TOWN (AS. tan, OHG. Ger. Zaun, hedge, inclosure; connected with Ir. (inn, Welsh din, hill fort). The name applied generally throughout the United States to small munici palities or urban communities between the village and the city. In New England it more often denotes a quasi-corporate area, either urban or rural, constituting a subdivision of the county, which elsewhere is usually called the town ship or supervisor's district. (For the urban town, see _MUNICIPALITY, on MUNICIPAL CORPO RATION.) The New England town is the most im portant local administrative unit in the govern mental system. The centre of political activity is the 'town meeting,' which meets usually once a year and may be attended by all the legal voters of the town. It discusses measures of common interest to the town, elects the town officers, and votes the taxes for the ensuing year. The government of the New England town is, therefore, a pure democracy, and the only real example of the kind in the American political system. The 'town meeting' governs through a.
body of officers, varying according to the needs of the community. These are usually the select men, varying in number from Hove to nine, who are the executive magistrates of the town, the town clerk, treasurer, constables, tax asses sors, overseers of the poor, and school trus tees. In some towns there are such officers as field drivers, pound-keepers, fence-viewers, meas urers, sealers, etc. In England the word town applies to the small nmnicipalities as in the United States, although the word borough is used to designate certain of the old towns. See TOWNSIIIP. ('onSIllt: Ashley, "The Anglo.Saxon ToWnship," in Quarterly Journal of Economics; Adams, Ntudy of Chnreh ağd Two( Gorerninent (1892) ; Bryce, American Commonwealth (Lon don and New York, 1900).