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When the auditor shall assess and collect the tax on any such foreign corporation, he may include in the tax for any year any amount that such corporation should have paid for any previous year and failed to pay. All moneys collected by the secretary of state and the auditor shall be paid into the state treasury in the manner prescribed by law.

Sec. 133. It shall be the duty of the auditor, between the fifteenth day of the third month next preceding the first day of the license tax year and the fifteenth day of the second month next preceding the first day of the license tax year, in each year to notify every corporation liable to the tax imposed by this chapter, of the time of payment of such tax and the amount thereof; such notices may be sent through the mails, addressed to the corporation at its last known post office address as shown by the records in the office of the secretary of state, or be so sent or be delivered to the attorney of the corporation appointed pursuant to section twentyfour of chapter fifty-four of the code. If the auditor shall make a mistake in the amount of such tax the said corporation may file a sworn certificate of the president, vice-president or secretary of the corporation, showing such mistake, or showing the actual amount of tax due; and, in that event, it shall be the duty of the auditor to accept the amount due as shown by said certificate, unless contrary to the provisions of this chapter. At the time of making payment to the auditor every domestic corporation shall deliver to him a statement which shall show the name of the corporation, the date of its charter, the name and post office address of its attorney of record in this state, the names and post office addresses of its president, secretary and treasurer, the amount of its authorized capital stock, the number of acres of land it holds in this state if the number exceeds ten thousand acres, and such other facts as the auditor may require. Such statement shall be signed by the president, secretary or treasurer of the corporation. The amount of such tax shall be deemed a debt due the state, and shall be a lien on all the property and assets of the corporation prior to all other liens except the lien of the taxes levied on its property for state, county and district purposes. Such tax shall be a preferred debt in cases of insolvency.

Sec. 134. The auditor shall, between the first and fifteenth day of the second month of the license tax year in every year, publish in some daily newspaper of general circulation printed in this

state, a list of all corporations failing to pay the license tax, or any part thereof, due therefrom on or before the first day of the first month of the license tax year. Such list shall contain the names of such delinquent corporations, arranged in three classes, resident, non-resident and foreign. The cost of such publication shall be paid by the auditor, when allowed by the board of public works, out of the moneys in the treasury and not otherwise appropriated, and such sums as may be necessary to pay such costs as are hereby appropriated. Any such delinquent corporation may, on or before the first day of the fifth month of the license tax year following or at any time before judgment or decree is entered as hereinafter provided, pay the amount of such tax and a penalty of one per cent per month for each month or fractional part thereof, that such failure continued, but the amount of such penalty shall not be less than five dollars.

After the publication of the list of delinquent corporations by the auditor, he shall mail to the last known post office address of each of such corporations a supplemental notice, together with a statement of the total amount of taxes and penalties due therefrom, which notice shall be mailed at least thirty days before the first day of the fifth month of the license tax year.

Sec. 136. Within thirty days after the said first day of the fifth month of the license tax year the auditor shall certify to the governor and the secretary of state a list of all such delinquent corporations, resident, non-resident and foreign. The secretary of state shall preserve the list in his office, and a certificate from him that the name of any corporation mentioned in such certificate is delinquent in the payment of the license tax imposed by this chapter shall be prima facie evidence thereof. Within thirty days after receiving such list from the auditor the governor shall issue his proclamation, in which he shall declare the delinquency of every such corporation. A copy of such proclamation shall be filed and recorded in the office of the secretary of state, and be published in such newspapers as the governor may designate, not exceeding one in each congressional district; the costs of such publication shall be paid by the governor when allowed by the board of public works, out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, and such sums as may be necessary to pay such costs are hereby appropriated. Within sixty days after the date of the publication of such proclamation it shall be the duty of the attorney gen

eral to institute on the chancery side of the circuit court, in the county in which the seat of government is, a suit or proceeding, or suits or proceedings, in the name of the state, in which such delinquent corporations shall be made defendants; in the bill or petition so filed it shall only be necessary to allege that the corporations therein made defendants have failed to pay such license tax, and that each of them justly owes to the state the amount of license tax, penalty and fines stated therein, in connection with the name of the corporation, which amount shall be computed up to the first day of the month succeeding that in which such bill or petition is filed. No such corporation shall interpose as a plea or defense in such suit the fact that the auditor failed to notify it as prescribed in this chapter, or that it failed to receive such notice, or that its name was not included in the list or proclamation hereinbefore mentioned. Upon the hearing of such suit, if it shall appear to the court that any such corporation has failed to pay any such license tax and the penalties and fines assessed against it, the court shall enter a decree or judgment against such corporation for the amount due, including the costs of the proceeding, or such portion of such costs as the court shall apportion to be paid by such corporation, and if the same be not then and there paid, the court shall enter a decree if it be a domestic corporation, forfeiting its charter, rights and franchises; and if it be a foreign corporation, revoking its rights and privileges to hold property and transact business in this state. The amount of the judgment or decree, including costs, entered against any corporation, and interest thereon until paid, may be collected by the attorney general, or be collected by the auditor in the same manner that other claims due the state are collected. any such suit or proceeding the court may take such orders and decrees as he shall deem necessary and proper for a court of equity; and may appoint a receiver for any such corporation and order its assets marshalled and distributed among its creditors; and may, on motion of the attorney general, grant an injunction against any such corporation restraining it from the exercise of any franchise or the transaction of any business within this state, until such tax and the costs be paid. Any person or persons who shall exercise or attempt to exercise any powers under the charter of any such corporation after the issuing of the governor's proclamation, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be punished by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or a fine not exceeding one

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thousand dollars, or both, in the discretion of the court.. The words "license tax" used in this section shall include, in addition to the amount of license tax proper, all penalties and fines accruing for failure to pay such tax, and the cost of any suit or proceeding to enforce the collection of the same. When two or more corporations are included in one suit or proceeding the court shall apportion the cost thereof among them as he may deem just.

Sec. 138. Nothing in this chapter shall be construed as imposing a license tax on corporations chartered strictly for educational, literary, agricultural, scientific, religious or charitable purposes, or upon charters incorporating cemeteries or lodges of masons, odd fellows, or the like, or other charitable fraternal or patriotic societies not incorporated for profit to the stockholders; but the secretary of state shall require full proof as to the character of any such corporation claiming such exemption from the payment of license tax. Every such corporation, however, shall in the third month preceding the first day of the license tax year in each year, deliver to the auditor the statement required in section cne hundred and thirty-three of this chapter.

Sec. 142. If such returns be made on behalf of a telegraph or telephone company they shall show the full number of miles of telegraph or telephone line used or operated by the said telegraph or telephone company within this state during the annual period ending on the last day of the last month of the license tax year next preceding. But in ascertaining said mileage no more than one line of wire shall be counted or measured.

Sec. 144. The said return shall be made within twenty-one days after the first day of the second month of the license tax year, and shall include the full number of miles of road used or operated by said express company, of the full number of miles of telegraph or telephone lines used or operated by said telegraph or telephone company during the twelve months preceding the first day of January in that year. The returns so made shall be verified by the affidavit of the officer or agent making the same.

2. All licenses issued by the county clerks, county courts and auditor, including franchise license tax, of this state, under the provisions of chapter thirty-two of the code, and which expire on the thirtieth day of April, one thousand nine hundred and seven, shall be extended upon payment of the license tax, as hereinafter provided in this section, by the authority that issued same to the first

day of July, one thousand nine hundred and seven, the beginning of the license year as provided by this act, and the license tax for the months of May and June shall be computed from the annual tax in effect at the time the license was granted in proportion to such time as the license has to run; provided, that any license or franchise tax, the rate of which has not been increased by any act of the regular or extraordinary session of the legislature of one thousand nine hundred and seven, may be granted to begin on the first day of May, one thousand nine hundred and seven, and expire on the thirtieth day of June, one thousand nine hundred and eight, and the license tax computed from the annual tax for such time as the license is granted.

3. The new licenses provided by chapter thirty-two of the code, as amended and re-enacted by the acts of one thousand nine hundred and seven, shall not be required before the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred and seven.

4. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act are hereby repealed.

CHAPTER 17.

(House Bill No. 10.)

AN ACT making appropriations of public money to pay members of the legislature for the regular session of one thousand nine hundred and seven, and for salaries of the officers of the government in pursuance of the forty-second section of the sixth article of the constitution.

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Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

Sec. 1. There shall be and are hereby appropriated for the fiscal year ending September thirtieth, one thousand nine hundred and seven, the following sums of money for the pay of the members and officers of the government:

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