H. B. No. 654.] CHAPTER 96.

An Act to create a more efficient road system in Gregg, Harrison and Upshur counties, and to provide for the appointment of road overseers and to define the powers and jurisdiction of the commissioners' court with regard thereto, and to utilize the labor of county convicts and defaulting poll tax payers on the public roads of said counties, and to provide for the appointment of overseers to work such convicts and defaulting poll tax payers.

Section 1. Be it enacted "by the Legislature of the State of Texas: That the County Commissioners' Courts of Gregg, Harrison, and Upshur Counties, Texas, may cause all persons who may be convicted of any misdemeanor in any court in said counties for violation of State laws, and who may be committed to the jail of the county in default of the payment of the fine and the costs adjudged against such person or persons, to be worked upon the public roads of such county for such length of time as may be necessary to discharge and liquidate such fine and costs at the sum of fifty cents per day for each and every day such convict may work on such roads; provided, that no convicts shall be required to perform anv work upon such roads on Sunday, but they shall be given the same credit as if they had labored on that day.

Sec. 2. The Commissioners' Court shall appoint an overseer for the purpose of working the convicts and defaulting poll tax payers mentioned in Section one of this act, who shall hold his office for the term. of two years, and such overseer shall receive such compensation for hi* services as may be prescribed and fixed by the Commissioners' Court not, however, to be less than one dollar per day for the time actually served by such overseer.

Sec. 3. The overseer herein provided for may be removed from office- by the court appointing him, for good cause, to be determined by such, court, and the vacancy thus occasioned may be filled by said court for the unexpired term of any overseer removed for cause.

Sec. 4. Every insolvent poll tax payer of Gregg, Harrison, and Upshur Counties, who shall fail or refuse to pay his poll tax, and from whom such tax can not be otherwise collected by law, shall be permitted to pay such tax by working on the public county roads of said counties,, at the rate of one dollar per day. In order to enforce the provisions of this section, the tax collector of the county shall furnish to the several road overseers of the county the names of all defaulting poll tax payers- of the county on or before the first day of March of each and every year,- giving the place of residence of such defaulting tax payer, together with the amount due and unpaid by him. For such services such road overseer shall be exempt from road service. It shall be the duty of road overseers herein provided for, whenever any defaulting poll tax payer shall have discharged and paid the same as herein provided, to report the same back to the tax collector, who shall credit the party on the tax roll for the amount thus paid; said- overseer shall, also, report the same in his regular report to the Commissioners' Court; provided, that no fine or any penalty shall be recovered of any defaulting insolvent poll tax payers for failure to work out their poll tax indebtedness under the provisions of this act.

Sec. 5. This act shall be cumulative of all general laws of this State on the subject of roads and bridges, and the employment of county convicts, not in conflict herewith; and, when not otherwise provided herein,- such general law shall apply; but in case of conflict with general laws, this act shall govern; and the courts of the State shall have and take- judicial knowledge of this act in the same manner and to the same extent as they are required to know and notice the general laws of the State.

Sec. 6. The near approach of the close of the present session of the Legislature and the vast amount of important business now pending, and the fact that the public roads of Gregg, Harrison, and Upshur counties are now in a deplorable condition, for the want of a more efficient road system, creates an emergency, and an imperative public necessity exists that the constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three- several days be suspended, and that this act take effect and be in force from and after its passage, and it is so enacted.

[note.—The foregoing act passed the House (vote not given); and' passed the Senate by a two-thirds vote, yeas 21, nays none.]

[note.—The foregoing act was presented to the Governor of Texas: for his approval, on Tuesday, the thirteenth day of April, A. D. 1897, but was not signed by him nor returned to the house in which it originated with his objections thereto within the time prescribed by the Constitution, and thereupon became a law without his signature.—J. W. Madden, Secretary of State.]