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 NEW JERSEY.

An act to cure defective acknowledgments of conveyances by corporations, provides that the acknowledgment of any and all deeds of conveyance of real estate, etc., situate within New Jersey, heretofore made, executed and delivered by any corporation organized under the laws of the state, and having for its object the purchase, improvement, or sale of lands, but which deeds have been acknowledged by an officer of the (grantor) corporation, instead of having been proved by a subscribing witness thereto, be, and the same are, thereby declared as good, valid, and effectual as if the same had been duly proved; provided, said deeds shall have been recorded in the clerk's or register's office of the county wherein such lands are situated for five years past.

Another act provides that:

Continuous absence for seven years from the State of New Jersey by a citizen thereof, or the concealing of himself for the same period without being seen or heard from during that period, authorizes the grant of letters of administration, as in case of death and intestacy. The same enactment shall apply to a non-resident of New Jersey having goods, chattels, and money in the state, who shall absent himself from his place of domicile, and who has not been seen or heard from within seven consecutive years.

Railway corporations, or companies organized under the laws of New Jersey, are authorized to merge and consolidate their capital, stock, franchises, and property, with those of any railroad company, whenever the said railroad companies so to be consolidated, shall or may form connecting or continuous links, line or lines of railroad; provided, that no railroad company claiming a contract with the state on the subject of taxation shall avail itself of the provisions unless the said contract is surrendered.

Railroads shall not, however, be leased to foreign corporations, or non-residents, nor be consolidated with the road of