The resolution provided for in section forty of this act shall not be adopted except upon the written application of at least twenty freeholders of such water district. Upon receipt of such application the township committee shall fix a time and place for the hearing of such application and shall cause the clerk of such township to give notice of the time and place when a hearing will be given thereon. Such notice shall be published at least once in a newspaper circulating in the township, at least five days before the holding of said meeting. At the time and place so designated such township committee shall hear all parties desiring to be heard, and at such meeting or at an adjournment thereof the resolution shall be adopted or rejected.
N.J.S. § 40:62-105.41