§ 4. The said warrants issued by the Auditor of Public Accounts for the school fund tax, and for the interest of the school fund proper and surplus revenue, shall be received by the State Treasurer in payment of amounts due the State from county collectors; and on presentation by the State Treasurer of said 'warrants to said Auditor, he shall issue his warrant to said Treasurer of the school fund, for the amount of the school fund tax warrants, and on the revenue fund for the amount of the warrants for interest on the school fund proper and surplus revenue. Dividends shall be made as aforesaid, according to the proportions ascertained to be due to each county annually, thereafter, until another census shall have been taken, and then dividends shall be made and continued as aforesaid, according to the last census. § 5. If any collector shall fail or refuse to pay the amount of the aforesaid Auditor's warrant, or any part thereof, by the first day of March annually, or as soon thereafter as it may be presented, it shall be competent for the county superintendent to proceed against said collector and his securities in an action of debt, in any court having competent jurisdiction, and the said collector shall pay interest at the rate of twelve per centum per annum, to be assessed as damages, upon the amount due, and which interest shall be included in the judgment obtained against him: Provided, that if it satisfactorily appears to the court that on said first day of March, or on the day of presentation for payment thereafter, that said collector had not, as yet, collected funds sufficient to pay said warrant, said interest shall not be allowed upon said warrant. § 6. All bonds, notes, mortgages, moneys and effects which have heretofore accrued or may hereafter accrue from the sale of the sixteenth section of the common school lands of any township or county, or from the sale of any real estate or other property taken on any judgment or for any debt due to the principal of any township or county fund, and all other funds of every description which have been or may hereafter be carried to and made part of the principal of any township or county fund, by any law which has heretofore been, is now or may hereafter be enacted, are hereby declared to be and shall forever constitute the principal of the township or county fund, respectively; and no part thereof shall ever be distributed or expended for any purpose whatever, but the same shall be loaned out and held to use, rent or profit, as provided by law. But the interest, rents, issues and profits, arising and accruing from the principal of said township or county fund, shall be distributed in the manner and at the times as provided by this act; nor shall any part of such interest, rents, issues and profits be carried to the principal of the respective funds, except it appear on the first Monday in October in any year, that there is rent, interest or other funds on hand which are not required for distribution, such amount not required, as aforesaid, may, if the board of trustees see proper, forever be considered as principal in the funds to which it belongs and loaned as such. 7. School funds collected from special taxes, levied by order of school directors, or from the sale of property belonging to any district, shall be paid out only on the order of the proper board of directors; and all other moneys or school funds liable to distribution, paid into the township treasury, or coming into the hands of the township treasurer, shall, after said funds have been apportioned by the township trustees, as required in section 26 of article III of this act, be paid out only on the order of the proper board of directors, signed by the president and clerk of said board, or by a majority of said board. For all payments made, receipts shall be taken and filed by said board of directors. § 8. In all such orders shall be stated the purpose for which or on what account drawn. Said orders may be in the following form, viz.: ...county, The treasurer of township No......, range No......, in. will pay to...... ....or order, ..dollars and. ...cents (on his contract for repairing school house, or whatever the case may be). By order of the board of directors of school district No......, in said township. A. B., President. Which order, together with the receipt of the person to whom paid, shall be filed in the office of the township treasurer: Provided, that when an order is paid in full, such order, if properly endorsed by the person in whose favor it was drawn, and his assigns, if any, shall be a sufficient receipt for the purposes of this section. § 9. When a district is composed of parts of two or more townships, the township treasurer or treasurers who do not receive the tax money of said district, shall, when they hold any funds belonging to said district, notify the directors thereof of the amount of such funds, and the directors shall thereupon give the treasurer who receives the tax money of said district an order for such funds, and upon receipt thereof he shall hold them, to be paid out as aforesaid. § 10. In all cases where school funds are held by any person or persons in an official capacity, by virtue of any special charter defining the manner of loaning the same, such money may be loaned upon the same terms and conditions as are provided by this act, or may hereafter be provided, by the school laws of this State, for loaning the school funds of counties or townships. SECTION 1. Section number sixteen (16) in every township granted to the State by the United States for the use of schools, and such sections and parts of section as have been or may be granted, as aforesaid, in lieu of all or part of section number sixteen (16), and also the lands which have been or may be selected and granted as aforesaid, for the use of schools, to the inhabitants of fractional townships in which there is no section number sixteen (16), or where such section shall not contain the proper proportion for the use of schools in such fractional township, shall be held as common school lands; and the provisions of this act referring to common school lands shall be deemed to apply to the lands aforesaid. § 2. All the business of such townships, so far as relates to common school lands, shall be transacted in that county which contains all or a greater portion of said lands. § 3. It shall be lawful for the trustees of schools in townships in which section number sixteen (16), or any other lands granted in lieu thereof, remain unsold or which has title to any other school lands whatsoever, to rent or lease the same for an annual rent to be paid in money to the treasurer, by a written contract made by the president and clerk, under the direction of the board, with lessee or lessees, which contract shall be filed with the records of the board, and a copy of the same transmitted to the county superintendent. In case of any default in the payment of the rent, the said board of trustees shall at once proceed to collect the same by distress, or otherwise, as may be provided by law for the collection of rents by landlords. No lease taken under the provisions of this act, shall be for a longer period than five years, except where such lands are leased for the purpose of having permanent improvements made thereon, as may be the case in cities aud villages: Provided, that the provisions of this section shall not apply to cities having a population of over one hundred thousand (100,000) inhabitants. 4. The trustees of schools of any township concerned, arehereby authorized and empowered in their corporate capacity. to sell and convey to any railroad company which may construct a railroad across any of the public school lands of such township, the right of way and necessary depot grounds. All moneys received by such trustees for any right of way or depot grounds so sold, shall be turned over by such trustees to the township treasurer of the township for the benefit of the township school fund. 5. If any person shall, without being duly authorized, cut, fell, box, bore, destroy or carry away any tree, sapling or log standing or being upon any school lands, such person shall forfeit and pay, for every tree, sapling or log so felled, boxed, bored, destroyed or carried away, the sum of eight dollars ($8), which penalty shall be recovered with costs of suit, by an action. of debt or assumpsit, before any justice of the peace having jurisdiction of the amount claimed, or in the county or circuit court, either in the corporate name of the board of trustees of the township to which the land belongs, or by qui tam action in the name of any person who will first sue for the same, onehalf of the judgment for the use of the person suing and the other half for the use of the township aforesaid. When two or more persons shall be concerned in the same trespass, they shall be jointly and severally liable for the penalty herein imposed.. §6. Every trespasser upon common school lands, shall be liable to indictment, and upon conviction shall be fined in three times the amount of the injury occasioned by said trespass, and shall stand committed as in other cases of misdemeanor. § 7. All penalties and fines collected under the provisions of the foregoing sections shall be paid to the township treasurer, and be added to the principal of the township fund. $ 8 When the inhabitants of any township or fractional township shall desire the sale of the common school lands of the township or fractional township, they shall present a petition to the county superintendent of the county in which the school lands of the township, or the greater part thereof, lie, for the sale thereof; which petition shall be signed by at least two-thirds of the legal voters of the township, or fractional township. The signing of the petition must be done in the presence of two adult citizens of the township, after the true meaning and purpose thereof have been explained; and, when signed, an affidavit must be affixed thereto by the two citizens witnessing the signing, in the manner aforesaid, which affidavit shall state the number of inhabitants in the township, or fractional township, of and over twenty-one years of age, and said petition, so proved, shall be delivered to the county superintendent for his action thereon: Provided, no whole section shall be sold in any township containing less than two hundred inhabitants; and common school lands in fractional townships may be sold when the number of inhabitants and the number of acres are in the ratio of two hundred to six hundred and forty, but not before. § 9. Any fractional township not having the requisite number of inhabitants to petition for the sale of the school lands therein, as provided in section 8 of this article of this act, which has not heretofore been united with any other township, for school purposes, and which does not contain a sufficient number of inhabitants to maintain a free school, is hereby attached to the adjacent congressional township having the longest territorial line bordering on such fractional township, for school purposes, and all the provisions of this act shall apply to such united townships, the same as though they were one and the same township. § 10. When the petition and affidavits are delivered to the county superintendent, as aforesaid, he shall notify the trus tees of said township thereof, and said trustees shall immediately proceed to divide the land into tracts or lots, of such form and quantity as will produce the largest amount of money. § 11. After making the division required by the foregoing section, said trustees shall cause a correct plat of the same to be made, representing all divisions, with each lot numbered and defined, so that its boundaries may be forever ascertained. $12. In subdividing said common school lands for sale, no lot shall contain more than 80 acres, and the division may be made into town or village lots, with roads, streets or alleys between them and through the same; and all such divisions, with all similar divisions hereafter made, are hereby declared legal, and all such roads, streets and alleys, public highways. 13. After such division into lots has been made and platted, the trustees of schools shall fix a value on each lot, having regard to the terms of sale, certify to the correctness of the plat, stating the value of each lot per acre, or per lot if less than one acre, and referring to and describing the lot in the certificate, so as fully and clearly to distinguish, and identify each lot; which plats and certificate shall be delivered to the county superintendent, and shall govern him in advertising and selling such lands. § 14. Upon the reception by the county superintendent of the plat and certificate of valuation from the trustees, he shall proceed to advertise the said land for sale in lots as divided and laid off by said trustees, by posting notices thereof in at least six (6) public places in the county, forty days before the day of sale, describing the land and stating the time, place and terms of sale; and if any newspaper is published in said county, said advertisement shall be printed therein, for four weeks before the day of sale; if no newspaper is published in said county, then such land may be sold under the notice aforesaid, which notice may be in the following form, viz.: SALE OF SCHOOL LAND. Public notice is hereby given that on the... undersigned superintendent of schools of. .day of... A. D. ...county, will sell at 18...., between the hours of ten o'clock A. M. and six o'clock P. M.; the |