either in portions or as a whole, to the lowest responsible bidder; or they may reject any or all bids and re-advertise for proposals. Contracts for the purchase of the material shall be awarded to the lowest responsible bidder. Any person or persons to whom a contract may be awarded shall enter into a bond, with good and sufficient sureties, to be approved by the board, payable to said district for its use, for twenty-five per cent. of the amount of the contract price, conditioned upon the faithful performance of said The work shall be done under the direction and to the satisfaction of the engineer, and approved by the board. Provided, That no contract of any kind shall be let by said board of directors unless there is sufficient money in the district treasury at the time such contract is let and available for such payment, to fully pay for the work or material so contracted for.

contract.

SEC. 34. No claim shall be paid by the treasurer until allowed by the board, and only upon a warrant signed by the president, and countersigned by the secretary.

SEC. 35. The cost and expense of purchasing and acquiring property and constructing the works and improvements herein provided for, shall be wholly paid out of the construction fund. For the purpose of defraying the expenses of the organization of the district, and of the care, operation, management, repair and improvement of such portion of said canal and works as are completed and in use, including salaries of officers and employees, the board may either fix rates of tolls and charges, and collect the same from all persons using said canal for irrigation and other purposes, or they may provide for the payment of said expenditures by a levy of assessments therefor or by both said tolls and assessments; if by the latter method, such levy shall be made on the completion and correction of the assessment roll. The procedure for the levying, and for the collection of the assessments by such levy, shall in all respects conform to the provisions of this Act relating to the payment of principal and interest of bonds herein provided for.

SEC. 36. The board of directors shall have power to construct the said works across any stream of water, water course, street, avenue, highway, railway, canal, ditch, or flume which route of said canal or canals may intersect or cross, in such a manner as to afford security for life and property; but said board shall restore the same when so crossed or intersected, to its former state as near as may be, or in a sufficient manner not to have impaired unnecessarily its usefulness: and every company whose railroad shall be intersected or crossed by said works shall unite with said board in forming said intersections and crossings and grant the privileges aforesaid; and if such railroad company and said board, or the owners and controllers of the said property, thing or franchise to be crossed, cannot agree upon the amount to be paid therefor, or upon the points or the manner of said crossing or intersections, the same shall be ascertained and determined in all respects as herein provided in respect to the taking of land. The right of way is hereby given, dedicated, and set apart, to locate, construct and maintain said works over and through any of the lands which are now or may be the property of the State.

SEC. 37. At least as often as at the end of each year after this organization, the State Engineer, shall make a careful investigation of the condition of each irrigation district organized under the provisions of this Act; and shall report thereon to the board of directors of said districts. Said re

port shall state the condition of the work of construction, as to capacity, stability, and permanency, and whether or not the plan of irrigation formulated under the provisions of this Act, is being properly and judiciously carried out, and whether or not, in his opinion, the funds available will complete the proposed work. In such report the State Engineer shall state such facts, and make such suggestions, and recommendations, to said board of directors, as he may deem advisable for the best interests of the districts. SEC. 38. The members of the board of directors shall each receive not more than three dollars per day for each day spent attending the meetings, or while engaged in official business under the order of the board. The board shall fix the compensation to be paid to the other officers named in this Act; to be paid out of the treasury of the district: Provided, That said board shall, upon the petition of fifty, or a majority of the freeholders within such district, submit to the electors at any general election, a schedule of salaries and fees to be paid hereunder. Such petition must be presented to the board twenty days prior to a general election, and the result of such election shall be determined and declared in all respects as other elections are determined and declared under this Act.

SEC. 39. No director or any other officer named in this Act shall in any manner be interested, directly or indirectly, in any contract awarded or to be awarded by the board, or in the profits to be derived therefrom; and for any violation of this provision, such officer shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and such conviction shall work a forfeiture of his office, and he shall be punished by a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment in the county jail, not to exceed six months, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

SEC. 40. The board of directors may, at any time, when in their judgment it may be advisable, call a special election, and submit, to the qualified electors of the district the question, whether or not a special assessment shall be levied for the purpose of raising money to be applied to any of the purposes provided in this Act. Such election must be called upon the notice prescribed, and the same shall be held, and the result thereof determined and declared in all respects in conformity with the provisions of section fifteen of this Act. The notice must specify the amount of money proposed to be raised and the purpose for which it is intended to be used. At such elections, the ballots shall contain the words "Assessment-Yes," or "AssessmentNo." If two-thirds or more of the votes cast are "Assessment-Yes," the board shall, at the time of the annual levy hereunder, levy an assessment sufficient to raise the amount voted. The assessment so levied shall be computed and entered on the assessment roll by the secretary of the board and collected at the same time, and in the same manner as other assessments provided for herein; and when collected, shall be paid into the district treasury for the purposes specified in the notice of such special election.

SEC. 41. The board of directors, or other officers of the district, shall have no power to incur any debt or liability whatever, either by issuing bonds or otherwise, in excess of the express provisions of this Act; and any debt or liability incurred in excess of such express provisions shall be and remain absolutely void (except for the purpose of organization or for any of the purposes of this Act, the board of directors may, before the collection of the first assessment, incur an indebtedness not exceeding in

the aggregate, the sum of two thousand dollars, and may cause warrants of the district to issue therefor, bearing interest at seven per cent. per annum.)

SEC. 42. Navigation shall never in anywise be impaired by the operation of this Act, nor shall any vested interest in or to any mining water rights or ditches or in or to any water or water rights, or reservoirs or dams now used by the owners or possessors thereof in connection with any mining industry, or by persons purchasing or renting the use thereof, or in or to any other property now used, directly or indirectly in carrying on or promoting the mining industry, ever be affected by or taken under its provisions, save and except that rights-of-ways may be acquired over the same.

SEC. 43. None of the provisions of this Act shall be construed as repealing or in anywise modifying the provisions of any other act relating to the subject of irrigation or water distribution, except as provided in section 59 of this Act. Nothing herein contained shall be deemed to authorize any person or persons to divert the waters of any river, creek, stream, canal or ditch from its channel, to the detriment of any person or persons having any interest in such river, creek, stream, canal, or ditch, or the waters therein, unless previous compensation be ascertained and paid therefor, under the laws of the State authorizing the taking of private property for public uses.

SEC. 44. The holder or holders of any title, or evidence of title, representing one-half or more of any body of lands adjacent to the boundary of an irrigation district, which are contiguous and which, taken together, constitute one tract of land, may file with the board of directors of said district, a petition in writing, praying that the boundaries of said district may be so changed as to include therein said lands. The petition shall describe the boundaries of said parcel or tract of land shall also describe the boundaries of the several parcels owned by the petitioners, if the petitioners be the owners, respectively, of distinct parcels, but such description need not be more particular than they are required to be when such lands are entered by the county assessor in the assessment book. Such petition must contain the assent of the petitioners to the inclusion within said district of the parcels of tracts of land described in the petition, and of which said petition alleges they are, respectively, the owners, and it must be acknowledged in the same manner that conveyances of land are required to be acknowledged.

SEC. 45. The secretary of the board of directors shall cause a notice of the filing of such petition to be given and published in the same manner and for the same time that notices of special elections, for the issue of bonds, are required by said Act to be published.

The notice shall state the filing of such petition and the names of the petitioners, a description of the lands mentioned in said petition, and the prayer of said petition; and it shall notify all persons interested in or that may be affected by such change of boundaries of the district, to appear at the office of the said board, at a time named in said notice, and show cause in writing, if any they have, why the change in the boundaries of said district as proposed in said petition, should not be made. The time to be specified in the notice at which they shall be required to show cause shall be the regular meeting of the board next after the expiration of the time for publication of the notice. The petitioners shall advance to the

secretary sufficient money to pay the estimated costs of all proceedings. under this Act.

SEC. 46. The board of directors, at the time and place mentioned in said notice or at such other time or times to which the hearing of the said petition may be adjourned, shall proceed to hear the petition and all the objections thereto presented in writing by any person, showing cause, as aforesaid, why said proposed change of the boundaries of the district should not be made. The failure by any person interested in said district or in the matter of the proposed change of its boundaries, to show cause in writing as aforesaid, shall be deemed and taken as an assent on his part to a change of the boundaries of the district as prayed for in said petition, or to such a change thereof as will include a part of said lands. And the filing of such a petition with said board as aforesaid, shall be deemed and taken as an assent on the part of each and all petitioners to such a change of said boundaries, that they may include the whole or any portion of the lands described in said petition.

SEC. 47. The board of directors to whom such petition is presented may require, as a condition precedent to the granting of the same that the petitioners shall severally pay to such district such respective sums, as nearly as the same can be estimated (the several amounts to be determined by the board), as said petitioners or their grantors would have been required to pay to such district as assessments had such lands been included in such district, at the time the same was originally formed.

SEC. 48. The board of directors, if they deem it not for the best interests of the district that a change of its boundaries be so made as to include therein the lands mentioned in the petition, shall order that the petition be rejected. But if they deem it for the best interests of the district that the boundaries of said district be changed and if no person interested in said district or the proposed change of its boundaries show cause, in writing, why the proposed change should not be made, or if, having shown cause, withdraws the same, the board may order that the boundaries of the district be so changed as to include therein the lands mentioned in said petition or some part thereof. The order shall describe the boundaries as changed, and shall also describe the entire boundaries of the district as they will be after the change thereof as aforesaid is made; and for that purpose the board may cause a survey to be made of such portions of such boundary as is deemed necessary.

SEC. 49. If any person interested in said district, or the proposed change of its boundaries, shall show cause as aforesaid why such boundaries should not be changed, and shall not withdraw the same, and if the board of directors deem it for the best interests of the district that the boundaries thereof be so changed as to include therein the lands mentioned in the petition, or some part thereof, the board shall adopt a resolution to that effect. The resolution shall describe the exterior boundaries of the lands which the board are of the opinion should be included within the boundaries of the district when changed.

SEC. 50. Upon the adoption of the resolution mentioned in the last preceding section, the board shall order that an election be held within Isaid district to determine whether the boundaries of the district shall be changed as mentioned in said resolution; and shall fix the time at which such election shall be held, and cause notice thereof to be given and published.

Such notice shall be given and published, and such election shall

be held and conducted, the returns thereof shall be made and canvassed, and the result of the election ascertained and declared, and all things pertaining thereto conducted in the manner prescribed by said Act in case of a special election to determine whether bonds of an irrigation district shall be issued. The ballots cast at said election shall contain the words "For change of Boundary," or "Against change of Boundary," or words equivalent thereto. The notice of election shall describe the proposed change of the boundaries in such manner and terms that it can be readily traced. SEC. 51. If at such election a majority of all the votes cast at said election shall be against such change of the boundaries of the district, the board shall order that said petition be denied, and shall proceed no further in the

matter.

But if a majority of such votes be in favor of such change of the boundaries of the district, the board shall thereupon order that the boundaries be changed in accordance with said resolution adopted by the board. The said order shall describe the entire boundaries of said district, and for that purpose the board may cause a survey of such portion thereof to be made as the board may deem necessary.

SEC. 52. Upon a change of the boundaries of a district being made a copy of the order of the board of directors ordering such change, certified by the president and secretary of the board, shall be filed for record in the recorder's office of each county within which are situated any of the lands of the district, and thereupon the district shall be and remain an irrigation district, as fully, and to every intent and purpose, as if the lands which are included in the district by the change of the boundaries, as aforesaid, had been included therein at the original organization of the district.

SEC. 53. Upon the filing of the copies of the order, as in the last preceding section mentioned, the secretary shall record in the minutes of the board, the petition aforesaid and the said minutes, or a certified copy thereof, shall be admissible in evidence, with the same effect as the petition.

SEC. 54. A guardian, executor, or an administrator of an estate who is appointed as such under the laws of this State, and who, as such guardian, executor, or administrator, is entitled to the possession of the lands belonging to the estate which he represents, may, on behalf of his ward or the estate which he represents, upon being thereunto authorized by the proper court, sign and acknowledge the petition in this Act mentioned, why the boundaries of the district should not be changed.

SEC. 55. In case of the inclusion of any land within any district by the proceedings under this Act, the board of directors must, at least thirty days prior to the next succeeding general election, make an order re-dividing such district into five divisions, as nearly equal in size as may be practicable, which shall be numbered first, second, third, fourth, and fifth, and one director shall thereafter be elected by each division. For purposes of elections, the board of directors must establish a convenient number of election precincts in said districts, and define the boundaries thereof, which said precincts may be changed from time to time, as the board may deem

necessary.

SEC. 56. Whenever the boards of directors of any two or more irrigation districts which are contiguous, deem it for the best interest of their respective districts that the same be consolidated into a single district such boards of directors may petition the board of county commissioners for an order for an election, to vote upon the question of such consolida