No. 147. ]

to be ac

AN ACT to amend sections two thousand and fourteen and two

thousand and seventeen of the compiled laws, in reference to religious societies, so as to anthorize the recording of articles of association, and to give trustees, wardens and vestrymen, authority to execute securities upon church property, in certain cases.

Section 1. The People of the State of Michigan enact, That seo Amended. tien two thousand and fourteen of the compiled laws, be and

the same is hereby amended so that said section shall read as

follows: Certificate (2014.) Sec. 6. Such certificate shall be acknowledged by the knowledged. person making the same, or proved by a subscribing witness

thereto, before some officer authorized to take acknowledgment of deeds; and said certificate, with the certificate of acknowl.

edgment or proof thereof, and the articles of association, shall Recorded by be recorded by the clerk of the county within which the church

or place of worship of such congregation shall be situated, in a book to be by him provided for that purpose, who shall be

entitled to ten cents for each folio for recording the same; and Body corpo

thereafter such trustees, and their successors, shall be a body corporate, by the name expressed in such certificate.

Sec. 2. That section two thousand and seventeen of the compiled laws, be and the same is hereby amended so that said sec. tion shall read as follows:

(2017.) Sec. 9. The said trustees, or wardens and vestrymen, churches, shall also have authority, under the direction of the society or &c , but not for secular congregation, to erect churches and meeting-houses, dwellings

for their ministers or their priests, or other buildings for the direct and legitimate use of their church, congregation or society,

to alter and repair the same, but for no secular purpose; and May give se- also, under the direction of the society or congregation, to give, curity on property for execute and acknowledge, in their official capacity, any obliga

tions and securities upon the property of such church, congregation or society, for the payment of just liabilities which

rate.

Amended,

Trustees

may erect

liabilities

have been or may hereafter be created in the erection or repair of such church, meeting-house, or other buildings.

Approved March 13, 1861.

[ No. 148. ]

AN ACT to provide for the signing of decrees, records and journals of courts of record.

&c., his suc

SECTION 1. The People of the State of Michigan enact, That when any judge shall have failed or omitted to sign any decree On failure of judge to by him passed, or any record or journal of a court held by him, sign decree, his successor, or any other judge holding the same court, may cessor may sign such decree, record or journal, and with like force and same. effect as if the same had been signed by the judge who passed the decree, or held the court to which said record or journal belongs.

sign the

former

be ordered

recorded.

Sec. 2. Any decree of the former court of chancery, or of the Decrees of circuit court in chancery, that may have been duly passed and courts may signed, and not reversed, vacated or annulled, and which may have failed to be recorded or enrolled, may be directed by the court having the legal custody of the files in the case in which such decree was pronounced, in its discretion, to be recorded and enrolled by the register of the court, nunc pro tunc; and when so recorded and enrolled the same shall be as effectual as if recorded and enrolled at the end of thirty days after its allowance.

Approved March 13, 1861.

[ No. 149. ]

AN ACT to provide a tax for the expenses of the State

government.

SECTION 1. The People of the State of Michigan enact, That two mills on the dollar of the aggregate of the real and per- Tax author sonal estate, as may be equalized by the State board of equalization for the year eighteen hundred and sixty-one, be levied

ized.

Aud. Geder. al to appor tion and traormit to counties.

and collected upon the taxable property of the State, for each of the years eighteen hundred and sixty-one and eighteen hundred and sixty-two, and the same is hereby appropriated for the payment of the expenses of the State government, the interest upon the State debt not otherwise provided for, and the State debt falling due within said years, not otherwise provided for.

Sec. 2. The Auditor General shall apportion each year the sums herein directed to be raised, among the several counties, in proportion to the taxable property therein, as may be determined by the State board of equalization; and he shall, on or before the fifteenth day of September in each year, make out and transmit to the clerk of the several boards of supervisors the amount of such tax so apportioned by him to the county, and shall charge the several amounts of such apportionment to the counties respectively.

Approved March 13, 1861.

ed.

[ No. 150.) AN ACT making appropriation of certain swamp land for the

relief of James Macroft. Section 1. The People of the State of Michigan enact, That Land grant-forty acres of swamp land, be and the same is hereby granted

to James Macroft, for certain draining of swamp lands in the township of Dewitt, in the county of Clinton, made by said Macroft.

Sec. 2. Said Macroft is hereby authorized to locate and select locate the said land from any State swamp land in the county of Clinton,

at

any time within sixty days after this act becomes a law.

Sec. 3. On making said selection, the Commissioner of the land office State Land Office is hereby authorized and directed to execute deed.

to said James Macroft a deed of said land.

Approved March 13, 1861.

Grantee au• thorized to

same.

Commision er State

[ No. 151. ]

AN ACT to amend an act entitled an act relative to convicts sentenced to solitary confinement in the State prison for life, approved April second, eighteen hundred and forty-nine, being section six thousand two hundred and thirty of compiled laws.

SECTION 1. The People of the State of Michigan enact, That section six thousand two hundred and thirty of compiled laws, Section be and the same is hereby amended so as to read as follows:

sentenced to

finement

Sec. 6230. The convicts which have been or may be sen- Convicts tenced to solitary confinement in the State prison at hard labor solitary confor life, may be released from solitary confinement and employ-may be reed as other convicts are, whenever and for such times as the inspectors may by resolution direct.

Sec. 2 This act shall take immediate effect.

Approved March 13, 1861.

therefrom.

[ No. 152. ]

AN ACT to authorize the First Congregational Church and Society of the village of Hudson, to sell their church lot, or any part thereof.

thorized to

SECTION 1. The People of the State of Michigan enact, That the trustees of the First Congregational Church and Society of the Trustees auvillage of Hudson, or their successors in office, be and they are deed. hereby authorized to sell and convey, on such terms as they shall see fit, such part of the church lot belonging to said society as they shall deem best, to wit: lots one and two, block five, Gibbon's, plat of the village of Hudson, and apply the money arising from such sale to such purposes, for the use and benefit of said society, as the board of trustees may direct; and a deed duly executed and acknowledged by the board of trus tees of said society shall be good and effectual to convey the title to said premises, to all intents and purposes.

[This act shall take immediate effect.]

Approved March 13, 1861.

[ No 153. ]

trict bound aries.

AN ACT to incorporate the public schools of the city of Adrian.

Section 1. The People of the State of Michigan enact, That School diso, all of the city of Adrian, and so much of the townships of Adrian

and Madison as are included in the following descriptions and boundaries, viz.: all those lands situate in township six (6) south, of range three (3) east, known and distinguished as the south-west quarter of section twenty-six (26), the south-east quarter of section twenty-seven (27), the east half of the east half of section thirty-three (33), the west half and the north half of the north-east quarter of section thirty-four (3f), the north half of the north-west quarter, and the north half of the north east quarter of section thirty-five (35), and the north half of the north-west quarter of section thirty-six (36); also all those lands situate in township seven (7) south, of range three (3) east, being the west half of section three (3), the northeast quarter of the north-east quarter of section nine (9), the north half, the south-east quarter, and the east half of the southwest quarter of section ten (10), the north half, the south-west quarter, and the west half of the south east quarter of section eleven (11), shall constitute a single school district, to be

known and designated as the public schools of the city of Powers and Adrian; and such district shall have all the powers and privil

eges conferred upon school districts, and union school districts, by general law; and hereafter all schools organized therein, in

pursuance of this act, under the direction and regulation of the To be public school board, shall be public and free to all children, actual res.

idents within the limits thereof, between the ages of five and twenty-one years inclusive.

Sec. 2. The officers of said district shall consist of six trustees, whose term of oslice shall be three years, two of whom shall be elected at the annual meeting of the district, to be held

on the last Monday of September in each year; and within ten and recreta. days after their election, the trustees thus elected shall meet and

elect from their own number a president and secretary, whose

Name.

privileges.

District offi. cers, term.

Piesident

ry, powers ol