purpose than as herein before declared, shall be deemed a felony, and the party thus offending shall be subject to the penalties as provided by law for such offenses. CHAP. XCVIII.-An Act to provide for the government of unincorporated towns in this State. [Approved March 8, 1879.] The People of the State of Nevada, represented in Senate and Commissiouers, powers Petition of for a town of intent to file petition. Time of filing Notification notification of petition. Public ation Signatures SECTION 1. In addition to the powers and jurisdiction con- County ferred by other laws, the Board of County Commissioners of this State shall have the following, with regard to the manage- additional ment of the affairs and business of any unincorporated town in granted. their respective counties: First. Whenever a majority of the taxpayers, as appears from the last assessment roll, represent- taxpayers ing a majority of the taxable property of such town, petition government the Board of County Commissioners for a town goverument, Form of subject to the rules, regulations, government, and such other petition. by-laws, rules, regulations, and stating the metes and bounds of said town as the petitioners may designate and prescribe. The said Board of Commissioners shall, in accordance with the petition presented by said petitioners, examine and find that it appears from the books of the County Clerk that fifteen days previous to the filing of the aforesaid petition of the majority of taxpayers of such town, a notification of intent to present petition shall have been filed with the County Clerk, and published in at least one issue of some newspaper published in the The genuine- to be county, signed by five taxpayers of such town. ness of the signatures to the taxpayers' petition for town gov- attested as ernment shall be attested by at least three reliable taxpayers uineness. of such town, and the sufficiency of the petition, as regards sufficiency the number of petitioners and amount of taxable property represented by said petitioners, shall be passed and determined upon by comparison with the last assessment roll, by the County Commissioners, and if found sufficient, as by this section hereinbefore required, the Board of County Commissioners shall then have power: First. To establish and prescribe the metes and bounds of such town, the name by which such town shall be known (naming the town); Second. To levy and collect taxes on all property in such town made taxable by law, both real and personal, for sanitary purposes and payment of clerk, which Purposes of shall not exceed the sum of one quarter of one per cent. on each one hundred dollars value of taxable property. Such taxes shall be levied, assessed and collected at the same time and in the same manner as State and county taxes are levied, assessed and collected. All moneys collected under the provis to gen of amount of taxable property to be deter mined upon Metes and bounds to be estab lished. Tax levy. tax. Limit of taxation. Taxes, how assessed and collected. Collections to go to town fund. Improvements. Payment for im prove ments provided for. Pro rata frontage. Provision for fire Department etc. Create Fire Department in certain cases. ions of this Act shall be paid into the County Treasury to the Town Fund; Third. To raise, lower, widen, open, extend, and build sidewalks; to grade, open, widen and extend streets and alleys; to remove obstructions from sidewalks, streets or alleys; to provide for proper and sufficient drainage, sewerage and cleansing of said town, and require payment therefor of the property owners whose frontage is on the block street, or alley where such work is performed. The amount required for payment thereof shall be collected pro rata of the owners of frontage proportionate to the amount of such frontage on such improved street, alley or sidewalk. No such improvement shall be made except upon petition to the Board of County Commissioners of a majority of the frontage property owners upon any street, alley or block whereou such improvements are desired; Fourth. To provide for the prevention and extinguishment of fires; also to organize and regulate fire companies, or to create a fire department in any town that shall have two or more compauies, and to provide for the election of a Chief of said department, whose salary (said Chief's) shall not exceed the sum of forty dollars per month, payable out of the regular tax levied for fire purposes; Fifth. To regulate the storage of gunpowder powder, etc. and other combustible material; Sixth. To levy and collect an annual tax upon all dogs within the town, and to provide for the extermination of dogs for which such tax shall not have been To regulate paid; Seventh. To regulate houses of ill-fame, and establish and prescribe a district within which such houses shall be kept in such town; Eighth. To prevent and abate nuisances; also to determine what are nuisances; Ninth. The Board of County Commissioners shall provide, by order, for the annual election of the Chief of the Fire Department; Tenth. The Board of published. County Commissioners shall publish at least once a week, for two consecutive weeks, all orders of a general character, and shall make all needful rules and regulations governing all matmake rules. ters and things herein before mentioned. Election of Chief Storage of Dog tax. houses of ill-fame. Remove nuisances. Town orders to be Commissioners to Property Owners liable for improve penalty for refusal to pay. Suits for recovery. SEC. 2. If any person or persons shall fail or refuse to pay the amount, or pro rata amount required by the Board upon their order duly made and entered in the minutes of their proments, and ceedings for the improvements mentioned in this Act, after the publication of notice thereof in a newspaper at least once a week for two consecutive weeks, as provided in section one of this Act, suit may be brought in the name of the said town against such person or persons for the recovery of such amount or pro rata amount remaining unpaid by such person or persons; such actions shall be tried in the same manner as other civil actions. It shall be the duty of the District Attorney of the county to prosecute all such actions, for which he shall receive a fee of three dollars, and five per cent. on the amount recovered to be collected as costs, provided, that in no case shall his services, fee, or fees, or percentage become a charge against, or paid by the town. Trial of suits. District Attorney's duties. Fees. Town orders. Violations. SEC. 3. Any and all orders made and published as provided in section one by the Board of Police, sanitary regulation or government of said town, shall be known as a town order or orders, and it shall be unlawful for any person or persons to violate any order, rule, or regulation made by the board for the government of said town, and any person or persons violating Penalty. any such order, rule or regulation to carry out the provisions of this Act, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine of not less than fifty dollars, nor more than five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment in the County Jail for a period of one day for each two dollars of such fine. The same fees may be allowed in such Fees, cases as in other criminal actions, to be collected from the defendants; provided, in no case shall the fees of any officer whatever become a charge against, or be paid by, such town. Record book kept by the Clerk. County Salary of Clerk. How payable. must not exceed the income. SEC. 4. The County Clerk shall keep a separate book for each town operating under the provisions of this Act, wherein shall be kept a record of the proceedings of the Board of County Commissioners relative to business affecting said town. The salary of the County Clerk for keeping such books shall not exceed in the aggregate the sum of three hundred dollars per annum, and shall be paid quarterly out of the moneys collected by taxation, and from the fund provided for in section one of this Act for sanitary and clerkship purposes. The current expenses Expenses of the town for any one year shall not exceed the amount of money on hand and the incoming revenues of said year. SEC. 5. Whenever the inhabitants of any unincorporated Dissolution town of this State, that may have adopted the provisions of this of town government Act for its government, becomes desirous of relieving themselves of its provisions, a petition signed and presented to the Board Petition for of County Commissioners in the same manner as required for the adoption of the provisions of this Act, as per section one herein, then said board shall declare the town government dissolved and at an end; provided, no debts or demands against such town then exist; and, provided further, that twelve months shall have elapsed from the date of the adoption of the provisions of this Act for the government of such town. dissolution. Proviso. CHAP. XCIX.-An Act to prevent slavery or involuntary servitude, unless for the punishment of crime, in the State of Nevada, and to enforce the provisions of Section seventeen of Article one of the Constitution of the State of Nevada. [Approved March 8, 1879.] WHEREAS, all Chinese who come to this Coast arrive here Preamble. under a contract to labor for a term of years, and are bound by such contract, not only by the superstitions of their peculiar religions, but by leaving their blood relations, fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, or cousins, as hostages in China for the fulfilment of their part of the contract; and whereas, such slave labor and involuntary servitude is opposed to the genius of our institutions, opposed to the prevailing spirit of the age, as well Relative to involuntary servitude. Unlawful to collect wages by any company, person or persons. Unlawful to pay wages to any company or agent for services. Penalty for Act. as to humanity and Christianity, and degrades the dignity of labor, which is the foundation of Republican Institutions; and whereas, Section Seventeen of Article one of the Constitution of the State of Nevada reads as follows: "Neither slavery, nor involuntary servitude, unless for the punishment of crimes, shall ever be tolerated in this State;" therefore, The People of the State of Nevada, represented in Senate and SECTION 1. The immigration to this State of all slaves and other people bound by contract to involuntary servitude for a term of years, is hereby prohibited. SEC. 2. It shall be unlawful for any company, person or persons, to collect the wages or compensation for the labor of the persons described in the first section of this Act. SEC. 3. It shall be unlawful for any corporation, company, person or persons, to pay to any owner, or agent of the owner of any such persons mentioned in section one of this Act, any wages or compensation for the labor of such slaves, or persons so bound by said contract to involuntary servitude. SEC. 4. Any violation of any of the provisions of this Act, violation of shall be deemed a misdemeanor, and shall be punished by a fine of not less than three hundred dollars, nor more than one thousand dollars, or by imprisonment in the County Jail for a term of not less than three months or more than six months, or by both such fine and imprisonment. Relative to accepting from the United States two million acres of land. CHAP. C.-An Act accepting from the United States a grant of two millions or more acres of land, in lieu of the Sixteenth and Thirty-sixth Sections, and relinquishing to the United States all such Sixteenth and Thirty-sixth Sections as have not been sold or disposed of by the State. [Approved March 8, 1879.] The People of the State of Nevada, represented in Senate and SECTION 1. The State of Nevada hereby acccepts from the United States not less than two millions of acres of land in the State of Nevada, in lieu of the Sixteenth and Thirty-sixth Sections heretofore granted to the State of Nevada by the United States; provided, that the title of the State and its guarantees, to such Sixteenth and Thirty-sixth Sections as may have been sold or disposed of by the State, prior to the enactment of any such law of Congress granting such two millions or more acres of land to the State, shall not be changed or vitiated in consequence of, or by virtue of, such Act of Congress granting such two millions or more acres of land, or in consequence of, or by virtue of, this Act, surrendering and relinquishing to the United States the Sixteenth and Thirty-sixth Sections, unsold or undisposed of at the time such grant is made by the United States. SEC. 2. The State of Nevada, in consideration of such grant of two millions or more acres of land by the United States, hereby relinquishes and surrenders to the United States all its claim and title to such Sixteenth and Thirty-sixth Sections, in the State of Nevada, heretofore granted by the United States, as shall not have been sold or disposed of subsequent to the passage of any Act of Congress that may hereafter be made, granting such two millions or more acres of land to the State of Nevada; provided, that the State of Nevada shall have the right to select the two millions or more acres of land mentioned in this Act. CHAP CI.-An Act to authorize the County Commissioners of Washoe County to issue Bonds for the Construction of a Bridge across the Truckee River at Wadsworth, in said County, and to provide for the same. [Approved March 8, 1879.] The People of the State of Nevada, represented in Senate and Empowering the Board of County Commissioners of Washoe issue bonds. County to For the construction of a bridge across the Truckee SECTION 1. The County Commissioners of Washoe County are hereby authorized and empowered, when in their judgment and discretion they may deem the same necessary and for the best interests of the county, to issue bonds in the name of the county to the extent of four thousand dollars, payment of both prin- $4,000. cipal and interest thereof, for the purpose of constructing a bridge across the Truckee River at the town of Wadsworth, in said county. Said bridge shall be constructed of wood or iron, or both, as said County Commissioners may determine, and shall be of sufficient width for wagons to pass. SEC. 2. The Commissioners shall cause said bonds to be prepared. They shall be signed by the Chairman of the Board, and countersigned by the Clerk of the Board, indorsed by the County Treasurer and authenticated with the seal of the County Clerk. Coupons for interest shall be attached to each bond, Coupons for so that the coupon may be removed without injury to the bond, and coupons consecutively numbered shall be signed by the County Treasurer River. Bonds to be signed by. interest. Wadsworth SEC. 3. The County Commissioners are hereby duly authorized to negotiate the sale of the said bonds, the proceeds of created. which shall be placed in the County Treasury to the credit of a fund, to be known as the Wadsworth Bridge Fund, for the purposes mentioned in this Act. SEC. 4. The bonds shall be of the denomination of one hun- Denominadred dollars and upward, and shall be numbered from one to the tion of bonds. |