this State for the use of water supplied to any city and county, or city, or town, or the inhabitants thereof, shall be fixed, annually, by the Board of Supervisors, or City and County, or City, or Town Council, or other governing body of such city and county, or city, or town, by ordinance or otherwise, in the manner that other ordinances or legislative acts or resolutions are passed by such body, and shall continue in force for one year and no longer. Such ordinances or resolutions shall be passed in the month of February of each year, and take effect on the first day of July thereafter. Any board or body failing to pass the necessary ordinances or resolutions fixing water rates, where necessary, within such time, shall be subject to peremptory process to compel action, at the suit of any party interested, and shall be liable to such further processes and penalties as the Legislature may prescribe. Any person, company, or corporation collecting water rates in any city and county, or city, or town in this State, otherwise than as so established, shall forfeit the franchises and waterworks of such person, company, or corporation to the city and county, or city, or town, where the same are collected, for the public use. SEC. 2. The right to collect rates or compensation for the use of waters supplied to any county, city and county, or town, or the inhabitants thereof, is a franchise, and cannot be exercised except by authority of and in the manner prescribed by law. ARTICLE XV. HARBOR FRONTAGE, ETC. SECTION 1. The right of eminent domain is hereby declared to exist in the State to all frontages on the navigable waters of this State. SEC. 2. No individual, partnership, or corporation, claiming or possessing the frontage or tidal lands of a harbor, bay, inlet, estuary, or other navigable water in this State, shall be permitted to exclude the right of way to such water whenever it is required for any public purpose, nor to destroy or obstruct the free navigation of such water; and the Legislature shall enact such laws as will give the most liberal construction to this provision, so that access to the navigable waters of this State shall be always attainable for the people thereof. SEC. 3. All tide lands within two miles of any incorporated city or town of this State, and fronting on the waters of any harbor, estuary, bay, or inlet, used for the purposes of navigation, shall be withheld from grant or sale to private persons, partnerships, or corporations. ARTICLE XVI. STATE INDEBTEDNESS. SECTION 1. The Legislature shall not, in any manner, create any debt or debts, liabil ity or liabilities, which shall, singly or in the aggregate with any previous debts or liabil ities, exceed the sum of three hundred thousand dollars, except in case of war to repel invasion or suppress insurrection, unless the same shall be authorized by law for some single object or work to be distinctly specified therein, which law shall provide ways and means, exclusive of loans, for the payment of the interest of such debt or liability as it falls due, and also to pay and discharge the principal of such debt or liability within twenty years of the time of the contracting thereof, and shall be irrepealable until the principal and interest thereon shall be paid and discharged; but no such law shall take effect until, at a general election, it shall have been submitted to the people and shall have received a majority of all the votes cast for and against it at such election; and all moneys raised by authority of such law shall be applied only to the specific object therein stated, or to the payment of the debt thereby created, and such law shall be published in at least one newspaper in each county, or city and county, if one be published therein, throughout the State, for three months next preceding the election at which it is submitted to the people. The Legislature may, at any time after the approval of such law by the people, if no debt shall have been contracted in pursuance thereof, repeal the same. ARTICLE XVII. LAND AND HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION. SECTION 1. The Legislature shall protect, by law, from forced sale, a certain portion of the homestead and other property of all heads of families. SEC. 2. The holding of large tracts of land, uncultivated and unimproved, by individuals or corporations, is against the public interest, and should be discouraged by all means not inconsistent with the rights of private property. SEC. 3. Lands belonging to this State, which are suitable for cultivation, shall be granted only to actual settlers, and in quantities not exceeding three hundred and twenty acres to each settler, under such conditions as shall be prescribed by law. ARTICLE XVIII. AMENDING AND REVISING THE CONSTITUTION. SECTION 1. Any amendment or amendments to this Constitution may be proposed in the Senate or Assembly, and if two thirds of all the members elected to each of the two houses shall vote in favor thereof, such proposed amendment or amendments shall be entered in their journals, with the yeas and nays taken thereon; and it shall be the duty of the Legislature to submit such proposed amendment or amendments to the people in such manner, and at such time, and after such publication as may be deemed expedient. Should more amendments than one be submitted at the same election, they shall be so prepared and distinguished, by numbers or otherwise, that each can be voted on separately. If the people shall approve and ratify such amendment or amendments, or any of them, by a majority of the qualified electors voting thereon, such amendment or amendments shall become a part of this Constitution. SEC. 2. Whenever two thirds of the members elected to each branch of the Legislature shall deem it necessary to revise this Constitution, they shall recommend to the electors to vote, at the next general election, for or against a convention for that purpose, and if a majority of the electors voting at such election on the proposition for a convention shall vote in favor thereof, the Legislature shall, at its next session, provide by law for calling the same. The convention shall consist of a number of delegates not to exceed that of both branches of the Legislature, who shall be chosen in the same manner, and have the same qualifications, as members of the Legislature. The delegates so elected shall meet within three months after their election, at such place as the Legislature may direct. At a special election to be provided for by law, the Constitution that may be agreed upon by such convention shall be submitted to the people for their ratification or rejection, in such manner as the convention may determine. The returns of such election shall, in such manner as the convention shall direct, be certified to the Executive of the State, who shall call to his assistance the Controller, Treasurer, and Secretary of State, and compare the returns so certified to him; and it shall be the duty of the Executive to declare, by his proclamation, such Constitution as may have been ratified by a majority of all the votes cast at such special election, to be the Constitution of the State of California. ARTICLE XIX. CHINESE. SECTION 1. The Legislature shall prescribe all necessary regulations for the protection of the State, and the counties, cities, and towns thereof, from the burdens and evils arising from the presence of aliens who are or may become vagrants, paupers, mendicants, criminals, or invalids afflicted with contagious or infectious diseases, and from aliens otherwise dangerous or detrimental to the well-being or peace of the State, and to impose conditions upon which such persons may reside in the State, and to provide the means and mode of their removal from the State, upon failure or refusal to comply with such conditions; provided, that nothing contained in this section shall be construed to impair or limit the power of the Legislature to pass such police laws or other regulations as it may deem necessary. SEC. 2. No corporation now existing or hereafter formed under the laws of this State shall, after the adoption of this Constitution, employ, directly or indirectly, in any capacity, any Chinese or Mongolian. The Legislature shall pass such laws as may be necessary to enforce this provision. SEC. 3. No Chinese shall be employed on any State, county, municipal, or other public work, except in punishment for crime. SEC. 4. The presence of foreigners ineligible to become citizens of the United States is declared to be dangerous to the well-being of the State, and the Legislature shall discourage their immigration by all the means within its power. Asiatic coolieism is a form of human slavery, and is forever prohibited in this State, and all contracts for coolie labor shall be void. All companies or corporations, whether formed in this country or any foreign country, for the importation of such labor, shall be subject to such penalties as the Legislature may prescribe. The Legislature shall delegate all necessary power to the incorporated cities and towns of this State for the removal of Chinese without the limits of such cities and towns, or for their location within prescribed portions of those limits, and it shall also provide the necessary legislation to prohibit the introduction into this State of Chinese after the adoption of this Constitution. This section shall be enforced by appropriate legislation. ARTICLE XX. MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. SECTION 1. The City of Sacramento is hereby declared to be the seat of government of this State, and shall so remain until changed by law; but no law changing the seat of government shall be valid or binding unless the same be approved and ratified by a majority of the qualified electors of the State voting therefor at a general State election, under such regulations and provisions as the Legislature, by a two-thirds vote of each house, may provide, submitting the question of change to the people. SEC. 2. Any citizen of this State who shall, after the adoption of this Constitution, fight a duel with deadly weapons, or send or accept a challenge to fight a duel with deadly weapons, either within this State or out of it, or who shall act as second, or knowingly aid or assist in any manner those thus offending, shall not be allowed to hold any office of profit, or to enjoy the right of suffrage under this Constitution. SEC. 3. Members of the Legislature, and all officers, executive and judicial, except such inferior officers as may be by law exempted, shall, before they enter upon the duties of their respective offices, take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case may be) that I will support the Constitu tion of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of according to the best of my ability." And no other oath, declaration, or test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust. SEC. 4. All officers or commissioners whose election or appointment is not provided for by this Constitution, and all officers or commissioners whose offices or duties may hereafter be created by law, shall be elected by the people, or appointed, as the Legislature may direct. SEC. 5. The fiscal year shall commence on the first day of July. SEC. 6. Suits may be brought against the State in such manner and in such courts as shall be directed by law. SEC. 7. No contract of marriage, if otherwise duly made, shall be invalidated for want of conformity to the requirements of any religious sect. SEC. 8. All property, real and personal, owned by either husband or wife, before marriage, and that acquired by either of them afterwards by gift, devise, or descent, shall be their separate property. SEC. 9. No perpetuities shall be allowed except for eleemosynary purposes. SEC. 10. Every person shall be disqualified from holding any office of profit in this State who shall have been convicted of having given or offered a bribe to procure his election or appointment. SEC. 11. Laws shall be made to exclude from office, serving on juries, and from the right of suffrage, persons convicted of bribery, perjury, forgery, malfeasance in office, or other high crimes. The privilege of free suffrage shall be supported by laws regulating elections, and prohibiting, under adequate penalties, all undue influence thereon from power, bribery, tumult, or other improper practice. SEC. 12. Absence from this State, on business of the State or of the United States, shall not affect the question of residence of any person. SEC. 13. A plurality of the votes given at any election shall constitute a choice, where not otherwise directed in this Constitution. SEC. 14. The Legislature shall provide, by law, for the maintenance and efficiency of a State Board of Health. SEC. 15. Mechanics, materialmen, artisans, and laborers of every class shall have a lien upon the property upon which they have bestowed labor or furnished material, for the value of such labor done and material furnished; and the Legislature shall provide, by law, for the speedy and efficient enforcement of such liens. SEC. 16. When the term of any officer or commissioner is not provided for in this Constitution, the term of such officer or commissioner may be declared by law; and if not so declared, such officer or commissioner shall hold his position as such officer or commissioner during the pleasure of the authority making the appointment; but in no case shall such term exceed four years. SEC. 17. The time of service of all laborers or workmen or mechanics employed upon any public works of the State of California, or of any county, city and county, city, town, district, township, or any other political subdivision thereof, whether said work is done by contract or otherwise, shall be limited and restricted to eight hours in any one calendar day, except in cases of extraordinary emergency caused by fire, flood, or danger to life and property, or except to work upon public, military, or naval works or defenses in time of war, and the Legislature shall provide by law that a stipulation to this effect shall be incorporated in all contracts for public work and prescribe proper penalties for the speedy and efficient enforcement of said law. [Amendment adopted November 4, 1902.] SEC. 18. No person shall, on account of sex, be disqualified from entering upon or pursuing any lawful business, vocation, or profession. SEC. 19. Nothing in this Constitution shall prevent the Legislature from providing, by law, for the payment of the expenses of the convention framing this Constitution, including the per diem of the delegates for the full term thereof. SEC. 20. Elections of the officers provided for by this Constitution, except at the election in the year eighteen hundred and seventy-nine, shall be held on the even-numbered years next before the expiration of their respective terms. The terms of such officers shall commence on the first Monday after the first day of January next following their election. ARTICLE XXI. BOUNDARY. SECTION 1. The boundary of the State of California shall be as follows: Commencing at the point of intersection of the forty-second degree of north latitude with the one hundred and twentieth degree of longitude west from Greenwich, and running south on the line of said one hundred and twentieth degree of west longitude until it intersects the thirty-ninth degree of north latitude; thence running in a straight line, in a southeasterly direction, to the River Colorado, at a point where it intersects the thirty-fifth degree of north latitude; thence down the middle of the channel of said river to the boundary line between the United States and Mexico, as established by the treaty of May thirtieth, one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight; thence running west and along said boundary line to the Pacific Ocean, and extending therein three English miles; thence running in a northwesterly direction and following the direction of the Pacific Coast to the fortysecond degree of north latitude; thence on the line of said forty-second degree of north latitude to the place of beginning. Also, including all the islands, harbors, and bays along and adjacent to the coast. ARTICLE XXII. SCHEDULE. That no inconvenience may arise from the alterations and amendments in the Constitution of this State, and to carry the same into complete effect, it is hereby ordained and declared: SECTION 1. That all laws in force at the adoption of this Constitution, not inconsistent therewith, shall remain in full force and effect until altered or repealed by the Legislature; and all rights, actions, prosecutions, claims, and contracts of the State, counties, individuals, or bodies corporate, not inconsistent therewith, shall continue to be as valid as if this Constitution had not been adopted. The provisions of all laws which are inconsistent with this Constitution shall cease upon the adoption thereof, except that all laws which are inconsistent with such provisions of this Constitution as require legislation to enforce them shall remain in full force until the first day of July, eighteen hundred and eighty, unless sooner altered or repealed by the Legislature. SEC. 2. That all recognizances, obligations, and all other instruments entered into or executed before the adoption of this Constitution, to this State, or to any subdivision thereof, or any municipality therein, and all fines, taxes, penalties, and forfeitures due or owing to this State, or any subdivision or municipality thereof, and all writs, prosecutions, actions, and causes of action, except as herein otherwise provided, shall continue and remain unaffected by the adoption of this Constitution. All indictments or informations which shall have been found, or may hereafter be found, for any crime or offense committed before this Constitution takes effect, may be proceeded upon as if no change had taken place, except as otherwise provided in this Constitution. SEC. 3. All courts now existing, save Justices' and Police Courts, are hereby abolished; and all records, books, papers, and proceedings from such courts, as are abolished by this Constitution, shall be transferred, on the first day of January, eighteen hundred and eighty, to the courts provided for in this Constitution; and the courts to which the same are thus transferred shall have the same power and jurisdiction over them as if they had been in the first instance commenced, filed, or lodged therein. SEC. 4. The Superintendent of Printing of the State of California shall, at least thirty days before the first Wednesday in May, A. D. eighteen hundred and seventy-nine, cause to be printed at the state printing office, in pamphlet form, simply stitched, as many copies of this Constitution as there are registered voters in this State, and mail one copy thereof to the post office address of each registered voter; provided, any copies not called for ten days after reaching their delivery office, shall be subject to general distribution by the several postmasters of the State. The Governor shall issue his proclamation, giving notice of the election for the adoption or rejection of this Constitution, at least thirty days before the said first Wednesday of May, eighteen hundred and seventy-nine, and the Boards of Supervisors of the several counties shall cause said proclamation to be made public in their respective counties, and general notice of said election to be given at least fifteen days next before said election. SEC. 5. The Superintendent of Printing of the State of California shall, at least twenty days before said election, cause to be printed and delivered to the Clerk of each county in this State five times the number of properly prepared ballots for said election that there are voters in said respective counties, with the words printed thereon: "For the New Constitution." He shall likewise cause to be so printed and delivered to said Clerks five times the number of properly prepared ballots for said election that there are voters in said respective counties, with the words printed thereon: "Against the New Constitution." The Secretary of State is hereby authorized and required to furnish the Superintendent of State Printing a sufficient quantity of legal ballot paper, now on hand, to carry out the provisions of this section. SEC. 6. The Clerks of the several counties in the State shall, at least five days before said election, cause to be delivered to the inspectors of election, at each election precinct or polling place in their respective counties, suitable registers, poll books, forms of return, and an equal number of the aforesaid ballots, which number, in the aggregate, must be ten times greater than the number of voters in the said election precincts or polling places. The returns of the number of votes cast at the presidential election in the year eighteen hundred and seventy-six shall serve as a basis of calculation for this and the preceding section; provided, that the duties in this and the preceding section imposed upon the Clerks of the respective counties shall, in the City and County of San Francisco, be performed by the Registrar of Voters for said city and county. SEC. 7. Every citizen of the United States, entitled by law to vote for members of the Assembly in this State, shall be entitled to vote for the adoption or rejection of this Constitution. SEC. 8. The officers of the several counties of this State, whose duty it is, under the law, to receive and canvass the returns from the several precincts of their respective counties, as well as of the City and County of San Francisco, shall meet at the usual places of meeting for such purposes on the first Monday after said election. If, at the time of meeting, the returns from each precinct in the county in which the polls were opened have been received, the board must then and there proceed to canvass the returns; but if all the returns have not been received, the canvass must be postponed from time to time until all the returns are received, or until the second Monday after said election, when they shall proceed to make out returns of the votes cast for and against the new Constitution; and the proceedings of said board shall be the same as those prescribed for like boards in the case of an election for Governor. Upon the com pletion of said canvass and returns, the said board shall immediately certify the same, in the usual form, to the Governor of the State of California. SEC. 9. The Governor of the State of California shall, as soon as the returns of said election shall be received by him, or within thirty days after said election, in the presence and with the assistance of the Controller, Treasurer, and Secretary of State, open and compute all the returns received of votes cast for and against the new Constitution. If, by such examination and computation, it is ascertained that a majority of the whole number of votes cast at such election is in favor of such new Constitution, the Executive of this State shall, by his proclamation, declare such new Constitution to be the Constitution of the State of California, and that it shall take effect and be in force on the days hereinafter specified. SEC. 10. In order that future elections in this State shall conform to the requirements of this Constitution, the terms of all officers elected at the first election under the same shall be, respectively, one year shorter than the terms as fixed by law or by this Constitution; and the successors of all such officers shall be elected at the last efection before the expiration of the terms as in this section provided. The first officers chosen after the adoption of this Constitution shall be elected at the time and in the manner now provided by law. Judicial officers and the Superintendent of Public Instruction shall be elected at the time and in the manner that State officers are elected. SEC. 11. All laws relative to the present judicial system of the State shall be applicable to the judicial system created by this Constitution until changed by legislation. SEC. 12. This Constitution shall take effect and be in force on and after the fourth day of July, eighteen hundred and seventy-nine, at twelve o'clock meridian, so far as the same relates to the election of all officers, the commencement of their terms of office, and the meeting of the Legislature. In all other respects, and for all other purposes, this Constitution shall take effect on the first day of January, eighteen hundred and eighty, at twelve o'clock meridian. Attest: EDWIN F. SMITH, Secretary. A. R. ANDREWS, D. W. HERRINGTON, J. P. HOGE, President. WILLIAM H. PROUTY, RUFUS SHOEMAKER, BENJ. SHURTLEFF, GEO. VENABLE SMITH, JOHN C. STEDMAN, |