the bond tax, together with the rate of special local tax of the district. for the maintenance of schools therein shall never exceed fifty cents on the one hundred dollars valuation of taxable property of said school district, but if the rate of bond tax certified by the county superintendent to the commissioners court, together with the rate of maintenance tax previously voted in the district shall at any time exceed fifty cents on the one hundred dollars, such bond tax shall operate to reduce the maintenance tax to the difference between the rate of the bond tax and fifty cents. Said school district bond tax shall be assessed and collected in the manner provided by law for the assessment and collection of the special local tax for the maintenance of public free schools; provided, that the rate of school tax certified to the commissioners court by the county superintendent shall be the rate to be levied by the commissioners court in the school district until a change in such rate shall be recommended by the county superintendent and board of trustees of the district within the limits prescribed by law.

Sec. 80. Whenever the county judge in any county in the State of Texas shall have found it lawful and necessary to order an election for schoolhouse bonds, as provided herein, said county judge shall prepare proper ballots for use in said school district election, and the county shall bear the expense of having such ballots printed; and each person who favors the issuance of bonds and the levy of a tax therefor shall have written or printed on his ballot, "For the Bonds," and each person opposed to such taxation shall have written or printed on his ballot, "Against the Bonds."

Sec. 81. The said school district schoolhouse bonds shall express on their face: The State of Texas, the name of the county, and the number or corporation name of the district issuing said bonds; provided, the bonds shall not run more than forty years, and shall bear not more than five per cent interest per annum, and shall never be sold below par. It shall be the duty of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction to prepare as many as three sets of plans for public school buildings, the said plans being designed to meet the needs of rural schools of various sizes, and upon request of the trustees of any school district shall furnish copies of such plans and specifications.

Sec. 151. Trustees of incorporated districts that have been or may hereafter be incorporated under general or special laws, for school purposes only, shall have power to levy and collect an annual ad valorem tax not to exceed fifty cents on the one hundred dollars valuation of taxable property of the district for the maintenance of schools therein, and a tax not to exceed twenty-five cents on the one hundred dollars for the purchase of sites and the purchasing, construction, repairing or equipping public free school buildings within the limits of such incorporated districts; provided, that the amount of maintenance tax, together with the amount of bond tax of the district, shall never exceed fifty cents on the one hundred dollars valuation of taxable property. Said trustees shall have power to issue coupon bonds of the district for building purposes, to be made payable not exceeding forty years from date, in such sums as they shall deem expedient, to bear interest not to exceed five

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GENERAL LAWS OF TEXAS.

per cent per annum; provided, that when such buildings are to be wooden the bonds herein provided for shall not run for a longer period than twenty years; provided that the aggregate amount of bonds issued for the above named purpose shall never reach such an amount that the tax of twenty-five cents on the hundred dollars valuation of property in the district will not pay current interest and provide a sinking fund sufficient to pay the principal at maturity, and provided further. that no such tax shall be levied and no such bonds issued until after a: election shall have been held wherein a majority of the tax paying voters voting at said election shall have voted in favor of the levying of said tax, of the issuance of said bonds, or both, as the case may be; provided. that the specific rate of tax need not be determined in the election.

Sec. 154a. All school districts heretofore provided for by special Act of the Legislature are hereby placed under the general laws relating to incorporated school districts, and all provisions of any and all such special Acts in conflict with the general laws are hereby specifically repealed, except in so far as those acts relate to the boundaries established by the Acts incorporating such districts. All incorporated districts having each fewer than 150 scholastics according to the latest census shall be governed in the administration of their schools by the laws which apply to common school districts and all funds of such districts shall be kept in the county treasury and paid out on order of the trustees approved by the county superintendent: provided, that the terms county treasurer and county treasury as used in all provisions of law relating to school funds shall hereafter be construed to mean the county depository, and in incorporated districts of more than 150 scholastics, whether they be cities which have assumed control of the schools within their limits or corporations for school purposes only, the treasurer of the school funds shall be that person or corporation who offers satisfactory bond as provided by law and the best bid of interest on the average daily balances for the privilege of acting as such treasurer, and the State Department of Education shall be notified of the treasurers of the school funds in the respective counties and independent districts by the commissioners courts and presidents of school boards filing in said department copies of the bonds of said depositories to cover school funds; provided, that no commission shall hereafter be paid for receiving and disbursing school funds.

SEC. 2. All laws and parts of laws in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.

SEC. 3. The fact that there is now no law granting school districts the taxing powers provided by the Constitution and the deplorable condition of the schools by reason of the inability of the districts to levy taxes for the maintenance of schools, and the building of school houses, creates an emergency and an imperative public necessity which demand that the Constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several days be suspended and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its passage, and it is so enacted.

[NOTE. The enrolled bill shows that the foregoing Act passed the Senate by the following vote, yeas 31, nays 0; was referred to the House, amended and passed by the following vote, yeas 101, nays 0; and that

GENERAL LAWS OF TEXAS.

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the Senate concurred in the House amendments by the following vote, yeas 26, nays 0.]

Approved February 18, 1909.

Became a law February 18, 1909.

DRAINAGE DISTRICTS-AMENDMENT.

S. B. No. 89.]

CHAPTER 13.

An Act to amend Sections Nos. 2, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 22, 23, 29, 30, 35, 41 and 44 of Chapter XL of the General Laws of the State of Texas, passed at the Regular Session of the Thirtieth Legislature of Texas, entitled "An Act to authorize the commissioners courts of the several counties of Texas to create and establish drainage districts, to construct canals, drains and ditches, to make levees, improve streams and water courses and make other improvements for the purpose of drainage; to order and hold elections for the purpose of voting on drainage propositions, and authorizing the issuance of bonds and levy of tax, and to issue bonds in payment for such drainage improvements and the maintenance thereof, and to levy and collect taxes for the payment of such bonds, to appoint drainage commissioners and all other necessary officers of such drainage districts for the purpose of carrying into effect the provisions of this Act; granting the right of eminent domain to such drainage districts, and authorizing the drainage commissioners to acquire by purchase, gift or grant, for such district, title to any right of way and other property, and generally authorizing the county commissioners court and the drainage commissioners to do all things necessary for the establishing and maintenance of such districts according to the provisions of this Act; repealing all laws and parts of laws in conflict herewith, and declaring an emergency"; validating certain proceedings had and bonds heretofore issued and registered, providing for additional elections and issuance of bonds, elections of drainage district commissioners, fixing a tax lien and penalty, repealing all laws in conflict herewith, and declaring an emergency.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas:

SECTION 1. That Sections Nos. 2, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 22, 23, 29, 30, 35, 41 and 44, of Chapter XL of the General Laws of Texas, enacted by the Thirtieth Legislature of the State of Texas, being an Act entitled, "An Act to authorize the commissioners courts of the several counties of Texas to create and establish drainage districts, to construct canals, drains and ditches, to make levees, improve streams and water courses and make other improvements for the purpose of drainage; to order and hold elections for the purpose of voting on drainage propositions, and authorizing the issuance of bonds and levy of tax, and to issue bonds in payment for such drainage improvements and the maintenance thereof, and to levy and collect taxes for the payment of such bonds, to appoint drainage commissioners and all other necessary officers of such drainage districts for the purpose of carrying into effect the provisions of this Act; granting the right of eminent domain to such drainage districts, and authorizing the drainage commissioners to acquire by purchase, gift or grant, for such district, title to any right of way and other property, and generally authorizing the county commissioners court and the drainage commissioners to do all things necessary for the establishing and maintenance of such districts according to the provisions of this Act; repealing all laws or parts of laws in conflict herewith and declaring an emer

gency," be and the same are hereby amended so as to read as follows, towit:

Sec. 2. Upon the presentation to the county commissioners court of any county in this State of a petition (accompanied by the deposit provided for in Section 29 of this Act), signed by twenty-five of the free hold resident tax-payers, or in the event there are less than seventy five freehold resident citizen tax-payers in the proposed district, then by one third of such freehold resident citizen taxpayers of any proposed drainage district, whose lands may be affected thereby, praying for the establishing of a drainage district, and setting forth the necessity, public utility and feasibility and proposed boundaries thereof, and designating a name for such drainage district, which name shall include the name of the county, the said commissioners court shall at the same session when said petition is presented, set said petition down for hearing at some regular or special session of said court, called for the purpose, not less than thirty nor more than sixty days from the presentation of said petition, and shall order the clerk of said court to give notice of the date and place of said hearing by posting a copy of said petition, and the order of the court thereon, in five public places in said county, one of which shall be at the court house door of said county, and four of which shall be within the limits of said proposed drainage district. The said clerk shall receive as compensation for such service one dollar for each such notice and five cents per mile for each mile necessarily traveled in posting such notices. Such notices shall be posted for twenty days prior to the date of said public hearing. Provided, however, that in all cases wherein drainage districts have heretofore been established, or wherein a hearing has been heretofore had on the petition and action. thereon has been taken by the county commissioners court, or wherein a public hearing is now pending upon a petition for a drainage district, and the notices thereof and therefor have been so posted for twenty days, in either or all of such cases, the notices for such public hearing as well as the notices for the hearing upon the engineer's report provided for in Section 10 of this law, shall be and they are hereby held, deemed and declared to be and to have been due and legal and valid notices of such public hearing or hearings under the full meaning, intent and purpose of this law.

Sec. 11. If there should be no objection to said report, or if there should be objection thereto, and the court should find that the objections are not well taken, the report shall be approved, and the fact of such approval entered of record on the minutes of said court: but the commissioners court shall not be confined to the number of drains, ditches, canals or levees or to the initial point or outlets of same, as located and shown by said report of the engineer, and may change the location of any of said improvements, or may add to the number of same or reduce the number of same and order the engineer to locate any additional canals, drains, ditches or levees, which levees may be constructed for the purpose of conducting waters from the lands of said district, or to prevent the overflow of waters from streams or otherwise onto the lands of said district proposed to be drained, or otherwise in aid of said purpose, as directed by the court, and the commissioners court. if it

deem it necessary, may refer the entire report back to the engineer for a compliance with the orders of the court and require a further report, provided, that notices shall be given as provided in Section 10 of this law, and shall state that the public hearing shall be upon such report of the engineer and also upon any changes or modifications that may be made by the county commissioners court. Provided, further, that in all such public hearings heretofore had under said Sections 10 and 11 of this law, wherein twenty days or more notice was given, such notices and hearings shall be, and the same are hereby held, deemed and declared to be and to have been legal, regular and valid notices and hearings in all respects under the full intent, meaning and purpose of this law.

Sec. 12. After the approval of the report of the engineer as presented, or as modified by the county commissioners court, as provided for in the preceding section of this Act, the county commissioners court shall order an election to be held within such proposed drainage district at the earliest possible legal time, at which election there shall be submitted the following propositions, and none other: "For the drainage district and the issuance of bonds and levy of tax in payment therefor." "Against the drainage district and the issuance of bonds and levy of tax in payment therefor."

Sec. 13. Notice of such election, reciting the establishment of the drainage district, stating the amount of bonds, which shall not exceed the engineer's estimate and the cost of any additional work which may become necessary by any change or modification made by the commissioners court as provided for in Section 11 of this Act, stating the time and place or places of holding the election, shall be given by the county clerk by posting notices thereof in four public places in such proposed drainage district and one at the courthouse door of the county in which such district is situated. Such notices shall be posted for wenty days previous to the date of the election, and shall contain the proposition to be voted upon as set forth in Section 12 of this Act, and shall also specify the purposes for which said bonds are to be issued. Provided that the said notices of election in all drainage districts wherein such elections have heretofore been held or are now pending, and wherein twenty days notice was had, shall be and the same are hereby held, deemed and declared to be and to have been legal and valid notices of such elections, under the full meaning, intent and purpose of this law.

Sec. 16. Immediately after the election the presiding judge at each polling place shall make return of the result in the same manner as provided for in general elections for State and county officers, and return the ballot boxes to the county clerk who shall keep same in a safe place and deliver them together with the returns from the several polling places to the commissioners court at its next regular session or special session called for the purpose of canvassing the vote, and the county commissioners court shall at such session canvass the vote, and if it be found that two-thirds majority of the resident property tax payers voting thereon shall have been cast in favor of the drainage district and the issuance of bonds and levy of tax, then the court shall declare the result of said election to be in favor of said drainage district, the levy of tax, issuance of bonds, and shall enter the same in the minutes of the court substantially as follows: