1102

LAWS OF MARYLAND.

court, giving the tonnage of such boat, and shall also give a.
duplicate certificate to the master or managing owner of said
boat, to be by him produced for comparison to the said clerk
at the time of applying for said license; if upon examination
and measurement the admeasurers are satisfied that the pre-
vious measurements made by the custom-house officials is
incorrect, and that said boat is of greater tonnage than that
which entitles the same to be used in taking and catching
oysters in said waters as herein provided, then such measure-
ment so made by them shall be deemed for the purposes of

Proviso.

this Act, to be the true measurement of said boat, and their
decision shall be conclusive; provided, however, that no cer-
tificate shall be required to procure a license for any boat
whose tonnage does not exceed six tons gross (custom-house
measurement), but should a license be issued to such boat,
which afterwards, on measurement by the admeasurers, is
shown to be of greater tonnage than permitted or allowed,
under the provisions of this Act, such license shall be null
and void, and such party using said license after notice given,
shall be deemed guilty of taking oysters without a license,
and shall be punished as is provided by Article 72 of the
Code of Public General Laws for that offense. After the
certificate of the admeasurers shall be filed with said clerk,
and the applicant shall present to said clerk the duplicate
certificate hereinbefore provided for, the clerk shall issue to
the said applicant a license for said boat if all the require-
ments and conditions aforesaid herein provided shall be com-
plied with, whenever a boat has been once measured and cer-
tified to by the admeasurers no second measurement or cer-
tificate shall be required, unless good reason exists to justify
the belief on the part of the admeasurers that the size of said
boat has been increased since it was last measured.

Clerk of
Circuit Court
shall, upon
application of
owners, issue
license to boat
of certain
capacity.

255. The Clerk of the Circuit Court of Dorchester County
upon application of the managing owner, who has been a resi-
dent of said county for one year next preceding said applica-
tion, and to no other person, shall issue a license to such
resident to employ his boat of a capacity of seven tons gross
or under; such capacity to be ascertained by rules of custom-
house measurement, as in the preceding section provided, in
taking or catching oysters with scrapes or dredges in the
waters named in Section two hundred and sixty-three of this
Article, which said license shall hold good for one season
only, and shall authorize the catching of oysters from the first
day of November to the fifteenth day of March next succeed-
ing, both inclusive, on which last-named day .said license