Duty of Commissioner. done in accordance with the specifications contained in said contract; and the cost of such work must be deducted from whatever sum may be due to such contractor on said contract, and if such amount shall not be sufficient, the deficiency may be recovered from such person or persons so neglecting or refusing, or from their sureties, as other debts of equal amount are recoverable by law, with costs of suit. SEC. 5. Section twelve of said Act is amended to read as follows: Section 12. The Road Commissioner shall keep a correct account of all sums due or claimed to be due to any and all contractors or persons, for work done on the public roads in his district, and of all certificates issued by him in favor of persons who have performed any work, or in favor of contractors, and also the number of days' service and the number of miles traveled by him in the performance of his duty, and of all sums expended by him in the improvement and repair of public roads in his district; and he shall report the same under oath, together with all transactions had incumbent on the office, in a quarterly report to the Board of Supervisors. Upon receiving and approving the quarterly report, which must be filed within three days after the first day of each regular term, the Board of Supervisors shall allow five dollars per day for each day necessarily occupied by the Commissioner of each district in the performance of his duty, and ten cents per mile for each mile necessarily traveled in the performance of said duty; provided, that no allowance shall be made to any Road Commissioner for more than three hundred dollars in any one year, per diem and mileage inclusive. The mileage herein provided shall be computed from the residence of the Road Commissioner; provided, that no mileage shall be allowed as Road Commissioner when mileage is drawn as a Supervisor. SEC. 6. Section thirteen of said Act is hereby repealed. SEC. 7. Section fourteen of said Act is amended to read as follows: Section 14. Every male resident of Nevada County, over twenty-one and under fifty years of age, shall be required to pay to the Collector, or his deputy, the sum of three dollars, in gold or silver coin of the United States, as a county road tax for the year in which said road tax shall be demanded, and shall be entitled to, and it is hereby made his duty, to demand from the Collector a printed road tax receipt, signed by the Auditor and countersigned by the said Collector, in return for and showing the amount so paid Delinquent. to such Collector; and any person, when so applied to, neglecting or refusing to pay such road tax, shall be considered as a delinquent, and shall be proceeded against as such, and the Collector shall proceed to collect from him the sum of three dollars, in gold or silver coin of the United States, in the manner and form as provided in section fifteen of this Act; provided, that any person who may elect to work three days upon the public roads, under the direction of the Road Commissioner, shall be entitled to a road tax receipt. The Tax Collector shall furnish the Commissioner of each district with a list of persons in his district so choosing to work, and said Commissioner shall notify such persons to appear Road poll tax. and work upon the public roads, at such time and place as he shall designate or direct; and upon such person performing three days' labor to the satisfaction of such Commissioner, he shall give to such person an order on the Collector, who shall thereupon issue a tax receipt, and the Collector shall be entitled to the same fee as for collecting other road taxes, payable out of the District Road Fund of said district. meanor. SEC. 8. Section twenty of said Act is hereby amended to Misderead as follows: Section 20. If any person shall willfully obstruct any public highway, or any street or lane, by felling any tree across the same, or by placing any other obstruction therein, or by excavating or digging therein, or shall destroy any ford or crossing of any creek, gulch, river, or stream, of any character, by digging away the banks or by damming, deepening, or widening the same, or by filling up, or in any manner injuring or destroying any gutter, sewer, or culvert, constructed for the purpose of carrying away water from any road, he or they shall be adjudged guilty of a misdemeanor; provided, that if any person or persons shall Proviso. wish to dig or construct any ditch crossing the public highway, street, or lane, for the purpose of conveying water for mining, mechanical, agricultural, or other necessary or useful purposes, they shall be permitted to dig or construct such ditch; in which case the owner or owners of such ditch shall construct, or cause to be constructed, and kept in good repair, at their own expense, good substantial bridges or crossings over such ditch. If the owner or owners of such ditch or ditches shall fail or neglect to construct and keep in good repair such bridges or crossings, he or they shall be adjudged guilty of a misdemeanor. It shall be the duty of Duty of the Road Commissioner of each district to immediately Commis remove or cause to be removed all obstructions from any remove public highways, heretofore declared such, or that may be hereafter declared as a public highway. Any person or per- Misdesons resisting or offering to resist the Commissioner, or any person or persons acting under his authority or direction in the removal of obstruction, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, which shall be punished as other misdemeanors are punished by law. sioner to obstructions. meanor. SEC. 9. Section twenty-three of said Act is amended to Road tax. read as follows: Section 23. The Board of Supervisors shall have power to levy a property tax, which shall not exceed twenty-five cents on each one hundred dollars of real and personal property in the county for road purposes, to be levied and collected at the same time and in the same manner as other property taxes are levied and collected; and the property tax thus levied and collected shall be paid into the county treasury, for the benefit of the public roads of the county; and it is hereby made the duty of Tax Collectors, upon paying into the treasury the moneys so collected, to furnish to the Auditor and Treasurer of said county a statement showing the amount of such tax collected in each of the townships of said county; said Auditor and Treasurer shall thereupon apportion and place to the credit of the District Road Fund of each Commissioner's district the Tax Collector. Bond. Duty of respective amounts so collected in said district. All work done or repairs made upon the public roads in the several districts, or material or tools purchased therefor, shall be paid by warrants drawn against the particular District Road Fund in which said work was done; said amounts or claims to be first audited and allowed at a regular meeting of the Board of Supervisors; provided, that for the construction or repair of bridges that shall in their cost exceed the sum of one hundred dollars, such construction or repair shall be paid by warrants drawn against the General Road Fund; provided, that no warrants shall be audited or drawn against any District Road Fund, so as to make the outstanding warrants of said district in the aggregate exceed the money placed to the credit of such district over one thousand dollars; and provided further, that the Board of Supervisors may order such proportion of the cost of work and repairs in any district to be paid by warrants drawn upon the General Road Fund, as they in their judgment may deem proper. SEC. 10. Section twenty-eight of said Act is amended to read as follows: Section 28. The County Assessor of Nevada County shall be Road Tax Collector, and shall collect the road poll tax of three dollars from each person, as in this Act provided, with power to appoint such number of deputies as he may require, and shall be entitled to receive ten per cent. upon all sums collected, as provided in section seventeen. The Assessor must file a bond, conditioned for the faithful discharge of his duties as Road Tax Collector, in the sum of five thousand dollars, with sufficient sureties; such bond to be approved by the County Judge, and filed with the County Clerk before entering upon the discharge of such duties. He must make a report to the Auditor on the first Monday of each month, verified by his oath, showing the amount of road poll taxes collected during the preceding month, and must pay such amount, less his fees for collecting the same, to the County Treasurer, taking his receipt therefor, and file a duplicate receipt with the Auditor; provided, that the Constables of the several townships, who were elected as such at the election in eighteen hundred and seventy-seven, and by reason of having received the highest number of votes were declared to be ex officio Road Poll Tax Collectors for the several townships, shall collect such tax for the two fiscal years commencing on the first Monday in March, eighteen hundred and seventy-eight, and ending on the first Monday in March, eighteen hundred and eighty, and that they receive ten per cent. upon all sums collected by them for their fees. SEC. 11. All Acts and parts of Acts in conflict with this Act are hereby repealed. SEC. 12. This Act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage. CHAP. CCXCIV.-An Act to provide for the better collection of water-rates in the City of Sacramento. [Approved March 20, 1878.] The People of the State of California, represented in Senate and Clerk of works. SECTION 1. The Board of Trustees of the City of Sacra- Appointmento, at the regular time for them to elect and appoint city ment of officers in eighteen hundred and seventy-eight, and each Waterthree years thereafter, shall elect one competent person as Clerk of the Water-works of Sacramento, whose term of office shall be three years from the first Monday in April succeeding his election, and until his successor is elected and qualified, and whose duties shall be the same as those now prescribed by law or city ordinance, or that may be hereafter prescribed by law or city ordinance. SEC. 2. The Clerk of the Water-works of Sacramento, Salary of elected in pursuance of the provisions of this Act, shall Clerk. receive a salary of fifteen hundred dollars per annum, payable as at present provided by law and city ordinance. He shall have the power to appoint one competent person as his deputy, who shall receive a salary of twelve hundred dollars per annum, payable as at present provided by law and city ordinance. SEC. 3. This Act shall take effect from and after its passage, and all Acts and parts of Acts inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed. CHAP. CCXCV.-An Act to authorize the Board of Trustees of The People of the State of California, represented in Senate and SECTION 1. The Board of Trustees of the Town of Colusa Issuance are hereby authorized and empowered to issue, under the of bonds. conditions hereinafter provided, bonds of the town to such amount as to them may seem proper, not to exceed twenty thousand dollars, bearing interest at the rate of eight per cent. per annum; the said bonds to be for sums not less than one hundred nor more than five hundred dollars, and shall be signed by the President of the Board, and countersigned by the Town Secretary. SEC. 2. Said bonds shall be due and payable in gold coin when at the office of the Town Treasurer on the first day of Jan- payable. uary, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine; provided, that the Board of Trustees shall have power to redeem said bonds in the manner and at such times as shall be hereinafter provided. Interest coupons. Interest tax. Redemption of bonds. The interest on said bonds shall be due and payable at said SEC. 3. Coupons for the interest shall be attached to each SEC. 4. Said bonds shall bear the date of their issuance, and the said coupons shall be for the interest from such date up to the first day of January, eighteen hundred and seventy nine. SEC. 5. For the purpose of paying the interest on said bonds the Board of Trustees of said town shall, at the time of levying town taxes for each year, levy a special tax on all real and personal property in said town, which shall, taking the assessment of the preceding year as a basis, and deducting fifteen per cent. for delinquencies, be sufficient to pay the interest on all the bonds then outstanding. The said tax shall be assessed and collected the same as the other town taxes, and shall be paid into the town treasury, and shall be by the Treasurer set apart as a special fund, to be known as The Road Bond Interest Fund, and he shall pay out of said fund all coupons as the same shall fall due. SEC. 6. If the special tax authorized by section five shall not produce a sufficient amount to pay all the interest due in any one year on said bonds, the Town Treasurer shall pay the same out of the General Fund of the town, and it is hereby made the duty of the said Treasurer to see that there shall be enough to pay said interest before he shall pay all the money out of the said General Fund on any account. If more than enough to pay said interest shall be provided by said special tax, then the Treasurer shall transfer the balance to the credit of the General Fund. SEC. 7. In the year eighteen hundred and eighty-three, and each year thereafter up to and including the year eighteen hundred and eighty-eight, the Board of Trustees of said town shall levy and cause to be collected a tax sufficient to pay five per cent. of the whole issue of bonds, and in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, and annually thereafter until the said bonds shall be paid, the Board of Trustees shall levy, and cause to be collected, a tax sufficient to pay ten per cent. of the whole amount of bonds then remaining unpaid; provided, that, after said bonds shall have been issued ten years, the Board of Trustees may, if they deem it expedient, make provision for the more speedy redemption of said bonds. All taxes levied and collected under the provisions of this section shall be paid into the town treasury, |