Elements of Civil Government. Alexander L. Peterman
public schools of the township. The number of directors varies widely, being usually three, five, or more. In a few of the States, the clerks of the district trustees constitute the township school directors, or township board of education. The directors levy taxes for school purposes, visit and inspect the public schools, adopt text-books, regulate the order of studies and length of the term, fix salaries, purchase furniture and apparatus, and make reports to the higher school officers. In some States they examine teachers and grant certificates to teach. In many States a part of these duties falls to the county superintendent.
ASSESSOR.--The assessor makes a list of the names of all persons subject to taxation, estimates the value of their real and personal property, assesses a tax thereon, and in some States delivers this list to the auditor, and in others to the collector of taxes. In most States there, is also a poll-tax of from one to three dollars, sometimes more, laid upon all male inhabitants more than twenty-one years of age. In some States there are two or more assessors to the township, and in others real estate is valued only once in ten years.
COMMISSIONERS, or surveyors of highways, have charge of the construction and repair of highways, summon those subject to labor on the road, and direct their work.
SUPERVISOR.--In some States the chief executive duties of the town fall upon the supervisor, but his principal duties are rather as a member of the county board of supervisors.
CONSTABLES.--Constables are ministerial and police officers. There are usually two or three in each township. They wait upon the justice's court, and are subject to his orders. They preserve the public peace, serve warrants and other processes, and in some States act as collectors of taxes.
COLLECTOR, ETC.--In some States the township has a collector and three or more auditors. They are usually elected by the trustees, or council, but in a few of the States they are elected by the town meeting. The collector collects the township taxes, giving bond for the faithful performance of his duties. In order to secure honesty and efficiency in public office, and to exhibit the financial condition of the township, the auditors annually examine the books of the treasurer and the collector, and publish a report showing the receipts and expenditures of public money.
In a few States the township has a field-driver and a pound-keeper, whose respective duties are to take stray animals to the pound, an enclosure kept for the purpose, and to retain them with good care until the owner is notified and pays all expenses; two or more fence-viewers, who decide disputes about fences; surveyors of lumber, who measure and mark lumber offered for sale; and sealers, who test and certify weights and measures used in trade. These officers are usually appointed by the selectmen.
JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT; JUSTICES.--The judicial power is vested in the justices, who are elected by the qualified voters of the town. There are usually two or three justices, but in some States there is only one in each township. The term of office is one, two, three, four, or more years, varying in different States. Justices preside in the justice's court to hear and determine suits at law. "This is the humblest court in the land, the court of greatest antiquity, and the court upon which all other courts are founded."[1] The justice's court tries petty offences and civil suits for small amounts. In some States the justices preside at the town meetings, and in others they perform the duties of coroner in the township.
[1]Thorpe's Civil Government.
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