SEC. 2. Any person violating the provisions of this act Penalty. shall upon conviction be sentenced to pay a fine of not more than twenty-five dollars, or be committed to the county jail for not more than twenty days, or both such fine and imprisonment in the discretion of the court. Approved March 30, 1921. [No. 17.] AN ACT to provide for the protection and conservation of the natural resources of the state; to create a Conservation Department; to define the powers and duties thereof; to provide for the transfer to said department of the powers and duties now vested by law in certain boards, commissions and officers of the state; and for the abolishing of the boards, commissions and offices the powers and duties of which are hereby transferred. The People of the State of Michigan enact: of conservation designate. SECTION 1. There is hereby created a Department of Con- Department servation for the state of Michigan which shall possess the created. powers and perform the duties hereby granted and imposed. The general administration of said powers and duties shall be Membership. vested in a Commission of Conservation which shall be composed of seven members appointed by the Governor, subject to confirmation by the senate. The Governor shall designate Chairman, which member of the commission shall act as chairman there who to of. The members of said commission shall be selected with special reference to their training and experience along the line of one or more of the principal lines of activities vested in the Department of Conservation and their ability and fitness to deal therewith. Each member of this commission shall Term of hold his office until the appointment and qualification of his office. successor. The Governor shall, subject to confirmation by Director of the senate, appoint a Director of Conservation, who shall re- salary, etc. ceive an annual salary of five thousand dollars, and said director shall appoint with the approval of the commission such assistants and employes as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this act, or of any other law of the state affecting the powers and duties of said department. The com- Compensation pensation of all such assistants and employes and the num ber thereof shall be subject to the approval of the State Administrative Board. The members of the commission shall receive no compensation hereunder, but each such member, and the other officers and employes of the department, shall be entitled to reasonable expenses while traveling in the performance of any of the duties hereby imposed. All salaries Salaries, etc., and expenses authorized hereunder shall be paid out of the conservation, of assistants, approval of. how paid. Offices, etc., who to furnish. Oath of office. Powers and fer state treasury in the same manner as the salaries of other state officers and employes are paid. It shall be the duty of the Board of State Auditors to furnish suitable offices and office equipment, at the city of Lansing, for the use of the Conservation Department. Each member of the commission and the Director of Conservation shall qualify by taking and subscribing the constitutional oath of office, and filing same in the office of the Secretary of State. SEC. 2. The powers and duties now vested by law in the dutles, trans- Public Domain Commission, the State Game, Fish and Forest Fire Commissioner, the State Board of Fish Commissioners, the Geological Survey, and the Michigan State Park Commission are hereby transferred to and vested in the Department of Conservation. Whenever, in any law of the state, reference is made to any board, commission or officer whose powers and duties are thus transferred, reference shall be Commissions, deemed to be made to the Department of Conservation. On etc., abolished. the taking effect of this act the Public Domain Commission, the State Board of Fish Commissioners, the Geological Survey, the Michigan State Park Commission, and the office of State Game, Fish and Forest Fire Warden shall be abolished; and all records, files and papers of every nature pertaining to the functions thereof shall be turned over to the Department of Conservation, to be preserved as a part of the records Hearings, etc., and files of the department hereby created. Any hearing or pending. other proceeding pending before any commission or board hereby abolished shall not be abated but shall be carried on and determined by the Commission of Conservation in accordance with the provisions of the law governing such hearing and proceeding. The commission hereby created may adopt such rules and regulations, not inconsistent with law, governing its organization and procedure, and the administration of the provisions of this act, as may be deemed expedient. Rules and regulations. Natural resources, conservation of, etc. Pollution of streams, etc. May accept gifts, etc. SEC. 3. It is hereby made the duty of the Department of Conservation to protect and conserve the natural resources of the state of Michigan; to prevent the destruction of timber Reforestation. by fire or otherwise; to promote the re-foresting of non-agricultural lands belonging to the state; to guard against the pollution of lakes and streams within the state; and to foster and encourage the protecting and propagation of game and fish. On behalf of the people of the state the Commission of Conservation may accept gifts and grants of land and other property for any of the purposes contemplated by this act. It shall also be the duty of said department to make an inVestigation of the natural water power of the state, that is as yet undeveloped, and to report to the Governor and legislature with reference thereto before the fifteenth of January, nineteen hundred twenty-three. Such report shall specify the location and extent of such power, its availability for use, and such other matters affecting the same as may be deemed expedient. Water power, and report of. investigation L SEC. 4. On or before the fifteenth day of January of each Biennial year in which a regular session of the legislature is held, the report. Director of Conservation shall make to the Governor and legislature, a report covering the operation of his department for the preceding biennial period. Such report shall, if so when printed. ordered by the Board of State Auditors, be printed and shall be distributed in such manner and to such persons, organizations, institutions and officials as said board may direct. SEC. 5. All acts or parts of acts in contravention of the provisions hereof are hereby repealed as of said date. SEC. 6. This act is hereby declared to be immediately necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health and safety. This act is ordered to take immediate effect. [No. 18.] AN ACT to regulate the number and the salaries of deputy circuit court clerks, counter clerks and other clerks and employes of the county clerks in the several counties of the state, and to repeal all acts or parts of acts, whether general, local or special, contravening the provisions of this act. The People of the State of Michigan enact: court, etc., clerks, ap etc. SECTION 1. In counties having a population of more than Deputy circuit five hundred thousand, the county clerk shall appoint a chief deputy circuit court clerk, one deputy circuit court clerk for pointment, each acting circuit judge in said county, four counter clerks and such number of deputy county clerks, and other clerks and employes as may be fixed by the board of supervisors. The salary of said chief deputy circuit court clerk and chief Salary of. deputy counter clerk shall be three thousand dollars per year; of the deputy circuit court clerks and counter clerks, shall be two thousand five hundred dollars per year, and such salaries shall be payable in the same manner and at the same time that other county employes are paid, and shall be in lieu of all fees or other compensation. The number and the Salaries, etc., salaries of the other deputies, clerks, and employes shall be who to fix.. fixed by resolution of the board of supervisors. The board of supervisors in said counties, may, by resolution, provide for increase in said salaries, when, in their judgment, deemed necessary. Approved March 30, 1921. Section amended. Election preing of, etc. Notice of Posting of. [No. 19.] AN ACT to amend section seven of chapter six of act number two hundred three of the Public Acts of nineteen hundred seventeen, entitled "An act to provide for the holding of elections, to prescribe the manner of conducting and to regulate elections, to prevent fraud and deception in the conducting of elections and to guard against abuses of the elective franchise." The People of the State of Michigan enact: SECTION 1. Section seven of chapter six of act number two hundred three of the Public Acts of nineteen hundred seventeen, entitled "An act to provide for the holding of elections, to prescribe the manner of conducting and to regulate elections, to prevent fraud and deception in the conducting of elections and to guard against abuses of the elective franchise," is hereby amended to read as follows: SEC. 7. Whenever a township, ward or village shall be cincts, record- sub-divided into election precincts, or the election precincts thereof shall be altered or rearranged, the township board, the legislative body or the village council, or other officials charged with the performance of such duty by the charter of any city or village as the case may be, shall enter said action of record in its proceedings, specifying the numbers of the said precincts, commencing at number one, and describing the boundaries of each precinct. Notice of such subdivision, alteration, etc. alteration or rearrangement shall be given forthwith by the township clerk, city clerk or village clerk, as the case may be. Such notice shall be posted by said clerk in five or more public places in each of the election precincts affected, or shall be published once in each week for at least two weeks in some newspaper published in said township, village or city, if any be published therein, and a like notice immediately. transmitted to the Secretary of State at Lansing. The said township clerk, city clerk or village clerk shall give like notice, by posting or publication, of the abolition of the division of a township, ward or village into election precincts, and shall in said notice of abolition state that the township, ward or village is restored as a single election precinct. Notice of such abolition shall be immediately transmitted to the Secretary of State at Lansing. Abolition, notice, etc. Approved March 30, 1921. [No. 20.] AN ACT to amend the title of and add sections three, four, five and six to act number two hundred sixty-six of the Public Acts of nineteen hundred seventeen, entitled "An act to authorize the levy of taxes to pay principal and interest of bonds issued under the provisions of act number one hundred fifty of the Public Acts of nineteen hundred fifteen, entitled 'An act to prescribe and limit the power of school districts having a population of more than fifteen thousand and less than one hundred thousand to borrow money and issue bonds of such district therefor, and to repeal all acts and parts of acts inconsistent herewith,' approved May seven, nineteen hundred fifteen, and to repeal all acts and parts of acts inconsistent herewith." The People of the State of Michigan enact: and sections SECTION 1. The title is hereby amended and sections three, Title amended four, five and six are hereby added to act number two hun- added. dred sixty-six of the Public Acts of nineteen hundred seventeen, entitled "An act to authorize the levy of taxes to pay principal and interest of bonds issued under the provisions of act number one hundred fifty of the Public Acts of nineteen hundred fifteen, entitled 'An act to prescribe and limit the power of school districts having a population of more than fifteen thousand and less than one hundred thousand to borrow money and issue bonds of such district therefor, and to repeal all acts and parts of acts inconsistent herewith,' approved May seven, nineteen hundred fifteen, and to repeal all acts and parts of acts inconsistent herewith," said amended title and sections to read as follows: TITLE An Act to provide for a sinking fund in certain school districts and the investment thereof and to authorize the levy of taxes to pay principal and interest of bonds issued under the provisions of act number one hundred fifty of the Public Acts of nineteen hundred fifteen, entitled "An act to prescribe and limit the power of school districts having a population of more than fifteen thousand and less than one hundred thousand to borrow money and issue bonds of such district therefor, and to repeal all acts and parts of acts inconsistent herewith," approved May seven, nineteen hundred fifteen, and to repeal all acts and parts of acts inconsistent herewith. fund." SEC. 3. All sums of money raised by tax or otherwise re- "Sinking ceived by any school district for the purpose of paying and discharging the principal of the bonded indebtedness of said |