CHAPTER 26.

An Act respecting the Organization of Companies and Other Bodies for the Purpose of Establishing Cemeteries, and their Powers.

HIS

IS MAJESTY, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba, enacts as follows:

SHORT TITLE.

1. This Act may be cited as "The Cemeteries Incor- short title. poration Act." R.S.M. c. 17, s. 1.

INCORPORATION OF CEMETERY COMPANIES.

form com

2. Any number of persons, not less than twenty, may Who may form themselves into a company in the manner in the next pany. following section mentioned, for the purpose of establishing one or more public cemeteries within the limits of any rural municipality, village, town or city, provided the consent of the municipal council is obtained as to the site thereof within such limits, and no interments shall be made in such cemetery until such consent is obtained. R.S.M. c. 17, s. 2.

3. When any number of persons, not less than twenty

When it

shall become a corpora

(a) subscribe stock to an amount adequate to the purchase tion. of the ground required for such a cemetery; and

(b) execute an instrument according to the form in the next following section contained; and

(c) pay to the treasurer of the intended company twentyfive per cent. of the capital stock intended to be raised; and

(d) register such instrument, together with a receipt from the treasurer for the first instalment of twenty-five per cent., with the registrar or district registrar of the registration division or land titles district in which the ground to be used as a cemetery or cemeteries is situated;

they shall thenceforth become and be a body corporate by the name designated in the instrument so registered, and may take, hold and convey land to be used exclusively as a cemetery or place of burial for the dead. R.S.M. c. 17, s. 3.

Instrument

and form.

4. The instrument referred to may be in the form following:

Be it remembered that, on this

of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and
signed stockholders, met at

day of

in the year

, we, the underin the Province of

Manitoba, and resolved to form ourselves into a cemetery company,
to be called
according to the provisions of the statute
in that behalf, and we do hereby agree that the capital stock of the
said company shall be
dollars, to be divided into

shares of
dollars each. And we, the undersigned stock-
holders, do hereby agree to accept and take the number of shares set
by us opposite our signatures; and we do hereby agree to pay the calls
thereon, according to the provisions of the said statute in that behalf,
and of the rules, regulations and by-laws of the company to be made in
respect thereof.

Name.

No. of shares.

Amount.

R.S.M. c. 17, s. 4.

Enclosed by walls or fence.

Keep in repair.

Drains and sewers.

Complaints against company by holders of

CEMETERY.

5. The company shall, by walls or other sufficient fence of the height of four feet six inches at least, enclose every part of the cemetery held by them and used for cemetery purposes, and prevent all animals from trespassing within such enclosure. R.S.M. c. 17, c. 5; 5-6 Ed. 7, c. 9, s. 1.

6. The company shall also, out of the moneys received by virtue hereof, keep the cemetery and the buildings and fences thereof in complete repair, and in good order and condition. R.S.M. c. 17, s. 6.

7. The company shall make all proper and necessary sewers and drains in and about the cemetery, for draining it and keeping it dry; and may, from time to time as occasion requires, cause any such sewer or drain to open into an existing sewer of the street, road or land through which, or part of which, the opening is intended to be made, doing as little damage as possible to the street, road or land, and restoring it to the same or as good condition as it was before being disturbed. R.S.M. c. 17, s. 7.

8. If the company shall make default in carying out any of the provisions of sections 5, 6 or 7 of this Act, any person, cemetery lots having or holding any vested interest in any plot or part or parcel of land in the cemetery, shall be entitled to make complaint against the company before a justice of the peace, and

upon conviction thereof the company shall be liable to a fine of not less than four dollars nor more than forty dollars, according to the nature of such offence. 5-6 Ed. 7, c. 9, s. 2.

fouling

9. If the company at any time causes or suffers to be Penalty for brought to, or to flow into, any river, spring, well, stream, water. canal, reservoir, aqueduct, pond or watering place, any offensive matter from the cemetery, whereby the same is fouled, the company shall, for every such offence, be liable to a penalty of fifty dollars, in addition to any other remedy existing by law for the grievance. R.S.M. c. 17, s. 8.

10. In addition to the penalty of fifty dollars (and whether the same has been recovered or not), any person having a right to use the water may sue the company in a civil action for any damage specially sustained by him by reason of the water being fouled; or, if no special damage be alleged, then for the sum of ten dollars for every day during which the offensive matter has continued to be brought or to flow after the expiration of twenty-four hours from the time when notice of the offence was by such person served upon the company. R.S.M. c. 17, s. 9.

VAULTS FOR WINTER.

Further

penalty.

erect chapel

to borrow

that purpose.

11. Any cemetery company heretofore or hereafter Power to formed in Manitoba may erect within the bounds of tle or vault, and cemetery a chapel and vault or a vault alone, to be used as money on a repository for the dead during the winter months, and for mortgage for such purpose may mortgage or otherwise charge the property of the company, and may give promissory notes and assign and hypothecate all or any of the receipts, revenues, incomes or assets of the company as security for the repayment of such loan, which loan may be repayable and be on such terms as the directors may arrange:

Kind of

Provided that such building shall be of stone or brick, or building to be part stone and part brick, and all vault doors shall be of iron erected. or wood encased in iron sheeting, and all vault windows or other openings in the vault shall be protected by iron sheeted shutters, and there shall be no open connections between the vault and the chapel except underneath the floor for reception of the coffin. R.S.M. c. 17, s. 10.

INTERMENTS.

No grave

12. Except as by the last preceding section authorized, under or near no person shall be buried in a vault or otherwise, under any building. chapel or other building in the cemetery, nor within fifteen feet of the outer wall of any such chapel or building. R.S.M. c. 17, s. 11.

Proper con

duct at funerals.

Graves for strangers and poor.

13. The company shall make regulations to ensure all burials within the cemetery being conducted in a decent manner, and shall permit the religious denomination to which the deceased belonged to perform the usual religious rites on such occasions. R.S.M. c. 17, s. 12.

14. The company shall furnish graves for strangers and for the poor of all denominations, on the certificate of a minister or clergyman that the deceased was a stranger, or that the relatives of the deceased are poor (as the case may be), and stating the municipality in which the person died; and the municipality in which the person died shall pay the company its customary charges on presenting the certificate of a minister or clergyman to the clerk of the municipality mentioned in the certificate. R.S.M. c. 17, s. 13.

Burial sites exempt from

BURIAL LOTS.

15. The real estate of the company, and the lots or plots seizure under when conveyed by the company to individual proprietors for execution, etc. burial sites, shall not be liable to be seized or sold in execution, or under judgment, or attached, or applied to the payment of debt, or pass to an assignee under any bankrupt or insolvent law. R.S.M. c. 17, s. 14.

Municipality may exempt

16. It shall be lawful for the council of any municipality, from taxation. by by-law, to exempt the real estate of any such company or any part thereof, or the lots conveyed by the company to individual proprietors for burial sites, wholly or in part, from municipal and school taxes of every kind and nature. R.S.M. c. 17, s. 15.

Registration not required.

Conveyances.

17. When a lot has been sold by the company for a burial site, the conveyance need not be registered for any purpose whatever, and shall not be affected by "The Registry Act" or "The Real Property Act," nor shall any judgment, mortgage, or encumbrance subsist on any lot so conveyed. R.S.M. c. 17,

s. 16.

18. The conveyance from the company may be in the following form:

Know all men by these presents that the (giving name of company), in consideration of dollars, paid to it by

of

,

the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, doth
his heirs and assigns

grant unto the said
lot of land in the cemetery of the said company, called

of

which lot is

and situate in the
delineated and laid down on the map of the said cemetery, and is therein
designated by the name of
ment

containing by admeasuresuperficial feet; to have and to hold the herein

above named premises, etc.

R.S.M. c. 17, s. 17.

indivisible.

19. All lots or plots of ground in the cemetery, when Lots numbered and conveyed by the company as burial sites or lots, shall be indivisible, but may afterwards be held and owned in undivided shares. R.S.M. c. 17, s. 18.

SHARES DIVIDENDS.

interest on

and of

20. No greater interest on the capital invested in any Amount of such cemetery than ten per cent. per annum, and no bonus or capital stock dividend or profit or return on the money expended, beyond dividend. said rate, shall be paid on any stock or shares of any such company; but all profits on the sale of burial sites, over and above what shall be sufficient to pay interest not exceeding the rate aforesaid, shall be applied to preserving, improving and embellishing the land as a cemetery or burial-ground, and to the incidental expenses of the company, and to no other purpose whatever. R.S.M. c. 17, s. 19.

DIRECTORS.

of directors.

21. Every shareholder who has paid the company not less Qualification than ten dollars and all calls made on his or her share or shares shall be eligible as a director. R.S.M. c. 17, s. 20.

directors.

22. The affairs and property of the company shall be Board of managed by not less than five nor more than seven directors, a majority of whom shall form a quorum. R.S.M. c. 17, s. 21.

23. The first directors shall be chosen by ballot from choice of among the subscribers to the registered instrument; and there- directors. after the directors shall be annually elected by the shareholders on the third Monday in January in every year, and shall hold office until their successors are elected. R.S.M. c. 17,

s. 22.

24. Upon every election of directors, including the first, Qualification every shareholder shall be entitled to one vote for every share to vote. he holds; but no shareholder in arrear in respect of any call shall be entitled to vote at any meeting of the company. R.S.M. c. 17, s. 23.

25. The directors or a majority of them shall, at their President. first meeting, elect one of their number to be president of the company; and the president, if present (or, if he be not present, then some director chosen for the occasion), shall preside at every meeting of the directors, and shall not vote except in case of an equality of votes, when he shall have a casting vote. R.S.M. c. 17, s. 24.