have prepared, a true and correct report of all inmates supported, cared for, trained, and educated in said institution for the preceding month, and whose support, care, training, and education in said home is herein provided for to be paid by the several counties from whence they came. This report shall give the names and residences of all such inmates aforesaid, together with the dates of their admission into the home, the department of the home in which they are retained, and the special grade of mental deficiency with which each one is afflicted. This report shall be acknowledged under oath, before a notary public or other public officer qualified to act in such cases, and shall be filed by copy in the offices of the State Board of Examiners, the Controller of State, and the Treasurer of State, but the said report so prepared and filed must not be printed, nor be used or permitted to be used for any other purpose than the special information and benefit of the officers Non-resi- above named. No person shall be deemed eligible for commitment to or admission into said institution unless they have been a resident of the State for the period of one year immediately preceding the date of their application. The board may cause the peremptory discharge from said institution of any person who has been an inmate or patient of said institution for the period of one month. dents ineligible. Claims for SEC. 2. All claims, excepting those for salaries, wages, and expenses. the contingent expense of the officers of the home, incurred on account of the regular support of said home, shall be presented monthly before the State Board of Examiners in the usual way, as now provided by law, and as the said State Board of Examiners may hereafter advise and direct, but the aggregate amount of all such claims, presented as aforesaid, shall not exceed, in any given month, the aggregate sum due the State for that month from the counties of this State for such inmates actually in the home, as provided for in section one of this Act. Adjust payment SEC. 3. The State shall, by legislative appropriation, in the ment and usual way and as now provided by law, provide for the payment of salaries. of all salaries and wages of all officers and employés employed by said home, and for the payment of all traveling and other contingent expenses incurred by said officers of said home while attending to business belonging or appertaining solely to the home. But the salaries and wages herein provided to be paid by the State must not, in any event, exceed in amount such salaries or wages as the State pays for the same or for similar lines of work in the other public institutions of this State, and the State Board of Examiners are hereby authorized and directed to make such rescaling of all salaries and wages paid in said California Home for the Care and Training of Feeble-Minded Children, including those already provided for by law, and which provisions are hereby repealed, as may place said salaries and wages, in each and every particular, upon a parity with the salaries and wages paid in and by the other public institutions of this State for the same or for similar service; and where the service rendered is unlike, or widely different from any services rendered in any other public insti Duty of Board of ers. tution of this State, then the said State Board of Examiners shall designate what shall be the just and proper remuneration for such particular and special service referred to, and the sum or sums so fixed by the said State Board of Examiners shall be the regular salary, wage, or compensation thereto belonging. SEC. 4. The board of trustees of the said California Home Board of for the Care and Training of Feeble-Minded Children, when Trustees may admit. the accommodations of the home permit (and provided further, that such action does not conflict with the interests or welfare of committed cases or applicants awaiting admission), may admit, for any stated period of time, without judicial commitment, such persons as are before and hereinafter specified as eligible for admission, upon such terms of special payment, gift, bequest, donation, legacy, transfer of real or personal property, or other lawful procedure, as may appear to them to be to the best interests of the State, and may, further, secure to the home, for the time such persons so admitted are inmates of the home, such revenue or compensation, as fully covers the actual cost to the home for all care, treatment, education, and support therein involved. interfere inmates. other cases SEC. 5. Nothing in this Act must be construed as applying Not to to, interfering with, or affecting the status of such inmates as with status may now be in the said California Home for the Care and of certain Training of Feeble-Minded Children, under terms of life tenure, or such other inmates as may be deemed by the management as self-supporting by the value of their labor, or who may pay, or have paid for them, such sums of money as in the judgment of the management cover the cost of their support. But Support of for all other cases the board of trustees of said home are must be authorized and directed to secure from the proper officers of the provided. several counties from whence such inmates were committed or received, such arrangements for recommitment under the terms. of this Act (or such other provision), as may secure against said inmates becoming a sole charge upon the State, and the said board of trustees are hereby further authorized to discharge, at their discretion, on or after July first, eighteen hundred and ninety-seven, any case whose support, etc., is unprovided for under the terms of this Act. SEC. 6. All Acts or parts of Acts in conflict with the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed. Controller and of State. SEC. 7. The Controller of State is hereby authorized to draw Duty of his warrants in favor of the board of trustees of the said California Home for the Care and Training of Feeble-Minded Treasurer Children, upon their presentation of claims in the usual manner on account of the supporting of the said home as herein provided for, and the Treasurer of State is hereby directed to pay the same. SEC. 8. This Act shall take effect immediately. Who may propose the organization of irrigation districts. Petition to the Board visors. what. Bond. CHAPTER CLXXXIX. An Act to provide for the organization and government of irrigation districts, and to provide for the acquisition or construction thereby of works for the irrigation of the lands embraced within such districts, and, also, to provide for the distribution of water for irrigation purposes. [Approved March 31, 1897.] The People of the State of California, represented in Senate and ORGANIZATION. SECTION 1. A majority in number of the holders of title, or evidence of title, to lands susceptible of irrigation from a common source and by the same system of works, such holders of title, or evidence of title, representing a majority in value of said lands, according to the equalized county assessment roll or rolls for the year last preceding, may propose the organization of an irrigation district, under the provisions of this Act. Said equalized assessment roll or rolls shall be sufficient evidence of title for the purposes of this Act. SEC. 2. In order to propose the organization of an irriof Super- gation district, a petition shall be presented to the Board of Supervisors of the county in which the lands within the proposed district, or the greater portion thereof, are situated, signed by the required number of holders of title, or evidence of title, to lands within such proposed district, and representing Must state, the requisite majority in value of said lands, which petition shall set forth the boundaries of the proposed district, and shall state, generally, the source from which said lands are proposed to be irrigated, and the character of the works proposed to be acquired or constructed for irrigation purposes, and shall pray that the territory embraced within the boundaries of the proposed district may be organized as an irrigation district under the provisions of this Act. The petition must be accompanied with a good and sufficient undertaking, to be approved by said Board of Supervisors, in double the amount of the probable cost of organizing such district, conditioned that the sureties shall pay all of said costs, in case said organization shall not be effected. Said petition shall be presented at a regular meeting of said board, and shall be published for at least two weeks before the time at which the same is to be presented, in some newspaper of general circulation printed and published in the county where said petition is presented, together with a notice stating the time of the meeting at which the same will be presented; and if any portion of the lands within said proposed district lie within another county or counties, then said petition and notice shall be published, as above provided, in a newspaper published in each of said counties. When such petition is presented, said Board of Publication of petition. on Supervisors shall hear the same, and may adjourn such hearing Hearing of from time to time, not exceeding four weeks in all. And petition. the final hearing said board shall make such changes in the proposed boundaries as may be deemed advisable, and shall define and establish such boundaries. But said board shall not modify said boundaries so as to exclude from such proposed district any territory which is susceptible of irrigation from a common source and by the same system of works applicable to the other lands in such proposed district; nor shall any lands which will not, in the judgment of said board, be benefited by irrigation, by means of said system of works, be included within such proposed district. Any person whose lands are susceptible of irrigation from the same source and system of works, may, upon his application, in the discretion of said board, have such lands included within said proposed district. SEC. 3. Upon such hearing of said petition, the Board of Hearing of Supervisors shall determine whether or not said petition com- testimony. plies with the requirements of sections one and two of this Act, and for that purpose must hear all competent and relevant testimony offered in support or in opposition thereto. Such determination shall be entered upon the minutes of said Board of Supervisors. SEC. 4. The right of appeal from said order to the Superior Right of Court of the county where said petition is heard is hereby appeal. given to any person interested who is a party to the record; provided, that if more than one appeal be taken they shall be consolidated and tried together. Such appeal shall be taken within ten days after the entry of such order upon the minutes of the Board of Supervisors. The appeal shall be taken and heard in the same manner as appeals from Justices' Courts to the Superior Court, except as herein otherwise provided. Upon the appeal, the Superior Court may make and enter its judgment affirming, modifying, or reversing the order appealed from. Within ten days thereafter the Remittitur Superior Court must cause its remittitur to issue to said Board of Supervisors, and if said order of the Board of Supervisors is modified or reversed, the judgment of the Superior Court and its remittitur shall direct the Board of Supervisors what order it shall enter. Such remittitur shall be filed by the clerk of the Board of Supervisors, and at the first regular meeting of the board thereafter, it shall cause to be entered in its minutes the order as directed by said Superior Court. The appeal. herein provided for shall be heard and determined within thirty days from the time of filing the notice of appeal. district. SEC. 5. If, on said final hearing, the boundaries of the pro- Final posed district are defined and established, said board shall make hearing. an order dividing said district into five divisions, as nearly Division of equal in size as may be practicable, which shall be numbered first, second, third, fourth, and fifth, and one director shall be elected for each division by the electors thereof; provided, that if so requested in said petition, the board may order that there shall be only three divisions in said district, and that only three Election zation. Publication of notice. directors be elected, or that they be elected for the district at large. ELECTION ON ORGANIZATION. SEC. 6. Said Board of Supervisors shall then give notice of on organi- an election to be held in such proposed district, for the purpose of determining whether or not the same shall be organized under the provisions of this Act. Such notice shall describe the boundaries so established, and shall designate a name for the proposed district, and said notice shall be published for at least three weeks previous to such election, in a newspaper published within the county in which the petition for the organization of the proposed district was presented; and if any portion of such proposed district is within another county or counties, then such notice shall be published for the same length of time in a newspaper published in each of said counties. Such notice shall require the electors to cast ballots, which shall contain the words "Irrigation District-Yes," or "Irrigation District-No," or words equivalent thereto, and also the names of persons to be voted for at said election. For the purposes of said election the Board of Supervisors must establish a convenient number of election precincts in said proposed district, and define the boundaries of the same. Such election shall be conducted as nearly as practicable in accordance with the general election laws of the State, but no particular form of ballot shall be required. Officers to SEC. 7. At such election there shall be elected a board of be elected. directors, and an assessor, tax collector, and treasurer; provided, that where a consolidation of officers as hereinafter provided for is deemed advisable in the organization of a district, the petitioners may request in their petition for organization such consolidation, and the Board of Supervisors calling the election shall in its order therefor announce such consolidation, and then only one person shall be elected to fill the several offices so consolidated. Qualifications of electors. Canvass of votes. Order to be filed with County SEC. 8. No person shall be entitled to vote at any election held under the provisions of this Act unless he possesses all the qualifications required of electors under the general election laws of the State. SEC. 9. The Board of Supervisors shall meet on the second Monday succeeding such election, and shall proceed to canvass the votes cast thereat, and if upon such canvass it appears that at least two thirds of all the votes cast are "Irrigation District-Yes," said board shall, by an order entered on its minutes, declare the territory duly organized as an irrigation district, under the name theretofore designated, and shall declare the persons receiving respectively the highest number of votes at said election to be duly elected. SEC. 10. Said board shall then cause a copy of such order, duly certified, to be immediately filed for record in the office Recorder. of the County Recorder of any county in which any portion of the lands embraced in such district are situated, and must also immediately forward a copy thereof to the clerk of the |