soon as the levy shall be made by the county commissioner and Provided further That nothing herein contained shall be construed to prohibit the council from appropriating other money in the annual appropriation bill for the use of street grades and bridges.

1190 SEC. 139. [Warrants, amount-Limit of indebtedness.] The authorities of the city shall not in any year issue warrants or orders to an amount exceeding ninety per cent of the amount of taxes levied for such year, and the amount actually received from other sources and said authorities shall not contract or incur any indebtedness in addition to the amount for which they are authorized to issue warrants, or orders, or bonds.

1191 SEC. 140. [Certificates of Indebtedness.] The mayor and council of any city governed by this act, shall have power, by ordinance, for the purpose of providing funds with which to pay warrants or orders upon the treasurer, to cause to be issued and sold from time to time as money may be needed, certificates of indebtedness in anticipation of the collection of taxes; and said certificates may be renewed from time to time if necessary and shall designate from what fund the same are to be payable and to be signed by the mayor and city clerk; the money received from the sale of such certificates shall be placed to the credit of and for the use only of the fund against which said certificates are drawn. Provided, That the authorities of the city shall not in any one year issue or sell, or cause to be issued or sold such certificates of indebtedness to an amount exceeding ninety (90) per cent of the amount of tax levied for such year in which the same are issued. Each certificate shall state upon the face for what fund the proceeds of said certificate shall be used, the whole amount of the tax levied for that particular fund in that year, and they shall be numbered consecutively and be of denominations of Two Hundred ($200.00) Dollars to One Thousand ($1,000.00) Dollars each, a separate series to be made for each fund. They may have interest coupons attached or be otherwise of such form and terms and be payable at such time and place as the authorities of any such city shall deem best to aid their negotiations; Provided That no certificate shall be issued for a longer period than one year. Said certificates shall not be sold for less than par value and accrued interest and shall not draw a greater rate of interest than six (6) per cent per annum and shall not be sold until five days after the last insertion of an advertisement published for three days in the official paper of the city. The proceeds of the tax assessed and collected for the fund for which said certificates are issued, the faith and credit of the city shall be irrevocably pledged for the redemption of said certificates and said certificates shall so state on their face. The city treasurer of any such city shall keep a complete register of all such certificates and whenever funds accrue sufficient to take up and pay any such certificate by public dvertisement for three (3) days thereafter and from the date of such notice, all interest shall cease and terminate and the treasurer shall redeem such certificates upon presentation. The authorities of the city shall not in any year issue certificates of indebtedness to an amount exceeding ninety per cent of the amount of taxes levied for such year, less the amount of any warrants which may be drawn directly against the tax levy for that year and said city authorities shall not contract or incur any indebtedness in addition to the amount for which they are authorized to issue certificates of indebtedness, warrants, orders or bonds. It is hereby made the duty of the mayor, city treasurer, and city clerk to prepare, file, and spread upon the records an estimate of the amount of money necessary to pay the current expenses of the city for a period not exceeding two months and the city authorities shall not issue at any one time certificates of indebtedness for a greater sum than is estimated necessary for the ensuing two months.

1192 SEC. 141. [Limit of expenditures-Extraordinary expenditures-Borrow money.] The mayor and council shall have no power to appropriate, issue, or draw any order or warrant on the treasurer for money unless the same shall have been appropriated or ordered by ordinances, or the claim for the payment of which such order or warrant is issued has been allowed according to the provisions of this act and the appropriation out of which such claim is payable has been made as provided in this act. Neither the city council or any department or officer of the corporation shall add to the corporation expenditures in any one year anything over and above the amount provided for in the annual appropriation bill for that year, except as herein otherwise especially provided. And no expenditure for any improvement to be paid for out of the general fund of the corporation shall exceed in any one year the amount provided for such an improvement in the annual appropriation bill; Provided, however, That nothing herein contained shali prevent the city council from ordering, by a unanimous vote, of all the members elected, any apparatus or machinery, the necessity of which is caused by any casualty or accident, or emergency happening after such annual appropriation is made, or by a like vote from making necessary appropriations for quarantine or hospital purposes in case the outbreak of virulent, epidemic, or contagious diseases. The city council may by a like vote, order the mayor to borrow a sufficient sum to provide for the expense necessary to be incurred in making any such repairs, or restoration of improvements, or purchase of apparatus or machinery, the necessity of which has arisen as is last above mentioned for a space of time not exceeding the close of the fiscal year, which sum and the interest shall be added to the amount authorized to be raised in the next general tax levy and embraced therein.

1193 SEC. 142. [Street improvements.] The Mayor and city council shall have the authority to create street improvement districts for the purpose of improving the streets, boulevards, alleys or other public grounds therein by paving, repaving, macadamizing, curbing and guttering, or recurbing and reguttering, grading and changing of established grade, in such manner as may be determined upon. But the improvements named shall only be authorized upon the following conditions, to-wit: the Mayor and city council shall order such improvement and cause it to be made in any district within the city only when a petition purporting on its face to be signed by the owners representing a majority of the taxable feet front upon such street or alley shall have been filed with the city clerk after having been duly acknowledged by the person signing the same before a notary public with the seal of such notary attached, and shall have been certified to by the city engineer and city attorney as so representing such majority of the taxable feet frontage in said district. A copy of said petition so filed, with the names and descriptions of property attached thereto shall be published in the official paper of the city for five consecutive days, and no grading, paving or re-paving shall be finally ordered, or contract let for the same, except upon and in pursuance of such petition being filed and published, nor until the twenty days hereinafter in this section allowed for protesting signatures shall have expired. And after the making of a contract for such improvement in pursuance of such petition, no objection to the sufficiency of such petition, or to the ownership of any lot or lands purporting to be represented thereon, or the right, power or authority of any person to sign any name appearing on such petition shall be questioned, or be entertained or considered by any court in any procedure or action except as hereafter provided, but such petition shall be held, deemed and considered sufficient to authorize the making of such improvement. Provided, however that within twenty (20) days after the publishing of such petition as herein required, or at any time before the making of any contract in

pursuance of such petition, any tax payer within such improvement district may file with the city clerk a protest in writing against considering any signature, to be specified in such protest, as the genuine or sufficient signature of the person, firm or corporation purported to be represented by such signature, or considering such person, firm or corporation as the owner of the lots and lands described after such signature, or that any lot or parcel of land described is a homestead and that both husband and wife have not signed therefor, which protest shall set forth that the same was made in good faith, and if relating to ownership shall state the name or names of the true and proper owners, and shall be verified by the person making the same; and in all such cases so far as such protested signature or ownership of lands are concerned, the sufficiency or authority of such signatures or ownership can be investigated and inquired into by the proper court in any suit, proceeding or action relating to the sufficiency of such petition. None of the improvements herein named shall be ordered unless there are sufficient funds available to pay for the street and alley intersections and such other portions of the streets or alleys to be improved as are not subject to special taxation. For the purpose of paying the costs of improving the streets and alleys in any improvement district, exclusive of the intersection of streets and spaces opposite alleys therein, and excepting also costs, if any, in excess of special benefits to the lots and lands within such districts, the Mayor and the council shall have the power and may by ordinance, cause to be issued bonds of the city, to be called "district street improvement bonds" of District No. ...., payable in not exceding ten (10) years from date, with option to the city to redeem at the expiration of five years, and to bear interest payable annually, not exceeding the rate of six (6) per cent per annum, with interest coupons attached, and in such cases shall also provide that special taxes and assessments shall constitute a sinking fund for the payment of said bonds and interest; Provided, that the entire cost of improving any such streets or alleys properly chargeable to any lot lands within any such improvement district, according to the front feet thereof, may be paid by the owner of such lots or lands within fifty (50) days from the levy of such special taxes, and thereupon such lots or lands shall be exempt from any lien or charge therefor; and, whenever any of the improvements herein named, towit, paving, repaving, macadamizing, curbing or curbing or guttering, and grading singly or all together, shall be declared necessary by the Mayor and city council, and an improvement district shall have been created, then it shall be the duty of the Mayor and city council to give the property owners within such district thirty (30) days from the date of approval and publication of the ordinance declaring such improvement necessary, to designate by petition the material to be used in the paving or other improvements of the streets or alleys or other grounds within said district. Improvements carried on under any of the conditions referred to shall be done by contract with the lowest responsible bidder with the material designated in the petition representing a majority of the feet frontage upon the street or alley within the district designed to be improved, or such material as shall be designated by the mayor and council in cases where the owners of a majority of the taxable feet frontage shall fail to agree upon any material within thirty days specified. The material for paving authorized to be designated by petition in this act shall be in such general terms as to admit of the widest latitude for competition. The designation shall not specify asphalt, stone or brick from any specific locality, quarry or kiln, but simply sheet or block asphalt, sandstone, granite or brick. The term "repaving" as used herein shall be deemed and construed to include the taking up of any stone pavement and the replacing of the same with other material upon any street or part of street within any improvement district whenever the Mayor and council by ordinance shall declare it proper and necessary so to do.

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1194 SEC. 143. [Same, cost, assessment.] The cost of improving the streets and alleys within any improvement discriet, except for grading and paving of intersections of streets and spaces opposite alleys within such district, shall be assessed upon the lots and lands abutting upon the streets and alleys in such district, in proportion to the special benefits contined. The assessment of special taxes for improvement purposes herein provided for shall be made as follows: The total cost of improvement shall be levied at one time upon the property and become delinquent as herein provided, one-tenth (1-10) of the total amount shall be delinquent in fifty days after each levy, one-tenth (1-10) in one year, one-tenth (1-10) in two years, one-tenth (1-10) in three years, one-tenth (1-10) in four years, one-tenth (1-10) in five years, one-tenth (1-10) in six years, one-tenth (1-10) in seven years, one-tenth (1-10) in eight years, one-tenth (1-10) in nine years; each of said installments except the first, shall draw interest at the rate of six per cent per annum from the time of levy aforesaid, until the same shall become delinquent and after the same shall become delinquent interest at the rate of one (1) per cent per month payable in advance, shall be paid thereon as in case of other special taxes. Such taxes shall be collected and enforced as in other cases of special taxes. In all cases of general taxes, the city treasurer shall have the right and authority, after the same or any part thereof shall have become delinquent, to seize personal property of the party who owns the real estate upon which said taxes have been levied and to sell such personal property for the satisfaction of such taxes upon the same advertisement and in the same manner as constables are now authorized by law to seize and sell personal property under execution, but failure to seize and sell personal property shall in no wise effect the lien of the tax or any proceeding authorized by law to enforce the tax.

1195 SEC. 144. [Special taxes, equalization, delinquent, Real estate not subject.--Land and lots benefited, extent, complaints.] In all cases before any special taxes, except for the construction of wooden sidewalks shall be finally levied, it shall be the duty of the council to sit as a board of equalization for the purpose of equalizing any such proposed levy of special taxes or assessments and correcting any error therein, giving notice of such sitting in the same manner as is provided in the case of general taxes, stating in such notice the time, place and purpose for which it will sit. Special taxes and assessments, except as otherwise provided, shall be deemed delinquent if not paid in fifty days after the passage and approval of the ordinance levying the same, in each case, and intere-t at the rate of one per cent per month payable in advance, and shall be paid on all delinquent special taxes and assessments from the time the same shall become delinquent. If there shall be any real estate not subject to special taxes for paving purposes, the mayor and council shall have the power to pave in front of the same and to pay the cost thereof that would otherwise be chargeable on such real estate in the same manner as herein provided for the paving of intersections of streets and paying therefor. The word "lot" as in this act use, shall be taken to mean a lot as described and designated upon the recorded plat of any such city, and in case there is no such recorded plat of any such city it shall mean a lot as described and designated upon any generally recognized map of such city. The word "lands" shall mean any unsubdivided real estate. The word "street" shall be deemed to include boulevards, avenues, alleys, and lanes, Provided, that if the lots and real estate abutting upon the part of the street ordered improved as shown upon such recorded plat or map, are not of uniform depth, or, for any other reason, it shall appear just and proper to the mayor and council, the mayor and council are authorized and empowered to determine and establish the depth to which the real estate shall be charged and assessed with the cost of improvement, which shall be deter

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mined and established according to the benefits accruing to the property, by reason of the improvements. Real estate may be so charged and assessed to a greater depth than the depth of the lots as shown upon such plat or map. The mayor and council in their discretion include all the real estate to be charged and assessed with the cost of such improvements, in the improvement districts herein before provided for, but are not required so to do, and the mayor and council may in their discretion, in determining whether the requisite majority of the owners who are herein before authorized to designate the kind of material to be used therefor, have joined in such petition and determination, consider and take into account all of the owners of all real estate to be charged and assessed with the costs of improvements, or only such as own real estate, that in fact abuts upon the part of the street proposed to be improved. The provision of this section, providing the extent to which real estate may be charged and assessed, shall apply to all special taxes that may be levied, except for sidewalks which shall be in proportion to the front feet. No court shall entertain any complaint that the party was authorized to make and did not make to the city council sitting as a board of equalization, or any complaint not specified in said notice fully enough to advise the city of the exact nature thereof; nor any complaint that does not go to the ground work, equity and justice of the tax. The burden of proof to show such a tax, or part thereof to be invalid, inequitable, or unjust, shall rest upon the party who brings such suit and the signing the petition or joining in the protest except as to matters stated in the protest, or otherwise participating in or encouraging such improvement, or standing by with the knowledge that such improvements are being made until the rights of third parties have accrued and accepting the benefits to such property without protest or complaint, shall be deemed and held by every court of this state a waiver of the right to attack such proceedings collaterly, except in cases of gross fraud or when the taxes are imposed for an unauthorized purpose.

1196 SEC. 145. [Special taxes-Collection warrant-Invalid taxes, bonds.] When any special tax or assessment is levied, it shall be the duty of the city clerk to deliver to the city treasurer a certified copy of the ordinance levying such tax. To every such certified ordinance the city clerk shall append a warrent in the usual form requiring the city treasurer to collect such special tax, or taxes, or assessments. Whenever it shall appear that any special taxes or assessments levied prior to the passage of this act by the municipal authorities of any city to which this act may become applicable upon any property specially benefited for the purpose of paying the cost of grading, paving, curbing, guttering, or sewerage, and where bonds have been issued and sold, to be redeemed by special taxes or assessments, and such special taxes or assessments shall have been judicially determined to be invalid, and for that reason uncollectible, it shall be the duty of the Mayor and City Council to issue bonds of the City to such amount as may be necessary to refund so much of the special or district bonds issued against such grading, paving, or sewer districts, together with accrued interest thereon as may remain unpaid after applying toward their payment all of such special taxes or assessments as have been paid without protest. The bonds issued under this provision shall be for a period of not more than ten (10) years, and shall bear interest at not more than four (4) per cent per annum, payable semi-annually and be sold for not less than par. All money realized from the sale of such refunding bonds shall be used to take up the aforesaid district bonds, and the Mayor and Council shall provide by general taxation from year to year for the payment of the interest on said refunding bonds, and the tion of a sinking fund to pay the principal at maturity.

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1197 SEC. 146. [Railway companies-Paving.] All horse, cable, steam,