It shall be lawful for any gas companies, now organized or hereafter to be organized in this state, doing business in the same city, town or village, to consolidate and merge into a single corporation, which shall be one of said merging and consolidating corporations, by complying with the provisions of this act, as hereinafter specified.

(from Ch. 32, par. 400)

(Source: Laws 1897, p. 177.)