thereof, or affect any right, penalty, forfeiture or cause of action existing in favor of said District Commissioners or any citizen of the District of Columbia, or any other person, but the same may be commenced, proceeded for, or prosecuted to final judgment, and the corporation shall be bound thereby as if the suit had been originally commenced for or against said corporation.

12. The said Commissioners shall submit to the Secretary of the Treasury for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and seventy-nine, and annually thereafter, for his examination and approval, a statement showing in detail the work proposed to be undertaken by them during the fiscal year next ensuing, and the estimated cost thereof.

13. Also, the cost of constructing, repairing and maintaining all bridges authorized by law across the Potomac river within the District of Columbia, and also all other streams in said District; the cost of maintaining all public institutions of charity, reformatories and prisons belonging to or controlled wholly or in part by the District of Columbia, and which are now by law supported wholly or in part by the United States or District of Columbia; and also the expenses of the Washington aqueduct and its appurtenances; and also an itemized statement and estimate of the amount necessary to defray the expenses of the government of the District of Columbia for the next fiscal year.

14. Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed as transferring from the United States authorities any of the public works within the District of Columbia now in the control or supervision of said authorities.

15. The Secretary of the Treasury shall carefully consider all estimates submitted to him as above provided, and shall approve, disapprove or suggest such changes in the same, or any item thereof, as he may think the public interest demands; and after he shall have considered and passed upon such estimates submitted to him, he shall cause to be made a statement of the amount approved by him and the fund or purpose to which each item belongs, which statement shall be certified by him and delivered, together with the estimates as originally submitted to the Commissioners of the District of Columbia, who shall transmit the same to Congress.

16. To the extent to which Congress shall approve of said estimates, Congress shall appropriate the amount of fifty per centum thereof.

17. And the remaining fifty per centum of such approved estimates shall be levied and assessed upon the taxable property and privileges in said District other than the property of the United States and of the District of Columbia.

18. And all proceedings in the assessing, equalizing and levying of said taxes, the collection thereof, the listing, return and penalty for taxes in arrears, the advertising for sale and the sale of property for delinquent taxes, the redemption thereof, the proceedings to enforce the lien upon unredeemed property, and every other act and thing now required to be done in the premises shall be done and performed at the times and in the manner now provided by law, except in so far as is otherwise provided by this act.

19. Provided, That the rate of taxation in any one year shall not exceed one dollar and fifty cents on every one hundred dollars of real estate not exempted by law; and on personal property not taxable elsewhere, one dollar and fifty cents on every one hundred dollars, according to the cash valuation thereof.

20. And provided further, Upon real property held and used exclusively for agricultural purposes, without the limits of the cities of Washington and Georgetown, and to be so designated by the assessors in their annual returns, the rate for any one year shall not exceed one dollar on every one hundred dollars.

21. The collector of taxes, upon the receipt of the duplicate of assessment, shall give notice for one week, in one newspaper published in the city of Washington, that he is ready to receive taxes.

22. And any person who shall, within thirty days after such notice given, pay the taxes assessed against him, shall be allowed by the collector a deduction of five per centum on the amount of his tax.

23. All penalties imposed by the act approved March third, eighteen hundred and seventy-seven, chapter one hundred and seventeen, upon delinquents for default in the payment of taxes levied under said act, at the times specified therein, shall, upon payment of the said taxes assessed against such delinquents within three months from the passage of this act, with interest. at the rate of six per cent thereon, be remitted.

SECTION IV.

1. That the said Commissioners may, by general regulations consistent with the act of Congress of March third, eighteen

hundred and seventy-seven, entitled "An act for the support of the government of the District of Columbia for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and seventy-eight, and for other purposes," or with other existing laws, prescribe the time or times for the payment of all taxes and the duties of assessors and collectors in relation thereto.

2. All taxes collected shall be paid into the treasury of the United States, and the same, as well as the appropriations to be made by Congress as aforesaid, shall be disbursed for the expenses of said District, on itemized vouchers, which shall have been audited and approved by the Auditor of the District of Columbia, certified by said Commissioners, or a majority of them.

3. And the accounts of said Commissioners and the tax collectors, and all other officers required to account, shall be settled and adjusted by the accounting officers of the treasury of the United States.

4. Hereafter the Secretary of the Treasury shall pay the interest on the three-sixty-five bonds of the District of Columbia issued in pursuance of the act of Congress approved June twentieth, eighteen hundred and seventy-four, when the same shall become due and payable, and all amounts so paid shall be credited as a part of the appropriation for the year by the United States toward the expenses of the District of Columbia, as hereinbefore provided.

SECTION V.

1. That hereafter when any repairs of streets, avenues, alleys or sewers within the District of Columbia are to be made, or when new pavements are to be substituted in place of those worn out, new ones laid, or new streets opened, sewers built, or any works the total cost of which shall exceed the sum of one thousand dollars, notice shall be given in one newspaper in Washington; and if the total cost shall exceed five thousand dollars, then in one newspaper in each of the cities of New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, also for one week, for proposals, with full specifications as to materials for the whole or any portion of the works proposed to be done.

2. And the lowest responsible proposal for the kind and character of pavement or other work which the Commissioners shall determine upon shall in all cases be accepted.

3. Provided, however, That the Commissioners shall have the ight, in their discretion, to reject all of such proposals.

4. Provided, That work capable of being executed under a single contract shall not be subdivided so as to reduce the sum of money to be paid therefor to less than one thousand dollars.

5. All contracts for the construction, improvement, alterations or repairs of the streets, avenues, highways, alleys, gutters, sewers and all work of like nature, shall be made and entered into only by and with the official unanimous consent of the Commissioners of the District.

6. And all contracts shall be copied in a book kept for that purpose and be signed by the said Commissioners, and no contract involving an expenditure of more than one hundred dollars shall be valid until recorded and signed as aforesaid.

7. No pavement shall be accepted nor any pavement laid except that of the best material of its kind known for that purpose, laid in the most substantial manner.

8. And good and sufficient bonds to the United States in a penal sum not less than the amount of the contract, with sureties to be approved by the Commissioners of the District of Columbia, shall be required from all contractors, guaranteeing that the terms of their contracts shall be strictly and faithfully performed to the satisfaction of and acceptance by said Commissioners.

9. And that the contractors shall keep new pavements or other new works in repair for a term of five years from the date of the completion of their contracts.

10. And ten per centum of the cost of all new works shall be retained as an additional security and a guarantee fund to keep the same in repair for said term, which said per centum shall be invested in registered bonds of the United States or of the District of Columbia and the interest thereon paid to said contractors.

11. The cost of laying down said pavements, sewers and other works or of repairing the same shall be paid for in the following proportions and manner, to wit: When any street or avenue through which a street railway runs shall be paved, such railway company shall bear all of the expense for that portion of the work lying between the exterior rails of the tracks of such roads, and for a distance of two feet from and exterior to such track or tracks on each side thereof, and of keeping the same in repair.

12. But the said railway companies having conformed to the grades established by the Commissioners may use such cobble

stone or Belgian blocks for paving their tracks or the space between their tracks as the Commissioners may direct.

13. The United States shall pay one-half of the cost of all work done under the provisions of this section, except that done by the railway companies, which payment shall be credited as part of the fifty per centum which the United States contributes toward the expenses of the District of Columbia for that year.

14. And all payments shall be made by the Secretary of the Treasury on the warrant or order of the Commissioners of the District of Columbia, or a majority thereof, in such amounts and at such times as they may deem safe and proper in view of the progress of the work.

15. That if any street railway company shall neglect or refuse to perform the work required by this act, said pavement shall be laid between the tracks and exterior thereto of such railway by the District of Columbia.

16. And if such company shall fail or refuse to pay the sum due from them in respect of the work done by or under the orders of the proper officials of said District, in such case of the neglect or refusal of such railway company to perform the work required as aforesaid the Commissioners of the District of Columbia shall issue certificates of indebtedness against the property, real or personal, of such railway company, which certificates shall bear interest at the rate of ten per centum per annum until paid, and which, until they are paid, shall remain and be a lien upon the property on or against which they are issued, together with the franchise of said company.

17. And if the said certificates are not paid within one year the said Commissioners of the District of Columbia may proceed to sell the property against which they are issued, or so much thereof as may be necessary to pay the amount due, such sale to be first duly advertised daily for one week in some newspaper published in the city of Washington, and to be at public auction to the highest bidder.

18. When street railways cross any street or avenue the pavement between the tracks of such railway shall conform to the pavement used upon such street or avenue, and the companies owning these intersecting railroads shall pay for such pavements in the same manner and proportion as required of other railway companies under the provisions of this section.