AN ACT to locate the seat of Government of Montana Territory. Be it enacted by the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Montana: SEC. 1. The seat of government of the Territory of Montana 1067 be and the same in hereby located at the city of Virginia, in the county of Madison. SEC. 2. The actual site of said capitol buildings shall be within the corporate limits of the city of Virginia, and the ground for the same shall be selected by three commissioners, to wit: George Christman of Bannack City, R. B. Parrott of Virginia City, and W. F. Sanders of Virginia City, who shall have power to perfect a title for the same at a cost of not more than two hundred dollars; and the grounds so selected by a majority of said commissioners shall be the site of the seat of government for this Territory. SEC. 3. The commissioners shall within ninety days after the adjournment of the present legislature meet at the city of Virginia and proceed to select the ground, as prescribed in the previous section, and shall make a statement of the same, under oath, which with other papers relating thereto shall be placed on file in the office of the secretary of the Territory. SEC. 4. The commissioners shall be allowed the sum of ten dollars each per day while engaged in locating said capitol grounds, and thirty cents per mile in travelling to and from the city of Virginia on said business, and that one week be allowed for said purpose, which said money shall he paid out of the treasury of the Territory from moneys not otherwise appropriated. SEC 5 All the civil officers of this Territory whose residences are required by law to be at the seat of government hereby established, and all of the officers of this Territory who are required by law to keep their offices at the seat of government, are required to move their offices to the said seat of government at the earliest practicable time. SEC 6. This act to take effect and be in force from and after the adjournment of the present legislative assembly. [Approved February 7, 1865.] 39 Cal 65 tox schools x AN ACT establishing a Common School system for the Territory of Montana. CHAPTER 1: Homende '69 \ 66x SCHOOL FUND. ་་ 170 \ 115. Be it enacted by the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Montana: SEC. 1. That the principal of all moneys accruing to this Territory from the sale of any land heretofore given, or which may hereafter be given, by the Congress of the United States for school purposes, shall constitute an irreducible fund, the interest accruing from which shall be annually divided among all the school districts in the Territory proportionally to the number of youth or children. in each between the ages of four and twenty-one years, for the support of common schools in said districts, and for no other use or purpose whatever. SEC. 2. For the purpose of establishing and maintaining common schools, it shall be the duty of the county commissioners of each county to lay an annual tax of on the dollar on all taxable property of the county as shown by the assessment rolls made by the county assessors for the same year, and to include the same in their warrant to the collector, and the said collector shall proceed to collect the said tax in the same manner as the other county tax is collected, and the said money so collected shall be paid over to the county treasurer to be appropriated for the hire of school teachers in the several school districts, to be drawn in the manner hereinafter prescribed; neither shall it be lawful for any county treasurer to receive county orders in payment of county school tax, nor to pay out any school money on county orders. SEC. 3. For the further support of common schoo's there shall be set apart by the county treasurer all moneys paid into the county treasury arising from all fines for a breach of any law regulating license for the sale of intoxicating liquors, or for the keeping of bowling alleys or billiard saloons, or of any penal laws of this Territory. Such Such moneys shall be paid into the county treasury, ما 107,06 and be added to the yearly school fund raised by tax in each county, and divided in the same manner. SEC. 4. That it shall be the duty of the county auditor of each county to report to the county superintendent of common schools at least twenty days before the first Friday of November of each year the amount of enrol tax levied in their respective counties for that year, and that it be the duty of the clerk of the district court, at the close of every term thereof, to report to the superintendent the amount of fines imposed during said term of court, and that it be the duty of all justices of the peace to report to the superintendant at least twenty days before the first Friday in November in each year the amount of fines imposed and collected by them for the past year. Aud State COUNTY SUPERINTENDents. SEC. 1. There shall be elected by the legal voters of the respective counties, at the annual election, a county superintendent of common schools for each county, who shall hold his office for the term of three years, and until his successor is duly qualified. SEC. 2. The superintendent shall qualify, within ten days after notice of his election, by taking an oath to faithfully discharge the duties of his office and to the best of his ability promote the interest of education within his county, which said oath shall be in writing, and placed on file in the county clerk's office. SEC. 3. It shall be the duty of the superintendent to district the whole county, so that every resident of the county shall be in some district, and to divide such portions of the county as shall be inhabited into convenient districts, to define the boundaries and numbers, and to prepare and keep in his office a map of the districts of the county, upon which the lines and boundaries of each district shall be clearly defined; he shall lay off new districts or divide old ones when the public good shall require it. SEC. 4. Whenever any school district shall be formed by the superintendent, it shall be his duty to prepare a notice in writing of the establishment of such district, describing its boundaries, and to deliver the same to some taxable inhabitant of such district who shall have asked for the formation of the same. It shall be the duty of said inhabitant, within two weeks after the receipt of such notice, to notify the other inhabitants of the district of the time and place of the first district meeting, which time and place he shall fix by written notices, and which shall be posted up in three public places in such district, at least ten days previous to the time of meeting. In case the inhabitants fail to attend in sufficient numbers to do business as hereafter directed, notice may be renewed at such times as may be thought proper. SEC. 5. It shall be the duty of the county superintendent to be at the county seat on the third Friday and Saturday of May and November of each year, for the purpose of making any alterations desired in districts, and for the purpose of examining teachers, and said superintendent shall give ten days public notice of the same by posting up handbills or otherwise, and any district applying on different days for the transaction of such business shall pay the superintendent a reasonable compensation for his trouble, not exceeding the sum of twelve dollars per day, and all teachers examined on different days shall pay to the superintendent the sum of six dollars. SEC. 6. It shall be the duty of the superintendent to examine all persons who wish to become teachers in his county he shall examine them in orthography, reading, writing, arithmetic, English grammar, and geography; and if he be of the opinion that the person examined is competent to teach such branches, and that he or she is of good character, he shall give such person a certificate, certifying that he or she is qualified to teach a common school in said county; such certificate shall be for the term of one year only, and may be revoked sooner by the superintendent for good cause. SEC. 7. The superintendent shall visit all the schools taught in his county by a qualified teacher, at least once a year; he shall give information and encouragement as he may think necessary, and endeavor to promote the introduction of a good and uniform system of school books throughout the county. SEC. 8. It shall be the duty of the superintendent to receive the district reports hereinafter provided for, and keep them on file in his office, and he shall on or before the first day of December of each year, make out from the district reports a statement of the number of scholars in the county, the number of school-houses, the number of districts, in how many districts a school has been kept the past year, what school-books are principally used, what proportion of all the scholars in the county have attended school for the past year, and the amount of money paid to teachers. This statement, together with such other information and suggestions as he may deem important to the cause of education, he shall file in his office, and may if convenient publish it in some newspaper in this Territory. SEC. 9. It shall be the duty of the superintendent at the same time to make an apportionment of the school fund in the county treasury, among the several school districts in their several counties, in proportion to the number of persons in the district over the age of four and under twenty-one years; and certify the amount due to each district, which shall be drawn as hereafter directed; and shall forthwith notify the clerks of the school districts of the amount due their respective districts. SEC. 10. When the districts shall have complied with the law as hereafter directed, it shall be the duty of the superintendent to issue orders on the county treasury in favor of the clerks of the districts for the amount of the school funds appropriated to each on the presentation of which order the treasurer of the county shall pay over to the clerks of the districts all moneys due the respective districts, and the clerks shall endorse on said order a receipt of so much as shall be paid thereon, and they shall also sign a duplicate receipt, which shall be deposited with the superintendent, who shall credit the treasury of the county therewith and charge the same to the proper district. SEC. 11. The superintendent shall, in the name of the county, collect or cause to be collected all moneys due the school fund from fines or from any other source in his county; and until the legislature shall make some provision for the disposal of the school lands given by Congress to the Territory for school purposes, it shall be the duty of the superintendent to preserve said lands from injury and trespass; and when it shall come to his knowledge that any trespass has been committed on such lands, he shall make complaint of the same before the grand jury of the proper county at the first regular term of court after he has obtained a knowledge of such trespass; and all fines and other moneys thus collected shall be paid over to the treasurer of the county, for the use of common |