SOUTH DAKOTA. 



C93 



Tlic charter of the Port Royal and Augu-ta 

 K;iiln>;i(l was repealed. lt> affairs were taken 

 into court in the \\ inter of IMCi-'iM. Tin- State 

 authorities complained that the. (Vnt nil Road 

 had lieen holding the Tort Royal and Augusta 

 for the purpose of keeping it from competing 

 with Savannah and the Central system for busi- 

 tic-.-. and (Jov. Tillman advised that, unless the 

 mad could be wrested from the control of the 

 Central, its Charter should be revoked. 



A new dispensary law was made. It raises 

 the salary of the State commissioner from $1,800 

 to $3,000. Any county, town, or city wherein 

 the sale of alcoholic liquors was prohibited by 

 law prior to July 1, 1893, may secure the estab- 

 lishment of a dispensary within its borders, on 

 these conditions: A petition signed by one 

 fourth its (iiia lifted electors will entitle it to an 

 election, ana if a majority vote at that election 

 in favor of a dispensary, one shall be established. 

 All profits, after paving all expenses of the 

 county dispensary, shall be paid one half to the 

 county treasury and one half to the municipal 

 corporation in which it may be located. 



Clubs and like associations are debarred from 

 keeping liquors for use, barter, sale, distribu- 

 tion, or division among their members; though 

 the State Board of Control may exempt hotels 

 where tourists or health seekers resort upon a 

 bond in the sum of $3,000 being given by the 

 manager to observe the dispensary regulations. 

 The provisions for disposing of the liquor are in 

 the main like those of the law of 1892, but 

 the regulations for enforcing the law are more 

 stringent. 



A new county was formed from parts of 

 Edgefield and Abbeville, and named Green- 

 wood. Acts were passed providing for a pub- 

 lic printer, and establishing separate school dis- 

 tricts for cities and towns. The law for the 

 appointment of county boards of physicians to 

 examine the diplomas of physicians and sur- 

 geons was repealed, and a State examining board 

 with similar duties was established. 



For the relief of the owners of phosphate 

 plants destroyed by the cyclone of Aug. 27, in 

 order to enable them to rebuild their plants and 

 resume operations, the royalty on phosphate 

 rock was reduced for a period of five years from 

 $1 a ton to 50 cents when the market price is 

 $4. When the price exceeds that figure, an ad- 

 ditional percentage will be collected. 



It was recently decided in the circuit court 

 that South Carolina laws did not recognize the 

 validity of a divorce obtained in another State, 

 and that a divorced person who married again 

 was a bigamist by the law of this State. A bill 

 to remedy this was passed at this session. 



It was resolved : 



That it is the sense of this General Assembly that 

 tlie I nitfcl States Congress, now in session, ou'ght to 

 take decisive action at once, providing for the coinage 

 of silver, us well us gold, as n standard monev metal, 

 and that the Representatives in Congress and Senators 

 from this State DC requested to use their best endcav- 

 ors to restore the currency of the country to a bi- 

 metallic standard. 



SOUTH DAKOTA, a Western State, admit ted 

 to the Union Nov. 3, 1889; area, 77,650 square 

 miles; population, according to the census of 

 1890, 828,808. Capital, Pierre. 



(.ovcrninent The following were the Stato 

 otlieiTs during the year: Governor, Chui 

 Sheldon, Republican; Lieutenant-Govcrnor, <'. 

 \V. llerried; Secretary of State, Thomas Thor- 

 son : Treasurer, W. W.Taylor; Auditor, .1. I-;. 

 Hippie; Attorney-General, Coe I. Crawford; 

 superintendent of Public Instruction, Cortez 

 Salmon; Commissioner of School and Public: 

 Lands, Thomas H. Ruth; Commissioner of La- 

 bor and Statistics, Walter McKay; Railroad 

 Commissioners, E. F. Conklin, H. C. Warner, J. 

 R. Brennan ; Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, 

 John E. Bennett, who died on Dec. 31 ; Associ- 

 ates, Alphonso G. Kellam, Dighton Corson. 



Valuations. The assessed valuation of prop- 

 erty for 1893, as equalized by the State Board of 

 Equalization, aggregated $137,035,974, as against 

 $127,377,990 in 1892. The number of acres of 

 land assessed was 15,849,036, an increase of 719,- 

 926 acres in one year. The total valuation 

 placed upon railroad, telegraph, telephone, ex- 

 press ana sleeping-car property was $9,168,497. 

 Included in the assessment were 295,042 horses, 

 554,193 cattle, 327,148 sheep, and 213,957 swine. 

 The State tax levy for the year, as fixed by the 

 board, was 2 mills for the general fund, 2 mills 

 for the deficiency fund, ^ mill for the bond in- 

 terest and sinking fund, and *fa mill for the spe- 

 cial sinking fund a total of 4-fo mills. 



Legislative Session. The regular biennial 

 session of the Legislature began on Jan. 3 and 

 ended on March 4. For the purpose of encour- 

 aging the construction of storage reservoirs for 

 irrigating agricultural lands, an act was passed 

 authorizing persons or companies to take and 

 store away any unappropriated water from the 

 natural streams of the State that is not needed 

 for immediate use, and to construct ditches for 

 carrying such water to and from such reservoirs. 

 The owners of any reservoir, may also conduct 

 water therefrom into and along any natural 

 stream, and may take them out again at any 

 point desired, without regard to the prior rights 

 of others to water from such streams. 



Another act provides that in civil actions cog- 

 nizable by a justice of the peace, which are tried 

 in the circuit or county court, three fourths of a 

 jury may render a verdict. The introduction 

 into the State of any armed police or detective 

 force, or any armed body of men other than 

 United States troops, for the purpose of sup- 

 pressing violence was prohibited except upon 

 application of the Legislature when in session, 

 or of the Governor at other times. 



The time in which property sold under a mort- 

 gage may be redeemed was extended to two 

 years, provided that taxes and interest are paid 

 at end of the first year by the mortgagor. 



Telegraph, telephone, "ex press and sleeping- 

 car companies doing business in the State who 

 fail to pay any State tax for thirty days after it 

 becomes due are subjected to a penalty of 12 

 per cent, per annum upon such tax. The man- 

 agers of the State Penitentiary were authorized 

 to employ prisoners in the manufacture of bind- 

 ing twine, and $8,000 was appropriated for pur- 

 chase of machinery, stock, etc., to be used in this 

 business. The mistake of the Legislature of 

 1891 in failing to provide for a State exhibit at 

 the World's Columbian Exposition was cor- 

 rected at this session, an appropriation of $60,- 



