with total footing, showing the number of each in the county, which list should be certified under oath, taken before the county clerk, and transmitted to the State Superintendent of Public Instruction on or before the first day of March of each year. A duplicate list should also be certified to and transmitted by the County Superintendent of Schools to the County Treasurer, for his guidance in making apportionment of the sum annually transferred to him by the State Auditor, as hereinafter provided. The State Superintendent of Public Instruction should then prepare a list giving the total number of persons of school age in each county and certify same to the State Auditor (and that same has been made in accordance with law) on or before March 31st of each year. Thereupon it shall be the duty of the State Auditor to set aside and make a pro rata distribution to each county of the common school income funds found to be on hand in the State Treasury on the 31st day of March, dividing same among each county in proportion to the number of persons therein of school age, and he shall on or before the twentieth day of March transmit warrants to the several County Treasurers for the sums so apportioned to each county. The County Treasurers shall immediately make distribution of the sum so received to the treasurers of the several school districts in their county, dividing same among each district in proportion to the persons of school age as appears on the duplicate certified enumeration list furnished the County Treasurer by the County Superintendent of Schools. The distribution of said funds to the several school districts should be completed on or before the fourth Monday in April, enabling each district to vote such additional sums as may be required for school purposes within the district, in time for certifying same to the clerk of the Board of County Commissioners, as now provided in Rev. Statues, Sec. 3965. Should the County Treasurer at any time be in doubt as to the census report of the children of school age in one or more of the school districts, the clerk of that district shall, on demand, produce the record of same and verify the certified list. The few detailed suggestions here given are made only with a view of recommending that legislation required by the constitution be adapted to the school and other laws now in force, and the dates given for the taking of the census and reports thereof, are such as would enable the various school boards to be advised of the amount of state school funds available for each before the date now established for voting the amount of their local school funds. March 31st of each year is one of the dates now established by law for the books of the State Auditor and Treasurer to be balanced, and is a convenient date to determine the amount of school funds to be distributed in any one year. The importance of this matter would also seem to make it expedient to provide some penalty should the clerks of the school districts fail to comply with the law, and also making it one of the duties of the School District Board to see that the census is taken by the clerk at the proper time, and should the clerk by disability be prevented from attending to this duty, it should devolve upon the school board to appoint some person duly qualified, to act for the clerk during such disability, thus securing a more infallible compliance with the law. SELECTION OF TEXT BOOKS. Concerning the important matter of the selection of text books under existing law, the following correspondence of this office with the Attorney General of the State explains fully the situation, viz: HON. CHAS. N. POTTER, July 2d, 1892. Attorney General, Cheyenne, Wyo.: DEAR SIR-The time for which the text books now in use in the public schools of Wyoming were adopted, expiring the coming fall, I respectfully request your opinion as to my authority in calling a meeting of the several county and city superintendents, for the adoption of a new series of books for the ensuing five (5) years, as provided in the Session Laws of 1888, chapter 72, Schools, chapter 4, sec. 3, page 165. Is it imperative that said meeting be called, or is such adoption of text books in conflict with the constitution of Awaiting your reply, the state of Wyoming? I am, very respectfully, (Signed) S. T. FARWELL, Supt. of Public Instruction. STATE OF WYOMING, ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE, HON. S. T. FARWELL, Supt. of Public Instruction, Cheyenne, Wyoming, DEAR SIR-I am in receipt of your letter of July 2nd, 1892, in which you call my attention to the fact that the time for which text books now in use in the public schools of Wyoming, were adopted, expires the coming fall, and you request my opinion as to your authority to call a meeting of the several city and county superintendents of schools in the state, to adopt a series of text books, as provided in section three of chapter four, of an act entitled "an act to provide for the bonding of school districts, and for other purposes," said act being known as Chapter 72 of the Session Laws of 1888. You ask whether it is imperative that such meeting be called, or whether such adoption of text books conflicts with the constitution of this state. Your letter was received during my absence from the state, from which absence I did not return until the fifteenth instant. Since that time I have given the matter suggested by you my careful thought and attention. The text books now in use in the public schools were adopted, as I am advised, in pursuance of the provisions of section 3911 of the Revised Statutes of Wyoming, by what was then known as the Territorial Teachers' Institute, and that it was provided by such institute that the series of books thus adopted should continue in use for a period of five years thereafter. The Legislative Assembly of the Territory at its session in 1888, repealed that section and enacted the act above referred to, section three of chapter four, which is as follows: Sec. 3. At the expiration of the period of five years for which the books now in use are adopted, the county superintendents and city superintendents of schools in the territory, shall meet at a call of the Territorial Superintendent of Public Instruction, to adopt a series of text books, and the books thus adopted shall be the only legal text books to be used in the public schools of the Territory for the ensuing five years. Section eleven, of chapter seven of the constitution, is as follows: Sec. 11. Neither the Legislature nor the Superintendent of Public Instruction shall have power to prescribe text books to be used in the public schools. The evident purpose and object of this constitutional provision was to prevent a monopoly in the sale of text books to the pupils in the public schools. It was undoubtedly intended to prohibit the adoption of any series of text books for any period of time which would tend to reduce competition among the publishers of books, and would impede the progress of the schools of the state by preventing them from changing from time to time to such newer or better text books as might be published and come on to the market, and be more advantageous for use in the public schools. Undoubtedly section three of chapter four of the act of the legislature of 1888, above referred to, contravenes the spirit of said constitutional provision, if it is not, indeed, in conflict with its letter. Touching so important a matter as the education of the children of the state, through the medium of the public schools, and possibly applicable also to the State University, its collegiate as well as its academic department, the question presented is at once of considerable importance and delicacy. It has been decided by the supreme court of the state, in a case recently pending therein, following a long line of decisions of other courts of high repute, that prohibition upon the legislature, such as is contained in the above mentioned section of the constitution, applies only, and is pro'hibitory only upon future legislation. Therefore, I feel very clear that so far as the prohibition upon the legislature is concerned, the section of the law of 1888 would be valid and in full force by reason of that provision in the constitution which retains in full force and effect all laws of the territory not repugnant to the provisions of the constitution. But section eleven, of chapter seven of the constitution, contains a prohibition upon the Superintendent of Public |