Section 4. Investigation of expenditures of towns and villages

If
  twenty-five freeholders in any  town  or  village  shall  present  to  a
  justice of the supreme court of the judicial district in which such town
  or  village is situated, an affidavit, stating that they are freeholders
  and have paid taxes on real property within such town or village  within
  one  year, that they have reason to believe that the moneys of such town
  or village are being unlawfully or corruptly expended, and  the  grounds
  of  their belief, such justice, upon ten days' notice to the supervisor,
  and the officers of the town disbursing the funds to which  such  moneys
  belong,  or  the  trustees  and  treasurer  of the village, shall make a
  summary investigation  into  the  financial  affairs  of  such  town  or
  village,  and the accounts of such officers, and, in his discretion, may
  appoint experts to make such investigation, and  may  cause  the  result
  thereof to be published in such manner as he may deem proper.
    The  costs  incurred  in  such  investigation  shall  be  taxed by the
  justice, and paid, upon his order, by the  officers  whose  expenditures
  are  investigated,  if  the  facts  in  such  affidavit be substantially
  proved, and otherwise, by the freeholders making such affidavit. If such
  justice shall be satisfied that any  of  the  moneys  of  such  town  or
  village  are  being  unlawfully  or  corruptly  expended,  or  are being
  appropriated for purposes to which they are not properly applicable,  or
  are  improvidently  squandered  or  wasted,  he shall forthwith grant an
  order restraining such unlawful or corrupt expenditure,  or  such  other
  improper use of such moneys.