drainage works over and through any lands which are now or may be the property of this state.

SEC. 30. All claims against the district must be presented to the board for audit and allowance, and if legal charges against the district, the same must be paid by the treasurer, on warrants of the district, signed by the president of the board, and countersigned by the secretary; provided, that the board shall not have power to audit or allow any claim against the district, or to draw any warrant for the payment of the same, which shall exceed in any fiscal year the revenue provided for such fiscal year.

SEC. 31. Each member of the board of directors shall receive three dollars per day for each day's attendance at the meetings of the board, and actual and necessary expenses paid while engaged in official business under the order of the board. The board shall fix the compensation of the assessment commissioners, secretary, treasurer, and collector, which shall be paid out of the treasury of the district in like manner as other expenses are paid.

SEC. 32. 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 drainage.

SEC. 33. This act shall take effect from and after its passage.

The act of the legislature of April 23, 1880 [Stats. p. 389], entitled "To promote drainage," by its terms constituted the governor, surveyor-general and the state engineer, members of a board of drainage commissioners, with authority to divide the state into drainage districts, and authorized the governor to appoint directors in the several districts. The boards of directors were empowered to condemn lands for rights of way and to purchase materials, let contracts, and levy taxes upon

all the property in the district; the taxes to be paid into the county treasury, and a state tax of one-twentieth of one per cent. was also directed to be levied (at the same time and in the same manner as other state and county taxes), upon all the taxable property in the state, which latter tax was to be placed and kept by the state treasurer in a "state drainage construction fund," and this fund was to be used exclusively for the construction of dams for impounding debris from mines and for the improvement and ratification [rectification] of river channels in which such debris flows. It was further provided that nothing in the act should "affect in any manner whatever, the laws in force in relation to reclamation and levee districts."

The entire act was under consideration in the case of People v. Parks, 58 Cal. 635, and by the decision of a divided court it was held that the title of the act did not express or include all the objects or subjects of the act, that drainage and the storage of debris were essentially different subjects; that the authorization of a state tax for private enterprise was unconstitutional; that the act was unconstitutional in that it did not designate the locality where drainage was necessary: that the legislature had no power to create a board composed of executive officers of the state and delegate to it legislative powers; and that the provisions for a local and a state tax on the same property, for the same purpose and in the same year were unconstitutional.

Districts having been organized and debts contracted and work done under this act caused considerable litigation, and also resulted in the act of 1885 [Stats. p. 78], providing for the payment of warrants outstanding and unpaid against the funds of said districts. Following are the decisions of the supreme court resulting from said legislation: Miller v. Dunn, 72 Cal. 462; Callahan v. Dunn, 78 Cal. 366; Roddan v. Doane, 92 Cal. 555; Craddock v. O'Brien, 104 Cal. 217.

A new act "To promote drainage" was approved March 18, 1885 [Stats. p. 204], and sections three and thirteen of that act were amended by act approved March 31, 1891. [Stats. p. 262.] The scheme for the organization of such districts under the last named acts was the same as in the present act, that is, by petition to supervisors, publication of notice of petition, etc., but the proceedings differ in many important respects. The act of 1885, commenced: "Whenever the owners of two-thirds of any body of lands susceptible of one method of drainage," etc., the publication of notice was to be for a period of four weeks, and by-laws were authorized to be adopted providing for the appointment of future trustees, and to effect the work of drainage and to keep the works in repair and operation; in short, by-laws were intended to provide for much that is provided for in the present

statute.

As to drainage or reclamation of swamp and overflowed lands, see the Political Code,

sections 3440 to 3494, and act of March 11, 1893 [Stats. p. 174], granting appeals to the superior court from orders of boards of supervisors relating to creating or consolidating districts, or including or excluding lands in or from such districts.

PROTECTION

DISTRICTS.

An act to provide for the formation of protection districts in the various counties of this state, for the improvement and rectification of the channels of innavigable streams and watercourses, for the prevention of the overflow thereof, by widening, deepening, and straightening and otherwise improving the same, and to authorize the boards of supervisors to levy and collect assessments from the property benefited to pay the expenses of the same.

[Approved March 27, 1895, Stats. p. 248.]

SECTION 1. Whenever the board of supervisors of any county in this state may deem it proper to improve and rectify the channel of any innavigable stream or

watercourse within the county, and to prevent the overflow of such stream by widening, deepening, or straightening its course, or by erecting levees or dikes upon its banks, the board may, upon a petition of ten property holders of the district to be affected by such improvements, pass a resolution signifying its

intention to improve such innavigable stream or watercourse, describing the exterior boundaries of the district of lands to be affected or benefited by such work or improvement, and to be assessed to pay the damages, costs, and expenses thereof, the character of work or improvement contemplated, and the place where the proposed work or improvement is to be done. Such resolution shall also contain a notice, to be published, which notice shall be headed "Notice of intention of the Board of Supervisors to form a Protection District," and shall state the fact of the passage of such resolution, with the date thereof, and briefly, the work or improvement proposed, and the statement that it is proposed to assess all property affected or benefited by such improvement for the expenses thereof, and refer to the resolution for further particulars. Such notice to be given by the board of supervisors, and signed by its clerk.

SEC. 2. Such notice shall be published for a period of thirty days, in one daily newspaper published and circulated in such county, and designated by said board of supervisors; or if there is no daily newspaper so published and circulated in said county, then by four successive insertions in a weekly or semi-weekly newspaper so published, circulated and designated.

SEC. 3. Any person interested objecting to such work or improvement, or to the extent of the district of lands to be affected or benefited by such work or improvement, and to be assessed to pay the cost and expenses thereof, may make written objections to the same, within ten days after the expiration of the time of the publication of said notice, which objection shall be delivered to the clerk of said board of supervisors, who shall indorse thereon the date of its reception by him, and at the next regular meeting of such board of supervisors, or at an adjourned meeting, or a special meeting called for that purpose, after the expiration of said ten days, lay such objections before said board of supervisors, which shall fix a