ROAD MILEAGE, EEVENUES, SOUTHEElSr STATES, 1914. 33 



appointed. During 1914 the road funds of the State were accord- 

 ingly administered by the county commissioners, county road com- 

 missioners, township road commissioners or trustees, or other local 

 oJBBcials. 



No work has been done directly under the State, except such 

 educational work and engmeering assistance as could be rendered by 

 the small annual appropriation of $5,000 allotted for that purpose to 

 the highway department of the North Carolina Geological and Eco- 

 nomic Survey. The supervision of the construction of the Hickory 

 Nut Gap Road and of a section of the Central Highway in Madison 

 County was assigned to this department by the legislature of 1913. 

 The use of State convicts for road work also was authorized by act 

 of October 13, 1913. 



A State highway commission was created by act of March 5, 1915, 

 to consist of three citizens of the State to be appointed by the gov- 

 ernor, the State geologist, and a professor of civil engineering each 

 from the University of North Carolina and from the North Carolina 

 Agricultural and Mechanical College. The commission is required 

 to appoint a State highway engineer. An annual appropriation of 

 $10,000 is made to enable the commission to give engineering advice 

 and assistance to the various counties. 



The Mecklenburg law of 1879, which was repealed in 1881, has 

 been reenacted and can be adopted now as the road law of any 

 county by a vote of the county commissioners, on petition signed by 

 a number of the freeholders in the county. It provides for working 

 the public roads partly by the old labor system and partly by taxa- 

 tion. Counties may also work their convicts on their public roads. 

 Prior to the passage of that law all road work was done by the free- 

 labor system, which is still in vogue in a number of counties. 



The general assembly of 1913 passed many acts relating to the 

 issuing of road bonds by counties and townships. There was a wide 

 variation in the methods authorized for issuing bonds. It can be 

 done by election on a set date, by election on petition to the county 

 commissioners, or directly by the county commissioners without 

 vote or petition. One general law authorizes 'any township, except 

 in certain counties, upon petition of one-fourth of the qualified 

 voters of the township, to vote road bonds not exceeding $50,000. 



REVENUES APPLIED TO ROADS AND BRIDGES IN 1914. 



The total revenues applied to roads and bridges during the calen- 

 dar year 1914 amounted to $5,215,490.78 and comprised the follow- 

 ing items: receipts from regular county and township taxes, 

 $1,808,679.85; automobile and dog taxes and private subscriptions, 

 $272,155.43; bridge tax, $89,525.50; cash value of statute labor tax, 

 $610,130; appropriation by the legislature for road investigations 

 61726°— Bull. 387—17 3 



