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SEC. 6. Commission merchants, and all persons trading and dealing on commission, and consignees authorized to sell, are, for the purposes of taxation, to be deemed owners of the property in their possession.

SEC. 7. All personal property shall be listed, assessed and taxed in the county where the same may be found, unless the owner thereof produces a receipt, showing that he has paid tax on the same in some other county for the same year.

SEC. 8. All persons required to list property in behalf of another, shall list in the same county in which he would be required, if it were his own, except as herein otherwise directed, but he must list it separately from his own, naming the person or estate to whom or to which it belongs, but the undivided property of a person deceased belonging to his heirs, with or without naming the several heirs.

SEC. 9. The property of corporations or companies constructing bridges, canals, ditches, flumes, railways, plank roads, grading roads, turnpiking roads, telegraph lines, and similar improvements, shall be assessed to each corporation or company, and their interests are to be taxed in this territory, in the county or localities in which such bridges, canals, flumes, railways, plank roads, grading roads, turnpike roads, telegraph lines, and similar improvements may be in, and to the extent of such improvements as may be found to be in the county or counties in which the same may be situated, and to this end the assessor is directed to require the secretary or [to] clerk, or whatever officer of corresponding duties there may be, to render, under oath, a list of the number of miles and value of such improvements as may be, in each separate county through which the same may be constructed, or in which the same may be situated.

SEC. 10. All taxable property is to be listed and valued each year, and shall be assessed at its true value in money at private sale, having regard to its quality, locality, natural advantages, the general improvement in the vicinity, and all other elements of its value.

SEC. 11. Depreciated bank notes or stock, or shares in corporations or companies, may be listed at their current value. Credits shall be listed at such sum as the person listing them believes he will receive or can collect, and annuities at such sum as the person listing believes them to be worth in money.

SEC. 12. The term credit, includes every claim or demand for money, labor, or other valuable thing, and every annuity or sum of money receivable at stated periods, and all money in property of any kind, except pensions from the United States or any of the states.

THE DUTIES OF ASSESSOR.

SEC. 13. The assessor of each county shall assess and value all property required by this act to be assessed and valued, and between the first day of March and the tenth day of July, in each year, shall demand of each tax payer in his county, a list, as hereinafter provided, of his, her or their property; and if the said list be not rendered under oath at the time such demand be made, the assessor shall proceed to list and assess the property of such tax payer according to his best knowledge and information, and shall add twenty-five per cent. to the value thereof: Provided, That upon all personal property, when the owner has not sufficient real property which is not exempt from taxation to pay the taxes which would be levied against the personal property of such owner, the assessor shall report his assessment forthwith to the treasurer of the county, and if there be danger that any of such property will be removed from the county, the assessor shall have power, and it shall be his duty to seize a sufficient amount of property to pay the taxes and cost; he shall forthwith report, such seizure to the treasurer of the county, who shall hold the property seized, until such taxes are paid. It shall be the duty of the county treasurer, immediately on the receipt of the assessment against any personal property mentioned in this section, to levy the tax therein, and if the tax levied be not paid within ten days from the time the assessment was made, he shall proceed to sell the property seized by the assessor, and shall seize and sell other personal property on which taxes have been levied by the provisions of this section, and shall sell the same in the manner provided for the sale of personal property for taxes.

SEC. 14. It shall be the duty of the assessor to proceed to assess all property that may come into his county, or which he may have failed to assess at any time during the year, after he shall have received from the commissioners the blanks as required in section twenty of this act.

SEC. 15. The list shall contain: First. His, her, or their lands, to be designated by township, range, section, and any division or part of section; and where such part is not a govern. ment division or subdivision, then some other description to identify it; and his town lots, naming the town in which they are situated, and their proper description by number and blocks or otherwise, according to the system of numbering in the town. Second. His personal property employed in merchandise, amount of capital employed in manufactures, number of horses, number of mules and asses, number of sheep, number of oxen, number of cows and calves, number of swine, number of goats, number of carriages of every description, amount of money and credits, number of clocks and watches, number of pieces of jewelry and gold and silver plate, number and kind of musical instruments, amount of taxable household furniture, amount in stocks or shares in any corporation or company, and amount of all other property not enumerated.

SEC. 16. The list shall be signed and sworn to by the persons making it, and the oath shall be administered either by the assessor or his deputy, or by any other officer authorized to administer oaths, and shall be certified by him, and the oath may be printed upon the blank forms, and shall be in substance as follows:

"TERRITORY OF MONTANA, } County of

SS.

I, A. B., do solemnly swear that I have listed in the within list, all moneys, goods, credits, and all other description of property owned or held by me as principal, partner or agent, according to the best of my knowledge. So help me God.

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SEC. 17. On or before the tenth of July, annually, the assessor shall make out and deliver to the county clerk an assessment roll, containing, in a tabular form, and alphabetical order, the names of the persons and bodies in whose names property has been listed in his county, with the several species of property, and the value as herein before indicated, with the column of numbers and value footed; and in a column to be provided for that purpose, he shall write the words, "by the assessor," when the list was made by himself, together with the words "absent or

sick," or the words "refused to list," or "refused to swear," or such other words as will express the cause why the person required to make the list did not make it, and neglect shall be taken as a refusal.

SEC. 18. The assessor shall take and subscribe an oath, to be certified by the officer administering it, and attached to the assessment roll, which oath is to be in substance as follows:

"I, C. D., Assessor of, of county, do solemnly swear, that the value of all property, money and credits, of which a statement has been made, and verified by the oath of the person required to list the same, is herein truly returned as set forth in such statement; that in every case where I have been required to ascertain the amount or value of the property of any person or body, I have diligently, and by the best means in my power, endeavored to ascertain the true amount and value, and that, as I verily believe, the full value thereof is set forth in the annexed, and that in no case have I knowingly omitted to demand of any person of whom I was required by law to list, nor in any way connived at any violation or evasion of any of the requirements of the law in relation to the assessment of property for taxation. So help me God."

SEC. 19. Such assessor shall receive, from said county, a per centage of the assessed valuation returned by him, subject to such reduction as may be made by the board of equalization, of not less than three-fourths of one mill on the dollar, nor more than two mills on the dollar, as said board of county commissioners may deem right and just; and it shall be the duty of the board of commissioners to provide for the payment of such sum as may be allowed said assessor, in money out of the contingent fund of said county: Provided, That the county commissioners of Choteau county may, at their discretion, allow a sum not to exceed the sum of three mills.

DUTIES OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS.

SEC. 20. On or before the first day of March in each year, the county commissioners shall provide the assessor with suitable blank forms for assessments and such instructions as to insure full and uniform assessments and returns.

SEC. 21. On the first Monday in February, the board of county commissioners shall levy the requisite taxes for the current year. SEC. 22. The county commissioners shall constitute a board for the correction of the assessment roll, and on the third Monday in July, and at any time thereafter when it may become necessary, who shall meet at the county clerk's office, at the county seat, and sufficient public notice shall be given, by the county clerk, of the time and place of the meeting of such board of correction, and any person feeling aggrieved by anything in the assessment roll, may apply to the board for the correction of any supposed error, and if, in the opinion of said board, any assessments are too low, they shall have power to increase such assessments, but shall notify the party or parties of their intention to increase such assessment, and if any person, returned as refusing to render a list, or to be sworn thereto, can show good cause, the penalty herein provided may be remitted.

SEC. 23. In addition to the tax required to be levied by the provisions of this act, there shall be levied by the board of county commissioners of each county, at the same time the ad valorem tax is levied by them, a tax of two dollars upon each male inhabitant of this territory, over the age of twenty-one years. Such tax shall be denominated a poor tax, and it shall be the duty of the treasurer of each county to collect the same in money, and in the manner as provided for in this act for the collection of taxes, which said tax shall be set apart by the board of county commissioners as a fund, exclusively for the support and maintenance of the poor of each county; and the said treasurer shall be allowed twenty per cent. on all such moneys, in case he shall faithfully perform his duties in collecting said tax from each and every inhabitant as herein prescribed.

DUTIES OF COUNTY CLERKS.

SEC. 24. As soon as possible, after the taxes are levied, the clerk shall make out a tax list in tabular form and in alphabetical order, which tax list shall be made within twenty days after the returns of the assessor having [in] a distinct column by itself, the amount of each different tax, and having one or more columns for all delinquent taxes, but instead of a column for the amount

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