1776 PUBLIC WORKS——BOARD OF. [ART. 78A

1904, art. 78 A, sec. 8. 1892, ch. 310, sec. 2, 1896, ch. 172. 1906, ch. 185.
8. The board of public works are hereby authorized and directed
whenever they shall determine it shall be for the best interest of
the State to sell the whole or any part of the following State stocks and.
security, to wit: fifty-five hundred shares of the capital stock of the
Washington branch of the Baltimore and' Ohio Railroad Company; six
hundred shares of the capital stock of the Annapolis Water Company;
fifteen hundred and forty-nine shares of the capital stock of the Farmers'
National Bank of Annapolis, all now held and owned by the State of
Maryland, and in making sale of such stock: or securities the said board
of public works are directed to proceed as directed in the preceding
section; provided, however, that in the event that the board of public
work shall receive an offer of two million five hundred thousand dollars
or more for the said thirty-five hundred shares of the capital stock of
the Washington branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company,
the said board may sell the said stock at private sale, without adver-
tising for sealed proposals, as prescribed in the preceding section, and
without any other or further formality or delay, or in their discretion
they may advertise for bids for the purchase of the whole of the State's
holdings and interest in the said Washington branch for such time, in
such mode and subject to such regulations and conditions as they shall
see fit to prescribe. But the said board of public works may exchange
any of the said State securities at their actual market value, for an
equal amount of outstanding bonds or certificate of indebtedness of the
State, and full authority is hereby given them to execute and deliver
such transfers or assignments as may be necessary to effect such sale,
exchange or transfer. And whenever there shall be any sale or transfer
of such State securities by the board of public work, the proceeds
thereof shall be applied to the payment and cancellation of a like
amount of the outstanding bonds or certificates of debt of the State.
And whenever any of the outstanding bonds or certificates of debt of the
State shall be paid, the same shall be cancelled and entered by designa-
tion and number by the treasurer, in the book in his office known as
the "treasurer's record of bonds paid and cancelled," and the treasurer
and comptroller are hereby directed, during the month of September
and prior to the close of the fiscal year next preceding the meeting of
the general assembly, to charge off on their books of account all such
State bonds and certificates of debt, which has been paid or redeemed,
so as to reduce the accounts of such bonds and certificates of debt to the
amounts then actually outstanding and unpaid, so that the said books,
at the time the comptroller's report is made, will show the actual out-
standing debt of the State, and the treasurer shall report the same to the
next succeeding general assembly, fully and in detail. And the com-
mittee of finance of the senate and the committee of ways and means
of the house of delegates, shall examine said books of the treasurer
during the first thirty days of the session, and shall burn and destroy
all the State bonds and certificates of debt which have been paid,
redeemed and charged off as aforesaid, and make report and certificate