CHAPTER 25.

AN ACT to amend and re-enact section one thousand two hundred and forty-three of Kentucky Statutes relating to offense of petit larceny.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky:

§ 1. That section twelve forty-three of the Kentucky Statutes, Carroll's edition of nineteen hundred fifteen, be and the same is hereby amended and reenacted to read as follows:

"Section 1243. Petit Larceny.-Any person, except a female, who shall steal a hog of less value than four dollars, or be guilty of the larceny of money, goods, chattels, or other property of less value than twenty dollars, shall be punished by confinement in the county jail for not less than one nor more than twelve months; females convicted of petit larceny shall be confined in the county jail not more than thirty days; Provided, that persons convicted under this section in the police court of any city shall be imprisoned in the city jail or workhouse or other place provided by the city for that purpose. Any person imprisoned under this section shall be required to work at hard labor during the term of his imprisonment. Circuit courts, police courts and justice the peace shall have jurisdiction of all offenses under this section, and police courts, county courts and justices' courts shall be deemed to be always open for the trial of persons charged with the violations hereof.

Approved March 18, 1916.

CHAPTER 26.

AN ACT providing for a progressive tax on direct and collateral inheritances.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky:

§ 1. That Section 4281a, Kentucky Statutes (Carroll's 1909 edition) be and the same is hereby repealed and in lieu thereof the following section is enacted:

Section 4281a. Tax on property received by inheritance, etc.

Subsection 1. Transfers Subject to Tax.-All property which shall pass, by will or by intestate. laws of this State, from any person who may die seized or possessed of the same while a resident of this State, or if such decedent was not a resident of this State at the time of death, which property, or any part thereof, shall be within this State, or any interest therein, or income therefrom, which shall be transferred by deed, grant, sale or gift, made in contemplation of the death of the grantor or bargainor, or intended to take effect in possession or enjoyment after such death, to any person or persons of to any body-politic or corporate, in trust or otherwise, or by reason whereof any person or bodypolitic or corporate shall become beneficially entitled in possession or expectancy, to any property, or to the income thereof, shall be and is subject to a tax for the genertl use of the Commonwealth, upon the fair cash value of such property in excess of the exemptions hereinafter granted and at the rates hereinafter prescribed.

Such tax shall be imposed when any such person or corporation becomes beneficially entitled, in possession or expectancy, to any property or the income

thereof, by any such transfer whether made before or after passage of this act, provided that property or estates which have vested in such persons or corporations before this act takes effect shall not be subject to the tax.

Subsection 2. Primary Rates of Taxation.When the property or any beneficial interest therein passes by any such transfer, where the amount of the property shall exceed in value the exemption hereinafter specified and shall not exceed in value twenty-five thousand dollars the tax hereby imposed shall be:

Where the person entitled to the beneficial interest in any such property shall be one of Class A (i. e. the husband, wife, lineal issue, lineal ancestor of the decedent, any child adopted as such in conformity with the laws of this Commonwealth, any child to whom such decedent for not less than ten years prior to such transfer stood in the mutually acknowledged relation of a parent, provided such relationship began at or before the child's fifteenth birthday and was continuous for said ten years thereafter, or any lineal issue of such adopted or mutually acknowledged child) at the rate of one per cent. of the fair market value of such interest.

Where the person entitled to the beneficial interest shall be one of Class B (i. e. the brother, sister, descendant of a brother or sister, or widow of a son, or the husband of a daughter of the decedent) at the rate of one and one-half per cent.

Where the person shall be one of Class C (i. e. the brother or sister of the father or mother, or the decendant of a brother or sister of the father or mother of the decedent) at the rate of three per cent.

Where the person is one of Class D (i. e. the

brother or sister of the grandfather or grandmother or the descendant of a brother or sister of the grandfather or grandmother of the decedent) at the rate of four per cent.

Where the person is one of Class E (i. e. a person related in any other degree of collateral consanguinity than is mentioned in one of the preceding classes, a stranger in blood, or body-politic or corporate) at the rate of five per cent.

The foregoing rates are for convenience termed primary rates.

Subsection 3. Other rates of taxation.

When the fair cash value of such legacy, distributive share, or interest exceeds twenty-five thousand dollars the rates of tax upon such excess shall be as follows:

Upon the excess over twenty-five thousand dollars and up to fifty thousand dollars, one and one-half times the primary rates.

Upon the excess over fifty thousand dollars and up to one hundred thousand dollars, two times the primary rates.

Upon the excess over one hundred thousand dollars and up to five hundred thousand dollars, two and one-half times the primary rates.

Upon the excess over five hundred thousand dollars, three times the primary rates.

Subsection 4. Exemptions From Tax.-The following exemptions are allowed, to be taken out of the first twenty-five thousand dollars:

To the widow of the decedent and to each minor child of the decedent, ten thousand dollars.

To each other person in Class A, five thousand dollars.

To each person in Class B, two thousand dollars. To each person in Class C, fifteen hundred dollars.

To each person in Class D, one thousand dollars. To each person in class E, five hundred dollars. Property of any amount bequeathed or transferred to any municipal corporation within this State for public purposes, to institutions of purely public charity, to institutions of education not used or employed for gain by any person or corporation and the income of which is devoted solely to the cause of education, to public libraries, or to any person or persons, society, corporation, institution or association in trust for any of the purposes above mentioned, shall be exempt from such tax.

§ 2. This act is intended to stand as a whole; and in the event that any part of it is held to be unconstitutional, then no part of the act shall be effective and Section 4281a of the Kentucky Statutes (Carroll's 1909 edition) shall remain in force.

Approved March 20, 1916.

CHAPTER 27.

AN ACT to regulate and control fraternal benefit societies.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky:

§ 1. (Fraternal Benefit Societies Defined.)-Any corporation, society, order or voluntary association, without capital stock, organized and carried on solely for the mutual benefit of its members and their beneficiaries, and not for profit, and having a lodge system with ritualistic form of work and representative form of government, and which shall make provision for the payment of benefits in accordance with Section 5 hereof, is hereby declared to be a fraternal benefit society.

§ 2. (Lodge System Defined.)-Any society hav