ACT AUTHORIZING PUBLICATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF COMPILATION OF HIGHWAY LAWS. L. 1904, Chap. 536. AN ACT to provide for the publication and distribution of a compilation of the highway laws without expense to the state. Became a law May 3, 1904, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, a majority being present. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: Section 1. The secretary of state shall, within ten days after this act takes effect, designate a proper person to prepare and publish, on or before August first, nineteen hundred and four, a revised edition of the highway manual of the state of New York, heretofore published pursuant to chapter six hundred and fifty-five of the laws of eighteen hundred and ninetythree, which manual shall contain all the laws of the state relating to the construction, maintenance and use of highways, and the powers, duties and liabilities of highway officers. Such manual shall also contain such practical suggestions and directions for grading and building roads, maintaining and improving the same, and removing obstructions therefrom as the compiler may determine, or as the state engineer and surveyor may suggest. $2. The person so designated to prepare and publish such compilation shall forward to each county clerk as many copies thereof as are required for distribution by this section. Each county clerk, upon the receipt of such manuals, shall immediately distribute one copy to each member of a town board, commissioner of highways and overseer of highways in his county. The cost of such manuals shall be fixed by the compiler, not exceeding one dollar per copy, which, together with the expense of distribution by the county clerk, shall be a town charge, and shall be audited and allowed as other town charges at the next meeting of the town board. Such manuals shall remain the property of the town, and upon the expiration of the term of office of each officer shall be turned over by him to his successor in office. The cost of such manuals to all other persons shall not exceed one dollar and fifty cents per copy. §3. Each supervisor shall, on or before March fifteenth, nineteen hundred and five, pay to the person designated to compile such manual the amount due for the books forwarded to his town. From the moneys so received the compiler shall pay the expense of preparing and publishing such compilation, and forwarding the same to the several county clerks as herein provided. §4. This act shall take effect immediately. STATE OF NEW YORK, Office of the Secretary of State, } SS.: I have compared the preceding with the original law on file in this office, and do hereby certify that the same is a correct transcript therefrom and of the whole of said original law. JOHN F. O'BRIEN, Secretary of State. DESIGNATION OF COMPILER. STATE OF NEW YORK, Office of the SECRETARY OF STATE, Albany, May 10, 1904. Charles H. Betts, Lyons, Wayne County, N. Y.: Dear Sir-You are hereby designated to compile and publish the Highway Laws of this State, as provided by chapter 536 of the Laws of 1904. Yours respectfully, JOHN F. O'BRIEN, Secretary of State. PREFACE. The roads of a country are accurate and certain tests of the degree of its civilization. Their construction is one of the first indications of the emergence of a people from the savage state; and their improvement keeps pace with the advance of the nation in numbers, wealth, industry and science. Roads are the veins and arteries of the body politic, for through them flow the agricultural productions and the commercial supplies which are the life blood of the State."-Gillespie. This manual is published in pursuance of chapter 536 of the laws of 1904. Under this act the secretary of state designated the undersigned to prepare and publish a revised edition of the Highway Manual of the State of New York heretofore published pursuant to chapter 655 of the laws of 1893. The act provides that the manual shall contain "all the laws of the state relating to the construction, maintenance and use of highways, and the powers, duties and liabilities of highway officers." Owing to the great changes made in the laws pertaining to highways and bridges in this state subsequent to the publication of the Highway Manual in 1893, it has been found impracticable to follow the form and method adopted by the compilers of that edition. The manual here presented is, therefore, much more than a mere revised edition of the former manual. The method of treatment is entirely different, and the subject matter is more complete. The statutory laws pertaining to highways and bridges and the duties of highway officers in respect thereto are included exactly as they appear in the statutes. All these statutes are grouped under chapter headings for convenience of reference. The main purpose of the manual is to aid highway officers in the performance of their duties. To attain this purpose the provisions of the statutes in common use by such officers have been carefully annotated with explanatory notes and supplemented by simple and useful forms. Wherever the courts have construed or applied the provisions of the statute reference is made to the cases in their proper connection so that persons using the manual may have at hand both statutory and courtmade law to aid them in securing the information which they. desire. Special effort has been made by the use of cross references and explanatory notes to straighten out apparent inconsistencies and to make clear the exact state of the law in respect to each proposition. The compiler sincerely hopes that he has succeeded in his endeavors in this respect. It will be noticed that the highway law, (L. 1890, chap. 568), which is the basis of all the laws pertaining to highways and bridges has been included in a chapter by itself, with the sections thereof double leaded, and separated from the explanatory notes and annotations immediately following each section. All the other supplemental and kindred statutes pertaining either directly or indirectly to highways and bridges have been grouped under appropriate chapter headings. The facts, statistics and suggestions in the appendix of this work will be found invaluable for the guidance of highway comInissioners and pathmasters. The article prepared by the State Engineer and Surveyor contains the most scientific information and the most practical suggestions relative to the construction of good roads that have ever been published. The address of Senator William W. Armstrong, author of the state aid act; the address of Hon. Jean L. Burnett, author of the act appropriating $1,500,000 for good roads and the address of Mr. Lyon, an acknowledged expert on the subject of good roads, are all interesting and instructive and they contain the best thought and most up-to-date information obtainable on a subject that is fast becoming one of the most vital and important subjects of state administration. CHARLES H. BETTS, |