SCHOOLS.

2067

county, under and in virtue of the aforesaid act, and of this
act, shall be levied on all the assessable property in said dis-
trict agreeably to the assessments of the last preceding county
tax, excepting nevertheless, the property assessed to and ac-
tually owned by free negroes.

SEC. 6. And be it enacted, That the inhabitants of any and
every school district in said county, so ns aforesaid qualified,
assembled at any legal district meeting, shall and may have
power to vote a tax on the assessable property in said district,
for payment of the salary of a teacher in said district, or by
contribution.

Power to
vote tax

SEC. 7. And be it enacted, That where any land, in any
school district in said county, may become charged for the
payment of any school tax, and the collector of the tax can find
no personal property in said district liable for, or chargeable
with the payment of the same, the said collector shall be, and
he is hereby directed and required to return to the trustees of
said district, at such time or times as said trustees shall require
or direct, a list of such lands, and the amount of taxes thereon
respectively due, and the names of the persons respectively
chargeable with the payment of the same, and the said trustees
shall thereupon have and exercise, in relation to said lands,
all the powers which might or could be exercised by the com-
missioners of the tax of any county in this state, in like cases,
in virtue of the act for the more effectual collection of the
county charges in the several counties of this state, passed at
November session, seventeen hundred and ninety-seven, chap-

Power of
trustees
over lands

ter ninety; and the collector of said school district shall have
the same powers and authority, and be subject to the same
rules, regulations and duties in the premises, as by law apper-
tain to the office of the collector of the county charges in like

cases

Power of
collectors.

SEC. 8. And be it enacted, That the aforesaid act for the
public instruction of youth in primary schools throughout this
state, and this act be, and the same are hereby declared to be
public and remedial acts, and shall be construed by all courts
of justice according to the equity thereof, and no proceedings
of the inhabitants or of the trustees of any school district,
shall be set aside or adjudged to be void for defect of form, or
for any irregularity therein, so as the requisitions of said acts
are substantially complied with.

To be a
public and
remedial

avt.

How to be
conitrued.

SEC. 9. And be it enacted, That the clerk of Montgomery
county court shall annually, without fee or reward, make oul
for the trustees of primary school districts, in said county, oi
such of them as shall apply for the same, copies from the as-
sessment books of said county, of all the assessable property
in said district or districts.
258

Duty of
clerk.