Chap. 256.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 34 of an act entitled an
act to raig® revenue for the support of the government and public free
schools and to pay the interest on the public debt, and to provide a
special tax for pensions, as authorized by section 189 of the Constitution,
appreved April 16, 1903, as amended by an act approved March 17, 1906,
and by an act approved March 14, 1908.

Approved March 16, 1910.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section
thirty-four of an act entitled an act to raise revenue for support of the
government and public free schools and to pay the interest on the public
debt, and to provide a special tax for pensions, as authorized by section
one hundred and eighty-nine of the Constitution, approved April six-
teenth, nineteen hundred and three, as amended by an act approved
March seventeenth, nineteen hundred and six, and as amended by an act
approved March fourteenth, nineteen hundred and eight, be amended and
re-enacted so as to read as follows:

§34. Each incorporated telegraph and telephone company doing busi-
ness in this State, owning and operating a telegraph or telephone line in
this State, shall report annually on the first day of September to the
State corporation commission all of its real and personal property of
every description in this State belonging to it on the thirtieth day of
June preceding, showing particularly in what corporation, county and
school district the property is located and classify the same under the
following heads:

(1) Number of miles of poles or conduits owned or operated by it
within this State on the thirtieth day of June preceding in each county,
city, town and school district.

(2) Number of miles of wire in excess of one wire in each city,
county, town and school district.

(3) Real and personal property, including the value of the telephone
instruments, switchboards, et cetera, and the value of telegraph instru-
ments, apparatus, et cetera, in each city, county, town or school district.

(4) The gross earnings and receipts in this State for the twelve
months next preceding the thirtieth day of June.

The report herein required shall be certified by the oath of the presi-
dent or other proper officer of the company making the same.

The State corporation commission shall, after thirty days’ notice pre-
viously given by it to the president or other proper officer of each of
such companies, incorporated under the laws of this or any other State,
assess the value of its property. Should any such incorporated company
fail to make such report at the time herein prescribed, the State corpo-
ration commission shall, at such time as it may elect, upon the best and
most reliable information that can be procured, assess the value of the
property of said company and assess upon said property the taxes im-
posed by law, and shall also assess the license tax imposed by law upon
every such company, and in the execution of such duty shall be author-
ized and empowered to send for persons and papers.

The State corporation commission shal] assess upon said property
the taxes imposed thereon by law.

A certified copy of the assessment, when made, shall be immediately
forwarded by the clerk of the State corporation commission to the
auditor of public accounts and to the president or other proper officer
of each such company, and such company shall pay into the treasury
of the State by the first day of December following the taxes assessed

inst it.

It shall be the duty of the State corporation commission to furnish
to the council of every corporation and to the board of supervisors of
every county, and to every city and county treasurer wherein any prop-
erty belonging to any such corporation is situated, a certified copy of the
assessment made by the State corporation commission of such company’s
property, which assessment shall definitely show the character of the
property, its value and the location for the purposes of taxation in each
city, county and district, so that city, town, county, district and road
levies may be imposed upon the same.

It shall be the duty of the county superintendent of schools in each
county in which any such telegraph or telephone company operating a
telegraph or telephone company operating a telegraph or telephone line
owns property, on or before the first day of July of each year, to furnish
such telegraph or telephone company and the clerk of the State corpora-
tion commission, the boundaries of the school district of said county
wherein any such property is situated.

It shall be the duty of the judge of the circuit court for each county,
at the next term of said court after the first day of July in each year, to
instruct the grand jury to inquire into and ascertain whether or not the
county superintendent of schools has furnished the boundaries of each
school district to such telegraph and telephone companies operating in
said county and to the clerk of the corporation commission. If the
grand jury shall find that the county superintendent of schools has not
furnished the boundaries of such school districts as herein provided,
indictments shall be found against him for a misdemeanor, and upon
conviction thereof he shall be fined not less than twenty-five dollars nor
more than one hundred dollars for each schoo] district so omitted.

Any company failing to pay said taxes into the treasury within the
time herein prescribed, shall incur a penalty thereon of five per centum,
which shall be added to the amount of said taxes.

2. The collection of current revenue being affected, an emergency is
declared to exist, and this act shall be in force from its passage.