LAND OFFICE-APPROPRIATION TO BUY STAMPS FOR.

S. B. No. 34.]

CHAPTER VI.

An Act to appropriate the sum of $225.00 for the use of the General Land Office to purchase stamps to enable said office to conduct business for the remainder of the year ending February 28, 1901.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas: That the sum of $225.00 be and the same is hereby appropriated out of any monies in the State treasury, not otherwise appropriated, for the use of the General Land Office to buy stamps to enable said office to conduct business for the remainder of the year ending February 28th, 1901.

SEC. 2. The fact that the appropriation for the postal, telegraph and contingent expenses of the General Land Office will be exhausted on the 15th inst., and that the business of said office will be brought to a standstill unless this bill is passed immediately, creates an emergency and an imperative public necessity warranting the suspension of the constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several days, and said rule is hereby suspended, and 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 two-thirds vote, yeas 22, nays 0; and passed the House of Representatives by two-thirds vote, yeas 114, nays 0.]

Approved February 1, 1901.
Became a law February 1, 1901.

STONEWALL COUNTY-JURISDICTION OF COUNTY COURT. S. B. No. 76.]

CHAPTER VII.

An Act to restore and confer upon the county court of Stonewall county the civil and criminal jurisdiction heretofore belonging to said court under the Constitution and general statutes of Texas; to define the jurisdiction of said court; to conform the jurisdiction of the district court of said county to such change; to fix the time of holding court, and to repeal all laws in conflict with this act.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas: That the county court of Stonewall county shall hereafter have exclusive original jurisdiction in civil cases wherein the matter in controversy shall exceed in value two hundred dollars and shall not exceed five hundred dollars, exclusive of interest, and shall have concurrent jurisdiction with the district court of said county when the amount in controversy shall exceed five hundred dollars and shall not exceed one thousand dollars.

SEC. 2. Said court shall have appellate jurisdiction in civil cases over which the justice court have original jurisdiction when the judgment of the court appealed from or the amount in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, exclusive of interest, and said county court shall have the power to hear and determine the cases brought up from the justice court

on certiorari, under the provisions of the Revised Statutes of 1895 relating thereto.

SEC. 3. The county judge of said county shall have authority either in term time or vacation to grant writs of injunction, sequestration, mandamus, garnishment, attachment, certiorari, supersedeas, and all other writs necessary to the enforcement of the jurisdiction of said court, and shall also have power to issue writs of habeas corpus in all cases in which the Constitution has not exclusively conferred the power upon the district court or the judge thereof.

SEC. 4. That said county court shall have and exercise the general jurisdiction of a probate court, shall probate wills, appoint guardians of minors, idiots, lunatics, persons non compos mentis and common drunkards, grant letters testamentary and of administration, settle accounts of executors, administrators and guardians, transact all business pertaining to the estate of deceased persons, minors, idiots, lunatics, persons non compos mentis and common drunkards, including the partition, settlement and distribution of the estate of deceased persons, and to apprentice minors as provided by the general laws, and to issue all writs necessary for the enforcement of the jurisdictions, orders and decrees.

SEC. 5. That said county court shall have jurisdiction in the forfeiture of all bonds and recognizances taken in criminal cases of which said court has original or appellate jurisdiction.

SEC. 6. Said county court shall have exclusive original jurisdiction of all misdemeanors except misdemeanors involving official misconduct and excepting those misdemeanors in which the highest penalty that may be imposed by law is a fine without imprisonment that does not exceed two hundred dollars, and said court shall have concurrent jurisdiction with that of the justice of the peace in criminal cases and appellate jurisdiction with trial de novo in criminal cases in which the justice of the peace and other inferior tribunal of said county have original or appellate jurisdiction.

SEC. 7. The district court of said county shall no longer have jurisdiction of misdemeanors except misdemeanors involving official misconduct, and shall no longer have jurisdiction of cases which the county court of said county by the provisions of this act has original or appellate jurisdiction.

SEC. 8. It shall be the duty of the district clerk of said county, within thirty days after this act shall take effect to make full and complete transcripts of all orders on the criminal and civil docket then pending before the district court of said county of said cases by the provisions of this act original and appellate jurisdiction is given to the said county court and to deliver said transcript, together with the original papers in each case, to the county clerk of said county, and the said county clerk shall file the same and enter said cases on their respective docket for trial by said court.

SEC. 9. The said county court shall have power to hear and determine all motions against sheriffs and other officers of the court for failure to pay over money collected under the process of said court or other defalcations of duty in connection with said process, and shall have power to punish by fine not exceeding one hundred dollars and by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding two days, any person guilty of contempt of said county court, and all other powers and jurisdictions conferred on the county court by the Constitution and the general laws of the State.

SEC. 10. The terms of said court shall commence on the first Monday in February, and on the first Monday in May, and on the first Monday in August and on the first Monday in November of each year, and shall continue in session for each term until the business may be disposed of; provided, that the county commissioners court of said county may hereafter change the terms of said county court when it may be deemed

necessary.

SEC. 11. All laws and parts of laws in conflict with this act, in so far as they relate to Stonewall county, Texas, be and the same are hereby expressly repealed. The crowded condition of the docket of the district court of Stonewall county creates an emergency and an imperative public necessity that the constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several days be suspended and that this act take effect from and after its passage, and said rule is so suspended and it is so enacted.

[NOTE. The enrolled bill shows that the foregoing act passed the Senate by two-thirds vote, yeas 26, nays 0; and passed the House of Representatives by two-thirds vote, yeas 112, nays 0.]

[NOTE. The foregoing act was presented to the Governor of Texas for his approval on the first day of February, A. D. 1901, but was not signed by him nor returned to the house in which it originated with his objections thereto within the time prescribed by the Constitution, and thereupon became a law without his signature.-JOHN G. TOD, Secretary of State.]

Became a law February 13, 1901.

S. B. No. 2.]

STOCK LAW-AMENDMENT.

CHAPTER VIII.

An Act to amend Section 1, of Chapter CLII, of the Acts of the Twenty-sixth Legislature, sent to the Governor for approval on the 27th day of May, 1899, amending Article 5001, Title 102, of the Revised Civil Statutes of the State of Texas, of 1895, relating to the stock law.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas: That the act of the Twenty-sixth Legislature of the State of Texas, amending Article 5001, Title 102, of the Revised Civil Statutes of the State of Texas, of 1895, the same being House Bill 847, on page 261, of the acts of the regular session of the Twenty-sixth Legislature, be, and the same is hereby amended so as to hereafter read as follows: Article 5001. The counties of Refugio, Aransas and Bee are exempted from the provisions of this chapter.

SEC. 2. The fact that the county of Cooke, where a stock law is absolutely necessary, was by mistake embraced in the act of the Twenty-sixth Legislature, exempting certain counties from the operation of Article 5001, and the fact that there is now no law in said Cooke county to determine whether sheep, hogs or goats shall be permitted to run at large in said county, or in a subdivision thereof, creates an emergency and an imperative public necessity that the constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several days be suspended, and the same is therefore

hereby suspended, and this act shall 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 two-thirds vote, yeas 22, nays 0; and passed the House of Representatives by two-thirds vote, yeas 100, nays 0.]

[NOTE. The foregoing act was presented to the Governor of Texas for his approval on the twenty-first day of January, A. D. 1901, but was not signed by him nor returned to the house in which it originated with his objection thereto within the time prescribed by the Constitution, and thereupon became a law without his signature.-GEO. T. KEEBLE, Chief Clerk, Acting Secretary of State.]

Became a law February 1, 1901.

STATE GOVERNMENT-REGULATING FISCAL YEAR.

H. B. No. 27.]

CHAPTER IX.

An Act to amend Articles 2504, 2505, 2506 and 2507, of the Revised Civil Statutes of the State of Texas, regulating the termination of the fiscal year, requiring all appropriations made for the support of the State government to conform thereto, the time when the accounts of the public officers shall be closed and reports compiled, to whom the reports shall be transmitted and the date when, providing for the printing of the same by the Secretary of State and transmission of the printed copies to the Legislature, making reports of all officers uniform as to the termination of the fiscal year and the date when they shall close their accounts and compile and make their reports, and to repeal all laws or parts of laws in conflict with the same, by adding Article 2507a.

Whereas, under the act approved December 11, 1857, acts of the Seventh Legislature styled therein as Chapter 21, and entitled "An Act to change and provide a uniform time for the termination of the fiscal year of the several officers of the State," the termination of the fiscal year was fixed on the thirty-first day of August of each year, said act requiring all officers, who are required by law to report annually or biennially to the Legislature or Governor, to close their accounts on said date, and as soon thereafter as practicable to prepare and compile their respective reports; said act also requiring all such reports, intended for the use of the Legislature, to be transmitted by the respective officers to the Secretary of State on or before the first day of November before the assembling of the Legislature; and also requiring that the Secretary of State shall cause the same to be printed in accordance with the laws regulating public printing before the assembling of the Legislature; and also requiring that upon the organization of the Legislature the Secretary of State shall transmit to the presiding officers of both houses ten copies of each printed report for the use of the members of the Legislature; and

Whereas, subsequent to the enactment of said above named law other offices, departments and institutions have been created and other laws enacted requiring such particular officers to make their reports and to close their accounts and make their said reports at other and different dates than the one required by the said above named act, thereby repeal

ing by implication so much of said act of 1857 as would affect the said officers, departments and institutions, and thereby causing confusion and want of uniformity in reference to the termination of the said fiscal year and the time within which said reports shall be compiled; and

Whereas, uniformity as to the termination of the fiscal year and the date of compiling their reports is desired, applying to all officers, departments and institutions alike, required by law to report annually and biennially to the Legislature and Governor aforesaid; and

Whereas, the appropriations made for the support of the State government should be for the same period as the fiscal year conforming thereto; therefore

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas: That the said Title XLVII, of the Revised Civil Statutes of the State of Texas, shall be amended to read as follows:

Article 2504 (2436). The fiscal year of the State shall terminate on the thirty-first day of August of each year, and the appropriations made for the support of the State government shall conform thereto.

Article 2505 (2437). All officers who are required by law to report annually or biennially to the Legislature or Governor, shall close their accounts on said date, and as soon threafter as practicable shall prepare and compile their respective reports.

Article 2506 (2438). All annual or biennial reports intended for the use of the Legislature or Governor shall be transmitted by the respective officers to the Secretary of State on or before the first day of November, and the Secretary of State shall cause the same to be printed in accordance with the laws regulating public printing, as soon as praticable; all biennial reports to be printed before the assembling of the Legislature.

Article 2507 (2439). Upon the organization of the Legislature the Secretary of State shall transmit to the presiding officers of both houses ten copies of each printed report for the use of the members of the Legislature.

Article 2507a. The purpose of this act is to require all appropriations for the support of the State government to conform to the fiscal year as provided in Article 2504; and all officers that are required by law to report annually or biennially to either the Legislature or Governor to close their accounts, transmit their reports at a uniform date; and all laws or parts of laws in conflict with this act are hereby repealed.

SEC. 2. Whereas, there is now no uniform law regulating or requiring reports of all the departments of the State, creates an emergency and an imperative public necessity that the constitutional rule, requiring bills to be read on three several days, be and the same is hereby suspended, and that this act shall 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 by two-thirds vote, yeas 112, nays 0; and passed the Senate by two-thirds vote, yeas 26, nays 0.]

Approved February 12, 1901.

Became a law February 12, 1901.