thereof, and unless within said ten days such well is plugged according to the directions contained in said notice, the inspector either by himself, his agents or employees shall plug or cause such well to be plugged properly, according to the provisions of this Act.

6. The expenses incidental or occasioned by the examination and plugging of any abandoned well or by the confining or shutting in of the gas from any well by the inspector under the provisions of this Act shall be paid to the inspector within ten days after notice is (in) writing of the completion of the work and the amount of such expenses shall have been given to the owner or other person having control of any such well, and upon failure to pay the same within such time the inspector shall give written notice of such failure to pay to the clerk of the municipality in which such well is situate and of the amount payable, and the council of such municipality shall thereupon pay to the inspector such expenses and the same shall be added to the taxes upon any property of the owner of such well, whether such well is situate upon such property or not, unless the mineral rights in the land upon which such well is situate have been severed or reserved from such land in which case the said expenses shall be added to any taxes chargeable against the reserved mineral rights in the land upon which such well is situate or against any other property of the owner of such reserved mineral rights, and such expenses shall be placed upon the collector's roll of the municipality and may be levied and collected in the same manner as other taxes are levied and collected.

7. Any person found guilty of a violation of sections 1, 3, 4, or 11 of this Act shall, upon summary conviction, incur a penalty of not less than $10, and not more than $100, in addition to any costs and expenses which he may be liable to pay under the provisions of section 6 of this Act; but this section shall not affect any right of action for damages for injuries arising out of any matter or thing for which this section provides a penalty.

8. An inspector or inspectors may be appointed by the Lieutenant-Governor from time to time to enforce the provisions of this Act, and assigned to such district or districts as he may deem proper. Each inspector shall give such security as the Minister of Lands, Forests and Mines shall require for the performance of his duties and the payment over of all moneys received by him.

9. It shall be the duty of every such inspector to see that the provisions of this Act are complied with, to keep a record of all work done, notices given, proceedings taken and money's received or paid out by him under the provisions of this Act. He shall have authority to engage such agents or employees as he may deem necessary from time to time to carry out the requirements of this Act, and shall also be empowered from time to time and at all times by himself, his servants or employees to enter upon any lands or property upon which any wells are being or have been drilled, and to make such examinations, inspection and inquiries as may be necessary for carrying into effect the provisions of this Act; and no action or other proceeding shall lie against any such inspector, his agents or employees for any matter or thing done by him or them under the provisions of this Act.

10. Whenever the conditions of any locality make it desirable in the opinion of the inspector, he may, subject to the sanction of the Minister of Lands, Forests and Mines, make special regulations respecting the manner of plugging abandoned wells in such locality in addition to or in substitution for the method directed to be followed in this Act. Such regulations may be made to apply to the whole or any portion of the district to which such inspector is assigned, any may be promulgated in such manner as the said Minister shall direct, but shall not go into effect until after the lapse of six weeks from the first publication thereof.

24918-21- -28

11. The inspector may by notice in writing delivered to any person who had charge or control of the removal of casing or plugging or abandonment of any well, or who was engaged or employed in removing the casing from or in plug. ging any such well or in any work constituting an abandonment of such well, require such person within ten days from the receipt of such notice to furnish a statutory declaration respecting such abandoned well to said inspector; and such person shall within said ten days furnish said declaration to the inspector either by delivering the same into his hands or by mailing by registered post to his address; and such declaration shall identify such well and shall set out in detail the precise manner of and the material and tools used in plugging same; and any person violating the provisions of this section without sufficient cause or excuse shall incur the penalty provided by section 7 of this Act.

12. Chapters 276 and 277 of the Revised Statutes of Ontario, 1897, and amending Acts are hereby repealed.

AN ACT respecting the Granting of Franchises by Municipal Councils. HIS MAJESTY, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Ontario, enacts as follows:

1. This Act may be cited as The Municipal Franchises Act.

2. In this Act

(a) "Franchises" shall include any right or privilege to which this Act applies;

(b) "Highway" shall include a street and a lane;

(c) "Public Utility" shall include waterworks, natural and other gas works. * **

3. (1) The Council of a municipality shall not grant to any individual, firm or company, nor shall any individual, firm or company acquire the right to use or occupy any of the highways of the municipality or to construct or operate any railway, street railway or public utility in the municipality, or to supply to the corporation, or to the inhabitants of the municipality, or to any of them, gas, including natural gas, unless or until a by-law setting forth the terms and conditions upon which and the period for which such right is to be granted, has been assented to by the municipal electors, as provided by The Consolidated Municipal Act, 1903, with respect to by-laws requiring the assent of the electors.

*

*

5. Except where otherwise expressly provided, this Act shall not apply to a by-law

(a) Granting the right of passing through the municipality for the purpose of continuing a line, work or system which is intended to be operated in or for the benefit of another municipality and is not used or operated in the municipality for any other purpose except that of supplying natural gas or electric light or power in a township to persons whose land abuts on a highway along or across which the same is carried or conveyed.

(b) Conferring the right to construct, use and operate works required for the transmission of oil, natural gas or water not intended for sale or use in the municipality.

*

4892. Upon the application of a company, incorporated under the joint stock companies' incorporation act, for the purpose of supplying light, heat and motive power, by means of natural gases which exist in various parts of the Province, it shall be lawful for the Lieutenant-Governor in Council to grant to such company, by supplementary letters-patent, the exclusive privilege of using such gases for a period of time not exceeding fifteen years. (49-50 V., ch. 74, sec. 1; 51-52 V., ch. 50, sec. 1.)

4893. For that purpose the said company must establish to the satisfaction of the Lieutenant-Governor in Council that it is a bona fide company, that it has a subscribed capital of at least two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, that instalments to the amount of ten thousand dollars have been paid, that its process of employing the said gases is the most effective and the most advantageous to secure the success of the undertaking, and that it is in a position to obtain all the appliances necessary for the success of the undertaking. (49-50 V, Ch. 74, sec. 1.)

4894. Such company must commence its works within three years after the issue of the letters-patent, and the industry must be in full operation to the satisfaction of the Lieutenant-Governor in Council, who, if such is not the case, may annul the company's privilege to grant it to any other company which shall ask for the same and shall for that purpose comply with the provisions of this section. (49-50 V., Ch. 65 (74), Sec. 2.)··

Sec. 2. Powers.

4895. For the purposes of such enterprise, the company shall have power to dig and make excavations, whenever the same may be necessary, and in as many roads, streets, lanes, squares, public highways, within the limits of cities, towns, villages, parishes and townships in this Province, as may be deemed necessary, for laying the pipes to convey the gas intended for supplying light, heat and motive power, as the case may be, in the localities where such gas is to be consumed for the purposes aforesaid, without causing any unnecessary damage to the said roads, streets, lanes, squares, and public highways, and

taking as great care as possible to leave a free and uninterrupted passage in the said roads, streets, lanes, squares and public highways;

The company shall however have previously obtained the consent of the municipal authorities of the said cities, towns, villages, parishes and townships, within the limits of which it shall dig and make such excavations for the purposes aforesaid. (49-50 V., Ch. 74, Sec. 3).

4896. The company may also manufacture machinery, apparatus and instruments for collecting, selling and distributing the gases aforesaid for the above purposes of lighting or heating or for supplying motive power, and also build and carry on the works necessary for the same purposes. (49-50 V., Ch. 74, Sec. 4.)

4897. Nothing in this section contained shall prevent a proprietor from personally making use of the gas that may be found upon his property. (49-50 V., Ch. 74, Sec. 5.)

AN ACT to amend the Quebec Mining Law, and to repeal certain provisions relating to natural gas companies.

HIS MAJESTY, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council and of the Legislative Assembly of Quebec, enacts as follows:

4. The Revised Statutes, 1909, are amended by inserting therein, after Article 2137 thereof, new articles, as follows:

2137a. Lands containing combustible natural gas, mineral oil or naphtha, may be staked or placed under licence either ordinary or for a long term, upon the conditions hereinafter set forth:

1. No staking or licence shall cover more than 1280 acres;

2. In surveyed territory the area staked out or covered by a licence shall consist of whole lots or regular fractions of lots; in unsurveyed territory, such area shall form a rectangle, but, in either case, the width of the claim shall not be less than one-half its length;

3. The holder of a miner's certificate who wishes to obtain an ordinary licence, must:

(a) Produce an accurate description and a regular survey plan of the ground applied for;

(b) Pay the sum of $10.00, as a fee, and an annual rental of ten cents per acre;

4. Such licence is valid for one year only and is renewable once only on the same conditions;

5. At the expiration of the renewal or of the original licence, on proof of the discovery of combustible gas or of naphtha in appreciable quantity, the holder must provide himself with a special or long term licence covering a period of ten years, at an annual rental of twenty-five cents per acre, payable in advance. This latter licence is renewable by ten year periods, as long as the mining lasts, and upon payment of the same rental of twenty-five cents in advance.

2137b. The staking out for marking a claim, or the issue of an ordinary or long term licence, shall be effected in accordance with the formalities pre

scribed by the foregoing article 2126, and with the same effect, except that the direction given the side lines is optional, and the inscriptions are repeated on each of the stakes, with a mention, moreover, of the length and direction of the lines, and that the staking is done with a view to prospecting for gas and petroleum.

2137c. No renewal of an ordinary licence, or issue of a long term licence, shall be granted, unless it be established, by affidavit at least, that work has been done to the value of $1.00 per acre, for every acre under licence.

If the holder of a long term licence ceases to bore or mine in the area covered by the licence for a year, or does not continue doing so in good faith, the licence may be cancelled after a notice of three months, during which period the holder may resume work at the discretion of the Minister.