284 COUNTY COMMISSIONERS. [ART. 25

One copy .of each of the said assessment rolls shall be filed with the
drainage record and one copy shall be delivered to the sheriff, or other
county tax collector, after the clerk of the Board of County Commis-
sioners has appended thereto an order directing the collection of said
assessments, and the said assessments shall thereupon have the force and
effect of a judgment as in the case of State and county taxes. These
assessments shall constitute a first and paramount lien, second only to
State and county taxes, upon the lands assessed for the payment of said
bonds and interest thereon as they become due, and shall be collected
in the same manner by the same officers as the State and county taxes
are collected. The said assessments shall be due and payable on the first
Monday in January each year, and if the same shall not be paid in full
by the thirty-first day of April following, it shall be the duty of the
sheriff or tax collector to sell the land or lands so delinquent. The sale
of lands for failure to pay such assessments shall be made at the court-
house door of the county in which the lands are situated, between the
hours of ten o'clock in the forenoon and four o'clock in the afternoon.
The existing law as. to the collection of State and county taxes shall have
application to the collection of drainage assessments under sections 81A-
81AA. It shall be the duty of the sheriff or tax collector to pay over
to the county treasurer promptly the moneys so collected by him upon
said tax assessments, to the end that the said treasurer may have funds
in hand to meet the payments of interest and principal due upon the
outstanding bonds asi they mature. It shall be the duty of the county
treasurer, and without any previous order from the board of drainage
commissioners, to provide and pay the instalments of interest at the
time and place as evidenced by the coupons attached to said bonds, and
also to pay the annual instalments of the principal due on said bonds at
the time and place as evidenced by the said bonds, and the said county
treasurer shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and subject upon conviction
to a fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the Court, if he shall
wilfully fail to make prompt payments of the said interest and princi-
pal upon said bonds, and shall likewise be liable in a civil action for all
damages which may accrue either to the Board of Drainage Commis-
sioners or the holder of said bonds, to either or both of which a right of
action is hereby given. Should the total estimated cost of the proposed
improvements to be made under sections 81A-81AA, be less than an
average of 25c per acre for the total area, then, and in that case, bonds
shall not be issued but the assessment shall be collected in cash from the
landowners.

1912, ch. 656, sec. 17.

81Q. Should the viewers when making their examination and sur-
veys, find that the drainage scheme when carried out will benefit any
public highway or any railroad or other public property, then and in
that case the viewers shall in their return assess the State, county or
corporation an amount which they consider just for the benefits which
will be derived through the formation of the drainage district.