785. The office of county surveyor is hereby created in the several counties of the Territory of New Mexico. No person shall be eligible to or hold such office who is not a practical land surveryor actually engaged in the business. Until the next general election for county officers under the laws of the territory, the office of county surveyor shall be filled by appointment of the board of county commissioners of the respective counties in this territory. At the next general election held for the county officers in the several counties of this territory, a county surveyor shall be elected for each county in the same manner that other county officers are elected; he shall hold his office for the term of two years and until his successor shall be elected and qualified. His term of office shall commence on the 1st day of January succeeding his election. Before entering upon the duties of his office he shall take the oath of office required by law of other county officers, and shall enter into bond to the Territory of New Mexico in the sum of five thousand dollars, with two good and sufficient sureties, to be approved by the board of county commissioners, conditioned for the faithful discharge of the duties of his office.

786. Each county surveyor, after being duly qualified as provided in the forgoing section, may appoint such number of deputy surveyors under him as he may think proper, not to exceed two, being responsible for the correctness of their official acts, each of which deputies shall respectively, before entering upon the duties of his office, take a similar oath or affirmation to that required of the county surveyor; and all official duties performed and surveys made by a deputy surveyor shall be signed by him officially, and shall be as good and valid in every respect as if the same had been done by the county surveyor: Provided, That in counties where there is no resident surveyor any competent surveyor resident of the territory may be appointed.

$787. Any person who may be injured by the neglect, misconduct or inefficiency of any county surveyor or any of his deputies, may institute suit on the bond executed by such county surveyor and his sureties; and in case the party for whose benefit such suit may be brought shall obtain a judgment for any damage or loss by him sustained, he may sue out an execution on such judgment, as in other cases, and the bond may be sued on in like manner by each and every person aggrieved.

County surveyor; office created.

C. 33, L. 91. § 1: Feb. 14.

Deputies.

Id. § 2.

Penalty.

Id. § 3.

C. 33, L. 91. § 4: Feb. 14.

to administer oath.

§ 788. When any county surveyor is called upon to make any survey or surveys which are to be used in any court, such County surveyor County surveyor is hereby authorized and required, upon application of either party, to administer an oath or affirmation to any witness who may be brought to prove any corner or line of said survey or surveys, or of any natural or artificial object or mark which may be necessary to identify the same; which testimony shall be reduced to writing and subscribed by the witness or witnesses, and a return made thereof with the return of the surveyor.

Office; where kept.

Id. § 5.

How calculations made.

Id. § 6.

Penalty for interfering with county surveyor.

Id. § 7.

Surveyor to employ chainmen; duties of.

§ 789. The county surveyor shall keep his office at the county seat, and shall keep two books of record, which shall be furnished him by the county commissioners for that purpose, which books he shall transmit to his successor in office. One book shall contain the calculations by latitudes and departures of all surveys made by him or his deputies, and each calculation shall have a corresponding number with the plat and field notes to which it refers in the book of records. The other book shall be a book of records and so constituted as to have the left page for diagrams and plats, and the right page for notes and remarks; and each diagram and plat shall be numbered progressively, and the field notes of the survey so recorded shall contain a full statement of such surveys, with the variations of the magnetic needle, length of lines, location of corners, with description of such corners, also description of all witness trees, and other marks used as witness marks for such corners, with size, distance and course.

§ 790. All calculations to ascertain the contents of a tract of land by the county surveyor shall be made by latitudes and departures, and on each plat shall be laid down the variations of the magnetic needle from the true meridian. In re-establishing missing corners the county surveyor shall establish said corners in strict accordance with the manual of instructions of the United States to the United States deputy surveyors.

§ 791. If any county surveyor shall be molested or prevented from doing or performing any of his official duties by means of threats or improper interference of any person or persons, such surveyor shall call on the sheriff, constable or other peace officer of the county, who shall accompany him and afford him all necessary protection against any person or persons thus threatening or improperly interfering with any county surveyor while performing his official duties; such person or persons so offending shall, on conviction thereof before any court of competent jurisdiction, be fined in a sum not less than five dollars ($5.00) nor exceeding one hundred dollars ($100.00), and moreover be liable for all damages caused to any person by the hindrance of the surveyor, and also for all the expenses that may accrue in consequence of the attendance of the sheriff or officer and the delay of the surveyor: Provided, All fines imposed under the provisions of this section shall be paid to the county treasurer, for the benefit of the public school fund of said county.

§ 792. It shall be the duty of each county surveyor to employ competent persons to act as chainmen, and each chain

man so employed shall, before he commences the duty assigned him, take an oath or affirmation to faithfully and impartially perform the duties of chainman, which oath or affirmation the county surveyor is authorized and required to administer. The expense of the chain carriers and cornerman shall be paid in advance, if required by the county surveyor or his deputy, by the party on whose application the survey may be made, and the money so advanced shall be accounted for by the surveyor, and the amount expended to be taxed on the bill of costs: Provided, That there shall not be allowed to any chainman or marker a greater sum than two dollars ($2.00) for each day that he may be actually employed: Provided, also, That each surveyor shall have the right to retain the return of any survey by him made until he shall be paid the fee established by law, and shall also have the right to collect such fees by action. The county commissioners of each county in this territory, at their discretion, may procure copies, duly certified by the surveyor general to be correct, of the field notes and plats of the original surveys by the United States of the lands of their county, and shall have said plats and field notes bound, each substantially, in book form, which shall be kept in the said county surveyor's office for the benefit of the public. The certificate of the county surveyor or any of his deputies as to the correctness or accuracy of any survey, plat or field notes made by such surveyor or any of his deputies, or any certified copy thereof, shall be admitted as legal evidence in any court of the territory only when the surveyor may be dead, or when it shall be impossible to obtain his evidence either by his personal attendance or by means of a deposition taken according to law, but may be explained or rebutted by other evidence. The county surveyors of the different counties of this territory are hereby authorized to administer all oaths or affirmations necessary to be administered to road viewers, and for all other purposes necessary to the discharge of their official duties: Provided, That a copy of all surveys shall be filed with the clerk of the board of county commissioners by the said county surveyor.

C. 33, L. 91. § 8: Feb. 14.

Procedure in respect to survey of

793. Any person owning or claiming lands where the same are divided by a county line, and wishing to have such land on county line. lands surveyed, may apply to the surveyor of any county in which any part of such land is situate, and on such application being made the surveyor is authorized to make such survey, which shall be as valid as though such lands were situate entirely in one county.

Id. § 9.

How boundary line of counties estab

794. Where a boundary line between two counties is to be established, the county surveyors or their deputies, of the lished. two counties affected by such boundaries, shall together make the survey and establish the lines and erect monuments, and all corners set by the county surveyor or his deputies shall be made in strict conformity with the manual of instructions of the United States.

$795. All county surveying, engineering on roads and bridges, shall be performed by the county surveyor, and he shall by virtue of his office be one of the viewers in the establishing of new roads or the location of bridges.

Id. § 10.

Duties.

Id. § 11.

§ 796. The county surveyors shall be allowed five dollars per day and expenses for any work they may do for the county, the expenses to be certified under oath. Private individuals may contract for their work.

§ 797. All surveys made under and by virtue and in compliance with the provisions of this act shall be deemed and taken to be in all counties of this territory as prima facie correct, and the survey books in this act provided shall be received in evidence in all courts of this territory only when the surveyor may be dead, or when it shall be impossible to obtain his evidence either by his personal attendance or by means of a deposition taken according to law.

§ 798. The board of county commissioners of any county in this territory shall have the power and are required to remove any county surveyor who is of dissipated habits so as to disqualify him from performing his duties as surveyor at all times.

§ 799. All surveys made by the county surveyors of the several counties in accordance with this act, which are not government sub-divisions, shall be numbered with a consecutive series of numbers, commencing with thirty-seven, and it shall be the duty of the assessor in each county to enter for taxation in his book all lands liable for taxation, referring to them by the proper number as designated by the county surveyor in his records.

§ 800. Nothing in this act shall be construed to empower any county surveyor to change the established lines or corners of any land owned or possessed by any person or persons, and no private lands shall be surveyed except by the consent of the owner of said land.

CHAPTER VII.

Bond.

New bond may be required..

§ 801. Every constable, within ten days after his appointment, shall appear before the county commissioners, and enter into bond with the territory, with good securities, for not less than four hundred nor more than four thousand dollars, conditioned that he will execute all processes to him directed and delivered, and pay over all money by him collected by virtue of his office, and discharge all the duties of constable according to law, which bond shall be approved by the commissioners and filed in the office of the probate clerk.

§ 802. Whenever the county commissioners shall be satisfied that the bond of any constable is likely to prove insufficient, by reason of the death or failure of the sureties to his bond, or any of them, they shall require such constable to give a new bond, and in default thereof shall remove him from office.

§ 803.

If any constable shall detain any money collected by him as constable, after demand made therefor, he shall be removed from his office by the county commissioners, in the same manner prescribed for the removal of clerks, and shall moreover forfeit to the party entitled thereto, two per cent. a month upon the amount so detained, from the time of the demand made until actual payment.

$804. There shall be allowed to constables for their services, when they are required to travel more than nine miles beyond the limits of their respective precincts to execute any process, five cents for each mile for going and returning, in addition to what is now prescribed by law.

Elections in certain counties. of commission

ers.

$805. There shall be elected, at each genéral election, in the Counties of Rio Arriba, Bernalillo, Valencia, Socorro and river Dona Ana, by the legal electors of those precincts, along the margins of the Rio Grande del Norte, five persons, legal voters in each one of said counties, in said counties and precincts, respectively, who shall constitute a board of river commissioners, for each of said counties respectively; and said commissioners shall hold their office until their successors shall be 1; Jan. 13. duly qualified.

$806. The said commissioners, before entering upon the discharge of their duties, shall respectively take and subscribe an oath that they will support the constitution of the United States, and to faithfully discharge the duties of their office, which said oaths shall be recorded in the office of the clerk of the probate court of said counties.

§ 807. The clerks of the probate courts of said counties shall be ex-officio clerks of said boards, and shall keep a record of their proceedings, in a book to be kept by them for that purpose; and in case any vacancy should occur, they shall immediately inform, officially, the governor thereof; and said clerks shall also discharge such other duties and acts pertaining to the subject matter of this act, as they may be required by the said boards; and said clerks shall receive for the services performed under the provisions of this act, the sum of two dollars and fifty cents per diem, for the time they may be actually and necessarily employed in said service, which sum shall be paid by the board out of the funds collected under this act.

L. 1876. chap. 44, §

Tr.

Official oath; substance of.

Id. § 2.

Clerk of board: duties.

Compensation.

Id. § 5.