shall be served in the manner therein specified upon the keeper of the gate so ordered to be thrown open. Any inspector within the town, city or village where such road has been repaired pursuant to notice or order as aforesaid, may certify that such road has been duly repaired. The fees of the inspector for the services above mentioned shall be two dollars for each day actually employed, together with necessary witnesses' fees, to be paid by the corporation or person whose road is so inspected, if the gates are ordered to be thrown open, but otherwise to be charged, audited and paid in the same manner as other fees of commissioners of highways. Any inspector who 'neglects to perform his duties shall forfeit to the party aggrieved the sum cf twenty-five dollars for each offense. Every keeper of a gate ordered to be thrown open, not immediately obeying such order or not keeping such gate open until such road shall be fully repaired or until a certificate that such road has been duly repaired is granted, or hindering or delaying any person in passing, or taking any tolls from any person passing such gate during the time it ought to be open, shall forfeit to the party aggrieved the sum of ten dollars for each offense, and the corporation or person owning the road, who shall refuse or neglect to obey the requirements of any such order shall forfeit to the people of the state the sum of two hundred dollars for each offense. (Amended by L. 1896, chap. 343.)

§ 135. Change of route; extension and branches.-Any such corporation may, with the written consent of the owners of two-thirds of its capital stock and of a majority of the commissioners of highways of the town or towns, in which any change or extension is proposed to be made, construct branches to its main line or extend the same, or change the route of its road or any part thereof, and acquire the right of way for the same in the same manner as for the original or main line, and may, by any of its officers, agents or servants, enter upon lands for the purpose of making any examination, survey or map, doing no unnecessary damage; but before entering upon, taking or using such lands, the corporation shall make a survey and map thereof, designating thereon the lands of each owner or occu

pant intended to be taken or used, which shall be signed and acknowledged by the engineer making the same and the president of the corporation and filed in the office of the clerk of the county in which the land is situated.

§ 136. Mile-stones; guide-posts and hoist-gates.-A mile-stone or post shall be erected and maintained by every such corporation on each mile of its road, on which shall be fairly and legibly marked or inscribed the distance of such stone or post from the place of commencement of the road, and when the road shall commence at the end of any other road having milestones or posts on which the distance from any city or town is marked, a continuation of that distance shall in like manner be inscribed. A guide-post shall also be erected at the intersection of every public road leading into or from every turnpike cr plank-road, on which shall be inscribed the name of the place to which such intersecting road leads in the direction to which the name on the guide post shall point. No plank-road or turnpike corporation shall erect or put up any hoist-gate on its road. Any person who shall willfully break, cut down, deface or injure any mile-stone, post or gate on such road, or dig up, or injure any part of the road, or anything belonging thereto, shall forfeit to the corporation twenty-five dollars for every offense, in addition to the damages resulting from the act.

Injury to highway and mile-boards.-Penal Code, § 63S, subs. 1 and 6, provide that a person who willfully or maliciously displaces, removes, njures or destroys a public highway or bridge, or a private way laid out by authority of law, or a bridge upon such public or private way, or a mile-board, mile-stone, or guide-post, erected upon a highway, or any inscription upon the same, is punishable by imprisonment for not more than two years.

Where a turnpike or plank road is abandoned, the road reverts to the town and the town may compel its surrender and restoration to its original width and condition. Town of Palatine v. N. Y. C. & H. R. R. Co., 22 App. Div. 181. A surrender of the road by the company is equivalent to an alienation, and embraces not only the lands which were public highways when acquired by the company, but also lands which never before belonged to the town. Heath v. Barmore, 50 N. Y. 302.

It is the policy of the state, as indicated by the above section and other legislation on the subject, that public roads, constructed by turnpike or other corporations under special charters or general statute, shall, on dissolution of the companies, which constructed them, or their abandonment by such companies, become and be thereafter treated as public highways. People ex rel Keene v. Supervisors, 151 N. Y. 190.

§ 137. Location of office of corporation.-Within two weeks after the formation of any such corporation its directors shall designate some place within a county in which its road or bridge, or some part thereof shall be constructed as its office, and shall give public notice thereof by publishing the same once in each week for three successive weeks in a public newspaper in the county, and shall file a copy of the notice in the office of the county clerk of every county in which any part of the road or bridge is, or is to be constructed, and if the location of such office shall be changed, like notice of the change shall be published and filed, in which shall be specified the time of making the change, before it shall take effect. Every notice, summons or other paper required by law to be served on the corporation may be served by leaving the same at such office with any person having charge thereof, at any time between nine o'clock in the forenoon and five o'clock in the afternoon of any day except Sunday or a legal holiday.

§ 138. Consolidation of corporations and sale of franchise.— Any two or more of such corporations may consolidate into one corporation on such terms as the persons owning two-thirds of the stock of each corporation may agree upon, and may change the name of the road on filing in the office where the original certificates of incorporation were filed, a certificate containing the names of the roads so consolidated, and the name by which such road shall thereafter be known. Any plank-road or turnpike corporation may, with the consent of the owners of sixty per cent of its stock, sell, and convey the whole or any part of its rights, property and franchises to any other domestic plankroad or turnpike corporation, and such sale and conveyance shall vest the rights, property and franchises thereby transferred in the corporation to which they are conveyed for the term of its corporate existence.

§ 139. Surrender of road.-The directors of any plank-road or turnpike corporation may abandon the whole or any part of its road at either or both ends thereof, upon obtaining the written consent of the stockholders, owning two-thirds of the stock of the corporation, which surrender shall be by a declara

tion in writing to that effect, attested by the seal of the corporation and acknowledged by the president and secretary. Such declaration and consent shall be filed and recorded in the clerk's office of the county in which any part of the road abandoned shall be situated, and the road so abandoned shall cease to be the road or the property of the corporation, and shall revert and belong to the several towns, cities and villages through which it was constructed, and the corporation shall no longer be liable to maintain it or to be assessed thereon, or permitted to collect tolls for traveling over the same, but without impairing its right to take toll on the remaining part of its road at the rate prescribed by law. And whenever any turnpike or plank-road company, now existing or hereafter created, shall abandon all or any part of its road within this state, in the manner above provided, or whenever its charter or franchise of such company shall be annulled or revoked, the road of such turnpike or plank-road company shall revert to and belong to the several towns, cities and villages through which such road shall pass. And it shall be the duty of the several towns, cities and villages acquiring any road under this act to immediately lay out and declare the same a free public highway. And it shall be the duty of the several towns, cities and villages, to maintain and work every road acquired under the provisions of this act in the same manner as the other roads of such towns, cities and vilages are maintained and worked. And any town, city or village may borrow money in the manner provided by law for the purpose of improving or repairing the same. (Amended by L. 1896, chap. 964.)

§ 140. Taxation and exemption.-So much of any bridge or toll-house of any bridge corporation as may be within any town, city or village, shall be liable to taxation therein as real estate. Toll-houses and other fixtures and all property belonging to any plank-road or turnpike corporation shall be exempt from assessment and taxation for any purpose until the surplus annual receipts of tolls on its road over necessary repairs and a suitable reserve fund for repairs or relaying of plank, shall exceed seven per cent per annum on the first cost of the road.

If the assessors of any town, village or city and the corporation disagree concerning any exemption claim, the corporation may appeal to the county judge of the county in which such assessment is proposed to be made, who shall, after due notice to both parties, examine the books and vouchers of the corporation, and take such further proof as he shall deem proper, and decide whether such corporation is liable to taxation under this section, and his decision shall be final.

8 141. Hauling logs and timber.—Any person who shall draw or haul or cause to be drawn or hauled, any logs, timber or other material upon the bed of any plank or turnpike road, unless the same shall be entirely elevated above the surface of the road on wheels or runners, and the road-bed shall be injured thereby, or who shall do or cause to be done any act by which the road-bed, or any ditch, sluice, culvert or drain appertaining to any turnpike or plank-road shall be injured or obstructed, or shall divert or cause to be diverted, any stream of water so as to injure or endanger any part of such road, shall forfeit to the corporation the sum of five dollars for every offense in addition to the damages resulting from the wrongful act.

§ 142. Encroachment of fences.-Whenever the president or secretary of any turnpike or plank-road corporation shall notify any inspector of such roads in the county where situated that any person is erecting or has erected any fence or other structure upon any part of the premises lawfully set apart for any such turnpike or plank-road, the inspector shall examine into the facts and order the fence or other structure to be removed if it shall appear to be upon any part of any such road, and any person neglecting or refusing to remove the same within twenty days or such further time not exceeding three months, as may be fixed by the inspector, shall forfeit to the corporation the sum of five dollars for every day during which the fence or other structure shall remain upon such road, but no such order shall require the removal of any fence, previously erected, between the first day of December and the first day of April.

§ 143. Penalty for fast driving over bridges. Any plankroad, turnpike or bridge corporation may put up and maintain