son convicted of violating the provisions of this act, shall be fined in a sum not exceeding one thousand dollars, or imprisoned for not more than six months in the parish jail, or both, at the discretion of the court.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT FUND.

3021. Fund Created.-A fund shall be created, to be denominated "The Internal Improvement Fund," to be applied exclusively to the purpose of rendering navigable and uniting by canals the principal water courses, and of more intimately connecting by public highways the different parts of the State (Act 342, 1855, 487).

3022. Of What Fund Shall Consist.-This fund shall consist of the unexpended balance in the treasury, together with all that may hereafter be received from the proceeds of the public lands granted to this State by Act of Congress, approved September the fourth, eighteen hundred and forty-one.

ROAD AND LEVEE FUND.

3023. Fund Created-Of What It Shall Consist. The unexpended balance, together with all that may hereafter be received from the five per centum of the net proceeds of the sales of the public lands of the United States in this State, appropriated by the fifth section of an Act of Congress, approved February sixteenth, eighteen hundred and eleven, for roads and levees, is set apart for that purpose, to be called "Road and Levee Fund," to be expended for the sole purpose of making roads and levees (Act 342, 1855, 487).

3024. What Expenses May Be Charged to It.-Whenever the State hands shall be employed in making or opening any road, or constructing any levee, all the expenses for the time being, while therein employed, shall be charged to the Road and Levee Fund.

LEVEES.

3025. Certain Works to be Removed.-If any person shall erect any work in front of the levee, on the banks of the Mississippi, out of the limits of New Orleans, either by making a new levee, building houses, sheds, dikes, or keys, so as to impede its navigation, or to encroach on that part of the bank reserved by law for the use of the public, or for roads used for tracking, whether said works or buildings be only commenced or completed, without having applied to the police jury and obtained from them permission, the said works shall be destroyed, or removed, if susceptible thereof, to such a distance from the river, as may be required by the ordinance of the police jury; in either case, at the expense of the owner (Act 1830, Sec. 6, p. 118).

3026. Land Owners Permitted to Build Certain Levees.-The owners of plantations and other lands are hereby authorized and empowered to surround the same with levees, to protect them from inundations; but the natural drains and servitudes shall not be obstructed to the injury of any adjoining plantations or lands (Act 277, 1852, Sec. 1, p. 192).

3027. Cutting or Damaging Levees.-Any person who shall cut or otherwise damage or destroy any levee, erected for the purpose of protecting plantations or lands from inundation, shall, on conviction thereof, be subject to imprisonment in the parish prison, for a period not less than thirty days, nor more than six months, and shall further be liable by civil action, for all damages which may be sustained by the owner of the plantation or land so leveed or to any other person who may be damaged by such wrongful act.

See Secs. 925 to 927.

3028. To What Parishes Not Applicable-The provisions of the two preceding sections shall not apply to the parishes of Concordia, Tensas, Madison and Carroll (Act 287, 1853, Sec. 1, p. 259).

3029. Police Juries to Build Levees.-The police juries of the several parishes subject to overflow are hereby authorized and required to have temporary levees made in their respective parishes, and for this purpose they are hereby empowered to call out all citizens subject to road duty to work on such levees; Provided, That they shall not require more than six days' work on any or all such levees from each or any of said citizens (Act 207, 1868, 271).

3030 Citizens to Work on Levees When Called on -Any citizen subject to road duty, who shall be regularly summoned and notified in accordance to the regulations prescribed by the police jury to work on such levees, and who shall fail to work on the levees provided for in section 3029 of this act, shall forfeit and pay the sum of two dollars per day for every day he shall fail to work, to be recovered before any justice of the peace having jurisdiction of the case, which fine, when so recovered, shall be paid into the parish treasury, and be used in paying the wages of laborers on such levees.

3031. Compensation for Work.-Each citizen required to work on the levees, as is provided by this act, shall be allowed one dollar per day for each day's work, and receive rations, and each laborer shall be entitled to a certificate from the police jury of the amount due him, which certificate is to be paid by the parishes in which the levees are built, when in funds.

FUNDS AND TAXATION FOR LEVEES.

Act 60, 1886, p. 100.

AN ACT to amend and re-enact Act No. 83 of the year 1884, entitled "An Act to amend and re-enact Act No. 73 of the year 1882, entitled 'An Act relative to the distribution of the funds derived from the taxes levied on all property subject to taxation, for the maintenance and repair of levees.'”

SECTION 1. Distribution of General Engineer Fund. That the distribution of the funds derived from the taxes levied annually on all property subject to taxation, within the State, for the maintenance and repairs of levees, known as the General Engineer Fund," shall be distributed by the State Treasurer, in the year 1886, and each succeeding year, as follows to-wit:

That seventy-five per centum of the net amount of said money accruing to the General Engineer Fund shall be set aside and expended, as now provided by law, in what is known as the levee districts of the State, as now constituted, Tensas Basin Levee District excepted. That nine and one-half per cent. of the net amount of the fund shall be set aside for and expended annually in such portions of the sub-districts of Caddo, Bossier, Red river and De Soto, and part of Natchitoches north of township line between townships 9 and 10 north, or in either of them, in whole or in part, as may be determined by the Board of State Engineers. That three and one-half per cent. shall be expended annually in such proportions of the sub-districts of Natchitoches, north of township line between 9 and 10 north, Rapides and Grant, or in either of them, as may be determined by the Board of State Engineers.

That ten per cent. of the net amount of the fund shall be set aside for and expended annually in the Tensas Basin Levee District, or in the State of Arkansas, in whole or in part, as shall be determined by the Board of Levee Engineers; provided, that the amount herein set aside from the proceeds of the levee tax for use in the Tensas Basin Levee District and the sub-districts of Caddo, Bossier, Red River and that part of Natchitoches north of the dividing line between townships 9 and 10 north shall be in lieu of the amount now received by said Tensas Levee District and of said sub-districts of Caddo, etc.; provided, that for the year 1892 and subsequent years the sum of $10,000 of said fund shall first be paid to the Board of Commissioners of the Orleans Levee District, to be expended by them before the distribution provided for in this Act shall be made (as amended by Act 102, 1892, p. 133).

SEC. 2. Discretion Vested in Board of Engineers.-That when in the judgment of the Board of State Engineers it shall become necessary to use any more than the amount herein named in any district or sub-district, that they are hereby empowered to expend the amount which, in their judgment, seems most advantageous to the general good and welfare of the State, it being the true intent and meaning of this Act that the funds shall be distributed as herein apportioned in all ordinary emergencies, but should extraordinary emergencies arise then the whole of the General Engineer Fund may be applied, or any part thereof, as the board may, in their judgment, deem best and more judicious, and may be expended in any district or sub-district, or any part of such district or sub-district; provided, That no part of said levee fund shall be applied to the payment of any levee or levees built without previous contract with the State.

SEC. 3. Repealing Clause. That all parts of laws in conflict with this act be and the same are hereby repealed in so far as the same conflict herewith.

See Act 33, 1879. State Board of Engineers. Printed at p. 721.

See Act 11, 1884, p. 19.

future sales of swamp lands

Balance of Levee and Drainage Fund and proceeds of transferred to General Engineer Fund.

See Act 35, 1892, p. 42. "High Water Emergency Fund" created, and $30,000 out of "General Fund" of 1891, appropriated to it for the protection and repairs of levees threatened or broken by the high waters of 1892.

Act 8, 1888, p. 8.

AN ACT to carry into effect Article 214 of the Constitution of this State relative to the formation of levee districts and the levying of taxes for levee purposes, as amended at the general election of April 17, 1888; to prescribe the manner and provide for the cost of submitting certain district levee taxes to a vote of property taxpayers, as required by said amended Article 214; to except the parish of Orleans from the operation of this act; to repeal all acts and parts of acts in conflict with this act, and to give it effect from and after its promulgation.

SEC. 1. Levy of Taxes by Commissioners.—That the levee commissioners of the several levee districts of this State are hereby empowered to levy at any meeting at which there is a quorum by a majority vote of the commissioners present at such meeting, all district levee taxes authorized by Article 214 of the Constitution as amended at the last general election.

SEC. 2. Increase to be Submitted to Voters.-That whenever the commisssioners of any of said levee districts shall deem it necessary to increase the rate of taxation for levee purposes in their district beyond the limit named in said amended Article 214 of the Constitution, they shall by a majority vote pass a resolution setting forth the reason for an increased rate of taxation, and ordering such rate of taxation as they may deem necessary to be submitted to a vote of the property taxpayers of their districts, as required in said amended Article 214 of the Constitution, on a day to be fixed by them and stated in their resolution, not less than sixty days after the date of the meeting at which such resolution is adopted. The president of the board of levee commissioners shall then transmit, without delay, to the sheriff of each parish lying within, or partly within, such levee district, a notice of the order for a vote of property taxpayers, with a certified copy of the resolution in which such order is made.

SEC. 3. Sheriff's Duty-Election.-That upon the receipt of such order and resolution the sheriff of any parish comprised within, or any part of which is comprised within such levee district, shall give due notice, by publication in the same manner as is required by law for the publication of notices of elections, of the time and places at which a vote of the property tax-payers will be taken, which notice and publication shall recite the resolution of the levee commissioners, under which the vote is ordered, and that part of amended Article 214 of the Constitution authorizing such vote of property tax-payers. The said sheriff shall appoint all necesssary commissioners for freely and fairly taking and counting such vote, and shall make true and prompt return of the result, these both as to number and value, to the president of the board of levee commissioners.

SEC. 4. Assessor's Duty-Lists.-That the assessor of each of the several parishes as aforesaid, shall furnish to the sheriff of his parish a list or lists of all the property tax-payers of his parish entitled to vote under the provisions of amended Article 214 of the Constitution, with the value of their property, and shall assist the sheriff in the ascertainment of the true and lawful vote cast in his parish.

SEC. 5. Returns of Election-Proceedings to Collect Tax.-That the president of the board of levee commissioners upon the receipt of the returns from the sheriffs of the several parishes of his levee district, showing the result of any vote on a district levee tax submitted to the property tax-payers as hereinbefore provided, shall proceed to canvass and compile the same; and if it shall appear that a majority in number and value of the votes cast by the property taxpayers of his district have been in favor of the tax submitted in accordance with amended Article 214 of the Constitution, he shall certify the same to the Auditor of Public Accounts, and transmit to him the returns received from the sheriff, to be kept on file in the Auditor's office; whereupon the Auditor of Public Accounts shall cause the tax so levied to be extended upon the tax rolls, and collected in the same manner and under the same regulations as other district levee taxes are collected.

SEC. 6. Expenses of Election, How Paid.-That the expenses of submitting such tax to a vote, as hereinbefore provided, shall be paid to the several sheriffs upon their own warrant, approved by the president of the board of levee commissioners, out of the funds to the credit of the district in which such vote has been taken.

SEC. 7. Act Not Applicable to Orleans.-That the provisions of this act shall not apply to the parish of Orleans, or to any levee districts wholly within said parish of Orleans.

Abascal vs. Bouny, 37 An. 538.

Act 65, 1894, p. 74.

AN ACT to secure the more effective collection of the special assessments and forced contributions authorized to be levied by the Levee Board of the State, imposing certain duties in connection thereto upon assessors and sheriffs; prohibiting the Auditor of the State from auditing for the compensation of said assessors until said duties are performed; prohibiting the removal of produce liable to special assessment or forced contribution from the limits of the parish or district where raised until such assessment or contribution has been paid; imposing penalties for the violation of this act upon owners of such produce, and upon railroad companies, and the owners and officers of boats, vessels, and other water craft and on common carriers; providing for the manner and mode of enforcing said penalties; granting a lien and privilege to secure the payment of said assessments and contributions and penalties, and conferring jurisdiction upon the courts of the parish where such assessments or forced contributions are collectible.

SECTION 1. Special Produce Tax-Penalties for Evasion.-That produce liable to special assessment or forced contribution shall not be removed from the limits of the parish or levee district where the same has been raised until the special assessment or forced contribution thereof shall have been paid; said payment to be evidenced by the receipt of the sheriff on forms of receipt to be furnished by the several levee boards of the State to the sheriffs of the parishes within the limits of their respective district; for any violation of this law the owners of the produce so removed shall be liable for and forfeit and pay, and also any railroad company or other carrier, or any steamboat, vessel, or other water craft or the owners, or master or person or persons in command of such boat, vessel or other water-craft, removing such produce or aiding or concerned in the removal thereof, shall be liable for and forfeit and pay, and also the sheriff of the parish where the produce has been raised shall be liable for and forfeit and pay to the Levee Board within the limits of whose levee district such parish is situated, double the amount of the special assessment or forced contribution for which said produce is and was liable, together with all costs including attorney's fees, which said fees are hereby fixed at fifteen dollars in each case, to be taxed as costs.

SEC. 2. Suits Therefor, Where Brought. That the penalties, costs and attorney's fees provided for in section one of this act shall be recovered by civil action brought in the name of the Levee Board to which the special assessment or forced contribution is payable before the District Court or any Justice of the Peace Court of the parish in which said produce was raised, according to the amount involved.

SEC. 3. Service of Legal Process.-That the service of any and all judicial processes under the provisions of this act upon any steamboat, vessel, or water-craft, or the owners, masters or persons in command thereof may be made on board thereof upon the master, clerk or mate of such boat, vessel or other water-craft, or other person exercising the functions of said officers.

SEC. 4. Taxes Are a Lien on Property. That the special assessment or forced contribution levied on produce by the Levee Boards of this State shall be secured by first lien and privilege on such produce and on all other property of the person owning the same situated in the parish, and in case of suit to recover same, all costs, and penalties, and attorney's fees as hereinabove fixed, shall be secured by the same lien and privilege; provided. that said lien and privilege on the produce shall be prescribed in ten days from removal from the parish where said produce has been raised; and if said produce has been transferred to a bona fide purchaser the said lien and privilege shall be prescribed in five days from such removal.

SEC. 5. And on Boats and Vessels.—That the penalties, costs, and attorney's fees provided for by Section 1 of this act against boats, vessels and other water-craft shall be secured by first lien and privilege upon said boat, vessel or other water craft.