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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 gov ernor, 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 marine of the same

as aforesaid, shall in all cases be done under the direction of said commissioners, or any two of them, at the expense of the applicant or applicants for such lease; and said commissioners shall receive from such applicant or applicants their necessary expenses, and one dollar and a half per day for each day's actual service about his or their application. Said bounds, stakes or buoys, with the marks thereon, shall be renewed whenever said commissioners shall direct.

SEC. 11. Any person who shall injure, deface or destroy said marks or bounds, or shall break, pull up, injure, carry off, cut or destroy any such stake or buoy, or deface any mark thereon, or shall tie or fasten any boat or vessel to any such stake or buoy, shall forfeit and pay the sum of twenty dollars for each offence, to be recovered on complaint and warrant before any justice of the peace within this state, on the complaint of any person who shall duly recognize for the costs of such prosecution; the said penalty to be recovered, the 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. Any such person shall, in addition thereto, be liable in an action of the case to pay double damages and costs to him or them who shall be injured by having the marks and bounds, stakes or buoys of their said lots injured, defaced, removed or used as aforesaid.

SEC. 12. The oysters planted or growing in any private oyster ground leased as aforesaid shall, during the continuance of the lease, be the private personal property of the lessee or lessees of such oyster ground; and the taking and carrying away thereof, or of any of the same, shall be theft, under all circumstances in which the taking and carrying away of any other personal property would be theft, and shall be punished accordingly: provided, however, that nothing in this section contained shall interfere with or invalidate the right of any lessee or lessees to commence any private action for the taking and carrying away of their oysters aforesaid, and to recover full damages for the private injury by them thereby sustained.

SEC. 13. This act shall go into operation from and after the passage thereof, and the first election of commissioners under the same shall take place at the present session of the general assembly; and all other public acts or parts of public acts relating to the shell fishery, so far as inconsistent herewith, are hereby repealed.

Passed January session, 1844.

An Act in amendment and explanatory of an act entitled "An Act for the preservation of Oysters and other Shell Fish within this State."

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It is enacted by the General Assembly, as follows:

SECTION 1. Nothing contained in the act of which this is explanatory and in amendment shall be so construed as to include, within the provisions of the first and third sections thereof, the pond on Block-Island, and the oyster fisheries therein; or to prevent the planting of any oysters taken therefrom in any private oyster grounds within this state.

SEC. 2. There shall be appointed by the general assembly from time to time, a committee of three persons, whose duty it shall be to let, in conformity with the provisions of the act of which this is in amendment, the whole or any portion of the oyster fisheries in the pond on Block-Island, to such persons being inhabitants of the town of New-Shoreham as they shall think fit; in consideration that such persons shall keep open during eight months at least in each and every year, the breach of said pond, under the direction of said committee; the performance of which consideration of said lease or leases shall be duly secured by proper covenants therein contained provided, that if the whole of said oyster fisheries be let to one company, no stakes, bounds or buoys need be set or kept up.

SEC. 3. The commissioners of the shell fisheries are hereby authorized to lease, under the provisions of the act of which this is in amendment, for use as private oyster grounds, any of the lands covered by the public waters of this state, lying north of Field's Point and between the channel and harbor line on the west side of Providence river, and not extending north of a line drawn from the depot of the New-York, Providence and Boston Rail-Road Company, eastward to the channel.

SEC. 4. Nothing in the act of which this is explanatory and in amendment shall be so construed as to prevent any citizen of this state from digging clams or quahaugs on the

shores of the public waters of this state, notwithstanding the provision of this act, or any letting of the said shores as a private oyster ground.

Passed May session, 1844.

An Act in amendment of an act entitled "An act for the preservation of Oysters and other Shell Fish within this State.'

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SECTION 1. Oyster fisheries in the ponds in Charlestown exempted from the provisions of the amended act.

It is enacted by the General Assembly, as follows:

SECTION 1. The oyster fisheries in the ponds lying in the town of Charlestown are hereby exempted from the operation and provisions of the third, ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth sections of the act aforesaid, passed at January session, 1844.

Passed May session, 1844.

Resolved, that the medicines necessary for the use of the convicts in the state prison shall in future be purchased by the warden on account of the state, and be delivered by him to the attending physician, to be used as may be necessary; and no charge to the state for medicine hereafter by any other person shall be allowed.

Passed January session, 1844.

An Act in relation to the Cells in the State Prison, and in relation to the Jail in the county of Providence.

SECTION

1. Unoccupied upper cells in state prison may be used as part of county jail for

SECTION

the confinement of persons on criminal process.

2. Repeals former act on same subject.

It is enacted by the General Assembly, as follows:

SECTION 1. The unoccupied upper cells in the state prison may, at the discretion of the warden of the prison and keeper of the jail in the county of Providence, with the advice of the inspectors of said prison, be used for the confinement and safe keeping of persons committed to the said jail on criminal process, either before or after sentence.

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