The secretary and treasurer may be any person qualified to fill the duties of these offices.

SECTION 13. The said board of directors and their successors in office shall be allowed and receive for their services two dollars ($2) per diem for time actually engaged in the performance of their duties as such, provided that the secretary and treasurer of said board shall receive a salary per annum in full for his services and shall not receive a per diem consideration.

SECTION 14. Said board of directors shall meet at such times as they see fit, at least, however, once each year. The secretary and treasurer elected by the board of directors shall hold their offices during the pleasure of the board. The sheriff shall, when called upon by the treasurer, pay over to him all monevs that he. the sheriff. has collected under this Act. The board of directors shall require said treasurer to give bond and security for faithful performance of the duties required by him by the board. in the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) or whatever sum they may see fit; said sum not to be less than the amount of levee taxes annually collected.

SECTION 15. The sheriff of Lafayette County shall

make annual settlements with the treasurer of said board of levee directors on the last Monday of April of each year, and at such times shall also turn over to said treasurer the tax books, showing such taxes as have been paid, and such as are delinquent, and receive the compensation provided for in this Act.

SECTION 16. If at any regular annual meeting of said board of levee directors they shall decide to do any certain amount of work that year, then the president of said levee board shall contract for the construction or performance of said work in such parcels or divisions as

may be to the best interest to the levee district; said contract shall be let to the lowest responsible bidder and to this end the president of the said levee board shall cause a letting of said work to be advertised for thirty days in such newspapers in or out of this State as the board may direct in the mode prescribed by the board, asking for sealed proposals on each or any item of work so advertised, and upon a certain day therein named at a certain hour named in the presence of said board, open and canvass said sealed proposals and award the contract; provided, that any and all bids may be rejected and that no proposals shall be entertained without such guarantee of good faith as the board may require; provided, further, that the board shall require of all contractors an approved bond in the sum to be fixed by said board to secure prompt and proper execution of their contract; provided, that if the work contracted for is done according to the specifications and accepted by the board of directors or by an engineer appointed by them to receive the work, then the contractor and his securities shall be discharged from all liability; provided, further, that in case of a break in the levee, or a break threatened by cavingbank, or other cause demanding immediate attention, the president of said board may, and is hereby authorized to take such action in the case as may best protect the interests of the district.

SECTION 17. All work let or contracted for by said. board, as herein provided for, except emergency work, shall be executed according to plans and specifications furnished by said board and made a part of said contracts, and shall be performed under the supervision and to the satisfaction of the engineer appointed by the board, and when partial payments from time to time are contracted for, they shall be made upon estimates furnished by said engineer and fifteen per cent (15%) retained to guarantee a faithful performance of the contract, and final

settlements with said contractors shall be made only upon estimates furnished by said engineer and on his certificate that said work has been performed and completed to his satisfaction; provided, however, that the requirements of this section and section 16 shall not become binding upon the board of levee directors for eight (8) months after the passage of this Act, but the said board may contract with the persons or corporations who, in its opinion, can erect a levee in time to protect against the high waters of this year on such terms and conditions as may be deemd in its discretion best.

SECTION 18. That said board of levee directors shall hold a regular annual meeting on the second Tuesday in May of each year at Lewisville, Lafayette County, Arkansas, which place is selected as the domicile of the board, and such other meetings as their by-laws may provide for, and three members present shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of such business as may properly come before said board. At each regular meeting the president shall lay before the board all reports made to the board since the last regular annual meeting, with the maps, papers and estimates accompanying same, also a statement showing the aggregate sum upon which a tax for levee purposes may be levied, and a report of the treasurer of said board, showing the financial condition of said levee district. After an examination of said reports, the levee board shall decide what work they may undertake to do during that year and fix the rate per cent on the value of lands, tramroads and railroads, that will be necessary to raise a sum sufficient to pay for said work as provided in section 4 of this Act; provided, the tax shall not exceed four per cent (4%) on the assessed valuation of the lands, tramroads and railroads in said district, and that assessment shall be a lien on said lands, in the nature of a mortgage.

SECTION 19. The rate per cent of taxation voted by the board of directors for any year shall not be less than two per cent (2%), unless prior to the year 1915 there is a surplus in the hands of the treasurer after paying interest and all necessary expenses incurred by the board for that year of fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000) or unless the board shall have retired as much as fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000) of the principal of the bonds that have been issued by the board; and in case there is fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000) in the hands of the treasurer, or in case fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000) of the bonds issued by the board shall have been paid and cancelled, the rate per cent of interest may be reduced to such a rate that the income from the taxes levied by the board shall be sufficient to pay the interest on the bonds, current expenses, and twenty-five hundred dollars ($2,500) each year into the sinking fund. After all bonds and other indebtedness of Red River Levee District No. I have been paid, the board of directors may reduce the rate per cent of levee taxation to one-half of one per cent if, in their judgment, the amount of tax thus raised will keep the levee in repair and meet emergency calls created by high water.

SECTION 20. That for the purpose of building, erecting and maintaining the levee in said Red River Levee District No. 1, and for making necessary repairs thereon, and in order to enable the board of directors to fully carry out the end and purpose of this Act, the said board of directors shall have power to borrow money, and to that end may issue bonds of said board to the amount of not exceeding $50,000, payable in lawful money of the United States, in such denominations as the board may prescribe, which bonds shall be registered bonds, or made payable to bearer, as may be preferred, and shall be made payable in not less than ten years nor more than twenty years, and shall be designated as 10-20 bonds, that

is, at the discretion of said board all or any number of said bonds shall, on notice, filed at the place of payment one year in advance and published in at least one newspaper in the city of Little Rock, State of Arkansas, one newspaper published in the city of Memphis, in the State of Tennessee, one newspaper published in the city of Chicago, in the State

Illinois, and one newspaper in the city of New York, in the State of New York, at least once a week for six months in advance, be redeemable or payable at the end of ten years, but it shall be the duty of said board, should it elect not to pay all of said bonds at the end of ten years, to create a sinking fund for the payment of the principal of said bonds by annually appropriating from the revenue as provided for by this Act, a sum not less than $2,500, which shall, as soon as paid in, be applied annually to the payment of said bonds, commencing with number one and paying them consecutively; the intent of the last provision is, after ten years, to annually pay not less than $2,500 towards retiring said bonds and reserving unto the board the privilege, by notice filed six months previously and published in the manner above set out, to pay a greater sum. Said bonds shall be coupon bonds bearing interest at a rate not greater than six per cent per annum, interest payable annually on the first day of June of each year, and the place of payment of the principal and interest shall be fixed by said board, and the said bonds may be sold and negotiated in any market; provided, that in no case shall any of said bonds be sold or negotiated at less than par except by majority vote of the board, and the money arising from the sale of said bonds shall be paid into the treasury of said levee board, and only paid out on the warrant of the secretary countersigned by the president.

SECTION 21. The board of directors may, by a unanimous vote any year when there is a surplus of three