Road to be opened. Board to pro way by an action. ascertain, and by order declare, the amount of damages awarded to each non-consenting land owner, and declare the report of the Viewers to be approved or rejected. SEC. 31. If the Board approve the report, and there are no non-consenting land owners, the road must, by order, be declared a public highway, and the Road Overseer ordered to open the same to the public. If there are non-consenting land owners, the Board must appropriate from the Road Fund, and cause the Road Overseer to tender to such nonconsenting land owners the award for damages made by the Board. If the awards are all accepted, the road must be declared a public highway and be opened as before provided. SEC. 32. If any award of damages is rejected by the land cure right of owners, the Board must, by order, direct proceedings to procure the right of way to be instituted by the District Attorney of the county, under and as provided in Title Seven, Part Three, of the Code of Civil Procedure, against all nonaccepting land owners; and when thereunder the right of way shall have been procured, the road shall be declared a public highway and opened as hereinbefore provided. But if any non-consenting land owner does not recover a greater amount of damages than shall have been allowed him by the Board of Supervisors, then he shall pay all costs and expenses incurred by reason of any suit or other proceeding instituted in the matter. Awards, how paid. Width of SEC. 33. All awards by agreement, ascertainment by the Board, or by the proper Court, must be paid out of the Road Fund. SEC. 34. All highways must be at least fifty feet wide; highways. provided, however, that the Board of Supervisors may establish a less width for such highways as may be constructed in a hilly or mountainous country, requiring excavations or filling of ravines. Private SEC. 35. Private or by-roads may be opened as provided be opened in section twenty-seven hundred and eleven of the Political roads may Instrument in writing be given. Code. SEC. 36. In all cases where consent to use the right of or decree of way for a highway is voluntarily given, purchased, or conCourt must demned and paid for, either an instrument in writing conveying the right of way, and incidents thereto, signed and acknowledged by the party making it, or a certified copy of the decree of the Court condemning the same, must be made, and filed and recorded in the office of the Recorder of the county. Owners to prepare their own roads, etc. Owners to remove fences. SEC. 37. Whenever highways shall be laid out to cross railroads, canals, or ditches on public lands, the owners or corporations using the same must, at their own expense, so prepare their roads, canals, or ditches that the public highway may cross the same without danger or delay; and when the right of way for a public highway is obtained through the judgment of any Court over any railroad, canal, or ditch, no damages must be awarded for the simple right to cross the same. SEC. 38. When the alteration of an old or the opening of a new road makes it necessary to remove fences on land given, purchased, or condemed by order of a Court for road or highway purposes, notice to remove the fences must be given by the Road Overseer to the owner, his occupant or agent, or by posting the same on the fence; and if the same is not done within ten days thereafter, or commenced and prosecuted as speedily as possible, the Road Overseer may cause it to be carefully removed, at the expense of the owner, and recover of him the cost of such removal, and the fence material may be sold to satisfy the judgment. constructed SEC. 39. All public bridges, not otherwise specially pro- Public vided for, are maintained by the county in the same manner bridges as highways, and are under the control and management of in same the Road Overseers of the district in which situated, and of manner. the Board of Supervisors, the expense of constructing, maintaining, and repairing the same being payable out of the road funds in the hands of the Road Overseers, or from the County Road Fund in the county treasury. letting contract. SEC. 40. No bridges, the cost of the construction and repair Manner of of which will exceed the sum of fifty dollars, must be constructed or repaired except on order of the Board of Supervisors. When roads, public highways, or bridges are ordered to be constructed or repaired, the contract therefor must be let out to the lowest responsible bidder, after reasonable notice given by the Board of Supervisors, through the Road Overseer, by publication at least two weeks in a county newspaper, and also by posting three public notices, specifying, as near as may be, the kind and quantity of work to be done; one to be posted at the Court-house door, one at the point to be bridged, and one at some other neighboring public place. The bids submitted shall be sealed, and shall be opened and the contract awarded at the time specified in the notice; provided, however, that the Board of Supervisors have the privilege of rejecting any and all bids. The contract and bond to perform it must be entered into to the approval of the Board of Supervisors. to repair SEC. 41. If the Overseer of any road district, chargeable supervisors with the repair of a bridge, fails to make the needed repairs, neglected after being informed that a bridge is impassable or unsafe, bridges. and is requested to make the same by two or more freeholders of the district in which it is situate, or the two districts which it unites, the freeholders may represent the facts to the Board of Supervisors, who, upon being satisfied that the bridge is unsafe, must cause the same to be repaired, and must pay therefor out of the Road Fund of the county. Overseers. SEC. 42. Road Overseers must, in their official reports, give Reports a full account of all bridges of which they have, in whole or of Road in part, the charge and maintenance; those constructed or repaired, and the cost thereof; the amounts expended thereon, from what source derived, and the present and prospective condition thereof. remove en SEC. 43. If any highway, duly laid out or erected, is Road Overencroached upon by fences, buildings, or otherwise, the ser may Road Overseer of the district may, orally or in writing, croachment. require the encroachment to be removed from the highway. Action to abate as a nuisance. Encroachment not denied. Gates allowed on highways. Penalty for open. SEC. 44. If the encroachment is denied, and the owner, occupant, or person controlling the matter or thing charged with being an encroachment, refuses either to remove or to permit the removal thereof, the Road Overseer must commence, in the proper Court, an action to abate the same as a nuisance, and if he recovers judgment he may, in addition to having the same abated, recover ten dollars for every day such nuisance remained after notice, and also his costs in said action. SEC. 45. If the encroachment is not denied, but is not removed for five days after the notice is complete, the Road Overseer may remove the same at the expense of the owner, occupant, or person controlling the same, and recover his costs and expenses, as also for each day the same remained after notice was complete the sum of ten dollars, in an action for that purpose. SEC. 46. No gates must be allowed on any public highway duly laid out, except on highways running through lands subject to overflow to such extent as to remove the fences. When so allowed, they must be erected and maintained at the expense of the owner or occupant at whose request or for whose benefit they were erected. If such expense is not paid the gate must be removed as an obstruction. SEC. 47. Any one who leaves open such gate, or willfully leaving gate and unnecessarily rides over ground adjoining the road on which the gate is erected, forfeits to the injured party treble damages. Obstruction SEC. 48. Whoever obstructs or injures any highways, or of highways. obstructs or diverts any water-course thereon, is liable to a penalty of five dollars for each day such obstruction or injury remains, and must be punished as provided in section five hundred and eighty-eight of the Penal Code. Injury to SEC. 49. Whoever removes or injures any mile-board, or guide-posts. mile-stone, or guide-post, or any inscription on such, erected on any highway, is liable to a penalty of ten dollars for every such offense, and punishable as provided in section. five hundred and ninety of the Penal Code. Failure to remove obstruction. Fast driving SEC. 50. Any person may notify the occupant or owner of any land from which a tree or other obstruction has fallen upon any highway, to remove such tree or obstruction forthwith. If it is not so removed, the owner or occupant is liable to a penalty of one dollar for every day thereafter till it is removed, and the cost of removal. SEC. 51. Whoever cuts down a tree so that it falls into the highway must forthwith remove the same, and is liable to a penalty of five dollars for every day the same remains in such highway. SEC. 52. Road Overseers may put up on bridges under on bridges. their charge notices that "There is five dollars fine for driving or riding over this bridge faster than a walk." Whoever thereafter rides or drives faster than a walk on such bridge is liable to pay a fine of five dollars for such offense. Injury to trees. SEC. 53. Whoever digs up, cuts down, or otherwise injures. or destroys any shade or ornamental tree planted or stand ing on any highway, unless the same may be deemed an obstruction by the Road Overseer, and removed under his direction, forfeits twenty-five dollars for each such tree. SEC. 54. All penalties and forfeitures given in this Act, Application and not otherwise specially provided for, must be recovered of penalties. by the Road Overseers, and applied on the highways in the districts where collected. SEC. 55. All Acts and parts of Acts in conflict with this Act are hereby repealed. SEC. 56. This Act shall be in force from and after its passage. CHAP. XL.-An Act to authorize the transfer of moneys in certain funds of the County of Alameda to the General Fund of said county, and to provide for the payment of certain warrants, if any, now outstanding. [Approved January 25, 1878.] The People of the State of California, represented in Senate and SECTION 1. The Board of Supervisors of the County of Transfer of Alameda are hereby authorized and empowered to direct the moneys. Treasurer and Auditor of said county to transfer to the General Fund of said County of Alameda the following sums, to wit: The sum of seven hundred and eleven dollars and eighteen cents, balance remaining in the Bounty Fund; the sum of two hundred ninety-six dollars and ninety-one cents, balance remaining in the Jail and Recorder's Office Fund; the sum of forty-one dollars and ninety-five cents, balance remaining in the Oakland Township Road Fund; and the sum of one hundred and thirty-one dollars and fifteen cents, balance remaining in the San Leandro Bay Bridge Fund. be paid. SEC. 2. All warrants registered against said Bounty, Jail outstanding and Recorder's Office, Oakland Township Road, and San warrants to Leandro Bay Bridge Funds, and now outstanding and unpaid, shall, after said transfer, upon presentation, be paid from the said General Fund of Alameda County; provided, that the said outstanding warrants, if any, so paid shall not exceed, in the aggregate, the amounts of the several sums so transferred, and which are herein specified. SEC. 3. This Act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage. Bonds issued. Denomination of bonds. Bonds to be signed, by whom. Election of certain officers. Term of office. CHAP. XLI.-An Act to authorize the Trustees of Lower Lake [Approved January 25, 1878.] The People of the State of California, represented in Senate and SECTION 1. The Trustees of Lower Lake School District, in the County of Lake, and State of California, are hereby authorized and empowered to issue bonds of said school district to the amount of not to exceed eight thousand dollars, payable in gold coin twelve years after date of said bonds, to bear interest at the rate of ten per cent. per annum, payable annually in gold coin, at the office of the County Treasurer of said Lake County, for the purpose of paying for the construction of the "Nichols School Building," the property of said school district. SEC. 2. The said bonds shall be of the denomination of one hundred dollars each, with coupons for interest attached, and shall be signed by the Chairman and Clerk of said Board of Trustees, and by the School Superintendent of said county, and by the County Auditor of said county, and shall be authenticated by the seal of said County Auditor, and each of said bonds shall purport that the said school district owes to the holder thereof the sum of one hundred dollars in gold coin, payable and bearing interest as aforesaid. SEC. 3. The said School Superintendent must sign said bonds when the same shall have been issued and signed by said Chairman and Clerk of the Board of Trustees, and the said Auditor must sign and authenticate with the proper seal each of said bonds after the same have been signed by said School Superintendent. SEC. 4. Within three months after the issuance of any bonds under the provisions of this Act, and every four years thereafter until all the bonds and the interest thereon are fully paid, the qualified electors of Lower Lake School District shall elect one District Assessor, and one District Tax Collector for said district; provided, however, and it is hereby provided, that the same person may hold both offices. The first election of said officers shall be held at such time and place as shall be designated by the Trustees of said school district; all subsequent elections for Assessor and Collector as above mentioned, shall be held at the same time and place as is by law required for the election of District Trustees, and notice of such election must be given, officers to conduct the same must be appointed, and the same must be conducted in all respects as the law requires for the election of District Trustees, except in this, that the officers conducting said election must, within three days thereafter, make return thereof to said Board of Trustees, and said Board must canvass said election returns, and must issue thereupon certificates of election to the person or persons having received the highest number of votes cast. The term of |