IRRIGATION DISTRICT OPERATION AND FINANCE. 29 
district officers in any given case may be perfectly capable of decid- 
ing the amount of indebtedness they wish to incur and may use good 
judgment in reaching their decision, nevertheless it is the modifying 
influence of a public viewpoint, shaped by a knowledge of State- 
wide conditions and past experience and unhampered by purely local 
considerations, that the various statutes on this subject have at- 
tempted to provide. Such examination is usually made by the State 
engineer, though in several States by commissions composed of the 
heads of the engineering, banking, and legal branches of the State 
governments. 
Certification of bonds. — A step farther in the matter of State control 
over bonds of irrigation districts is the certification of such bonds as 
legal investment for funds in which the law allows county, school, 
and strictly municipal bonds to be invested, and the consequent 
elevating of certified bonds to a higher plane than those not certified. 
Submission of bonds to the State for such purpose is voluntary, but 
in most States districts that have had any bonds certified are for- 
bidden to issue further bonds without certification. 
The principle of State certification was first worked out in Califor- 
nia in 1911 and has since been introduced into Oregon, Utah, Nevada, 
Idaho, Colorado, Montana, and Arizona. It grew from a desire to 
provide a wider market for sound irrigation district bonds and to 
put them on the same basis for investment purposes as bonds of 
other public corporations; in other words, to give notice to the world 
that the State has investigated the bonds of a particular district and 
approves them as investment for trust and savings funds. Indirectly, 
t>y setting a high standard for such bonds, the State makes it more 
difficult for bonds of undesirable districts to find a ready market than 
might be the case otherwise. 
The California plan, upon which those of the other States are based, 
is as follows : The directors of a district who wish to have bonds 
certified make application in prescribed form to the California Bond 
Certification Commission, composed of the attorney general, State 
engineer, and superintendent of banks. The commission makes an 
investigation dealing with water supply and water rights ; fertility 
of the soil, susceptibility to irrigation, probable duty of water, and 
probable need for drainage; feasibility of the irrigation system; 
reasonable market value of water, water rights, and all irrigation 
works owned or to be acquired or constructed with the proceeds of 
the bond issue; reasonable market value of the lands in the district; 
and ascertains whether or not the aggregate amount of bonds of the 
district, including those under consideration, exceeds 60 per cent of 
the aggregate market value of lands and water, water rights, and 
irrigation works owned or to be acquired. No bonds may be certified 
if the aggregate amount exceeds the 60 per cent limitation. If the 
commission's report is favorable, the bonds thus approved are cer- 
tified by the State controller, whereupon they become a legal invest- 
ment for all trust funds and for funds of all insurance companies, 
banks, trust companies, and State school funds, and enjoy the same 
privileges as bonds of cities, cities and counties, counties, school 
districts, and municipalities with reference to purposes of investment 
and deposit as security for the performance of any act. As many 
consecutive issues of bonds may be certified as the commission may 
deem proper, but no subsequent issues are permitted without cer- 
