CHAPTER 99.

[Published March 18, 1870.]

AN ACT to provide compensation to a Catholic clergyman for attendance on Catholic inmates of the State Prison.

The people of the state of Wisconsin, represented in senate and assembly, do enact as follows:

SECTION 1. The State Prison commissioner is here- May employ Catholic chapby authorized and empowered to employ an additional lain. chaplain of the Catholic faith whenever there shall be imprisoned in the State Prison any person or persons of the Catholic denomination, to visit and minister to the spiritual wants of such person or persons, at least once every month, or as often as the State Prison commissioner may deem proper.

lain.

SECTION 2. Whenever such services shall be so Pay of chap. rendered by such additional chaplain, the said commis sioner shall certify to the same; and upon such certificate the state treasurer shall pay to the said additional chaplain, out of the general fund not otherwise appropriated, the sum of one hundred dollars per year. SECTION 3. There is hereby appropriated annually Appropriation. out of any moneys in the state treasury not otherwise appropriated, a sum sufficient to carry out the provis ions of this act.

SECTION 4. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage.

Approved March 16, 1870.

Amended.

Defendant may give evidence

ceased.

CHAPTER 100.

[Published March 24, 1870.]

AN ACT to amend chapter one hundred and fifty-seven (157) of the general laws of the state of Wisconsin, for the year (A. D.) 1869, entitled "an act relating to evidence in certain cases.

The people of the state of Wisconsin, represented in senate and assembly, do enact as follows:

SECTION 1. Section three (3) of said chapter 157 is hereby amended to be and read as follows: All statements, list or lists of lands (or a certified copy thereof, by any officer in whose custody the same may be) which may have been or shall hereafter be certified to the state of Wisconsin by the president of the United States, or by either of the departments of the United States or any of the officers thereof, including the sec retary of the interior, or by the commissioner of the general land office of the United States for railroad or any other purposes, shall be admitted in evidence in all courts, and shall be prima facie evidence that the title of the lands therein contained or described, thereupon became vested in the state of Wisconsin.

SECTION 2. In any suit that may have been com In place of de- menced or shall be hereafter commenced in any court by an executor, administrator, heir, devisee or legatee or assignee of any deceased person, (except an assignee before due of a negotiable promissory note) upon any promissory note, obligation, contract or other instru ment or evidence of indebtedness, if any defendant therein shall set forth, allege or state in his verified answer or by affidavit that the said note, obligation, contract or other instrument or evidence of indebted ness was given, in whole or part, for claimed or pretended services of such deceased person as executor, administrator, trustee, guardian or agent, or in whole or part for any other matter or thing appertaining to or growing out of or arising from such administratorship, executorship, trusteeship, guardianship or agency, and that the said note, obligation, contract or other instru ment or evidence of indebtedness was obtained fraudu lently or that he or they signed the same through a

!

misunderstanding of the facts of the case, or through
the misrepresentations or concealments on the part of
such deceased person, and that such deceased person
has never wholly and in full settled his accounts as
such administrator, executor, trustee, guardian or agent,
and such deceased person absented himself from the
state, without settling his accounts or matters as such
administrator, executor, trustee, guardian or agent, then
said defendant in such suit or either one of them may
and shall be allowed in and on all trials or any other
proceedings in any such suit or suits, to be a witness
and testify and give evidence in the same manner as if
such deceased person was still living, or was still living
and plaintiff in such suit, and in like manner shall be
allowed and entitled to be a witness in any suit by the
maker or obligor of any such note, contract, obligation
or instrument or evidence of indebtedness as aforesaid,
against the executor, administrator, heir, devisee, lega-
tee or assignee of any such deceased person or all or
any of them, to set aside, cancel and declare null and
void, or to compel the surrender of any such note,
obligation, contract or other instrument or evidence of
indebtedness.

SECTION 3. This act shall take effect and be in force
from and after its passage and publication.
Approved March 16, 1870.

CHAPTER 101.

[Published March 23, 1870.]

AN ACT to provide for classification and election of railroad di

rectors.

The people of the state of Wisconsin, represented in senate
and assembly, do enact as follows:

SECTION 1. The terms of office of the directors of Extended. any railroad or railway company of this state may be

extended in the manner herein provided.

SECTION 2. Any railroad or railway company organ- May classify diized and doing business under any law or laws of this rectors.

state, may by resolution of its board of directors, divide its board of directors into three classes, numbered consecutively, each of which shall be composed, as nearly as may be of one-third of the directors; the term of office of the first class to expire on the day of the annual election of said company, then next ensu ing; the second class one year thereafter, and the third class two years thereafter. At each annual election after such classification the stockholders of such com. pany shall elect for a term of three years a number of directors equal to the number in the class whose term expires on the day of such election. All other vacan.

cies to be filled in accordance with the by-laws of said company.

SECTION 3. This act shall be a public act, to take effect and be in force from and after its passage. Approved March 16, 1860.

May purchase index.

Shall audit claim.

CHAPTER 102.

[Published March 22, 1870.]

AN ACT to authorize the secretary of state to purchase an index to the laws of the state of Wiscon-in.

The people of the state of Wisconsin, represented in senate and assembly, do enact as follows:

SECTION 1. The secretary of state is hereby authorized and required to purchase one thousand copies. of a synoptical index to the laws of Wisconsin, now be ing prepared by E. A. Spencer, which index shall include all laws, general, local and private, passed by the territorial and state legislatures, including the laws passed at the present session of the legislature, and which index shall be examined and approved by the attorney general, and bound in good substantial half. binding, and delivered to the secretary of state, to be distributed as the legislature shall direct.

SECTION 2. Upon the receipt of the copies of the index provided for in the foregoing section, the secre tary of state shall audit the claim of said Spencer for

the sum of two thousand dollars, which shall be in full payment for the copies of the index provided for as aforesaid.

SECTION 3. There is hereby appropriated out of Appropriation. any money in the state treasury belonging to the general fund not otherwise appropriated, a sum sufficient to defray the expenses authorized by this act.

SECTION 4. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage and publication. Approved March 16, 1870.

CHAPTER 103.

[Published March 25, 1870.]

AN ACT further to provide for the assessment and collection of delinquent taxes for 1865 and 1866 on shares in national banks in this state.

The people of the state of Wisconsin, represented in senate and assembly, do enact as follows:

treasurers.

SECTION 1. The treasurer of every county in which Duty of county there is a banking association organized under a law of the United States, shall within thirty days after the publication of this act, make out and transmit to the state treasurer a statement showing how many shares of stock in any such banking association were assessed for taxes in such county in the year 1868 or 1869, for the years 1865 and 1866, so far as appears from the books or papers in his office; to whom as owner or owners such shares were assessed, and the value at which they were assessed for each of said years, and also the rate per cent. or amount of tax set down on the assessment roll against the name of each owner of such shares for each of said years, and upon which of such shares the said taxes have been paid, and which were returned delinquent.

tice to assessor

SECTION 2. If it shall appear to the state treasurer Shall give nofrom such statement or otherwise that the taxes due the of non-assessstate for the years 1865 and 1866, on the shares in any for 1865-6.

GEN. LAWS.-11.

ment of shares