Chap. 84.—An ACT to amend and re-enact sections 420 and 421 of an act tc
amend and re-enact title 12 of the Code of Virginia, in relation to the public
debt, approved December 17, 1903.

Approved March 8, 1904.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section:
four hundred and twenty and four hundred and twenty-one of the Cod
of Virginia, as amended and re-enacted by an act approved Decembe!
twelve, nineteen hundred and three, entitled an act to amend and re
enact title twelve of the Code of Virginia in relation to the ‘public debt.
be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

- $420. To be used in buying bonds.—The commissioners of the sink-
ing fund shall, annually or as often as they deem it: necessary or expe-
dient, apply any money appropriated for the purpose, and subject to
their control as such commissioners, to the purchase at market rates (not,
however, exceeding the par value) of bonds issued under the act of Feb-
ruary fourteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty-two, or under the act of
February twentieth, eighteen hundred and ninety-two. All bonds here-
tofore purchased and now held by the said commissioners, with funds
arising under the preceding section, shall be cancelled at once by said
commissioners, and all bonds bought with funds belonging to the sink-
ing fund proper shall be cancelled in like manner as soon as they have
been transferred to said commissioners of the sinking fund.

. § 421. Commissioners’ meetings; bonds to be bought after sealed
bids.— Within ninety days after an appropriation is made by the general
assembly for the purpose of buying bonds, or as often as said commis-
sioners deem necessary, said commissioners shall advertise in at least one
daily newspaper published in the cities of Richmond, New York, and
Baltimore that they will receive offers for the sale of such amount of the
bonds issued under the act of February fourteenth, eighteen hundred
and ,ighty-two, or February twentieth, eighteen hundred and ninety-
two, as in their judgment the sum placed to their credit will enable them
to purchase, and that such offers may be made up to and including a day
named. All such offers shall be made in writing, shall be sealed, and
shall be opened by the said commissioners, or a majority of them, at a
meeting previously agreed upon for the purpose, at noon, in the presence
of the governor, or, in the event of his absence, in the presence of the
secretary of the Commonwealth. Said commissioners shall have au-
thority to reject any and all bids made. All bonds purchased under this
section shall be listed on the minutes of the board, which lst shall show
the number and denomination of each bond purchased. All bonds pur-
chased. by the commissioners and all bonds now held by them shall be
immediately cancelled by said commissioners. No coupon bond shall be
purchased under this act unless all unmatured interest coupons shall be
attached thereto.

2. There being now in the treasury more than one million dollars of
the bonds of the Commonwealth, purchased under former acts of the
assembly, and it being desirable that the policy of this act shall at once
prevail, this act shall be in force from its passage.