the highways, as provided in sections fifty and fifty-one of the highway law, all road machines owned within such town, whether by the town or by any road district or districts therein, shall be used by the highway commissioner or commissioners of such town in such manner and at such places in such town as the commissioner or commissioners of highways of such town shall deem best. The said machines shall be kept in repair by the commissioners or commissioner at the expense of such town. (Amended by L. 1895, chap. 586, L. 1896. chap. 987, L. 1898, chap. 155, and L. 1904, chap. 153.)

Contracts for the purchase of road machines and scrapers should be made by the commissioners of highways in the name of the town, and when such contracts are otherwise lawfully made, they shall be deemed the contracts of the town, notwithstanding it is omitted to be stated therein that they are in the name of the town. Town Law, § 182. In towns which have adopted the money system, contracts for the purchase of road machines must be filed in the office of the town clerk within ten days after such contracts are made. L. 1895, chap. 717, post.

Writ of mandamus to compel commissioner and overseers to perform duty.—Where a road machine is purchased under the provisions of the above section the vendor of the machine is entitled to a peremptory writ of mandamus requiring the commissioner of highways and the overseers of highways to make and deliver to the supervisor of the town, ten days before the meeting of the board of supervisors "a list of the persons in such district or districts who are named in the last assessment roll of the town, chargeable with the payment of a tax for such machine." On an application for such writ the defendants cannot raise the question whether the taxpayers upon whose petition the machine was purchased constituted a majority of the taxpayers of the district representing more than one-half of the taxable property therein, where such fact was recited in the petition and is certified to by the town clerk, as required by the statute. People ex rel Climax Co. v. Commissioner of Highways, 48 App. Div. 550.

§ 7. Stone crushers and material.-The town board and commissioner or commissioners of highways of any town may,

when authorized by a majority vote of the electors voting theron, by ballot, at the annual or at a special town meeting, purchase a machine for crushing stone, a suitable roller, and such other machinery as may be necessary to be used, under the direction of the commissioner or commissioners of highways of said town, for the improvement of the highways thereof, and the commissioners of highways of any such town may, in any year, when authorized by a majority vote of the electors voting thereon, by ballot, at the annual or at a special town meeting, expend in said year a sum not exceeding two thousand dollars, for the purpose of purchasing stone, and quarrying, breaking, crushing and placing the same on the highways, in such road district or districts as the town board may direct and defraying the expenses of operating such machine, and shall present the account and vouchers for said purchases and expenses to the town board for audit, and the amount audited, together with the cost of such stone-crushing machine, when not before included, shall be levied and collected as other town andits. (Amended by L. 1895, chap. 411 and L. 1902, chap. 129.)

Submission of Proposition.—An application for the submission of a proposition under this section should be filed in the office of the town clerk as provided in section 32 of the Town Law. Such application must be in writing and should plainly state the proposition to be voted upon. The town clerk is required by such section to give at least ten days notice of the submission of such proposition by posting it conspicuously in at least four of the most public places in the town. If it is desirable to submit such a proposition at a special town meeting application for such a town meeting must be made in writing by at least twenty-five of the taxpayers of the town, addressed to the town clerk. (Town Law, § 23.) Upon the filing of such application the town clerk is required to give at least ten days. notice of the holding of such special town meeting. Town Law, § 24.

Purchase of crushed stone in certain towns.-The commissioners of highways and the town board of any town of one thousand or less inhabitants adjoining a city having not less than thirty-five thousand inhabitants are authorized to expend a sum not exceeding $20,000 in addition to the sum authorized to be expended by the above section. L. 1895, chap. 499, § 1, post page.

Acquisition of gravel beds.-The overseers of highways of any road district of the state, with the consent of the commissioners of highways of the town, and the approval of the town board, shall have power to purchase of the owner of any gravel bed or pit within the town, gravel for the purpose of grading, repairing or otherwise improving the highways of the town at a price per cubic yard approved by said commissioners and town board. If such overseer can not agree with any such owner for the purchase of such gravel, the overseer, with the consent of such commissioners and the approval of such town board, shall have power to acquire by condemnation the right to take and use such gravel, provided, no gravel shall be so condemned within one thousand feet of any house or barn, or taken from any lawn, orchard or vineyard, and to remove the same from such bed or pit for the purpose of grading, repairing or otherwise improving such highways, together with the right of way to and from such bed or pit to be used for the purpose of such removal. The right to use such gravel or to take the same from any such bed or pit may be acquired under this section for two or more or all of the road districts of the town, in common; and if acquired for two or more or all of the districts, the commissioners of highways, with the approval of the town board, must make the purchase or acquire such right by condemnation. The amount agreed to be paid upon any such purchase, and the amount adjudged to be paid upon any such condemnation shall be paid by the districts in which such gravel shall be used, but the costs and expenses of the proceedings for the condemnation incurred by the overseer, shall be a charge upon the town, and shall be audited by the town board, and paid the same as other town charges.

If the town shall abandon for the period of three years any right so acquired to use any gravel bed or pit or to take gravel therefrom, or if the overseer of highways of any such district wherein any such right shall have been so acquired, or the commissioners of highways of the town shall cease to use the same for the purposes for which it was acquired, the right of the town and of such overseer and commissioners thereto shall

cease, and the ownership thereof shall revert to and become vested in the owner of such bed or pit at the time such right was acquired, or his heirs or assigns. (L. 1891, chap. 309, §§ 1, 2.)

8 8. Custody of stone-crushers.-Such machine, when purchased, shall be under the care and custody of the commissioners of highways of the town; and where there is an incorporated village constituting a separate highway district, in any town, they may, by an agreement with the trustees of the village, permit an equitable use of the machine to such separate village district.

8 9. Additional tax.-Whenever the commissioners of highways shall determine that the sum of five hundred dollars will be insufficient to pay the expenses actually necessary for the improvement of highways and bridges, the removal of obstructions caused by snow and the prevention of such obstructions, they may cause a vote to be taken by ballot at any town meeting, authorizing such additional.sum to be raised as they may deem necessary for such purpose, not exceeding one-third of one per centum upon the taxable property of the town as shown by the last assessment roll thereof. (Amended by L. 1904, chap. 478.)

Submission of proposition for the raising of money.-The above section authorizes the commissioners of highways of a town to secure an appropriation by a town meeting of such sums in excess of $500 as may be required for the improvement of highways and bridges. The Town Law, § 31, provides that all votes upon any proposition to raise or appropriate money or incur any town liability exceeding $500 shall be by ballot. Special town meetings may be called upon the application of commissioners of highways to determine questions pertaining to their respective duties, and which the electors of a town. have a right to determine. Such application should be in writing, signed by the commssioners, and addressed to the town clerk. Town Law, § 23. Upon an application being

thus made by the commissioners the town clerk is required to give at least ten days' notice specifying the time, place and purposes of the meeting; such notice must be posted conspicuously in at least four of the most public places in the town. Town Law, § 24. The commissioners must file with the town clerk a written application plainly stating the question they desire to have voted upon and requesting a vote thereon at the town meeting specified therein. They must also file with such application a statement of their accounts to date, with the facts and circumstances which in their opinion make the appropriation necessary, and also an estimate of the sum necessary for the purposes stated. Town Law, § 32.

Effect of section.-The above section has for its purpose the approopriating of town money by a regular or a special town meeting without the issue of town bonds therefor. The commissioners are thus enabled to secure a specific amount to b used by them for the making of necessary highway improvements without application to the town board, or without the issuing of town bonds for the purpose of raising such money. If it is desired to appropriate a less amount than $500 the vote thereupon may be viva voce. Town Law, § 31. But on all appropriations of more than $500 the vote must be by ballot.

If it is proposed to raise money by the issue of town bonds for the construction and improvement of highways and bridges. authority must be procured from the board of supervisors. County Law, §§ 12 (sub. 6) 13, 14, 69.

§ 10. Extraordinary repairs of highways or bridges.—If any highway or bridge shall at any time be damaged or destroye by the elements or otherwise or become unsafe, the commissioner of highways of the town in which such highway o bridge may be, may cause the same to be immediately repaired or rebuilt if consented to by the town board, but if the expense thereof exceed five hundred dollars, it shall be done under a written contract therefor which must be approved by the town board, and the commissioners of highways shall present the proper vouchers for the expense thereof to the town board, at their next annual meeting, and the same shall be audited by them and collected in the same manner as amounts voted at