SEC. 16. Each and every individual, company, corporation or association, whether incorporated under the laws of this or any other State or Territory or of the United States, or any foreign country, which owns, controls, manages or leases any terminal companies, or any railroad doing a terminal business within this State, shall, on or before the first day of April, 1907, and quarterly thereafter, make a report to the Comptroller of Public Accounts, under oath of the individual, or of the President, Treasurer or Superintendent of such company, corporation or association showing the total amount of its gross receipts from all sources whatever within this State during the quarter next preceding, and the average market value thereof during said quarter. Said individuals, companies, corporations and associations, at the time of making said report, shall pay to the Treasurer of the State of Texas an occupation tax for the quarter beginning on said date equal to one per cent of the total amount of its gross receipts from all sources whatever as shown by said report.

SEC. 17. If any individual, company, corporation firm or association, in this Act mentioned, shall begin and engage in any business for which there is an occupation tax herein imposed, on or after the beginning day of the quarter for which said tax is imposed, then, and in all such cases, the amount of such tax for said beginning quarter shall be and is hereby fixed at the sum of fifty dollars, payable to the treasurer of the State of Texas, in advance, but for the next succeeding quarter, and all other succeeding quarters, the tax shall be determined. by reports to the comptroller of Public Accounts of the business for the preceding quarter, or part thereof, as herein otherwise in this Act provided, and reports and payments of such tax shall be made subject to all other provisions of this Act.

SEC. 18. Any person, company, corporation or association, or any receiver or receivers, failing to make report for thirty days from the date when said report is required by this Act to be made, shall forfeit and pay to the State of Texas a penalty of not exceeding one thousand dollars.

SEC. 19. Any person, company, corporation or association or any receiver or receivers failing to pay any tax for thirty days, from the date when said tax is required by this Act to be paid, shall forfeit and pay to the State of Texas a penalty of ten per cent upon the amount of such tax.

SEC. 20. The penalties provided for by this Act shall be recovered by the Attorney General in a suit brought by him in the name of the State of Texas, and venue and jurisdiction of such suit is hereby conferred upon the courts of Travis County, Texas.

SEC. 21. No individual, company, corporation or association, failing to pay all taxes imposed by this Act shall receive a permit to do business in this State, or continue to do business in this State until the tax hereby imposed is paid. The receipt of the Treasurer of the State of Texas, shall be evidence of the payment of such tax.

SEC. 22. Except as herein stated all taxes levied by this Act shall be in addition to all other taxes now levied by law, provided that nothing herein shall be construed as authorizing any county or city to levy an occupation tax on the occupations and business taxed by this Act.

SEC. 23. If for any reason the Comptroller of Public Accounts is not satisfied with any report from any such person, company, corporation, co-partnership or association, he may require additional or supplemental reports containing information and data upon such matters as he may need or deem necessary to ascertain the true and correct amount of all taxes due by any such person, firm, or corporation.

Every statement or report required by this Act, shall have affixed thereto the affidavit of the President, vice-president, secretary or treasurer of the person, corporation, co-partnership or association, or one of the persons or members of the partnership, making the same to the effect that the statement is true. The Comptroller shall prepare blanks to be used in making the reports required by this Act.

SEC. 24. If the Comptroller has reason to believe, or does believe, that any individual company, corporation, association, receiver or receivers, subject to the provisions of this Act, has made a false return or has failed or omitted to make a full return of gross receipts, or other statement of business done, required by any of the provisions of this Act, he shall report the same in writing to the Governor and it shall be the duty of the Governor to immediately require the Revenue Agent of the State of Texas to examine any books, papers, documents, or other records or evidence showing or tending to show such unlawful Act or omission. Said Revenue Agent shall check the report made with such books, papers, documents or other records or evidence, and make his report to the Comptroller, and if it appears from said report that any false or incorrect return has been made, or that any individual, or the president, treasurer or superintendent of any company, corporation or association, or any member of any firm required by this Act to make reports, has failed or omitted to make a full return, as required by law, then the Comptroller shall notify such individual, or the president, treasurer or superintendent of any company, corporation or association, or receiver or receivers of any company, corporation or association or any member of any firm, to make forthwith an additional or supplemental report, and if any such individual or the president, treasurer or superintendent of any company, corporation or association, or any member of a firm, or any receiver or receivers of any company, corporation or association making said original report, shall fail or refuse to make said additional or supplemental report he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction shall be fined in any sum not less than two hundred nor more than five hundred dollars and venue of such prosecution is hereby fixed in Travis County, Texas.

If it appears from the report of the State Revenue Agent, or if the Comptroller has reason to believe or does believe that any individual, or any president, treasurer or superintendent of any company, corporation or association, or any receiver of any corporation or association or any member of any firm, has wilfully and deliberately made a false. report, the Comptroller shall report the matter to the Grand Jury of Travis County, Texas, for its action, and venue of any offense arising out of such transaction is hereby fixed in Travis County, Texas. Said State Revenue Agent, in the performance and discharge of the duties. imposed upon him by this Section, shall have the right to examine,

either by himself or by any person acting under his direction, any books, papers, documents, records or evidence which he may believe material and proper to examine.

SEC. 25. All persons, associations of persons, firms, and corporations upon whose business an occupation tax is imposed under this Act, shall, upon the taking effect hereof, be exempted and relieved from the operation of the Act of the Twenty-ninth Legislature, approved April 17, 1905, being Chapter 146 thereof, providing for the taxation of the intangible assets of certain corporations, associations and individuals, and all sections of the Act of the Twenty-ninth Legislature, being Chapter 148, thereof approved April 17, 1905, imposing on occupation tax upon the occupations herein taxed are hereby repealed. But nothing in this Act shall in any wise relieve any individual, company, corporation or association or any receiver or receivers thereof, embraced within the provisions of Chapter 148, Acts of the 29th. Legislature, approved April 17, 1905, from any liability, obligation or penalty whatever, which may have been incurred or fixed under any of the provisions of said Chapter 148; and any and all such liabilities and obligation and any and all causes of action in behalf of the State accruing out of or arising under said Chapter 148, as well as any and all suits in behalf of the State therein, shall not abate nor terminate, but shall survive and remain in full force and effect, and any and all such causes of action and any and all such suits shall be maintained and prosecuted to final determination in all respects, as though none of the provisions of said Chapter 148, had been repealed.

SEC. 26. There now being a deficit in the Public Revenue of the State, an imperative public necessity and an emergency exists requiring 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.

Approved May 16, 1907.

Takes effect ninety days after adjournment.

TAXES-VALIDATING CERTAIN LEVIES OF COUNTY
TAXES.

H. B. No. 40.]

CHAPTER XIX.

An Act to validate certain levies of county taxes and proceedings thereunder, and declaring an emergency.

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

SECTION 1. The levy of county ad valorem taxes for any year by the commissioners court of any county in this State heretofore made at a special term of said commissioners court instead of at a regular term thereof, be and the said levies are hereby validated in so far as any contest of or attack on same on account of being levied at a special term is concerned, and the renditions, equalization, tax rolls, advertisements, sales and all other lawful acts and proceedings of the proper officers and of said commissioners courts had and done in reference to the taxes

levied as aforesaid be and the same are hereby validated, in so far as any contest of or attack on same as being made at any such special term or under orders made at any such special term is concerned, and no action shall be maintained or defense interposed in any court of this State, the effect of which would be to prevent or defeat the collection of said taxes, or any part thereof, on account of or arising out of the levies made as aforesaid and otherwise regular and legal, and said action and orders of said special terms are by this act validated, in so far as being made at a special term instead of a regular term of such commissioners court; provided, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to validate the title to any lands sold for taxes under judgments rendered prior to the taking effect of this act.

SEC. 2. The fact that litigation is pending and threatened in one or more counties in this State with the purpose of enjoining, preventing and defeating the collection of delinquent county taxes, regularly and legally levied, assessed and incurred by the proper authorities, except for the technical irregularities hereby validated and cured, and the probability that said counties will be thereby financially embarrassed and crippled, and the great injustice which would thereby be done to other citizens of said counties who have paid their taxes so levied, creates an emergency and an imperative public necessity authorizing the suspension of the constitutional rule requiring all bills to be read on three several days in each house, and that this act should take effect at once, and be in force from and after its passage, and said constitutional rule is hereby suspended, and it is hereby enacted that this act shall take effect at once and be in force from and after its passage.

[NOTE. The enrolled bill shows that the foregoing act passed the House of Representatives by the following vote, yeas 93, nays 0; and passed the Senate by the following vote, yeas 26, nays 0.]

Approved May 16, 1907.

Became a law May 16, 1907.

LANDS-PROVIDING FOR SALE AND LEASE OF.

H. B. No. 67.]

CHAPTER XX.

An Act to amend Sections 5 and 6 of Chapter 103, passed by the Regular Session of the Twenty-ninth Legislature, and approved April 15, 1905, relating to the sale and lease of the land belonging to the public free school and asylum funds, and to add thereto Sections 6a, 6b, 6c, 6d, 6e, 6f and 6g, relating to the sale, settlement and residence on land, sales without residence, sale of timber, sales for cash or on time, transfers, forfeitures, reservation of minerals, guayule, lechuguilla, and providing a penalty for cutting or removing such substances from the land, certificates of occupancy to become muniments of title, authorizing the Commissioner to adopt rules and regulations necessary to execute the provisions of this act, repealing all laws in conflict with this act, and declaring an emergency.

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

SECTION 1. Sections 5 and 6, Chapter 103, approved April 15, 1905, shall be amended so as to hereafter read as follows:

Rights of Lessees.

Sec. 5. An original lessee of a lease executed prior to April 15, 1905, who has never parted with any interest in his lease except by purchase, may purchase out of such lease in whole surveys only, one complement of sections or such part thereof as will make his total purchase since April 19, 1901, not to exceed eight or four sections, according to the county; provided an original lessee who has not heretofore exercised his right to buy one complement of sections out of one or more leases and should not hereafter desire to do so, may assign one or more leases to a qualified purchaser and his assignee shall have the same right to purchase out of the leases one complement of sections, or such number thereof as the assignor may be qualified to purchase or such number as the assignee may be qualified to purchase; provided that in case the assignment should have been made and acknowledged before an officer authorized to take acknowledgments the assignee may exercise that right as provided for under the Act of April 15, 1905. Only one complement shall be sold out of any lease, including that heretofore sold out of it. One who desires to buy land out of his lease shall first give written notice to the Commissioner of the General Land Office and specify the land he wants to buy not less than sixty days prior to expiration of the lease. The Commissioner shall make or cause to be made an inspection of the land, if he is not already in possession of sufficient information, and appraise same at its reasonable market value, and advise such person and the proper county clerk of the value placed thereon. Thereafter the land. shall be subject to sale to the lessee only during the life of the lease. After a lease expires or is cancelled, no one shall have any preference to purchase any land contained therein.

Eight Section Counties-Complement of Land.

Sec. 6. One who has not purchased any land since April 19, 1901, may purchase, on condition of settlement, in the counties of Brewster, Crockett, Edwards, El Paso, Jeff Davis, Kinney, Pecos, Presidio, Sutton, Terrell and Val Verde not to exceed eight sections of 640 acres each, inore or less, which are wholly within said counties. One who has heretofore or who may hereafter purchase a complement as aforesaid, shall not purchase any more. One who has purchased or may hereafter purchase on condition of settlement four sections of 640 acres each, more or less, wholly or partly within any county other than those hereinabove. named since said date, shall not purchase any more on condition of settlement. One who has purchased less than a complement as aforesaid may hereafter purchase in any county, such number of sections as his lack of a complement in the county of the former purchase bears to a complement in the county of such former purchase. One who has heretofore purchased land on condition of settlement which lies partly within. an eight-section county and partly within a four-section county shall be considered for the purpose of future purchase by him as having purchased in a four-section county. Every additional survey applied for shall be situated within five miles of the designated home tract except the survey on which the lessee, who may apply to buy out of his lease, may have placed permanent and immovable improvements of the value.