Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 3.djvu/64

 lEWIN V. TOWN OF ONTAEIO. 67 �by any loan or sale of bonds shall be invested in the stock of said company, of the Lake Ontario Shore Railroad, and the commissioners, in the corporate name of the town, may sub- scribe for the stock of such company to the amount so bor- rowed, and that, on receiving certificates for the amount of stock so subscribed for, the town shall acquire ail the righta of the stockholders of the company. Section 4 of the act of 1869 provides that the commissioners of any town may issue the bonds directiy to the directors of the railroad company at not less than their par value, and reçoive in exchange there- for the stock of the company at not more than par. �These statutes in regard .to the bonding of towns in aid of the Lake Ontario Shore Eailroad Company were under con- sideration by me in the case of Phelps v. The Town of Lewis- ton, 15 Blatchf. G. G. E. 131-153, and it was there said: �"The second section of the act of 1868, as amended by the second section of the act of 1869, provides that the fact that the prescribed consent in writing of the tax payers, proved or aeknowledged as provided, bas first been obtained, shall be proved by the affidavit of the assessors, or a majority of them, of the town; that it shall be the duty of the assessors to make the affidavit when the consent shall be obtained; that the affidavit and consent, and a copy of the assessment roll, shall be filed in the county clerk's office, and that the same, or a careful copy thereof, shall be evidence of the facts therein contained, and certified in any court of the state. As the commissioners are to issue the bonds, the meaning of the statute is that the affidavits of the assessors, or a majority of them, that the prescribed consent in writing, proved or ae- knowledged as provided, has been obtained, shall be proof to the commissioners of such fact, so as to authorize the issuing of the bonds, without its being necessary for the commis- sioners to examine the question further, and that the affidavit, or a certified copy of it, as filed, shall be evidence of such fact in any court of the state. Under this provision such an affidavit of the assessors must be held to be proof of such fact sufficient to protect a honafide holder of the bonds for a valuable consideration, without notice, without its being ����