NAMES.

Procedure for Change of Name.

4977. [Sec. 1, Act 106, 1877, E. S., p. 178.] Whenever any person over the age of twenty-one years shall be desirous of changing his or her name he or she shall present a petition to the parish judge of the parish of his or her residence, and if a resident of the parish of Orleans to the judge of the Third District Court for the parish of Orleans, setting forth the reasons for the desired change, and if the person desiring such change be a minor the petition shall be signed by the father and mother of said minor or by the survivor in case one of them be dead, and in case the minor have no father or mother living the petition shall be signed by the tutor or tutrix of said minor, and in default of any tutor or tutrix by a special tutor appointed by the judge for that purpose.

4978. [Sec. 2.] The proceedings shall be carried on contradictorily with district attorney or district attorney pro tem. of the parish in which the application is made, who shall represent the State, and who shall be served with a copy of the petition and citation to answer the same.

4979. [Sec. 3.] The judge to whom the application is made may either in open court or in chambers proceed to hear and determine the case and render such judgment as the nature of the relief and the law and the evidence shall justify.

4980.

[Sec. 4.] In case the prayer of the applicant may be granted judgment shall be rendered granting the change of name desired, which shall be the true and lawful name of the party asking the change after the publication of the judgment in some newspaper in the parish for fifteen days, and if there is no newspaper published in the parish then in some newspaper nearest to the courthouse of the parish in which the judgment is rendered.

Costs.

4981.

[Sec. 5.]

[Sec. 5.] The applicant shall in all cases pay the costs of the proceedings, and that a fee of ten dollars be taxed as part of the costs in favor of the district attorney pro tem., and that this Act shall take effect from and after its passage.

NAVIGATION CANALS.

Rate of Toll on Public Vessels in Certain Cases Fixed.

4982. [Act 188, 1914, p. 356.] Whenever the right of eminent domain has been, or may be, exercised in the location of a canal for the transportation of vessels or carriers, the owners thereof, or those in control thereof, shall not charge for the transportation, or passage through said canal, of any boat or vessel belonging to the State of Louisiana, or any board or commission or subdivision thereof, more than five cents per linear foot of said boat or vessel, for a single passage one way.

Companies Improving Navigation May Charge Tolls.

4983. [Sec. 1, Act 32, 1882, p. 46.] Companies duly incorporated under the general laws of the State are authorized to clear out obstructions and by use of locks and dams and slack water navigation, to improve the navigation on the rivers and bayous in this State, and collect tolls at rates which may be limited by the Police Juries in the parishes wherein the improvements are or may be made.

Proviso.

4984. [Sec. 2.] Such work shall not interrupt or cause the collection of any tolls on waters now navigable.

Right of Way May Be Donated for Navigation Canals.

4985. [Act 19, 1908, p. 19.] The Board of Commissioners of any drainage district legally created within this State, shall have the authority by resolution duly passed by said Board, when in its judgment it is to the manifest interest of the public in general, and in order to facilitate the construction, maintenance and operation of canals, or a portion of a canal, or a branch of any canal, constructed by or under the authority of the United States for the purpose of transportation or for purposes of extension or improvement of the public waterways to donate to the United States of America any or all of their rights-of-way which grant or donation may be made without any previous advertisement thereof, and the President of the Board of Commissioners of any such drainage district is empowered, when authorized by a resolution of said Board, to sign an Act of conveyance evidencing such grant or donation; provided, however, that the said Boards of Commissioners shall in every case reserve the right to control,

occupy and use any part of the said rights-of-way not actually needed by the United States in the manner and to the same extent as before conveying said rights-of-way.

NAVIGATION DISTRICTS.

Police Juries May Create Navigation Districts.

4986. [Sec. 1, Act 302, 1914, p. 617.] The police juries of the various parishes of the State of Louisiana are authorized and empowered, upon their own initiative, to divide their respective parishes into one or more navigation districts. Such districts to be known as navigation districts with such other name or number as the police jury may designate; provided that no such district shall contain, within its limits, less than five land owners.

Commissioners.

4987. [Sec. 2.] All navigation districts formed or created under the provisions of this Act, shall be governed and controlled by five commissioners to be known as "Navigation Commissioners," who or whose wives shall be assessed with at least Five Hundred Dollars worth of real estate in said district and any land owner in such district to the assessed value of five hundred dollars may be a navigation commissioner of such district; whether he be a resident or a non-resident of the district, provided he be a citizen of the State.

How Commissioners Selected.

4988.

[Sec. 3.]

[Sec. 3.] The police juries organizing such navigation districts shall appoint three commissioners in each district, except when otherwise provided herein, two of said commissioners for a period of two years and one for the term of four years, and all selections or appointments by the said police jury thereafter, shall be for a period of four years. The remaining two commissioners shall be appointed by the Governor for the period of four years. The appointment of commissioners by the police jury shall be made upon the recommendation of a majority in number of acres or a majority of the resident land owners in such district, where the district contains forty or less land owners. Where the district has more than forty land owners embraced therein, then the appointment shall be made upon the recommendation of twenty-five of the land owners of said district. When there is a contest over the appointment of commissioners,

the police jury shall give the appointment to those commissioners who are recommended by land owners owning the greatest number of acres of land in said district, or who are recommended by a majority of the resident land owners in such district, in the discretion of the police jury.

Districts in Adjoining Parishes.

4989. [Sec. 4.] When the necessity of any locality is such that, in the opinion of the police juries of the respective parishes, it becomes necessary to organize or create navigation districts composed of lands situated in adjoining parishes, then that such navigation districts may be created by joint resolution of the police juries of the respective parishes, or by an ordinance to that effect, passed by the police jury of one parish and approved by the police jury or juries of the other parish or parishes; and in the event of the creation of such navigation district, then the commissioners shall be appointed or selected as aforesaid, two by the Police Jury of the parish which has the greatest assessment in said district, and one by the police jury of the other parish; when portions of three parishes are included, each parish shall have one commissioner; provided that when portions of more than three parishes are embraced in one district, then the said commissioners shall be apportioned one to each parish, according to the greatest assessment furnished by each, who, together with the two commissioners appointed by the Governor, shall constitute the Commission of said navigation district, and shall hold their term of office as provided for in this act; provided, however, that instead of the police juries naming the terms of office of each commissioner, this shall be determined by the commissioners themselves by drawing lots for the long and short terms. After said lots are drawn the result shall be made known to the respective police juries as to who will serve the long term and who will serve the short term. Failure or refusal by a commissioner to perform any or all of the duties prescribed by this Act, shall be good cause for removal. It is not necessary for the land in every parish to touch the land in every other parish in the district, provided that the district be composed of land all in one body.

Creation of Districts on Petition.

4990. [Sec. 5.] Upon the failure or refusal of any of the police juries of any of the parishes of the State to organize navi

gation districts when needed, or on the failure of one or more police juries to organize navigation districts of the lands composed partly of the parishes of each, they are hereby required to form a navigation district when petitioned to do so by a number of the property owners representing a majority of the acres of land in said district or by a majority of the resident landowners in said district, that in presenting such petition to the police jury or police juries, such petition shall set forth substantially the boundaries of the district which is proposed to be organized.

Powers of Districts.

4991. [Sec. 6.] Any navigation district thus created and named and numbered by any police jury of any parish of the State, or by the joint action of the police juries of any two or more adjoining parishes as aforesaid, shall constitute a body corporate in law, with all the powers of a corporation; shall have perpetual existence; shall have the power and right to incur debt and contract obligations; to sue and be sued; to have a corporate seal and to do and perform any and all acts in its corporate capacity and in its corporate name, necessary and proper for the carrying out of the purposes and object for which the navigation district was created. Such navigation district shall also have the power of expropriating property for the purpose of acquiring land for any purpose that it may find necessary. Such navigation district shall also have the power to acquire any machinery whatever that may be found necessary for the purpose of effecting the object for which formed and shall own the right of way for canals and all sites which are acquired either by donation, purchase or expropriation in full ownership. The navigation commissioners of a navigation district for the purpose of securing a proper outlet for the district they represent, shall have authority to extend canals, beyond the limits of their respective districts with the same power and authority of expropriating the rights of way in the same manner and to the same extent as if such canals were wholly within the district they represent.

Navigation districts may co-operate with other navigation districts, with drainage districts, or with the State or Federal government, or private individuals, associations and corporations or with any or all of them as in their judgment may seem advisable.