be of public benefit or utility, to cause to be constructed as hereinafter provided, any ditch, drain or watercourse within said county or township.

§ 2048. PETITION OF LAND OWNERS.] Before the board of commissioners or board of supervisors shall establish any ditch, drain or watercourse there shall be filed with the county auditor (or the clerk of the township) of such county, a petition signed by one or more land owners whose lands will be liable to be affected by or assessed for the expense of construction of the same, setting forth the necessity thereof, with a general description of the proposed starting point, route and terminus, and such petitioner or petitioners shall give a bond with good and sufficient freenold securities, payable to the state of South Dakota, to be approved by the county auditor or township clerk, conditioned to pay all expenses in case the board of commissioners or board of supervisors shall fail to establish said proposed ditch, drain or watercourse. As soon as said petition is filed said boards shall at any special or regular session appoint three resident freeholders of the county or township, not interested in the construction of the proposed work, and not of kin to any of the parties interested therein, as viewers, to meet at a time and place specified by said boards, preparatory to commencing their duties as hereinafter specified. And it shall be the duty of the county auditor or township clerk thereupon to issue to said viewers a certified copy of the petition and order of the board, who shall proceed at the time set in said order, with a surveyor who shall be a civil engineer, and shall make a preliminary survey of the line of said ditch, drain or watercourse from its source to its outlet. And they shall make an estimate of the total number of cubic yards of earth to be excavated and moved from said drain, ditch, or watercourse, and an estimate of the total cost of the construction of the whole work.

§ 2049. LOCATION OF DITCH.] In locating a public ditch, drain or watercourse, the viewers may vary from the line described in the petition as they deem best; Provided, they commence the ditch at the points described in the petition and follow down the line therein described as near as practicable. And, provided further, that when there is a sufficient fall in length of the route described in the petition to drain the lands adjacent thereto, they may extend the ditch below the outlet named in the petition far enough, not exceeding one-half mile, to obtain a sufficient fall and outlet and not be detrimental to the usefulness of the whole work; they shall as far as practicable locate the ditch on division lines between lands owned by different persons, and they shall so far as practicable avoid laying the same diagonally across the lands, but they must not sacrifice the general utility of the ditch to avoid diagonal lines.

And all persons whose lands may be affected by said ditch may appear before said viewers and freely express their opinion on all matters pertaining thereto.

VIEWERS DUTIES.] The viewers, if they find the route proposed is not such as best to effect the object sought, or that the proposed drainage can be affected as well in construction with a ditch necessary for the improvement of the public highways already established or such as may be hereafter required, shall proceed to establish the route. If the route proposed is upon a section line where a public road may be required, and in all cases in which the route proposed is along a highway already established, the viewers [shall locate the ditch] at a sufficient distance from center of such highway to admit of a good road along such central line. The earth taken from the ditch shall be placed upon the roadway so as to form a turnpike and no nearer to the margin thereof than two feet. But in locating a drain as above, the viewers shall not depart materially from the intentional [terminal] point described in the petition.

§ 2051. VIEWERS MEET AND REPORT.] Said viewers shall after having met at the time and place specified in the order issued to them by the county auditor or township clerk, proceed immediately to perform their said duties, unless for good and sufficient reasons it is necessary to adjourn, and said reasons shall be stated in full in their report which shall be made out and filed with the county auditor or township clerk at least two weeks before the next regular or special meeting of said board thereafter; Provided, if the viewers shall find upon examination that the proposed ditch, drain or water course is not of public benefit or utility, they shall report, and their report need only state such facts.

§ 2052. AUDITOR GIVE NOTICE OF PETITION.] It shall be ths duty of the county auditor or township clerk, when said report is filed, if it be in favor of said work to give public notice of the pendency of such petition and the time and place set for the hearing thereof, by publication for three successive weeks prior to said hearing, in a newspaper, if there be one published in the county; if no newspaper be published in the county, then notices shall be posted in three or more public places in the township or townships where the proposed work is to be done, at least three weeks prior to the day set for hearing. Said notice shall briefly state where said ditch, drain or water course commences, through whose lands it will pass and where it will terminate, together with the names of the owners of the lands that will be affected thereby so far as those can be ascer tained with reasonable diligence.

§ 2053. COMMISSIONERS HEAR PETITION.] Said board of commissioners or board of supervisors at the time set for

the hearing of said petition shall, if no remonstrance be filed, proceed to hear said petition and consider the report of the viewers. If the report be in favor of the proposed work, and said work will be of public utility or conducive to public health and convenience, they shall establish the same as specified in the report. But if viewers report against the proposed work the board shall dismiss the petition and tax the cost as hereinafter provided. When damages are awarded to any person, persons or corporations as provided in this act the board of commissioners or board of supervisors shall order the same to be paid out of the county or township treasury to the person, persons or corporations entitled thereto, when the same are collected by the county or township treasurer as hereinafter provided.

§ 2054. REMONSTRANCES.] It shall be lawful for any person interested in the location of said proposed work to file with the board of commissioners of township board, at or before the time set for the hearing of the petition a remonstrance against the ditch as located by viewers on and across his lands, by setting forth his grievances therein against the action of the viewers. Any person filing a remonstrance shall file with the sane a bond payable to the state of South Dakota, with not less than two freehold sureties conditioned for the payment of all costs and expenses caused by such remonstrance if any action of the viewers be sustained by the viewers to be appointed as hereinafter provided. Such bond to be approved by the board of commissioners or township boards; and thereupon said board shall appoint three disinterested resident freeholders of the county or township, not of kin to any person interested in the proposed work, as reviewers to meet at a specified time and place preparatory to commencing said review, and it shall be the duty of the county clerk or county auditor or township clerk thereupon to issue to said reviewers a certified copy of the petition and remonstrance and order of the board in appointing such reviewers.

§ 2055. REVIEWERS POWERS.] Such reviewers shall meet at the time and place specified in the order issued to them by the county auditor, or township clerk, and proceed to review the action and report of the viewers as well as the entire premises through which the proposed work extends, and shall be vested with all power granted the viewers originally except that if they find the proposed work of public benefit or utility they shall not change the line of the ditch as located by the viewers at any other place or places than those complained of in the remonstrance, and then only far enough to do justice to the party remonstrating. And they shall return properly preserved all papers and reports they have received from either the auditor or clerk and file with said officer a report of their proceedings in the premises after having subscribed and sworn

to the same at any time before their next regular meeting of said board, and if the reviewers sustain the action of the viewers and make no change in the proposed work, their reports need only to state after having made full examination of the viewers' report as well as the entire premises through which the proposed work extends they find the action of the viewers just and correct, and they sustain and approve the action of the viewers and their report.

§ 2056. COUNTY AUDITOR TO KEEP RECORD.] Upon the filing of the report of such reviewers as required by the preceding section, the county auditor or township clerk shall when the board of commissioners or board of supervisors convenes in regular session, record the same together with the proceedings had in the matter of the petition; and if said reviewers sustain and approve the action of the viewers without change all cost occasioned in consequence of the filing of the remonstrance shall be taxed against parties remonstrating, and a fee bill shall issue thereon by the county auditor or township clerk and be collected as provided by law.

§ 2057. REGARDING COSTS.] If the reviewers find the pro posed work of public utility, and do not sustain the entire action of the viewers but make changes in favor of the remonstrances, the cost occasioned in consequence of the filing of the remonstrance shall be taxed as a part of the total cost of the work as the same is taxed against the parties benefitted in proportion to their benefit, and if the viewers find the proposed work not of public benefit or utility, the entire cost shall be taxed against the petitioners and collected as provided in the preceding sec tion.

§ 2058. FILING REPORT.] Upon filing the reports of the reviewers, the board of commissioners or the township board shall, if they find such reports made in accordance with the provisions of this act establish the same as described in the report of the viewers as the same is sustained, corrected or changed in the report of the reviewers.

§ 2059. RELATING TO CONSTRUCTION.] Whenever the board of commissioners or township board establish a public ditch, drain or water course they shall order the viewers, if the same is established without any remonstrance according to the viewers' report, or the reviewers, if the same is established according to their report, to meet at a time and place specified after a lapse of ten days, and finish the work they have already begun, by making an accurate survey of said lines as given in their preliminary report and cause stakes or monuments to be set along said line progressively down stream at each one hundred feet. And such surveyor shall in tabular form give the depth of cut, the width at the bottom and the width at the top, at the source, outlet and at each one hundred

foot stake or monument of said ditch, drain or water-course. And they shall make a computation of the total number of cubic yards of earth to be excavated and moved from said ditch, drain or water-course and an estimate of the total cost of construction of the whole work, and they shall set apart and apportion to each parcel of land and each corporate road or railroad, and to the county and township, when public highways are benefitted, a share of said work in proportion to the benefits which will result to each from such improvements and give location of each share, its length in feet and the estimated number of cubic yards to be removed therefrom, and the price per cubic yard, and the cost of construction of each share or allotment separately, and specify the manner in which the work shall be done. And they shall have power, where they find it necessary, to provide for running said ditch underground through drain tiles or other material, as they deem best, by specifying the size and kind of tile or other material to be used in such underground work, and shall estimate the cost of the same as part of the total cost of the work, and they shall accurately describe, as the same is described on the county or township tax duplicate, each parcel of the land to be assessed for the construction of said ditch, giving the number of the acres in each tract assessed and the estimated number of acres benefitted. The amount that each tract of land will be benefitted by the construction of said work, and the amount that each tract is assessed therefor. And they shall also ascertain and give the name of the owners of the lands that are assessed for the construction of said ditch, drain or water-course as far as they can be ascertained with reasonable inquiry and search of the public records, and report also whether or not the proposed ditch, drain or water-course will be of public utility; and they shall specify the time in which each share or allotment of the ditch shall be constructed and completed.

§ 2060. PARTLY IN PRIVATE DITCH.] When a public ditch, drain or water-course is located wholly or in part in the bed of a private ditch already or partly constructed, the viewers shall make an estimate of the number of cubic yards of earth already excavated and the cost of the same on each tract of land, and deduct the same from the assessment thereon.

§ 2061. ASSESSMENT.] All lands benefitted by a public ditch, drain or water-course shall be assessed in proportion to the benefits for the construction thereof, whether it passes through said lands or not, and the viewers in estimating the benefits to lands not traversed by said ditch shall not consider what benefits such lands will receive after some other ditch or ditches shall be constructed, but only the benefits that will be received by reason of the construction of the public ditch as it affords an outlet for the drainage of such lands.