tioned for the faithful discharge of his duties and the payment of the funds received by him to the Treasurer of said Board; and he shall be entitled to receive for his services as such assessor and collector such compensation as the Board of trustees may allow not exceeding four per cent of all funds so collected by him as such tax collector.

SECTION 10. The officers of said Board of trustees may be removed for misconduct at any time by a majority vote of the members of said Board.

SECTION 11. The official duties and authority of the officers of the Board shall conform with the sphere of the business of the Board and as may be prescribed and directed by the rules and regulations adopted by said Board.

SECTION 12. The Board shall prescribe necessary rules for the form and manner of conducting special tax elections, of electing its officers, of appointing and conducting its meetings, of filling vacancies in its membership, of appointing its committees for regulating and facilitating its business in the establishment of schools and the conduct of them, for fixing the mode and manner of electing teachers, and fixing their compensation within the limits fixed by general law, providing for the investigation of misconduct or incompetency of teachers, and providing for the cancellation of the contract with and discharge of any teacher found guilty upon due investigation and proof of inbecoming conduct, inefficiency, neglect of duty, incompetency or other fault demanding such cancellation of contract and discharge, in the interest of good order, discipline and efficiency of the school, and generally to adopt any such rules and regulations as will subserve the efficient and perfect management of the schools.

SECTION 13. That the secretary of the Board shall receive such compensation for his services as may be allowed by the Board not exceeding five dollars per month.

SECTION 14. A record of minutes of the proceedings of the Board shall be kept and recorded in a well bound book, in proper form, which shall be open to inspection of the public.

SECTION 15. The Board of Trustees shall annually appoint a suitable person to take the necessary census of all children within the district entitled to be enrolled and numbered in the scholastic census for the current year, to the end that said district shall receive its full proportionate share of all the available school funds, and to make report thereof in the prescribed form, as now provided by general law, to the proper State and county authorities. Said person so appointed to take the census shall receive as compensation for his services, to be allowed. by said Board, a sum not in excess of the amount now allowed by general law for like services.

SECTION 16. The president of the Board shall serve without compensation, and the secretary, in addition to the salary as hereinbefore provided, shall be entitled to receive from the person to whom the same is issued fifty cents for each warrant drawn against the treasurer, and he shall also be entitled to receive twenty five cents for each affidavit to an account, report of teacher's contract filed with him by any teacher, such fees to be paid by the person interested in such report, account or contract, but when these are required to be made in duplicate or triplicate, only one fee may be charged.

SECTION 17. The President and Secretary when acting in their official capacity as herein provided, are hereby authorized to administer oaths. or affirmations, and may use the seal of the Board in attestation thereof. SECTION 18. The Board shall provide a suitable seal, with a suitable device of its selection indicative of its official authority, to be used in the authentication of all bonds, warrants, contracts, or other documents executed by authority of the Board.

SECTION 19. Said territory comprising said independent school district being now without adequate buildings for use of the public free schools therein, and the laws of the State now prohibiting the use of any part of the available school fund for any other purpose than the payment of salaries of teachers making it imperative to borrow money upon the credit of the district bonded for the repayment thereof, with interest to the lender in order to secure funds necessary to purchase grounds and erect suitable school buildings in said district and equip and furnish the same, the Board of Trustees of the Ballinger Independent school district are hereby authorized to borrow money upon the credit of the district as herein provided, from time to time, as much money for such purpose as the Board may deem sufficient, and said Board shall have power to elect and collect within said district an annual ad valorem tax of twenty cents on the one hundred dollars valuation of taxable property within the limits of said district, and said board of trustees shall have power to issue coupon bonds of the said independent school district, to be made payable at a date not exceeding forty years from date in such sums as they shall deem necessary and expedient, to bear interest not to exceed six per cent per annum; provided, that the aggregate amount of bonds issued for the above named purposes shall never reach an amount when the tax of one-fifth of one per cent per annum on the taxable property within said district as hereinbefore provided, will not pay current interest and provide a sinking fund sufficient to pay the principal at maturity; and provided further, that no such. tax shall be levied and no such bonds shall be issued until an election shall have been held within said district for the purpose of determining said question whereat two thirds of the qualified property tax paying voters of said district shall have voted at said election in favor of such tax and the issuance of said bond.

SECTION 20. Whenever it shall be necessary to borrow any sum of money to purchase grounds and erect, furnish and equip school buildings thereon, or to make improvements on any school building, used as a public school building, within said district, the board of trustees of said independent school district shall determine the amount of money required for such purposes. Said Board shall then ascertain what rate of tax must be levied upon the basis of the value of the taxable property assessable for taxes within said district in order in order to make the sum of the interest debentures and annual sinking fund that will be required to provide for the payment of the bonds equal in the amount of such sum to be borrowed and the sinking fund and interest charges upon any prior outstanding bonded indebtedness of said independent district, and to pay the cost of collection and disbursement of the taxes and negotiation of the bonds. It shall then immediately cause an election to be held on some secular day not a legal holiday within ten days after the date

of ordering such election, of which five days prior notice shall be given by the board of trustees by written notice duly posted at three public places within said district, one of which shall be at the court house in said town of Ballinger, at which election all qualified property tax paying voters of the district may vote for or against the proposed tax and bond issue to determine whether or not the levy of the proposed tax at the rate ascertained as above directed shall be made. The vote of two thirds of the qualified property tax paying voters voting at the election being cast in favor of the tax shall authorize the levy to be then immediately made by order of the Board and said Board of Trustees shall so order it.

SECTION 21. After the levy of a sufficient annual tax to provide for the repayment of the same, with interest according to the contract and to pay the probable costs of collection and disbursement of the taxes, and the cost, if any, of negotiation of bonds, the Board of trustees of the Ballinger Independent School District of Runnels County, State of Texas, shall be authorized to contract for the loan of the principal sum or sums of money required and ascertained as hereinbefore directed and to deliver to the lender thereof the obligations of the Board of Trustees of said Independent School district, and their successors in office, in the form of negotiable bonds as herein provided, bearing interest at the rate of six per cent per annum payable annually as it accrues at the place named in said bonds.

SECTION 22. That the denomination of said bonds shall not be less than Five Hundred dollars nor more than one thousand dollars as may be determined by the Board of Trustees.

SECTION 23. When a sufficient sum of money available for the purposes, as herein provided, arising from the sale of said bonds, as herein. provided the board of trustees shall proceed forthwith to purchase therewith such building sites and erect thereon, furnish and equip all such needed school buildings within said district as the accumulated funds thus obtained will be sufficient to pay for; and the board of trustees may adopt such methods in the premises as it may deem best calculated to secure the best value for the money to be invested, for the purposes aforesaid.

SECTION 24. The Board of Trustees of said independent school district shall have power and are hereby authorized to levy and collect an annual ad valorem tax not in excess of one-half of one per cent on the one hundred dollar valuation of taxable property within said district for the purpose of paying the annual current expenses of the maintenance and support of the public schools within said district; provided, that no such tax shall be levied until an election shall have been held within said district for the purpose of determining said question, whereat two thirds of the qualified voters and tax payers in said district voting at such election shall have voted in favor of the levying of said tax. The rate or amount of tax necessary to be levied for such purpose shall be ascertained and determined by the board of trustees, and, when so ascertained and determined, the board shall order the election, as herein provided, to be held in manner as provided for the election in section twenty of this Act. But no such tax shall be levied in said district for such purpose for the year 1905.

SECTION 25. All taxes assessed and levied under this Act shall be due

and payable on or before the first day of February of each year next after the date of such assessment and levy.

SECTION 26. To facilitate the prompt collection of the taxes and to effectually avail itself of the lien therefor upon any property delinquent, the board of trustees may, in its discretion, waive the regular proceedings prescribed by general law for the enforced collection of taxes and adopt the extraordinary remedy of a direct suit therefor against the owner or owners of the property delinquent and for the foreclosure of the lien, in the form of suit for debt and foreclosure according to the statutory form and rules of procedure in such case, obtaining service upon the defendant or defendants in such suit in manner as now provided by general law. Such suit or suits shall be instituted and prosecuted in the name of the Ballinger Independent District as plaintiff.

SECTION 27. The available school funds that have heretofore or that may be hereafter apportioned to the schools within the territory now embraced within said Independent District shall be paid immediately upon the passage of this act, and the organization of said board of trustees, to the treasurer of said board.

SECTION 28. The amount arising from the levy heretofore made under general law of the twenty cents ad valorem tax on the one hundred dollar valuation of taxable property within said Independent District on hand, or that may be hereafter collected for the years 1904 and 1905, shall be paid to the treasurer of said board when organized as herein provided for the use and benefit of the public schools within said independent school district; and it shall be the duty of the tax collector of Runnels county, Texas, to collect said tax levied for the year 1905, in the same manner as heretofore required to do by general law, and to pay the same to the treasurer of said board of trustees, and the said board of trustees shall have power and are hereby authorized to proceed by suit, as hereinbefore provided, to collect such tax as may be delinquent for said years 1904 and 1905.

SECTION 29. One election may be held in each year to determine whether or not a special tax, as herein provided, for a bonded indebtedness, shall be levied, notwithstanding an election held in the preceding year may have resulted contrary to the proposed tax.

SECTION 30. The absolute title to all property within the Ballinger Independent School District as hereby established of right belonging to the use of the public free schools from whatever source deraigned, or in whomsoever the recorded or unrecorded title thereof may be vested, shall, upon the passage of this act, vest in the board of trustee of said district and their successors in office.

SECTION 31. Before the bonds authorized by their act are offered for sale, the Attorney-General shall officially certify to their validity in the same manner as is provided by law in cases where any county, city or town in this State issues or offers bonds for sale.

SECTION 32. The deplorable condition of the public free schools within the territory comprising said Independent School District, being now without adequate public school buildings, and wholly insufficient equipments, and without funds to provide for the same, creates an emergency and an imperative public necessity exists authorizing the suspension of the constitutional rule requiring that bills be read on three several days,

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 23, nays 0; and passed the House of Representatives by a two-thirds vote, yeas 89, nays 0.]

Approved March 28, 1905.

Became a law March 28, 1905.

BOARD OF PARDON ADVISERS-COMPENSATION, DUTIES OF, ETC.

An Act to amend Article 3582a, Title LXXV.A of the Revised Statutes as amended April 3rd 1897 in regard to the Board of Pardon Advisers.

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

SECTION 1. That article 3582a as described in the caption of this act be amended so as to hereafter read as follows, viz:

Article 3582a. The Governor is hereby authorized to appoint two qualified voters of the State of Texas and who shall perform such duties as may be directed by him consistent with the constitution, as he may deem necessary in disposing of all applications for pardon. The said two voters shall be known as the Board of Pardon Advisers, and shall be paid out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated a salary of Two thousand dollars each per annum on monthly vouchers approved by the Governor.

SECTION 2. Said Board shall be required to keep a record in which will be entered every case sent it by the Governor, giving the docket number of the convict, his name, when and where convicted, his sentence, his offense, when received from the Governor, the action taken by said board and the date of said action.

SECTION 3. Said Board shall be given a room in the capitol, properly furnished with necessary furniture and file cases, and provided with such stationery, letter books and other appliances which may be necessary for the speedy and proper transaction and dispatch of the business for which it is organized. In addition to the thorough examination of each application which the Governor may refer to said Board, and the reporting thereon its recommendation thereon to him, it shall perform any other work in connection with said business the Governor may direct, and said board shall spend such time each year as may be necessary in personally looking into the condition of such convicts as it may desire, or as may be designated by either the Governor, the Superintendent of Penitentiaries or either of his assistants, or by the Prison Physician, or either of the Penitentiary Commissioners, giving special attention to the cases of those of long service, who may be thus designated, and who have no means or facilities for getting a proper petition before the Governor, to the end that the Board may have before it such data as will enable it to judge the condition of each. All cases shall be taken up, considered and acted upon by said Board in the regular order of