ARTICLE XVII.-APPORTIONMENT OF DISTRICT DEBTS.

SECTION.

SECTION.

1. Superintendent to apportion debts in 3. Superintendent to dispose of property. divided districts.

2. Superintendent to issue orders on treas urer for payment of warrants.

SECTION 1. [Session Laws, 1897.] It shall be the duty of the County Superintendent, on or before the first day of May, 1897, in each county in this Territory, to audit any outstanding indebtedness that may have been contracted by any school district prior to the time such district was changed, and apportion the same to the districts now comprising the territory of such district, taking as a basis of apportionment the assessed valuation of property included in the boundaries of said divided district, and he shall apportion to each of the districts which have acquired the territory of said divided district such portion of said indebtedness as the assessed valuation of the propery of that portion of the territory thus acquired bears to the entire assessed valuation of such divided district.

SEC. 2. When such apportionment has been made, the County Superintendent shall have the power, and it is hereby made his duty, to issue orders on the county treasurer in payment of all warrants issued against said divided districts, which orders shall be paid by the county treasurer on presentation, or as soon as he may have sufficent funds to the credit of such district: PROVIDED, All such orders so drawn shall be paid before any other outstanding warrant indebtedness against said district or districts: PROVIDED, That orders against such districts shall only be issued for the amount of indebtedness proportioned to the same under the provisions of this act.

SEC. 3. The County Superintendent shall have the power to dispose of any property which may belong to any such divided districts, by agreement with the district board retaining the property of such divided district: PROVIDED, That the funds arising from the sale of such property shall be applied by the County Superintendent to the payment of the indebtedness of said divided district or districts.

ARTICLE XVIII.-PAYMENT FOR SCHOOL BUILDINGS, FURNITURE AND OTHER SUPPLIES.

AN ACT providing for the payment of school buildings, furniture and other supplies in school districts, which debts were contracted by the original school district townships.under the law of 1890.

SECTION 1. Any independent school district, having in its possession any school buildings, seats, desks, or school supplies, contracted for or purchased by the original school township under the laws of 1890, for the use of such school districts shall, when a demand is made by the directors of a special school district as created by the law of 1893, within the limits of the said township or townships, levy a tax upon the district having in its possession said desks and other supplies, to reimburse the district making such demand of its share of amount paid, or debt contracted for such supply.

SEC. 2. It shall be the duty of the County Superintendent of such school district to ascertain the proportion due such district or districts of the money paid, or debt so contracted, for the purchase of said school supplies, and shall certify to the clerk of the county a special levy, in addition to the annual levy authorized by law on said property, sufficient to pay said indebtedness: PROVIDED, such levy shall not exceed five mills in any one year; and said superintendent shall continue to certify such levy as aforesaid, from year to year, as provided herein, until such indebtedness is fully paid.

SEC. 3. It shall be the duty of the county clerk to extend the levy on the tax rolls of the county in the same manner as provided for

other taxes.

SEC. 4. The county treasurer shall collect such levy the same as other taxes, and apply the funds to the several districts to which the same may be due, as shall be certified to his office by the county clerk, based upon said report of the County Superintendent.

SEC. 5. This act shall take effect from and after its passage and approval.

Approved March 8, 1895.

SECTION 1. It shall be the duty of each County Superintendent of Public Instruction during the months of June, July or August in, the year 1897, to cause each school house and the furniture and fixtures therein, located in his county, to be appraised at the actual cash value thereof. To make such appraisements, the County Superintendent shall call to his assistance three voters in the county, not residing in the district where the house to be appraised is located, and shall administer to such appraisers an oath to appraise the school house and furniture and fixtures at their true value, and for that purpose the County Superintendent is hereby authorized to administer an oath to the appraisers, and the appraisers so sworn shall proceed with the Superintednent to appraise the school house and furniture and fixtures, and the County Superintendent shall make a record thereof. When the school houses and furniture and fixtures in the county have been so appraised the County Superintendent shall report to the Territorial Superintendent of Public Instruction, the value so fixed of each school house and furniture and fixtures, and the district in which it is located, and shall keep a copy of such record in his office. It shall be the duty of the Territorial Superintendent to prepare a tabulated record of the value of each school house, furniture and fixtures in the Territory, and the district in which it is located, and to show the aggregate value of them all. It shall be the duty of the County Superintednent to return such appraised values to the Territorial Superintendent, within a reasonable time to be fixed by the Territorial Superintendent.

SEC. 2. When these appraisements are so returned, the Territorial Superintendent shall assess against each school district in the Territory, five per cent. of the appraised value of the school house and furniture and fixtures in that district, for each of the years, 1897 and 1898, and shall notify the various County Superintendents of the amount so assessed to each district. Thereupon the County Superintendent when apportioning the Territorial school fund, shall order the county treasurer to retain out of such fund five per cent. in the year 1897, and five per cent in the year 1898, and to return the same to the Territorial treasurer from such school fund. The amount so assessed against each district shall be charged to the district from which it was taken, and the county treasurer shall remit such assessment to the Territorial treasurer on such order of the County Superintendent, and the same shall be kept in the Territorial treasury as a Territorial school house insurance fund, out of which shall be paid all damages to or

losses of school houses, furniture and fixtures, caused by storms or fire. SEC. 3. When any school house, furniture, or the fixtures therein, are injured or destroyed by storm or by fire, it shall be the duty of the school board of that district to make full and careful proof of the amount and value of such injury or loss. The proof shall be made under oath before the probate judge of that county, and he shall hear and determine the matter as a cause on trial before him, and shall take testimony in relation thereto, and make a finding and fix the value and amount of the loss, and he shall certify the same to the County Superintendent, and the County Superintendent shall forward it to the Territorial Superintendent, and he shall draw his warrant on the Territorial treasurer, and against the fund held to pay such losses, and in favor of the school districts sustaining the loss, for three-fourths of the loss so certified to him, and shall forward the same to the County Superintendent, and he shall deliver the warrant to the treasurer of that school district, and the same shall be used to repair the damages sustained or to rebuild the house destroyed as the school board of that district may deem necessary.

SEC. 4. When any school house is rebuilt, or when any district at any time builds anew or greatly improves its school house, the school board shall report such fact to the County Superintendent and the property shall be appraised and reported and returned as in this act provided, and shall thereafter be the basis of assessments against said district.

SEC. 5. When the fund provided for in section 2, of this act, shall be impaired by losses paid, the Territorial Superintendent shall levy an assessment against each district of such per centage as will reasonably realize sufficient to pay the losses liable to occur within one year thereafter. Such assessment and levy and payments shall be made as in this act provided.

SEC. 6. The Territorial Superintendent shall have power, and he is hereby authorized, to make all needful rules and regulations not inconsistent with the provisions of this act, for carrying the same into effect.

SEC. 7. The expenses of assessing property and making proof of losses shall be paid by each district as a part of its contingent expenses, and the fees allowed therefor shall be the same as provided for appraisements and proceedings in justice's courts.

SEC. 8. It shall be the duty of the Territorial Superintendent to fully report to each Legislative Assembly, within five days after it first convenes, the amount of money realized, expended and on hand, losses incurred and paid, and the amount of each assessment made up to that date. He shall forbid insurance to be taken on school houses in any other manner than is in this act provided.

An Act providing for the purchase of text books for use in the public schools of the Territory of Oklahoma.

SEC. 1. It shall be the duty of the territorial superintendent of public instruction to ascertain, within sixty days after the passage of this act, what text-books in the various branches taught in the public schools of the territory are in most general use in said schools; and, having made out a list of such text-books for use in all public schools of the territory, shall enter into a contract or contracts, for a period of five years in the name of the Territory of Oklahoma, with the publishers of said books for the supply of said books to the public schools of the territory: PROVIDED, That the said publishers shall guarantee to supply the said books at the lowest prices at which the said books are sold anywhere in the United States; that the prices of said books shall not be increased by the publishers, and that the purchasers of the same in the Territory of Oklahoma shall receive the benefit of any reduction made in such prices anywhere within the United States : ALSO PROVIDED, That the said publishers shall execute and deliver to the territorial superintendent of public instruction on the execution of the contract or contracts hereinbefore provided for, a satisfactory bond in the sum of twenty thousand ($20,000.00), [dollars], properly secured, for the faithful performance of said contract or contracts.

SEC. 2. Immediately after the completion of said contract or contracts, and the filing of satisfactory bonds on the part of the contracting publishers as provided in section 1 of this act, the territorial superperintendent of public instruction shall make a full statement of the transaction, including a complete list of the books contracted for, fully describing each and giving the price of each agreed upon, and naming the publishers agreeing to furnish said books, together with such information as he may deem necessary; and said superintendent shall transmit, by mail, a copy of said statement to each county superintendent, the secretary of each board of education and the clerk of each school district in the territory, and said officer shall carefully preserve the same.

SEC. 3. The purpose and intent of this act being to secure to the school patrons of the territory exemptions from unnecessary changes of text-books, and to those removing from one school corporation to another a relief from the loss incident to a diversity of kinds of school