1899_private laws_353_24
CHAPTER 352                                                                   An act to amend and consolidate the charter of the town of Monroe. The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact :
The board of aldermen shall have the right to ievy and eause to be collected the following additional taxes, viz: -1 On every omnibus carrying persons for hire, a license tax not exceeding twenty dollars per annum; on every hack, ecarriage, wagon, express wagon, dray or other vehicle carrying or transporting persons, freight, baggage, merchandise or other articles for hire, a license tax not exceeding ten dollars per annum; and in fixing the amount of license tax on the above enumerated vehicles, the aldermen shall discriminate between cnehorse, two horse and four horse vehicles and the different kind of vehicles, as shall seem just to them. The taxes herein enumerated shall be fixed by the aldermen at their meetings in June of each year and the amount of license tax so fixed on every vehicle shall be paid in advance by any person intending to engage in such business, and a license shall be issued by the clerk of the board of aldermen upon the exhibiting and filing with such elerk a receipt from the tax collector for the taxes so levied. Any person desiring to use the vehicles herein enumerated may pay the tax fora shorter term than twelve months, not less than three months, by the payment of the proportionate part of said tax for the desired time. Any person who shall use any of the vehicles herein enumerated without having first obtained the license from the city treasurer shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction shall pay a fine of not more than fifty dollars or be imprisoned not more than thirty days. -2 On every saddle horse kept for hire in said city a license tax not exceeding five dollars per annum, said license to be obtained in the same manner as for vehicles as above enumerated and subject to the same fine or imprisonment for failure to so obtain the license. -5 On every delivery wagon or other vehicle delivering goods, wares or merchandise, except those used exclusively by resident citizens in delivering merchandise from their own stores, a license tax not exceeding one hundred dollars per annum. -4 On every express company, telegraph company, gas company, electric light company, power company, street railroad company doing business or having an office in said city, a license tax not exceeding in amount one-fourth of one per centum of its gross receipts on its business in said city received during the preceding year up to and including the thirty-first day of May next before the date of fixing such license tax; and the manager or agent in charge of the business of any such company in said city on the first day of June in every year shal! on that day, or if that day be Sunday or a legal holiday, on the next day thereafter, make to the clerk of the board of aldermen, who shall in such case have power to administer oaths, a written return under oath signed by him of the amount of such gross receipts. The failure or refusal of any manager or agent to make such returns on the day fixed for that purpose shall make such manager or agent guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction he shall be fined not more than fifty dollars or imprisoned not more than thirty days. The amount of such tax, on the failure or refusal of such manager or agent to make the returns as herein required, shall be determined by the board of aldermen at their next meeting after the day on which said return should have been made or at some other meeting thereafter before the first of August of each year, and they shal! fix the amount of such gross receipts as nearly as they can do so, and they shall levy one-fourth of one per centum thereof as the amount of the license tax. -5 On all itinerant merchants, peddlers or persons vending from any stand on the streets, offering to vend in said city, a privilege tax not exceeding twenty-five dollars a year, in addition to a tax not exceeding one per centum on the amount of their purchases respectively; and among such itinerant merchants or peddlers shall be included all itinerant venders of medicines or other articles. -6 On every shooting gallery, billiard table, bagatelle table, pool table or place of any other game or play, bowling alley or alley of like kind, with or without a name, kept for profit or kept in a house where spirituous, vinous or malt liquor is sold, or in a house used or connected with such a house, or used or connected with a hotel or restaurant, a privilege tax not exceeding one hundred dollars. -7 On every hotel, restaurant or eating-house a privilege tax not exceeding fifty dollars. The board of aldermen shall have the power to classify into as many classes as to them from time to time shall seem just, such hotels, restaurants and eating-houses according to the character and amount of business done by them and the class to which each may belong and prescribe a different tax for every class, not to exceed in any case the sum of fifty dollars. -8 On every circus, company of circus riders, performers or exhibitors or showmen, by whatever name called, who shall exhibit within said city or within one-half mile thereof, a license tax not exceeding one hundred dollars for every performance or separate exhibition, and on every side-show connected therewith a license tax not exceeding twenty-five dollars for each performance or exhibition. If the tax herein levied is not paid before performance, it shall be double the amount levied for such license. -9 Ou every person or company exhibiting within said city or one-half mile thereof, any stage or theatrical! plays, sleight-ofhand performance, rope-walking, wire-waiking, a license tax not exceeding twenty-five dollars for every twelve hours allowed for such exhibition. The tax, if not paid in advance, shall be double. -10 On every opera house a tax not exceeding one hundred dollars per annum: Provided, if a license is levied on opera houses, no license tax, as allowed in the preceding subsection nine, shall be required of the exhibitors therein. -11 On every flying jenny, merry-go-round or mechanical contrivance for amusement within said city or one-half mile thereof, run for profit, a tax of five dollars fur each and every day it is run. I[f the tax is not paid in advance it shall be doable. -12 On every exhibition of artificial or natural curiosities for reward a tax not exceeding twenty-five dollars. -13 On every show, exhibition or performance of any kind, not othewise enumerated herein, and on every concert for reward, unless given by a religious, charitable or educational company, and on every strolling musician within said city, a license not exceeding ten dollars. -14 The board of aldermen may aiso levy, at their discretion, an annual privilege tax as follows: On dentists, local or itinerant, not exceeding ten dollars; on photographers, not exceeding twenty-five dollars; on hucksters stands, not exceeding twentyfive dollars; on itinerant dealers in lightning rods, not exceeding twenty-five dollars; on venders or agents of patent articles, not exceeding twenty-five dollars; on banks, banking business or bank agents, not exceeding one hundred dollars; on note shayers, money-lenders, brokers and real estate agents, not exceeding twenty-five dollars, on retail dealers in fresh meats, not exceeding twenty-five dollars, on dealers in fish and oysters, not exceeding ten dollars; on boarding houses, not exceeding ten dollars; on ice cream saloons, a tax not exceeding ten dollars; on dealers in fertilizers, not exceeding twenty-five dollars; on skating-rinks, not exceeding ten dollars; on dogs, not exceeding five dollars; on dealers in carriages, buggies, wagons, sewing machines, tobacco, cigars, cigarettes, bicycles, cotton yarn not manufactured in Union county, not exceeding twenty-five dollars; on every person, company, firm or corporation selling pistols, bowie-knives, dirks, sling-shots, brass or metallic knuck!es or other deadly weapons of like character, in addition to all other taxes, a license tax not exceeding one hundred dollars. -15 On every itinerant physician, surgeon, dentist, chiropodist, optician, oculist, a tax not exceeding twenty-five dollars. * -16 On every person, company or firm selling spirituous, vinous or malt liquors, a license tax for every place in which such business is or is to be conducted, whether by wholesale or retail, one thousand dollars, to be paid semi-annually in advance on the first days in January and July of each year, one-half at each payment. Every person desirous of engaging in such business in said city shall apply to said board of aldermen at its first meeting in June or December in any year for license to do so, and the said board of aldermen may in its discretion direct or decline to direct the tax collector to issue such license tc any such appli: cant or for any place in said city where license is sought to be  obtained for the conduct of said business. Upon the direction of the board of aldermen so to do, and the payment of the license tax therefor, it shall be the duty of the tax collector to issue to the person, company or firm named in said direction a license to conduct the business specified in said direetion at the place therein named for the period of six months, to commence on the first day of Fanuary or July next after the date of such direction to the tax collector. Any license issued by the county commissicners of Union county for the sale of liquors in the city of Monroe, without a license first issued by the board of aldermens direetion to the tax collector, shall be void. Any person, company or firm having such license who shall within the period therein le named at any time fail, neglect or refuse to comply with any rule  or regulation theretofore or within such period prescribed by such board of aldermen for the conduct, control or regulation of such business, shall thereby forfeit such license, and upon such i forfeiture being declared by the hoard of aldermen, such person, company or firm shall no longer be entitled to engage in said business within said period or under said license, nor shall such person, company or firm be entitled to have refunded to him, them, or it any part of the license tax paid for such license. Any person who shall sell or aid in selling or offer to sell in said city any spirituous, vinous or malt liquors without having a license therefor, or after his license shall have been declared forfeited by the board of aldermen, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof sha!l be fined not more than fifty dollars or be imprisoned not more than thirty days. -17 They shall levy the taxes specified in subsection sixteen for the sale of liquors upon the granting of an order for license, and no license issued by the county commissioners shali be valid unless the tax specified above shall have been paid by the applicant for license: Provided, that this charter shall not have the effect to repeal the act prohibiting the sale of liquors in Union county by a dispensary, being chapter four hundred and forty-nine of the acts of eighteen hundred and ninety-seven.