Any bridge erected before the passing of this Act in any county without such superintendence as is provided in section five of the statute of the forty-third year of King George the Third, chapter fifty-nine, and which is certified by the county surveyor or other person appointed in that behalf by the county authority to be in good repair and condition, shall, if the county authority see fit so to order, become and be deemed to be a bridge which the inhabitants of the county shall be liable to maintain and repair.
The county authority may make such contribution as it sees fit out of the county rates towards the cost of any bridge to be hereafter erected, after the same has been certified in accordance with the provisions of section five of the statute of the forty-third year of King George the Third, chapter fifty-nine, as a proper bridge to be maintained by the inhabitants of the county ; so always that such contribution shall not exceed one half the cost of erecting such bridge.