be forthwith transmitted by said commissioners to the general treasurer; and shall contain proper covenants for the payment of rents, and the performance of the conditions and observance of the restrictions therein set forth, with proper clauses reserving to said commissioners a right to re-enter on behalf of the state, and to terminate said lease, for breach of any of said covenants.

SEC. 10. Said commissioners, or any two of them, shall before granting any lease as aforesaid, personally inspect the land asked to be leased as aforesaid; and shall decide upon the propriety of leasing the same, taking especial care not to include in the land so leased, any old oyster bed or any part of any old oyster bed which in their opinion can for the greater advantage of the public be used as a free and common oyster fishery; but their decision in the premises, proved by the execution of the lease, shall in all cases and for all purposes be final and conclusive thereupon. They shall also, if they shall deem it necessary, before granting any such lease, cause the land to be leased as aforesaid to be surveyed and platted, in which case a copy of the plat shall be annexed to each part of the lease; and shall in all cases cause proper bounds with marks thereon to be set up on the shore within this state, opposite and nearest to such land to be leased as aforesaid, in order to define the limits thereof; and whenever and so far as the same can be done without interfering with navigation, shall cause such land to be leased as aforesaid to be enclosed with stakes or buoys not more than two rods apart, with such marks thereon as they may direct. The drawing and executing of such leases, the surveying and platting, the setting up and marking of bounds on shore, and the enclosing of the lands leased with stakes or buoys, and marking of the same