certificates of deposit, or otherwise, its securities to an amount more than fifty per cent greater than the amount borrowed thereon, or for any State bank to issue or execute any bills or other evidences of indebtedness secured or to be secured, by the pledge or hypothecation of any of its securities which shall not contain a provision that in the event such State bank shall, for any cause, have its property and business taken possession of by the commissioner, at any time before such pledge or hypothecation shall have been actually foreclosed, a grace of thirty days after the date of such taking possession shall be allowed in which such bank or commissioner shall be permitted to redeem such securities so hypothecated or pledged, by the payment of the amount due as principal and interest on such indebtedness.

SEC. 38. Section 50 of Chapter 10 of the General Laws of the First Called Session of the Twenty-ninth Legislature is hereby amended so as hereafter to read as follows:

Section 50. No bank and no bank or trust company or any member of either, shall, during the time it shall continue in banking or banking and trust operations, withdraw or permit to be withdrawn, either in the form of dividends or otherwise, any portion of its capital. If losses have at any time been sustained by any such association equal to or exceeding its undivided profits then on hand, no dividend shall be made; and no dividend shall ever be made by a bank or bank and trust company while it continues its banking and trust operations to an amount greater than its net profits then on hand, deducting therefrom its losses and bad debts. All debts due to any State bank on which interest is past due and unpaid for a period of six months, unless the same are well secured or in process of collection, shall be considered bad debts within the meaning of this Section. The board of directors of any bank or trust company organized under this Act may declare a semi-annual or quarterly dividend, if such dividend has been earned, provided the corporation be fully solvent, without such earnings proposed to be divided. But they shall not declare a dividend at any time when the capital of such corporation shall have become impaired to such an extent that it is not worth in good resources the full amount paid in after the payment of all liabilities, and any officer or director of such corporation who shall assent to declaring and paying dividends where the capital stock is so impaired, shall be personally liable to the creditors of the corporation to the amount of his proportion of the proposed dividend, if any loss occur by reason of the payment of such dividend."

SEC. 39. The State Banking Board shall have the power from time to time to make such changes in the form of the statements required of each banking corporation as it may deem advisable, and to require any additional statements which it may deem necessary as to average daily deposits, capital stock, surplus, character of deposits and such other matters as it may deem necessary to the enforcement of this Act.

SEC. 40. Should the courts declare any Section of this Act unconstitutional or unauthorized by law or in conflict with any other Section or provision of this Act, then such decision shall affect only the Section or provision so declared to be unconstitutional and shall not affect any other Section or part of this Act.

SEC. 41. Every president, cashier, director, teller, clerk or agent of any State bank, or banking and trust company incorporated under the laws of Texas who embezzles, abstracts or wilfully misapplies any of the moneys, funds or credits of such State bank, or who, without authority from the directors, issues or puts forth any certificate of deposit, draws any order or bill of exchange, makes any acceptance, assigns any note, bond, draft, bill of exchange, mortgage, judgment or decree, or who makes any false entry in any book, report or statement of such State bank, with intent in either case to defraud such State bank, or any other corporation, body politic, or any individual, person, firm or association or to deceive any officer of such State bank, the Commissioner of Insurance and Banking, or any examiner or special agent, authorized by law to examine the affairs of any such State bank, and every person who, with like intent, aids or abets any officer, clerk or agent in any violation of this Section shall be deemed guilty of a felony and shall, upon conviction, be imprisoned in the State penitentiary for a term of not less than five years nor more than ten years.

SEC. 42. Any director of a State bank or banking and trust company incorporated under the laws of this State, who shall, either directly or indirectly, borrow any of the funds of such bank in excess of ten per cent of its capital and surplus, without the consent of a majority of the directors of the bank first having been obtained and made a matter of record at a regular meeting of the board, or without the written consent of such majority of the directors other than the borrowers being jointly executed by them and filed in the archives of such bank before the loan is made, and any officer of a State bank who shall knowingly become indebted to such bank, directly or indirectly, in any sum whatever, without the consent of a majority of the board other than the borrower, obtained or recorded or filed in like manner, and any officer or director of such bank who shall knowingly loan or assent to the loaning. of any of its funds to any officer, or any of its funds to any director, in excess of ten per cent of its capital and surplus without such consent being first obtained and recorded or filed, or who shall knowingly permit any such officer or director to become indebted to the bank or liable to it without such consent, shall be deemed guilty of a felony and shall be punished by imprisonment in the State penitentiary for a term of not less than two years upon conviction thereof.

SEC. 43. Any officer, director or employee of any State bank or trust company who knowingly or wilfully fails or refuses to perform any duty imposed upon him by law, or who shall do or perform or assist in doing or performing any act or transaction prohibited by the provisions of this Act, for the punishment of which provision is not otherwise herein made, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not less than five hundred nor more than one thousand dollars or by imprisonment in the county jail for a term of not less than thirty days nor more than ninety days, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

SEC. 44. Neither the Commissioner of Insurance and Banking, nor any regularly appointed clerks or employes of the Department of Insurance and Banking, nor any State bank examiner, shall, at any time dur

ing his incumbency, be financially interested, directly or indirectly, in any State bank or banking and trust company subject to the supervision of the Department of Insurance and Banking, or knowingly be or become indebted, either directly or indirectly, to any such State bank or banking and trust company.

Any officer or employe named in this Section violating its provisions shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be fined in any sum not exceeding $500.00, and the venue in such case shall be in the county wherein such State bank or banking and trust company is located. The violation of the provisions of this Section shall work a forfeiture of the office or position held by the person guilty of such violation.

SEC. 45. Any officer, clerk or agent of any State bank or banking and trust company incorporated under the laws of Texas, who shall wilfully certify to any check, or checks, before the amount thereof shall have been regularly entered to the credit of the drawer, upon the books of such State bank or banking and trust company, shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by fine of not less than five hundred nor more than five thousand dollars, or by imprisonment in the State penitentiary for not more than one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

SEC. 46. Any State bank examiner, or special agent, who shall knowingly and intentionally fail or refuse to notify the Commissioner of Insurance and Banking in writing of any violation of the criminal provisions of this Act within ten days after the same shall come to his notice or attention unless such notice shall, within his knowledge, have been previously given by some other bank examiner or special agent, or any Commissioner of Insurance and Banking, who shall knowingly and intentionally fail or refuse to notify in writing the county or district attorney charged by law with the duty of the prosecution thereof of any such violation within ten days after the same shall have come to his knowledge or attention, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and shall, upon conviction, be punished by fine of not less than one hundred dollars nor more than five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment in the county jail for not less than three nor more than twelve months, or by both such fine and imprisonment, and upon conviction shall be removed from office.

SEC. 47. The provisions of this Act shall be held to be cumulative of all laws now in force applicable to State banks, or banking and trust companies incorporated under the laws of Texas, not in conflict herewith.

SEC. 48. It shall be unlawful for any State bank or banking and trust company in this State to directly or indirectly loan to the Commissioner of Insurance and Banking or any other person interested in or employed by the Department of Insurance and Banking, and it is hereby expressly provided that a violation of this provision shall render such corporation liable to a penalty of not less than $100.00 nor more than $1000.00, to be recovered for the benefit of the State.

SEC. 49. The fact that there is no law in the State providing for a fund for the protection of depositors in banks and trust companies, creates an emergency which requires that the Constitutional rule that

requires bills to be read on three several days be suspended, and this Act take effect from and after its passage, and it is so enacted.

Approved May 12, 1909.

Takes effect ninety days after adjournment.

PUBLIC LANDS-REGULATING MANNER OF MAKING PAYMENTS FOR.

An Act to regulate the manner and form of making payments to the State for public lands; to define the duties of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, the State Treasurer and the Comptroller of Public Accounts in respect thereto; also to require all accounts with purchasers of such lands to be transferred to and kept in the General Land Office; to adopt a filing system for the General Land Office and to make an appropriation for equipping said office for the purpose of putting into effect the provisions of this Act, and to repeal Article 4046, Revised Civil Statutes of 1895, and all other laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act, and declaring an emergency. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas:

SECTION 1. Applicants to purchase school land belonging to the public free school, the lunatic asylum, the blind asylum, the deaf and dumb asylum and the orphan asylum funds and other public land shall transmit with their applications the required first payment in the form of money or remittance collectible on demand in Austin, and convertible at par into money on the order of the State Treasurer, without liability; provided that should a remittance be made payable to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, such payment shall not be invalid for that reason, but the Commissioner shall endorse it to the State Treasurer without incurring liability and the same shall be treated as if payable to the Treasurer. If the payment is not made as required in this Section the application shall be void.

SEC. 2. When an envelope enclosing an application to purchase land is opened and the remittance for the first payment is in the General Land Office the commissioner shall cause such remittance to be listed in triplicate daily, and in such form as to show the purpose and amount of each remittance, the name and address of the applicant and transmit the remittance and two of the lists to the Treasurer. On receipt thereof the Treasurer shall check the remittances with the lists, and if found to be correct, he shall receipt one of the lists and return it to the Commissioner and retain the other list, and thereupon the Commissioner shall delived the third list retained by him to the Comptroller of Public Accounts. The Treasurer shall at once collect all collectible remittances and report to the Commissioner and Comptroller all remittances not collectible in Austin. The items not collected shall be returned to the Commissioner and the application for which such remittances were made shall be void. All first payments thus collected by the Treasurer shall be retained by him until he receives notice from the Commissioner of the final disposition of the applications to purchase, and thereupon he shall at once return to each applicant the amount shown to have been paid on

his rejected applications. A duplicate of the notice to the Treasurer of accepted and rejected applications and the amount of first payment shall be transmitted to the Comptroller. On the last working day of each month the Treasurer shall deposit in the Treasury to the credit of the proper fund the sum collected by him on accepted applications during that month.

SEC. 3. Notices of awards shall be prepared and issued by the Commissioner, and shall be appropriately numbered and shall be so worded as to constitute a receipt for first payment when signed as such by the Commissioner. Books shall be prepared containing two copies of the notice of award and a suitable number of coupons to be used by the applicant in making subsequent payments on the land. The notice of award shall be prepared in duplicate, one to be detached from the book and retained in the Land Office, the other with the coupons attached, to be sent to the applicant. The coupons in each book shall be prepared in duplicate, each of which shall be numbered with the same number as that on the notice of award. The form of the coupons shall be so prepared as to be suitable for, and shall be used by the remitter in making all subsequent payments on the land, the original to be so worded as to be used as a receipt for remittances when signed as such by the Commissioner. The remitter shall describe each tract of land on which he is making remittance by properly filling in the blanks on both the original and duplicate coupons, and shall enter in the proper blanks the amount remitted as interest, and the amount remitted as principal, and both the original and duplicate shall be mailed to the Commissioner with the remittance. The Commissioner shall likewise furnish former purchasers with similar coupon books, without notice of award, which coupon shall be used by them in the same manner as herein provided when making remittances for interest or principal or both.

SEC. 4. All accounts with purchasers and lessees of the lands mentioned in this Act and University land shall hereafter be kept in the General Land Office. All books, furniture, fixtures and equipments pertaining to land accounts which are now kept in the State Treasury, so far as suitable and necessary, shall be transferred to the General Land office on or before the taking effect of this Act. All payments on account of interest, lease rentals or the balance of principal due on lands treated of in this Act shall be transmitted to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, and shall be payable to the State Treasurer and be in form the same as is herein required for first payments and subject to the same rules for collection as are remittances for first payments. A remittance payable to the Commissioner of the General Land Office shall not be invalid for that reason, but he shall endorse it to the Treasurer without incurring liability. Immediately on receipt thereof the Commissioner shall list in triplicate separate from first payments all money and other forms of remittances received for the purposes stated in this Section and in such form as to show the amount of each remittance, the name and address of the remitter, and the probable fund to which the remittance should be deposited. The remittances and two of the lists aforesaid shall be transmitted to the Treasurer. On receipt thereof the Treasurer shall check the remittances with the list and if found to be correct he shall re