[Coroner for Orleans-Election, Qualification, Term of Office, Salary-Appointment of Assistants.]

Art. 310. There shall be one coroner for the Parish of Orleans, who shall be elected for four years by the qualified electors of said parish, and whose duties shall be fixed by law. He shall be ex-officio city physician of the City of New Orleans, and shall receive an annual salary of forty-eight hundred dollars. He shall be a practicing physician of said city and a graduate of the medical department of some university of recognized standing. He shall appoint two assistants, having the same qualifications as himself; one at an annual salary of twenty-six hundred dollars, and one at an annual salary of six hundred dollars.

Const., 1879, Art. 147.

[Divisions of City From Which Assistant Coroners Shall Be Appointed.]

Art. 311. The assistant whose salary is hereby fixed at six hundred dollars shall be a resident of the Fifth District of the Parish or City of New Orleans and shall have his office in said district.

The assistant whose salary is fixed at twenty-six hundred dollars shall be a resident of that portion of the City of New Orleans lying on the left bank of the Mississippi river.

This provision shall take effect from and after the next general election. The salaries of the coroner and his assistants shall be paid by the City of New Orleans.

[Compensation for Property Expropriated by Orleans Levee

Boards, How Paid-Right of Appeal to Courts, etc., etc.] Art. 312. Any person whose property has been appropriated within twelve months prior to the adoption of this Constitution, or whose property may hereafter be appropriated by the Orleans Levee Board for levee purposes, shall have a right of action against said Board in any court of competent jurisdiction for the value of said property, and whatever judgment may be finally rendered against the Board shall be paid out of the taxes collected by it in the same manner as other disbursements are made; provided, that this shall not apply to batture property, nor to vacant property, where only a part thereof has been taken for levee purposes, and

where the effect of the levee building would be to protect the remaining part of the same property; nor to any property on any part of the river front, the administration and control of which is vested, for the purposes of commerce, either in the State or city authorities, and on which improvements have been erected under grants from the City of New Orleans, or other authority, nor to the said improvements; provided, that said Board shall have power to appropriate property subject to such servitude, for levee building, as under existing laws, without making such compensation in advance.

[Surplus Revenues of New Orleans 1879 to 1895-How to Be Disposed of by Board of Liquidation.]

Art. 313. All surplus revenues of the City of New Orleans, from the year 1879 to the year 1895, both inclusive, except the surplus revenue dedicated to permanent public improvement, and to schools, by Act No. 110 of 1890, derived from the one per cent. tax levied under said act, shall be turned over by the city to the Board of Liquidation of the City Debt. Said Board shall redeem all claims evidenced by financial ordinance or judgment against the City of New Orleans, for debts arising and incurred between the years 1879 to 1895, both inclusive, payment. of which has not heretofore been provided for out of the reserve and permanent public improvement funds of the city for the years 1893 to 1898, both inclusive, excepting therefrom the claims of school teachers for the years 1880 to 1884, payment of which has been authorized by Act No. 110 of 1890, and is now being provided for by the city, said claims or judgments to be purchased on the most reasonable terms offered by creditors within the period of eighteen months succeeding the date of the adoption of this Constitution, the said Board to invite proposals by public advertisements, to be made bi-monthly; provided, any and all bids may be rejected. For the purpose of such redemption the City of New Orleans, through the Board of Liquidation, is hereby authorized to issue bonds to the extent of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, bearing four per cent. per annum interest, payable semi-annually in such denominations as may be by said Board determined upon, maturing in fifty years from the date of issue, but subject to redemption by said Board in the reverse order of their issue at any time after sixty days' notice.

[Board of Liquidation May Issue Bonds to Satisfy Certain Claims Against City.]

Said Board is hereby authorized in its discretion to exchange said bonds for said claims against the city, evidenced by financial ordinances or judgments, or to sell said bonds, and with the proceeds thereof purchase said claims; provided, that no sale of said bonds shall be made for less than par.

[Provisions for Payment of Interest by Board on Certain Bonds.]

Said Board of Liquidation shall, at any time it may be necessary, sell a sufficient number of the Constitutional Bonds of the City of New Orleans, now unsold, of the issue provided for by Act No. 110 of the General Assembly for the year 1890, and by the amendment to the Constitution of the State submitted to the people by said act and adopted at the general election in 1892, to provide for the payment of interest or principal of the bonds hereby authorized to be issued. Whenever the said Board of Liquidation shall have received from the surplus revenues of the City of New Orleans, as provided herein, sufficient funds to meet the issue of bonds hereby authorized in principal and interest, the remainder of the surplus revenues so turned over to the said Board shall revert to the city.

[Ratification and Recognition of Certain Provisions Concerning City Debt-Limitation of Taxing Power Does Not Apply to Taxes for Certain Purposes.]

Art. 314. The provisions of the amendment embodied in joint resolution of the General Assembly No. 110, approved July 8th, 1890, and thereafter ratified by the people and made part of the Constitution, are recognized as of full force and effect; the authority conferred upon the City of New Orleans and upon the Board of Liquidation of the City Debt, with respect to the issuance of constitutional bonds of the City of New Orleans, and to the levy and collection of a special ad valorem tax of one per cent. upon all the taxable property, real, personal and mixed, in said city, for the payment of said bonds, in principal and interest, and with respect to the man

ner of such payment, is confirmed, as are also all rights vested by said amendment in the present and future holders of said bonds, whether issued or to be issued; and no limitations imposed by other provisions of this Constitution upon the authority of the City of New Orleans, shall be held to include, apply to, or affect, the taxing power herein contemplated and confirmed.

[Authorization to City to Examine and Assume Payment of Certain Obligations.]

Art. 315. The City of New Orleans is hereby authorized and required to examine into and assume payment of the obligations of the Board of Directors of the Public Schools of the Parish of Orleans for unpaid salaries of school teachers and portresses and of other legitimate claims against said School Board, for the years 1882, 1883 and 1884, and for unpaid salaries of school teachers and portresses for the years 1885, 1886 and 1887, now in the hands of the original owners, who have in no wise parted with their rights of ownership, or pledged the same, as may be found by said city to be equitably due by said Board. All claims to be examined into and assumed by the City of New Orleans under this Article shall be presented to and filed with the City Council of said city within ninety days after the adoption of this Constitution, and not there after.

[Certificates of Indebtedness May Be Issued for Obligations Assumed Under Art. 315.]

Art. 316. The City Council shall issue certificates of indebtedness to the owners of said claims, when examined and found to be equitably due, and all such certificates shall be paid by the Board of Liquidation. If any of the claims aforesaid be rejected by the said City Council, the decision thereon may be reviewed by any court of competent jurisdiction, and the judgment of the court thereon shall, if in favor of the claimant, be likewise paid by the Board of Liquidation. [How Funds Are to Be Provided for Payment of Such Claims.]

Art. 317. The funds requisite to pay said claims shall be provided by said Board of Liquidation, by the sale of a sufficient number of the constitutional bonds of the City of New

Orleans of the issue provided for by Act 110 of the General Assembly for the year 1890, and by the amendment to the Constitution of the State submitted to the people by said act and adopted at the general election in 1892.

[Refunding of City Debt-Legislature May Amend Act and Constitutional Provisions Relating Thereto.]

Art. 318. The General Assembly of the State of Louisiana is hereby authorized to amend Act No. 110 of 1890, confirmed by Constitutional amendment of 1892, providing for the refunding of the city debt so far only as to provide that in the further issue of bonds under said act within the limit of ten million dollars, provided for in said act, the City of New Orleans, through the Board of Liquidation, shall have authority to issue registered bonds, and to authorize the exchange of registered bonds for equal amounts of outstanding four per cent. coupon bonds of the City of New Orleans, issued under authority of said act, having the same time to run and at the same rate of interest, and provide for their registration and payment of interest. All registered bonds issued by the City of New Orleans under the amended act as herein provided shall have the same guarantees, and the holders of said bonds shall have the same privileges, as are now secured by said act to the holders of coupon bonds. Said registered bonds shall be denominated Registered Constitutional Bonds of the City of New Orleans, Authorized by Act No. 110 of 1890, and Amendment thereto.

[Right of Electors of New Orleans to Choose Certain Officers.] Art. 319. The electors of the City of New Orleans, and of any political corporation which may be established within the territory now, or which may hereafter be, embraced within the corporate limits of said city shall have the right to choose the public officers, who shall be charged with the exercise of the police power and with the administration of the affairs of said corporation in whole or in part.

Const., 1879, Art. 253, grants "the right of appointing the several public officers necessary for the administration of the police of said city, pursuant to the mode of election which shall be provided by the General Assembly."

Art. 319, Const., 1898, confers on the electors of the City of New Orleans power to fill the vacancies in office, which under Act 45, 1896 (Charter), the Council was authorized to fill. State ex rel. Conrad vs. City, 52 An. 1604.