large number of bills now upon the calendars of the House and Senate, and the importance of this act, creates an emergency and an imperative public necessity exists 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 a two-thirds vote, yeas 21, nays 4, and reported to the House, where it was amended and passed, vote not given; Senate concurred in House amendments by a two-thirds vote, yeas 25, nays 2.]

Approved April 19, 1899.

PERMANENT SCHOOL FUND-EXTENDING FIELD OF

S. H. B. Nos. 275 & 313.]

INVESTMENT.

CHAPTER LXXXVII.

An Act to amend Articles 3892, 3893 and 3894, Chapter 6, Title 86, of the Revised Civil Statutes of the State of Texas, relating to the duties and extending the powers of the Board of Education, in the investment of the permanent free school fund, and adding thereto Article 3891a and 3894a, giving the State Board of Education an option of ten days on county bonds and on the bonds of incorporated cities, and providing that when a premium is paid for bonds, the Board of Education shall refund the same, and to authorize commissioners' courts to invest the permanent public free school fund belonging to the counties in this State, as provided in this act for the investment of State permanent public free school fund.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas: That Articles 3892, 3893 and 3894, of Chapter 6, Title 86, of the Revised Civil Statutes of the State of Texas be and the same are hereby amended, and Articles 3891a and 3894a are added, so as to hereafter read as follows: Article 3891a. The Board of Education is hereby authorized and empowered to invest the permanent public free school fund of the State in the bonds of the United States, the State of Texas, and the bonds of the counties of this State; and in the event the Board of Education are unable to invest all of the permanent public free school fund in such securities, they are authorized and empowered in their discretion to invest in the bonds of incorporated cities in said State.

Article 3892. Hereafter, when any county bonds, or the bonds of any incorporated city are offered for sale, the party offering and proposing to sell such bonds shall first submit them to the Attorney-General of the State, who shall carefully inspect and examine the same in connection with the law under which they were issued, and shall diligently inquire into all facts and circumstances so far as may be necessary to determine the validity thereof, and upon being satisfied that such bonds were issued in conformity with law, and that they are valid and binding obligations upon the county or incorporated city by which they purport or appear to have been issued, he shall thereupon certify to their validity, and his certificate to that effect, so procured by the party offering such bonds for sale, shall be submitted to the Comptroller or Board of Education, with the bonds so offered for sale; and should the same be purchased

as an investment for the permanent public free school fund from the county or incorporated city issuing the same, or from any person authorized by said county or incorporated city to act for it in the negotiations or sale of such bonds, they shall thereafter be held in every action or proceeding in which their validity is or may be called in question, to be valid and binding obligations of the county or incorporated city issuing the same, unless fraudulently issued or issued in violation of constitutional limitation; and in every such action the certificate of the AttorneyGeneral, as aforesaid (which shall be carefully preserved by the Comptroller) shall be admitted and received as prima facie evidence of the validity of the bonds and coupons thereto, which may have been so purchased; and it is further provided, that the commissioners' courts of the counties of this State are hereby authorized to invest the permanent school fund belonging to the county in the manner provided in this act for the investment of the State fund.

Article 3893. Nothing in the preceding article shall be so construed as to relieve the Comptroller or Board of Education from the duty of a careful examination of the bonds offered as an investment for the permanent public free school fund of the State, an investigation of the facts tending to show the value and validity thereof, and such Board of Education may decline to purchase same, unless satisfied that they are a safe and proper investment for such funds, and no bonds shall be purchased as an investment for the permanent public free school fund that do not bear as great a rate of interest as at least three per cent. per annum; and no county bonds or the bonds of any incorporated city shall be purchased as an investment for the permanent public free school fund when the indebtedness of such county or incorporated city, exclusive of the bonds so offered, shall exceed five per cent. of the assessed value of the real estate in such county or incorporated city, and if default be made in the payment of interest when due upon such bonds, the Board of Education may at any time prior to the payment of such overdue interest, elect to treat the principal as also due, and the same shall thereupon, at the option of the Board of Education, become due and payable, and the payment of both such principal and interest shall in all such cases be enforced in such manner as is or may be provided by law, and the right to enforce such collection shall never be barred by any law or limitation whatever.

Article 3894. In all cases where the proceeds of the sale of any bonds have been received by the proper officers of the county or incorporated city, or by the party acting for it in negotiating the sale thereof, such county or incorporated city shall thereafter be estopped from denying the validity of such bonds so issued, and the same shall be held to be valid and binding obligations of the county or incorporated city, and in any action upon such bonds, or coupons thereto, judgment shall be rendered against the county or incorporated city for the amount of the bonds sued on and interest thereon, at the rate mentioned therein, deducting such amounts, if any, as have been previously paid thereon.

Article 3894a. Whenever any county or incorporated city of this State issues any bonds, and they have been approved by the Attorney-General, as is required by the previous articles of this chapter, the county judge of the county or the mayor of the incorporated city, as the case may be, shall notify the State Board of Education of all bids received for such bonds, and the said county judge or mayor, as the case may be, shall give

the State Board of Education an option of ten days in which to purchase such bonds; provided, that the said Board of Education will pay the price offered for such bonds by the best bona fide bidder, and if the Board of Education shall fail to purchase such bonds within the prescribed time, then the county judge or mayor, as the case may be, shall sell the bonds to the best bona fide bidder.

In the event the State Board of Education should pay a premium out of the permanent school fund on any bonds purchased as an investment for the permanent school fund, then the principal of such bond and an amount of the interest last accruing on such bond, equal to the premium so paid, shall be, and be treated as the principal in such investment, and when such last interest is collected such sum of the same shall be returned to the permanent school fund.

And if they purchase said bonds for less than par, the discount they receive in the purchase of said bonds shall be paid to the available school fund when the bonds are paid off and discharged.

The price paid for bonds shall be endorsed thereon at the time the same are purchased.

SEC. 2. The fact that there is now over one million dollars belonging to the permanent public free school fund, which is uninvested, creates a public necessity and emergency, requiring the suspension of the constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several days, and the rule is so 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 House of Representatives, no vote given; and passed the Senate by a twothirds vote, yeas 21, nays 6.]

Approved April 20, 1899.

H. B. No. 531.]

NAVARRO COUNTY-ROAD SYSTEM.

CHAPTER LXXXVIII.

An Act to create a more efficient road system for Navarro county, Texas, and making the county commissioners of said county ex-officio road commissioners, and prescribing their duties as such, and providing for their compensation as such road commissioners, and providing for the working of county convicts upon the public roads of said county, and providing for commutation of time for good behavior and good service, and providing for a reward to be offered for the recapture of an escaped county convict, and taxing said reward and all actual costs of capture and delivery of said convict against said convict, and providing for a penalty for the escape of a county convict, and providing for the trimming of hedges by the owner of land, and providing a penalty for failure to trim said hedges, and providing the amount of compensation in road time to be allowed by overseers to road hands for teams, plows, scrapers and wagons, and providing for the condemnation of land for public road purposes, and providing for the working of delinquent poll tax-payers on the public roads, and relieving them from the payment of said work by the payment of the sum of three dollars, and providing further, making this law cumulative of the general laws and in case of conflict this act to govern as to Navarro county, Texas.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas: That the members of the commissioners' court of Navarro county shall be ex-officio road commissioners of their county, and under the direction

10-G. L.

of the commissioners' court, shall have charge of all the teams, tools and machinery belonging to the county and placed in their hands by said court; and it shall be their duty under such rules and regulations as the commissioners' court may prescribe, to superintend the laying out of new roads, the making or changing of roads, and the building of bridges. Each of said commissioners shall, before entering upon the duties of his office, execute a bond of one thousand dollars, with two or more good and sufficient sureties, payable to the county judge of said county, for the use and benefit of the road and bridge fund, conditioned that he will perform all the duties required of him by law, or by the commissioners' court, and that he will account for all money or property belonging to the county that may come into his possession; provided, that with the consent of the commissioners' court any one of said commissioners shall be allowed to appoint any competent person as deputy road commissioner, who shall be required to execute the same bond that is required of the commissioners in this section; and such deputy road commissioner shall be entitled to the same compensation that is allowed county commissioners for the same service; provided, that county commissioners shall not be allowed any compensation as road commissioners when a deputy road commissioner has been appointed.

SEC. 2. The commissioners' court of said county shall have full power and authority, and it shall be their duty to adopt such system for working, laying out, draining and repairing the public roads in said county as they may deem best, and from time to time said court may change its plan or system of working. Said commissioners' court shall have power to purchase such teams, tools and machinery as may be necessary for the working of its roads. Said court shall have power to construct, grade or otherwise improve any road or bridge by contract. In such case said court or county judge of said county, may advertise in such manner as said court may determine for bids to do such work, and the contract shall be awarded to the lowest responsible bidder, who shall enter into bond, payable to the county judge of said county, for the use of the road and bridge fund, with good and sufficient sureties, to be approved by said court, and in such sum as said court may determine, for the faithful compliance with the terms of said contract, but said court shall have the right to reject any and all bids; and the said court shall have authority to employ any hands or teams to work on the roads under such regulations and for such price as they deem best.

SEC. 3. The commissioners' court of said county shall require all county convicts, not otherwise employed, to labor upon the public roads, under such regulations as it may prescribe, and each convict so worked shall receive a credit of fifty cents on his fine first, and then on the cost for each day he may labor. The officers and witnesses shall be paid their costs as is now provided by the General Laws; said cost shall be paid to the officers and witnesses out of the road and bridge fund on the warrant of the county judge, when said fine and costs shall have been worked out in full. The commissioners' court may grant a reasonable commutation of time for which a convict is committed as a reward for faithful service and good behavior; provided, that such commutation in no case exceeds onetenth of the whole time. The commissioners' court may offer a reward, not to exceed ten dollars, for the recapture of an escaped county convict, which shall be paid out of the general fund to the person recapturing said

escaped convict, except the person from whom said convict escaped. Said reward, when offered and paid, shall be taxed against said convict, with all other actual costs for recapturing and returning said convict, and said convict shall be required to pay said reward and other costs in recapturing and returning said convict. The commissioners' court may provide the necessary houses, prisons, clothing, bedding, food, medicine and medical attention and guards for the safe and humane keeping of convicts.

SEC. 4. Each county commissioner shall have control of all road overseers in his precinct, and shall deliver to each of them all teams, tools and machinery necessary in working the roads in the precinct of said overseer, so far as he has been supplied therewith by the commissioners' court, taking receipt of said overseer therefor, specifying each item and giving its value, which receipt shall be a full answer of the liability of the commissioner, and shall fix the liability of the overseer, and any commissioner or overseer who shall have been entrusted with any teams, tools or machinery belonging to said county shall be liable for any damages that may occur to the same while in his possession. It shall be the duty of the road overseer when he has finished his work on his road, to return to said commissioner all teams, tools and machinery received from him, and to take up the receipt given therefor.

The road commissioner of each commissioner's precinct shall have control of all persons liable to work upon public roads, and said road commissioners shall have full power and authority to call out all or any part of said persons at any time for special work without notice, and the overseer shall have the same power.

SEC. 5. It shall be the duty of a county commissioner when acting as road commissioner, to inform himself of the condition of the public roads in his district, and shall determine what character of work shall be done upon said roads, and shall direct the manner of grading, draining or otherwise improving the same, which directions shall be observed and obeyed by all road overseers in his district.

SEC. 6. The commissioner may require each road overseer in his precinct to call out the hands in such numbers as may be sufficient to perform the work, but no road hand shall be required to work exceeding five days in any one year, unless the terms of service as prescribed by the General Laws shall be extended beyond that time; and provided, that all road hands in any particular district shall, as far as practicable, be worked a uniform time. Each road overseer shall have control of all road hands within his precinct, and shall see that each hand, when called out, shall perfom a good day's work, and if any hand when so called out shall fail or refuse to perform a good day's work, or to work in the manner the overseer may direct, he shall be liable to the same penalty as if he had failed to appear in obedience to the summons. The commissioners' court may allow to any overseer, who shall be engaged in the discharge of the duties of his office for more than five days during any one year, a compensation not to exceed one dollar and fifty cents per day for the time so served; provided, that such service shall be done under the written order of the road commissioner. When it shall become necessary for any road overseer to exchange the labor of any hand or hands for plows, scrapers, wagons or teams, as provided by general law, said overseer shall allow fifty cents per day for a wagon, scraper or plow, and one dollar per day for a team.

SEC. 7. Any citizen of Navarro county liable for road duty, who shall,