Section 1. The commissioner of division of professional licensure or his designee, in this chapter hereinafter called the commissioner, may license suitable persons, or corporations established under the laws of and having their places of business within the commonwealth, to be public warehousemen, upon the payment of a license fee as determined annually by the commissioner of administration under the provision of section three B of chapter seven. Such license shall not be issued unless and until the applicant, at his own expense, shall have given notice of said application by publishing the same in two consecutive publications of a newspaper published in the town in which the warehouse is to be located. Such notice shall set forth the name of the applicant in full, a description of the premises on which the license is sought to be exercised, designating the building or part of the building to be used and the street and number, if any. Such warehousemen may keep and maintain public warehouses for the storage of goods, wares and merchandise. They shall give bond to the state treasurer for the faithful performance of their duties in an amount and with sureties approved by the commissioner, and may appoint one or more deputies, for whose acts they shall be responsible. A railroad corporation licensed as a public warehouseman shall not be required as such to receive any property except such as has been or is forthwith to be transported over its road or to give sureties on its bond.

The following words as used in this chapter shall have the following meaning:—''Public warehouse'', any building, or part thereof, kept and maintained for the storage of goods, wares and merchandise as a business. ''Warehouseman'' or ''public warehouseman'', a person, corporation, partnership, association or trustees engaged in the business of storing goods for hire.