CHAPTER 120.
TAX ON PROPERTY OF EXPRESS AND SLEEPING CAR COMPANIES.
AN ACT to Provide for the Levy and Collection of Tuxes on the Property of Express Companies and Sleeping Car Companies Doing Business in this Territory.
Be it Enacted by the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Dakota:
§ 1. Tax.] Each and every express company and sleeping car company doing business in this Territory, or person or persons operating such companies, shall pay to the Territorial Treasurer each year three (3) per centum of their gross earnings and the payment of such per centum annually as aforesaid shall be and is in full of all taxation and assessments whatever upon the property aforesaid. The said payment shall be made one-half (4) on or before the 15th day of April and one half (4) on or before the 15th day of August in each year, and for the purpose of ascertaining the gross earnings aforesaid, an accurate account of said earnings shall be kept by the companies aforesaid, an abstract whereof shall be furnished by them to the Treasurer of this Territory on or before the first day of April in each year, the truth of which abstract shall be certified by the affidavits of the Treasurer and Secretary of said companies, and for the purpose of ascertaining the truth of such affidavits and the correctness of such abstracts full power is hereby vested in the Governor of this Territory, or any other persons appointed by law, to examine, under oath, the officers or employes of said express and sleeping car companies, or other persons, and if any person so examined by the Governor or other authorized person shall knowingly or willfully swear falsely concerning the matter aforesaid, every such person is declared to have committed perjury, and for the purpose of securing to the Territory the payment of the aforesaid per centum, it is hereby declared that the Territory shall have a lien upon all property of said companies, whether real, personal or mixed, and the lien hereby secured to the Territory shall have and take precedence of all demands, decrees and judgments against said companies.
§ 2. Penalty.] If any express or sleeping car company doing business in this Territory shall fail to make return of its gross earnings as provided in the preceding section, or any part thereof at the time and in the manner provided by law and such default shall continue during the period of thirty days, such company shall be subject to à penalty in an amount equal to twenty-five per cent of the tax imposed upon such companies under this act, and the Treasurer of the Territory shall forthwith ascertain the amount of such tax
