same. And no elector shall be obliged to do military duty on the days of election except in time of war or public danger.

Sec. 6. No elector shall be deemed to have lost his residence in this State by reason of his absence on business of the United States or of this State, or in the military or naval service of the United States.

Sec. 7. No soldier, seaman or marine in the army or navy of the United States shall be deemed a resident of this State in consequence of being stationed therein.

Sec. 8. No person under guardianship, non compos mentis or insane, shall be qualified to vote at any election, nor shall any person convicted of treason or felony be qualified to vote at any election unless restored to civil rights.

Sec. 9. Any woman having the qualifications enumerated in section 1 of this article, as to age, residence and citizenship, and including those now qualified by the laws of the Territory, may vote at an election held solely for school purposes, and may hold any office in this State except as otherwise provided in this Constitution.

ARTICLE VIII.

Education and School Lands.

Section 1. The stability of a republican form of government depending on the morality and intelligence of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature to establish and maintain a general and uniform system of public schools, wherein tuition shall be without charge, and equally open to all, and to adopt all suitable means to secure to the people the advantages and opportunities of education.

Sec. 2. All proceeds of the sale of public lands that have heretofore been or may hereafter be given by the United States for the use of public schools in this State; all such percentum as may be granted by the United States on the sales of public lands; the proceeds of all property that shall fall to the State by escheat; the proceeds of all gifts or donations to the State for public schools or not otherwise appropriated by the terms of the gift; and all property otherwise acquired for public schools, shall be and remain a perpetual fund for the maintenance of public schools in the State. It shall be deemed a trust fund held by the State. The principal shall forever remain inviolate; and

may be increased, but shall never be diminished, and the State shall make good all losses thereof which may in any manner

occur.

Sec. 3. The interest and income of this fund, together with the net proceeds of all fines for violation of State laws and all other sums which may be added thereto by law, shall be faithfully used and applied each year for the benefit of the public schools of the State, and shall be for this purpose apportioned among and between all the several public school corporations of the State in proportion to the number of children in each of school age, as may be fixed by law; and no part of the fund, either principal or interest, shall ever be diverted, even temporarily, from this purpose or used for any other purpose whatever than the maintenance of public schools for the equal benefit of all the people of the State.

Sec. 4. After one year from the assembling of the first Legislature, the lands granted to the State by the United States for the use of public schools may be sold upon the following conditions and no other: Not more than one-third of all such lands shall be sold within the first five years, and no more than twothirds within the first fifteen years after the title thereto is vested in the State, and the Legislature shall, subject to the provisions of this article, provide for the sale of the same.

The Commissioner of School and Public Lands, the State Auditor and the county superintendent of schools of the counties severally, shall constitute boards of appraisal and shall appraise all school lands within the several counties which they may from time to time select and designate for sale at their actual value under the terms of sale.

They shall take care to first select and designate for sale the most valuable lands, and they shall ascertain all such lands as may be of special and peculiar value, other than agricultural, and cause the proper subdivision of the same in order that the largest price may be obtained therefor.

Sec. 5. No land shall be sold for less than the appraised value, and in no case for less than ten dollars an acre. The purchaser shall pay one-fourth of the price in cash, and the remaining three-fourths as follows: One-fourth in five years, one-fourth in ten years, and one-fourth in fifteen years; with interest

thereon at the rate of not less than six per centum per annum, payable annually in advance, but all such subdivided lands may be sold for cash, provided that upon payment of the interest for one full year in advance, the balance of the purchase-price may be paid at any time. All sales shall be at public auction to the highest bidder, after sixty days' advertisement of the same in a newspaper of general circulation in the vicinity of the lands to be sold, and one at the seat of government. Such lands as shall not have been specially subdivided shall be offered in tracts of not more than eighty acres, and those so subdivided in the smallest subdivisions. All lands designated for sale and not sold within four years after appraisal, shall be reappraised by the board of appraisal as hereinbefore provided before they are sold.

Sec. 6. All sales shall be conducted through the office of the Commissioner of School and Public Lands as may be prescribed by law, and returns of all appraisals and sales shall be made to said office. No sale shall operate to convey any right or title to any lands for sixty days after the date thereof, nor until the same shall have received the approval of the Governor in such form as may be provided by law.

No grant or patent for any such lands shall issue until final payment be made.

Sec. 7. All lands, money or other property donated, granted, or received from the United States or any other source for a university, agricultural college, normal schools or other educa tional or charitable institution or purpose, and the proceeds of all such lands and other property so received from any source, shall be and remain perpetual funds, the interest and income of which, together with the rents of all such lands as may remain unsold, shall be inviolably appropriated and applied to the specific objects of the original grants or gifts. The principal of every such fund may be increased, but shall never be diminished, and the interest and income only shall be used. Every such fund shall be deemed a trust fund held by the State, and the State shall make good all losses therefrom that shall in any man

ner occur.

Sec. 8. All lands mentioned in the preceding section shall be appraised and sold in the same manner and by the same officers and boards, under the same limitations, and subject to all the conditions as to price, sale and approval provided above for the

appraisal and sale of lands for the benefit of public schools, but a distinct and separate account shall be kept by the proper offi cers of each of such funds.

Sec. 9. No lands mentioned in this article shall be leased except for pasturage and meadow purposes, and at public auction after notice as herein before provided in case of sale and shall be offered in tracts not greater than one section. All rents shall be payable annually in advance, and no term of lease shall exceed five years, nor shall any lease be valid until it receives the approval of the Governor.

Sec. 10. No claim to any public lands by any trespasser thereon by reason of occupancy, cultivation or improvement thereof, shall ever be recognized; nor shall compensation ever be made on account of any improvement made by such trespasser.

Sec. 11. The moneys of the permanent school and other educational funds shall be invested only in first mortgages upon good improved farm lands within this State, as hereinafter provided, or in bonds of school corporations within the State, or in bonds of the United States or of the State of South Dakota. The Legislature shall provide by law the method of determining the amounts of said funds, which shall be invested from time to time in such classes of securities respectively, taking care to secure continuous investments as far as possible.

All moneys of said funds which may from time to time be designated for investment in farm mortgages and in the bonds of school corporations, shall for such purpose be divided among the organized counties of the State in proportion to population as nearly as provisions by law to secure continuous investments may permit. The several counties shall hold and manage the same as trust funds, and they shall be and remain responsible and accountable for the principal and interest of all such moneys received by them from the date to (of) receipt until returned because not loaned; and in case of loss of any money so appor tioned to any county, such county shall make the same good out of its common revenue. Counties shall invest said money in bonds of school corporations, or in first mortgages upon good improved farm lands within their limits respectively; but no farm loan shall exceed five hundred dollars to any one person,

nor shall it exceed one-half the valuation of the land as assessed for taxation, and the rate of interest shall not be less than six per centum per annum, and shall be such other and higher rate as the Legislature may provide, and shall be payable semi-annually on the first day of January and July: Provided, That whereever there are moneys of said fund in any county amounting to one thousand dollars that cannot be loaned according to the provisions of this section and any law pursuant thereto, the said sum may be returned to the State Treasurer to be intrusted to some other county or counties, or otherwise invested under the provisions of this section.

Each county shall semi-annually, on the first day of January and July, render an account of the condition of the funds intrusted to it to the Auditor of State, and at the same time pay to or account to the State Treasurer for the interest due on all funds intrusted to it.

The Legislature may provide by general law that counties. may retain from interest collected in excess of six per centum per annum upon all said funds intrusted to them, not to exceed one per centum per annum. But no county shall be exempted from the obligation to make semi-annual payments to the State treasury of interest at the rate provided by law for such loans, except only said one per centum, and in no case shall the interest so to be paid be less than six per centum per annum.

The Legislature shall provide by law for the safe investment of the permanent school and other educational funds, and for the prompt collection of interest and income thereof, and to carry out the objects and provisions of this section.

Sec. 12. The Governor may disapprove any sale, lease or investment other than such as are intrusted to the counties.

Sec. 13. All losses to the permanent school or other educational funds of this State which shall have been occasioned by the defalcation, negligence, mismanagement or fraud of the agents or officers controlling and managing the same, shall be audited by the proper authorities of the State. The amount so audited shall be a permanent funded debt against the State in favor of the fund sustaining the loss upon which not less than six per centum of annual interest shall be paid. The amount of indebtedness so created shall not be counted as a part of the indebtedness mentioned in Article XIII, section 2.