101 A. 34 | N.H. | 1917
By s. 6, c. 40, P. S., towns are authorized to take land in invitum for public use. The use of land for the establishment and maintenance of a cemetery for the burial of the dead may be a public use. Rockingham Light
Power Co. v. Hobbs,
As the plaintiff's land can under the statute be taken only for a public use, there is no constitutional objection to the statute. Whatever title the association may have to land previously acquired by treaty, all land they may acquire under this statute will be affected by the public use. "If the right in the old ground is not public, in every sense of the term, it will not affect the public right in regard to *389
that part of the ground which is added to it, by this enlargement. The part added will be public, subject to such regulations and restrictions as the by-laws of the association may make; and that is enough to answer the material part of this claim, viz. its being subject to the objection of taking private property for private use only." Edwards v. Stonington Cemetery Ass'n,
Having invoked the power of eminent domain for the acquisition of rights in the lands of others, the defendants can be compelled, at least to the extent of the rights so acquired, to afford reasonable service to the public in the public business they have undertaken at reasonable rates. "It is in fact a public agent exercising powers for the public advantage, which are subject to legislative control and enforcement." McMillan v. Noyes,
Case discharged.
All concurred.