The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1906-06-12
" Sneak" Pill That Got
Through the Legislature
In the Final Rush of the
Session
AMENDS TOWNSHIP ACT
IT'S FATHER WAS ASSEMBLYMAN
GIBBS, THE DIRECTOR OF THE
ATLANTIC CITY RAILROAD.

One Of the many bills of doubtful
character sometimes referred to as
'.sneaks'' which reach final passage dur
ing the closing hours of the Legislature
and become laws without any general
knowledge of their provisions was faith
cred this year by Asemblyman Theodore
R. Gibbs, of Camden, passed both As
sembly andSenate without opposition and
was approved by the Governor without,
according to Assemblyman Scribe of Essex
county, the usual formality of having
been considered by committee in the
House. The bill in question was known
as Assembly All, and according to its
title was simply an act to amend an act
general township act of 1899. The
amended act Of 1902 was passed at the
instance of former Speaker and present
District Court Judge Benjamin r. Jones
to make possible the construction of a
new road in South Orange Township
without the formality of having the road
laid out by the township surveyors of
the highways as required by the general
road and township acts.
The original Jones bill was a general
supplement to the township act applying
to all townships, and William NJ. John
son, of Bergen, then chairman of the
Senate borough committee, to which it
vas referred, refused to report the meas
ure in that form because he said it would
revolutionize the system of road opening
in every section of the State. When as
sured that the act was really wanted by
South Orange Township Mr.. johnson ex-
it copld be so amended as to apply only
to South Orange. That was done by so
changing the phraseology as to make the
porated village"
poraed village"
That Bergen Senator expressed the
opinion that the bill in that form was
special and void, but it became a law, and
in due time the South Orange road was
laid out and completed. The powers
conferred by the act were first authoriz-
ing the committee to accept any street,
road or public place when the came shall
have been dedicated to public use, and
that feature is left unchanged by the
Gibbs act of this year. The second and
more important provision authorizes the
township committee ito lay out, open.
widen, straighten, name, rename, alter or
vacate any street, avenue, road or high
way or section of the same" and to ac-
quire by purchase or condemnation any
lands and real estate required for such
purpose.
In the aet of 1902 the term section of
the same is defined as san entire sec
tion between two intersecting crossroads
or the dead end of street or highway"
This is eliminated in the Gibbs act thus
leaving it possible for the committee to-
vacate any section of the road and this
is said to be the real object of the bill
which Mr.. Scribe says was never passed
upon by the committee of which he was
a member The incorporated village
within its territorial limits section was
also eliminated to make the act general
and in this form Governor Stokes signed
the bill April % in the first batch of bilH
he disposed of after the last session of
the Legislature adjourned.
When recently asked the real purport
of the bill, Mr.. Gibbs said it was sim
pie little measure calculated TO enable
entownship committees to widen OF
straighten shall section of road where
necessary instead of being obliged to
change a stretch a mile in length ifnec-
essary to include strip between two
intersecting crossroads. Mr.. Gibbs did
not say that the principal object OF the
change in the law was to permit the va
cation of portions of township roads IN
Cape May County to enable the Atlantic
City Railroad, of which he has been a
director for thirty yaers, to complete an
extension now under way Without the
forrnality of elevating or going under the
streets in question.
Another bill with exactly the same OBJ
iect in view was introduced in the House
Of Assembly, january p last by Judge
Hildreth, then Assemblyman from Cape
Nav County. 1t was referred to the
Committee on Towns and Townships and
the bill April % in the first batch Of bills
thereafter. Assemblyman Thomas =