resolutions and correspondence and by proof of other facts outside the law, may be said to have been adopted by the people and read into the statute and fundamental law, there to remain unalterably fixed. So far as county highways are concerned the counties are guaranteed by the referendum, under section 4, their proportion of the moneys. They are not guaranteed that the moneys shall be spent in any particular way or even that they will be spent as soon as available. Indeed, under Article VII, section 4 of the Constitution authorizing the referendum, the Legislature may repeal the law before debts are contracted. A referendum under our Constitution ordinarily provides only the amount of money to be raised, the object for which it is to be expended and the method of retiring the debt. Its legitimate function should not be complicated by attempting to read into it a series of precise requirements dealing with the subjects which the Legislature, in its wisdom, has treated as variable and open to limitation and alteration. One question remains: Can it be said with certainty at this time that county highway No. 1100 (C) is included within extended State route 23; does the description extending State route 23 necessarily traverse a mile and a quarter of county highway No. 1100 (C)? The fixing of the location of the highway from the description is, of course, left to the State Highway Department. It is an engineering problem, a matter of fact. The department has provisionally sketched the extension as traversing the route. However, the Legislature, in providing this sixty-six mile extension, has failed to appropriate funds for its construction, and under this opinion none will be available from the referendum. It may be years before the route contemplated is completed. There remains, therefore, an administrative question for the State Highway Commissioner to determine. If the route as ultimately constructed should necessarily or properly traverse the county highway the Commissioner must determine that so much as is traversed is turned into a State route. On the other hand, if it should be found that the State route, under the best and most economical method, should not traverse any portion of the county highway, or if the Legislature should by law restore the county highway, then the Commissioner might be justified in authoriz ing an expenditure by the State of 80 per cent. of the cost out of the referendum moneys as originally planned. (Section 141, Highway Law.) Dated May 7, 1915. E. E. WOODBURY, To Hon. EDWIN DUFFEY, State Highway Commissioner, Albany, N. Y. BRONX COUNTY, NOTARIES PUBLIC SUM TO BE RETAINED BY COUNTY CLERK Under Executive Law (Laws of 1909, chap. 23) §§ 103, 104, as amended by Laws of 1915, chap. 18, the sum to be retained by the county clerk of Bronx county from each fee paid by a notary public as a condition of filing his oath of office is fifty cents, and not three dollars. INQUIRY Is the sum which the County Clerk of Bronx County may retain from each fee paid by a notary public as a condition of filing his oath of office, fifty cents or is it three dollars, under Executive Law (Laws of 1909, chapter 23), sections 103 and 104, as amended by chapter 18 of the Laws of 1915? OPINION Bronx County was taken from the County of New York by chapter 548 of the Laws of 1912. In 1873 and in 1895 portions of Westchester County were annexed to New York County, forming the Borough of the Bronx which was erected as a separate county in 1912, as stated above. The Executive Law (Laws of 1909, chapter 23) prior to the amendment by chapter 18 of the Laws of 1915, provided in part as follows: "Sect. 103. * * * No county clerk shall file the oath of office of any notary public until there shall be paid to such county clerk, by such notary public: 1. If he reside in New York county or Kings county, ten 3. If he reside elsewhere, two and one-half dollars. ***" "Sect. 104. The county clerk of each of the counties of New York, Kings and Erie may appoint an assistant to be known as notarial clerk. The county clerk of Erie county may retain, from each fee so paid by a notary public as a condition of filing his oath of office, one dollar and a half. The clerk of each of the counties of New York and Kings may retain, from each fee so paid by a notary public as a condition of filing his oath of office, three dollars, but not exceeding the total amount of fifteen hundred dollars in the county of Kings nor three thousand dollars in the county of New York, in any one year, and each of the county clerks of the counties of New York, Kings and Erie may apply the amount so retained by him in payment of the salary of the notarial clerk in his office. The county clerk in each county other than the counties of New York, Kings and Erie, may retain from each fee so paid by a notary public as a condition, of filing his oath of office, fifty cents. If the office of any such county clerk is a salaried office, such county clerk shall pay over the sum so retained by him, to the officer to whom fees of such county clerk are required by law to be paid. The county clerk of each county shall, within ten days after the end of each month, pay over to the state treasurer all fees received by him from notaries public under the provisions of this chapter during said month, after having deducted so much thereof as he is authorized to retain under the provisions of this section." * -* * The Laws of 1912, chapter 48, erecting the County of Bronx, provide in part as follows: * "Sect. 3. * * * There shall be elected in the said county of Bronx at the general election of nineteen hundred and thirteen * * -*the county clerk, * *. Such officers shall have all the powers and perform all the duties as required by the constitution and the laws of this state pre scribing the duties and powers of such officers. * * * hundred dollars, * * * * * * * "Sect. 4. All fees, statutory or otherwise, which under any provision of law may be paid to any of the officials above provided for in this act or for rendering any services whatever of a public nature within the scope of the duties and powers of the said officials shall be paid into the treasury of the city of New York, except as herein otherwise provided. * * "Sect. 11. All acts and parts of acts specially applicable to the county of New York or that portion of the borough of Bronx formerly part of the county of Westchester annexed to the city of New York by chapter nine hundred and thirtyfour of the laws of eighteen hundred and ninety-five and now in force in the borough of Bronx and not inconsistent with this act shall continue in full force and effect in the county of Bronx, as though the said county had been in existence at the time of the passage of said acts, as though the name of the said county of Bronx had appeared in said acts and parts of acts wherever the name of the county of New York or the county of Westchester appears in said acts or parts of acts." "Sect. 12. The county of Bronx erected by this act shall possess all the rights and be subject to all the obligations of the counties now included within the city of New York, except as in this act specifically provided." Section 103 of the Executive Law was amended by chapter 18 of the Laws of 1915. The only change which need be noted is that which adds Bronx county to the counties where the fee to be paid by each notary public is ten dollars. Such portion of section 103 now reads as follows: 66 * * No county clerk shall file the oath of office of any notary public until there shall be paid to such county clerk, by such notary public: 1. If he reside in New York county, Kings county or Bronx county, ten dollars. * * * The contention is now made that inasmuch as sections 11 and 12 of chapter 548 of the Laws of 1912, erecting the county of Bronx, continue in force, "All acts and parts of acts specially applicable to the county of New York * * and now in force in the borough of Bronx and not inconsistent with this act"; and inasmuch as sections 103 and 104 of the Executive Law prior to 1912 contained provisions specially applicable to the county of New York, fixing the fee of a notary public at ten dollars and the amount to be retained therefrom by the county clerk at three dollars, these provisions specially applicable to New York county have been continued in force in Bronx county, and the county clerk of Bronx county is entitled to retain the sum of three dollars instead of the sum of fifty cents which section 104 states shall be retained by the county clerk in each county other than New York, Kings and Erie. It should be observed that if this contention is correct, the fee of a notary public in Bronx county has been at all times since the erection of the county, ten dollars, and chapter 18 of the Laws of 1915 was unnecessary to fix the fee at ten dollars. It appears, however, that until the passage of chapter 18 of the Laws of 1915 and since the erection of Bronx county, all notaries to be appointed for Bronx county have paid a fee of only two dollars and a half, and the county clerk has retained therefrom only the sum of fifty cents. It seems clear that the purpose of section 11 of chapter 548 of the Laws of 1912 was to continue in force only such special New York county acts or parts of acts as applied to that county alone ; that it was not intended to have any effect upon the general laws of the State of which the Executive Law is one. The fee of a notary public usually bears some relation to the population of the county for which he is appointed. Upon the separation of Bronx county from New York county, it automatically fell within the classification of counties where the notary public's fee is two and one-half dollars and the clerk's fee to be retained from the sum is fifty cents. By chapter 18 of the Laws of 1915, amending section. 103, the fee to be paid by notaries public of Bronx county was for the first time increased to ten dollars. By failing to amend section 104, whether through inadvertence or otherwise, the Legisla |