Chap. 338.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 3334 of the Code of Vir-
ginia of 1887.

Approved March 14, 1908.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section
thirty-three hundred and thirty-four of the Code of Virginia of eighteen
hundred and eighty- seven, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as
follows :
§3334. Also, copies of records or papers in clerk’s office of any court
of the State, or in the public offices thereof, or certificate of auditor in
certain cases. A copy of any record or paper in the clerk’s office of
any court, or in the office of the secretary of the Commonwealth, State
corporation commission, board of fisheries of Virginia or its successors,
treasurer, register, either auditor, railroad commissioner, commissioner
of agriculture, or the State assayer and chemist, attested by the officer
in whose office the same is; and a copy of any record or paper in the
office of the board of public. works, or the board of education, or the
board of supervisors of any county, ‘attested by the secretary or clerk of
such board; and a copy of any record or paper in the office of surveyor
of lands of any county, attested by the surveyor in whose office the same
is, may be admitted as evidence in lieu of the original, but, for good
cause shown, the original records in the office of the surveyor of lands
of any county may be required to be produced. And the certificate of
the auditor of public accounts of the fact and time of the return of
any real estate as delinquent, or of the sale thereof for taxes, shall be
prima facie evidence of what is stated in such certificate. Any such
copy or certificate, purporting to be sealed, or sealed and signed, or
signed alone, by any such. officer, secretary or clerk, may be admitted
as evidence, without any proof of the seal or signature, or of the official
character of the person whose name is signed té it. The certificate of
the auditor of public accounts of the payment or non-payment at any
time, of taxes on forfeited or delinquent lands, or lots, or of their not
having been entered on the books of the commissioner of the revenue
for the county or city shall, in any suit or proceeding in relation to
such lands or lots, be prima facie evidence of what is stated in such
certificate, provided it be filed with the papers of said suit at least twenty
days before the first day of the term at which it is to be offered at evi-
dence. When the certificate purports to be signed by the said auditor,
it may be admitted as eviderice without proof of his signature.

Owing to the fact that copies of records or papers in the office of the
State corporation commission may be necessary in suits now pending in
the courts of this Commonwealth, an emergency is declared to exist; and
this act shall be in force from its passage.