§ 525-0. Chapter 71, Acts of 1853.

An Act to incorporate the Town of North Reading.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

SECT. 1. All that portion of the town of Reading, lying northerly of a line commencing at Wilmington, on Ipswich River; thence down the thread of said river to Bear Meadow Brook; thence southerly, up the thread of said brook to a stone monument at a maple stump; thence in a straight line to a stone monument on Bear Meadow Causeway; thence eastwardly in a straight line, to a stone monument north of Tolman's Island, then eastwardly in a straight line to a stone monument at the north west corner of Israel A. Parson's land; thence southerly in a straight line to a stone monument on said Parson's land; thence easterly, in a straight line to a stone monument at Lynnfield line; is hereby incorporated into a town by the name of North Reading; and the said town of North Reading is hereby vested with all the powers, privileges, rights and immunities, and made subject to all the duties and regulations, to which other towns are entitled and subjected by the constitution and laws of this commonwealth.

SECT. 2. The said towns of Reading and North Reading shall be respectively liable for the support of all persons who shall hereafter become paupers, whose legal settlement had been gained within their respective limits at the time of the passage of this act, or whose legal settlement was derived or gained from a settlement which had been gained or derived within their respective limits, at the time of the passage of this act, unless such persons so becoming paupers as aforesaid, shall have acquired a legal settlement in either of said towns since the passage of this act; in which event, the town in which such legal settlement has been so gained, shall be liable for their support upon their becoming paupers.

SECT. 3. The town of North Reading shall be entitled to and receive from the Town of Reading, one-third only of the surplus revenue of the United States, deposited with said last named town, by virtue of the laws of this commonwealth, and shall pay to said town of Reading the one-third part thereof so received, whenever the town of Reading shall be called upon to repay said surplus revenue, deposited with said town by authority of law, which right to receive and obligation to repay may be enforced by an action at law, in any court competent to try the same.

SECT. 4. The town of North Reading shall be holden to pay to the town of Reading its proportion of all debts and liabilities, for which the town of Reading may be liable when this act takes effect, and shall be holden to pay all arrearages of taxes legally assessed upon its inhabitants, and also its proportion of all such state and county taxes as may be legally required of said town of Reading, before the taking of the next state valuation. Said proportion of said debts and liabilities and said state and county taxes to be ascertained and determined by the last decennial valuation of the town of Reading. And the town of North Reading is hereby authorized and required to assess such proportion of the state and county taxes required to be raised by the town of Reading, determined and ascertained as aforesaid, upon the polls and estates of the inhabitants of said North Reading, and pay the same on demand to the said town of Reading.

SECT. 5. The town of Reading, at the first meeting of the inhabitants after the passage of this act, shall choose one disinterested person; and the town of North Reading, at the first meeting of the inhabitants after the passage of this act, another, and these two shall choose a third, as soon as may be, who shall constitute a board to hear both said towns, and determine the sum that shall be awarded to North Reading for the relinquishment of the name of Reading; and to determine the sum that shall be awarded to said North Reading in consideration of its roads and bridges; to make a division of the paupers between said towns, and a just and equitable division of all the property of said town of Reading, except the surplus revenue of the United States deposited with said town; and to adjust all differences arising from the division of said town of Reading; and the decision of said board, or a majority of it, shall be final and binding on each of said towns. And said board shall have power to divide any real estate or other property, except said surplus revenue, now owned by the town of Reading, between said towns of Reading and North Reading, in such proportions as they shall deem just, having regard to the polls and estates of the inhabitants of said towns; and said board, or a majority of the members thereof, shall reduce their award concerning the premises to writing, which shall be signed by the members making the same, and shall deliver a duplicate original of the same to the town clerk of each of said towns, for the use of said towns; and either of said towns may enforce the provisions and requirements of said award, by an action at law or by a bill in equity before any of the courts of this commonwealth competent to try the same. And if either of said towns shall unreasonably neglect or refuse to appoint a disinterested person as a member of said board, as heretofore provided for, then and in that event, the other of said towns, who shall have appointed a member of said board as aforesaid, may apply to the court of common pleas, at any term thereof, holden for the county of Middlesex; giving to the town so neglecting or refusing, seven days of notice of said application, to appoint one member of said board; and said court shall appoint some disinterested person as a member of said board, who shall have the same power and authority as if he had been appointed by either of said towns in the manner aforesaid.

SECT. 6. The town of North Reading shall, — for the purpose of electing a representative to the General Court, to which the territory now comprised in the town of Reading is entitled at the present time, until the next decennial census, or until another apportionment of representatives be made, — remain a part of said town of Reading; and the inhabitants of said town of North Reading shall vote for a person for representative, at the meetings when by law a representative can be elected, who may be an inhabitant of either of said towns; and it shall be the duty of the selectmen of North Reading, to preside at such meetings, and receive and count the votes, — and a certificate of said votes shall be made by said selectmen and town clerk of said town of North Reading, and returned to the selectmen of the town of Reading, within forty-eight hours after the day of election, and the votes so returned shall be counted by the selectmen of Reading as a part of the votes of said town of Reading: — and if no choice is thus made of representative at the first day of election therefor, then it shall be the duty of the selectmen of both towns, to issue a warrant for another meeting of the inhabitants, for the choice of representative, whenever the selectmen of one of said towns may be required by law to issue such warrant, — and at such second meetings of the inhabitants of North Reading and Reading, the same proceedings are to be had, as to receiving, counting and certifying the votes for representative, as at said first meeting as aforesaid by both said towns.

SECT. 7. Any justice of the peace for the county of Middlesex is hereby authorized to issue his warrant to any principal inhabitant of the town of North Reading, requiring him to warn the inhabitants of said town, qualified to vote in elections, to meet at the time and place therein appointed, for the purpose of choosing all such town officers, and the transaction of such other business, as towns are by law authorized and required to choose or transact, at their annual meetings, by posting up attested copies of the warrant, in the same manner as town meetings are now called in the town of Reading: and said justice, or said principal inhabitant in his absence, shall preside at said meeting, until a moderator is chosen.

SECT. 8. This act shall take effect from and after its passage.

[Approved by the Governor, March 22, 1853.]