copy of their proceedings as aforesaid. Any city containing one thousand inhabitants or over, may be incorporated as such city in the manner prescribed in chapter 11 of this title relating to towns and villages; provided, that whenever the words town or village are used in said chapter 11, they shall be construed to mean city having one thousand inhabitants or over; and provided, that the application to become incorporated shall be signed by at least fifty residents thereof; and when the entry by the county judge (provided in article 514 of said chapter 11) is made with reference to a city of one thousand inhabitants or over, such city shall be invested with all the rights and powers of such cities conferred by this title."

"Article 344. The municipal government of the city shall consist of a city council composed of the mayor and two aldermen from each ward, a majority of whom shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business, except at called meetings or meetings for the imposition of taxes, when two-thirds of a full board shall be required, unless herein otherwise specified; provided, that where the city or town shall not be divided into wards, the city council shall be composed of the mayor and five aldermen, and the provisions of this title relating to proceedings in a ward shall apply to the whole city or town. The other officers of the corporation shall be a treasurer, an assessor and collector, a secretary, a city attorney, a marshal and city engineer, and such other officers and agents as the city council may from time to time direct; provided, that the office of treasurer, assessor and collector, city attorney, and city engi neer may be dispensed with by an ordinance of the city or town council, and the powers and duties herein prescribed for such officers may be conferred by said council upon other officers. The above named officers shall be elected by the qualified electors of said city, as hereinafter provided for and shall hold their offices for two years and until the election and qualification of their successors.

"Article 346. At the first election under this title there shall be elected by the qualified voters of said city, voting by ballot, a mayor, who shall hold his office for one year from the date of his election, and until his successor shall be elected and qualified; and at said first election under this title there shall be elected by the qualified voters of each ward, respectively, two aldermen, one of whom shall hold his office for one year, and the other for two years from the date of their election; and the term for which each shall hold his office shall be determined at the first regular meeting after said election, by lot; provided, that there shall be one alderman for the long term and one for the short term from each of the wards respectively; and provided further, that at each annual election thereafter there shall be elected one alderman from each ward who shall hold his office for two years and until his successor is duly elected and qualified; and provided further, that where the city or town shall not be divided into wards, the city council may determine by proper ordinances what number of aldermen shall go out of office in one year, and the mode and manner of deciding which members shall hold for the long term and which for the short term."

"Article 352. In case of a vacancy in any office in the city, except aldermen, by refusing to accept or failure to qualify, or by death, resignation or otherwise, the mayor or acting mayor shall fill such vacancy by appointment, to be confirmed by the city council."

"Article 357. The mayor of the city shall be the chief executive officer of said corporation, and shall be vigilant and active at all times in caus

ing the laws and ordinances for the government of said city to be duly executed and put in force. He shall inspect the conduct of all subordinate officers in the government thereof, and as far as it may be in his power shall cause all negligence, carelessness and positive violations of duty to be prosecuted and punished. He shall have power, whenever in his judgment the good of the city may require it, to summon meetings of the city council, and he shall, from time to time, communicate to that body all such information and recommend all such measures as may tend to the improvement of the finances, the police, health, security, cleanliness, comfort, ornament, and good government of said city. The mayor shall also be the chief judicial magistrate of the city, until the election and qualification of recorder as hereinafter provided, and until such election and qualification he shall perform all the duties required of recorder in article 361 of this chapter."

SEC. 2. The passage of this act shall not operate to affect the organization of any city or town already chartered by general or special charter, nor to require any new election of the officers of such chartered cities and towns.

SEC. 3. To render more certain the term of office of mayors of cities and towns of one thousand inhabitants and over, under the general charter law, it is declared that at the first election under the charter the mayor shall be elected for one year, in all subsequent elections he shall be elected for two years.

SEC. 4. Whereas, this session approaches its close and time is wanting within which to consider this bill on three several days in each house and secure its passage by the end of said session; therefore, an imperative public necessity is created for the suspension of the constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several days, and it is so enacted. Approved April 6, A. D. 1881.

Takes effect ninety days after adjournment.

CHAPTER CIV.-An act to authorize counties to fund their bonded indebtedness, and to provide means to pay the same.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas, That the county commissioners' court of any county in this State is hereby authorized and empowered to fund any existing bonded indebtedness and coupons due thereon, made and undertaken by such county by authority of law prior to the eighteenth day of April, A. D, 1876, and for this purpose the said commissioners' courts are hereby authorized and empowered to issue new bonds in denominations of not less than five hundred dollars, with interest coupons payable semi-annually; said new bonds to become due and payable twenty years from the date of their issuance, and to bear interest not exceeding six cent. per annum, and the said commissioners' courts are further authorized and empowered to levy a tax upon all real and personal property situated in the county, not to exceed fifty cents on the hundred dollars on the assessed value of such property, in any one year, to pay the annual interest, and not less than two per cent. annually of the principal of said bonds, besides the expenses of assessing and collecting the same; and no bonds shall be issued under this act until a levy, as herein provided, shall have been made, and when said levy shall have been so made the same shall continue in force until the

whole amount of the principal and interest of said bonds shall have been fully paid.

SEC. 2. All taxes levied under this act shall be applied solely to the objects for which they were levied, as follows: First-to the payment of the expenses of assessing and collecting the same. Second-to the payment of the anuual interest of such bonds, and not less than two per cent. of the principal; and if there be any excess on hand, after making the above payments for the current year, it shall be used in the purchase and cancellation of said bonds.

SEC. 3. All taxes levied under this act shall be assessed and collected by the same officers, whose duty it is to assess and collect the state tax, and they shall receive for their services one-fourth the rates of commission allowed for assessing and collecting the state tax. The said tax shall be assessed and collected in the same manner as the state tax, and the same remedies shall be used to enforce its collection that are provided by law to enforce the collection of the state tax; provided, that all such taxes shall be assessed and collected separately from that levied, assessed and collected for current expenses of municipal government, and shall, when levied, specify in the act of levying the purpose therefor.

SEC. 4. The officer whose duty it is to collect the taxes levied under this act, shall give a bond, with two or more sufficient sureties, to be approved by the county commissioners' court, in a sum to be equal to double the estimated annual amount of said tax, which bond shall be payable to the county and shall be conditioned for the faithful collection and payment of said tax into the county treasury.

SEC. 5. It shall be the duty of the county treasurer to receive all moneys collected under this act and to keep separate accounts thereof, and to pay out the same on warrants drawn by the county judge in the usual legal form.

SEC. 6. The collector of the taxes levied under this act shall pay over to the county treasurer, at the beginning of each and every month, all moneys he may have collected during the next preceding month, deducting his legal commissions on the amount so paid, and he shall, at each regular meeting of the county commissioners' court, make a report of his collections and payments to the county treasurer since the next preceding term.

SEC. 7. Said bonds shall not be sold or exchanged for existing bonds by any county for less than par value and accrued interest.

SEC. 8. All expenses necessary to give effect to the provisions of this act shall be paid out of the treasury of the county; and all bonds issued by any county, under this act, shall be signed by the county judge and attested by the clerk of the commissioners' court, with the seal of said court affixed thereto.

SEC. 9. All laws now in force providing for the levy and collection of taxes for the payment of the principal and interest of any existing bonds, which may be fundable under this act, shall apply and be in force for the levy and collection of taxes for the payment of the principal and interest of all bonds that may be issued under the provisions of this act.

SEC. 10. That all laws and parts of laws in conflict with the provisions of this act be and the same are hereby repealed.

SEC. 11. Whereas, many counties in this state have debts and bonds falling due; and, whereas, the session is fast drawing to a close; therefore, an imperative public necessity and an emergency exist that the

constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several days be suspended and that this act take effect at once, and it is so enacted. Approved April 6, A. D. 1881.

Takes effect from passage.

CHAPTER CV.—An act to amend the caption and sections one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight of an act entitled "an act to provide for the sale of alternate sections of lands in organized counties as surveyed by railroad companies and other works of internal improvement and set apart for the benefit of the common school fund; to provide for the investment of the proceeds, and to repeal all laws in conflict therewith," approved July 8, 1879, and to provide for the sale of such lands in unorganized counties.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas, That the caption of the above recited act shall hereafter read as follows: "An act to provide for the sale of alternate sections of lands in organized and unorganized counties as surveyed by railroad companies and other works of internal improvement and set apart for the benefit of the common school fund, to provide for the investment of the proceeds, and to repeal all laws in conflict therewith," and that sections one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight of chapter twenty eight of the laws of the special session of the Legislature of the State of Texas, approved July 8, 1879, be amended so as to read as follows:

"Section 1. That all the alternate sections of land in the State of Texas, heretofore surveyed or which may hereafter be surveyed by any railroad company or other work of internal improvement, and set apart for the benefit of common schools, shall be brought into market and disposed of in the manner hereinafter provided.

"Sec. 2. The county surveyor of the county in which said lands are located, or if the county be unorganized the district surveyor in whose district such land is located, shall view and appraise the same under oath, and make return of the same to the county commissioners' court of the county in which his office is kept, which court shall examine, approve or disapprove the same, and may take other evidence to ascertain the true value of the land, and in case of disapproval said court shall fix a value thereto, and the valuation of said land in no case shall be less than two dollars per acre for surveys having fresh water on them or bordering on them, nor less than one dollar per acre for other school lands. The surveyors acting as appraisers of land shall each receive one dollar per section, and in no case to exceed one hundred dollars for the appraisement of all the lands in any one county, to be paid out of the proceeds of the first sale of the land under the provisions of this act. Any persons having improvements upon any of such land prior to the taking effect of this act shall have the preference in the purchase thereof for the period of six months next after the value thereof is fixed, at the valuation exclusive of the value of such improvement; provided, that no appraisement

of a surveyor of any section of land situated in an unorganized county

shall be regarded until he shall have filed an affidavit stating that he knows the locality of said section, and that he personally inspected the same, stating when said inspection was made.

"Sec. 3. That as soon as the appraisement is completed the county

commissioners' court shall prepare tabulated reports of their action, setting forth the following, to wit: Number of survey, block, quantity in each survey, the name of company or individual to whom the certificate was granted, price per acre of each section, or quarter thereof, if difference exists, value of improvements, remarks giving general description of soil, water and timber. One copy of the above report shall be filed in the office of the county or district surveyor, and shall constitute an archive of his office; one copy shall be forwarded to the commisioner of the general land office, and one copy to the treasurer of the state.

"Sec. 4. That upon the receipt of the above report by the commissioner of the general land office, he shall examine the same, and if made in conformity with this act, and if in his opinion the lands therein are properly valued he shall approve the same, and shall notify the county or district surveyor of the fact, and until he receives such notice the surveyor shall not entertain any proposition for the purchase of the said land; provided, that if the commissioner of the general land office believes or has reason to believe that the land is valued too low, or that the proper description has not been given of the soil, timber or water, or that the land has increased in value since appraisement, he may, and it shall be his duty to require a supplemental report containing additional information, or he may send some one from his office; or, if none of his employes can be spared or are not qualified for the service, he may appoint some suitable person to visit such county concerning which the report is unsatisfactory, who shall make a report such as is required by the county commissioners' court, for which he, the person sent, if not a regular employe, shall be paid a salary for the time employed not greater than that of the chief clerk of the land office. From the information acquired from every source, the said commissioner of the general land office shall correct the report transmitted by the county commissioners' court, and forward a copy of such corrected tabulated report to the county or district surveyor of the proper county, to be by him kept as an archive of his office, and forward a duplicate copy to the treasurer of the state and retain a copy in the general land office as an archive.

"Sec. 5. That so soon as the surveyor shall receive the notice provided for in section four of this act, he shall be authorized to receive applica tions for the purchase of said land in any quantity not less than one hundred and sixty acres, except fractions of less than one hundred and sixty acres that may now exist in said counties; provided, that no person or corporation shall be allowed to purchase more than one section of six hundred and forty acres of said land when the same is classed as arable land suitable for farming purposes; but when the same is classed as land suitable only for grazing purposes it shall be sold in quantities to suit the purchaser, but no person shall be permitted to purchase less than one hundred and sixty acres, nor more than three sections of six hundred and forty acres within five miles of the geographical centre of any county or upon any water front, nor more than seven sections at any other place.

"Sec. 6. That any person desiring to purchase any of the above lands shall make application in writing to the county or district surveyor, designating the number of the survey, block, name of company or indi vidual to whom was issued the certificate by virtue of which such survey was made; the quantity he or she wishes to purchase, and if less than a whole section, the particular part of such section; provided, that no fraction of any section of less than one hundred and sixty acres shall be