STATE OF MISSISSIPPI

Order of board equivalent to a judgment—appeals from same.

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Sec. 5. The order of the board of supervisors provided for in section 4 of this act and establishing a sub tile drainage district shall have all the force of a judgment. Appeals may be taken therefrom to the chancery court or chancellor in vacation, within twenty days after such order has been made, but if any appeal is taken. within that time, such judgment shall be deemed conclusive and binding upon all real property within the boundaries of said district.

Plans for district-employment of engineer-his duties.

Sec. 6. The drainage commissioners shall prepare plans for the improvements within the said sub tile drainage districts as prayed for in the petition and shall procure estimates from a competent engineer or engineers as to the cost thereof and for this purpose the commissioners may employ such engineers and other agents as may be needed and may provide for their compensation, which, with all necessary expenditures including the services of such attorneys as said commissioners may employ, shall be taken as part of the cost of the improvements. The engineer shall give bond as hereinabove provided for. If, for any cause, the improvements shall not be made, said costs shall be charged on the real property in said sub tile drainage district and shall be raised and paid by assessments in the manner hereinafter provided. In the event said sub tile drainage district is not organized or improvements not completed after the indebtedness is incurred, the board of supervisors shall levy an acreage tax or an advalorem tax against the lands in said proposed sub tile drainage district to pay such indebtedness.

The plans and specifications shall show the tile drainage system to be installed on each of the several tracts, especially showing the number of feet of each size of tile that is to be put down and the depth thereof, and if any open ditches are to be dug, then such plans and specifications shall give the accurate location, the width and depth of such ditches.

Plans and specifications to be filed with supervisors.

Sec. 7. As soon as said commissioners shall have formed its plans and shall have ascertained the cost of the improvements contemplated under this act, it shall file the same with the clerk of the board of supervisors. Said plans shall be accompanied by blue prints showing the tile drainage system contemplated for each of the several tracts of the said tile drainage district. It shall also be ac

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companied by specifications describing the character of the work for improvements to be made, setting forth the amount of each kind of tile and the amount of earth to be removed or replaced and of all work to be done and the probable cost of tile draining such sub tile drainage districts.

Assessments to be made-how to be dealt with.

Sec. 8. Said commissioners shall proceed to assess the land within the sub tile drainage district and shall inscribe in a book the description of each tract of land, the benefit to accrue to each tract by reason of such improvement, and shall enter such assessments of benefits opposite the description, together with an estimate of what the land owner will probably have to pay on such assessment for the first year. They shall place opposite each tract of land the name of the supposed owner, as shown by the last county land assessment roll; but a mistake in the name shall not vitiate the assessment. When their assessment is completed, the commissioners shall subscribe such assessment and deposit it with the clerk of the board of supervisors, where it shall be kept and preserved as a public record. The findings of said board shall be final and have the force and effect of a judgment from which an appeal may be taken within twenty days to the chancery court or chancellor in vacation; or to the supreme court of the state if the decision be of the chancery court, either by the property owner, other interested person, or by the commissioners of the district.

The assessment roll, so prepared and filed by the commissioners, when approved by the board of supervisors, shall stand as a final assessment of benefits upon the lands of the said sub tile drainage district and no new assessment roll shall be required unless in the opinion of the commissioners it becomes necessary to raise the assessment of benefits to such lands because of additional benefits to the lands other than those assessed, or because it becomes absolutely necessary in order to raise funds to preserve and maintain the improvements of the district.

Special tax levy-How to be levied and collected.

Sec. 9. The board of supervisors shall at the same time that the assessment of benefits is filed, or at any subsequent time, when called upon by the board of commissioners of the district so to do, enter upon its minutes, an order which shall have the force of a judgment providing that there shall be assessed upon the real property of the sub tile drainage district a special assessment, or levy, to pay the estimated cost of the improvement, with not less than 10 per cent (ten per cent) added for unforseen contingencies, the amount to be assessed upon each tract of land included within the sub tile drainage district shall be the amount determined as the

assessment of benefits against such tract, and which said assessments are to be paid in annual installments, not to exceed ten per cent (10 per cent) in any one year, as provided in such order, but if any land owner elects he may pay the whole amount of the assessment against his land before it becomes due, or at any time thereafter, or all or any part of said assessment at any time he sees fit, provided such payment is made before any bonds are issued by the district.

The assessment or assessments so levied shall be a lien on all the real property of the sub tile drainage district from the time that the same is levied by the board of supervisors in an amount not to exceed the total amount of estimated benefits on all the real property in said district, and shall be entitled to preference to all demands, executions, encumbrances or liens whatsoever, and shall continue until such assessment, with any penalty and costs that may accrue thereon, shall have been paid. The remedy against such assessment shall be by appeal to the chancery court, or to the chancellor in vacation, if from a decision of the board of supervisors, or to the supreme court, if from a finding of the chancery court, or chancellor, and such appeal must be taken within twenty days from the time that said assessment has been made by the board of supervisors or chancery court, and on such appeal the presumption shall be in favor of the legality of the assessment.

It shall be the duty of the board of supervisors of each county to make an annual tax levy, at the same time when the county tax levy is made, or at any succeeding regular meeting, in an amount not exceeding the installment of the assessment levied for that year sufficient to meet the obligations of the sub tile drainage district.

It shall thereupon be the duty of the clerk of the board of supervisors to extend the amount of the said levy on the original, or copy of the assessment roll of said district, on file in his office and to certify a copy of the levy to the tax collector of his county, who shall extend the amount of the levy on the copy of said assessment in his office.

Any owner of real property within the said district may, by mandamus, compel the compliance by the board of supervisors, with the terms of this section.

Assessment roll to be made up-what to contain.

Sec. 10. After the assessment of benefits or betterments, and the levy of assessments to be paid, shall have been made and become final in the manner herein before provided and for the purpose of facilitating the collection of the assessments so levied, it shall be the duty of the board of commissioners to prepare, or cause to be

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prepared a copy or copies of the assessment roll in which, they shall inscribe the names of the land owners, the description of the tract of land assessed, the total betterment assessed against each tract, the amount of the levy for the current year, which shall be the amount of tax to be collected for that year by the tax collector. Such copy of the roll shall be certified to by the commissioners and be deposited with the clerk of the board of supervisors of the judicial district of the county in which the land lies, on or before the first day of October of the year in which the tax levy is to be collected, and said roll shall constitute the authority and be the guide for the collection of said drainage tax by the collector. If any collector shall wilfully neglect, fail or refuse to collect any tax shown on said roll to have been levied in the manner herein provided, he shall be liable on his bond as county tax collector for any taxes lost to the drainage district, together with damages thereon at the rate of thirty per cent (30 per cent).

For any failure to pay over any tax so collected at the same time he is required by law to pay over state and county taxes, said tax collector shall be liable for damages at the rate of thirty per cent (30 per cent) and interest at the rate of six per cent (6 per cent) per annum on the principal and damages.

County treasurers to be treasurers of drainage districts-duties of.

Sec. 11. That the treasurer of each county may be the treasurer of all sub tile drainage districts organized under this act in their respective counties and as such treasurer shall receive from the county tax collector, whose duty it shall be to collect all monies levied by said drainage commissioners, or by the board of supervisors at their request, or the board of commissioners may select their treasurer and remove him at their pleasure, whose duty shall be the same as those of the county treasurers of such district; and the board of commissioners shall compel such county treasurer or treasurers selected by them, to give bond to them as commissioners of said district, in an amount equal to the amount of any sum, or sums, of money likely to come into said treasurer's hands at any one time, and said commissioners shall enter an order on their minutes fixing the amount of the bond of such treasurer, the said board of commissioners shall, however, select a depository or depositories of the funds of the sub tile drainage district in the same manner as provided under chapter 137 of the laws of the state of Mississippi of 1910, and the amendments thereto, and such depository may qualify as depository of said district in like manner as is therein required, giving security as therein required, and may place with the treasurer of said district as security for such deposit any of the drainage bonds of the sub tile drainage district for which it proposes to qualify as the depository.

That the treasurer shall pay out no money, save upon the order of the board of commissioners, and upon a warrant signed by the president thereof. He shall be allowed a commission of not exceeding one-half of one per cent (1⁄2 of 1 per cent) on all receipts and not exceeding one-half of one per cent (12 of 1 per cent) on all disbursements, provided, that he shall not be entitled to any commission on money received from the sale of bonds, or of interest bearing certificates, or of any money paid in liquidation thereof. Said county treasurer or the treasurers selected by the commissioners shall keep a separate account with each drainage district, every warrant shall state upon its face to whome payable, the amount and the purpose for which it was issued. All warrants shall be dated and numbered consecutively in a record to be kept by the board of commissioners of the number and amount of each; and no warrant shall be paid unless there is in the treasury funds sufficient to pay all outstanding warrants bearing a lower number. No warrant shall be increased by reason of any depreciation in the market value thereof.

All funds coming into the hands of the treasurer belonging to any sub tile drainage district organized under this act, shall be deposited in the depository provided for herein, to be drawn out by the proper parties and in the manner above provided. All tax collectors may pay such drainage taxes into such depositories in the same manner as county funds are paid in, and shall be subject to the same protection as is provided for the protection of general county funds.

In making a settlement with the treasurer, the tax collector of each county shall pay the amount due the sub tile drainage district over to a sub tile drainage depository in his county, if there be one in his county; otherwise he shall pay the same to the sub tile drainage treasurer. The tax collector in making deposits shall receive triplicate receipts for the same and mail the clerk of the board of supervisors and the treasurer of the sub tile drainage district each a copy thereof. The treasurer shall issue his official receipts for such deposit, if such depository shall have been legallly qualified to receive such deposit.

If tax levied not sufficient further levies to be made.

Sec. 12. If the tax first levied shall prove insufficient to complete the improvement, the commissioners shall report the amount of the deficiency to the board of supervisors, and the board of supervisors shall thereupon make another levy, on the property previously assessed, for a sum sufficient to complete the improvement, which shall be collected in the same manner as the first levy. Provided, that when any work has been begun under the provisions of this act, which shall not be completed and paid for out of the first