Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1858-06-04
The Sinking Fund.-Nr. NIcR"c's Project.

This morning were sitting with copy OF the acts
of the last session of State Legislature before u.s.
reading the Act to create Sinking Fund" ratified
the I'd day of February, 1857, when we happened to
pick up the Fayetteville Observer of yesterday and found
that the Editors of that paper had already called aten
ton to the subject for the purpose of showing that the
idea of giving stocks of the Raleigh and CASTOR Road TO
assist in the construction of the Fayetteville and Yves
tern Road is clearly out of the question.
Since however, this matter has been noticed at all,
we propose TO go into it little farther and give the
words Of the law On page 60 Of the published acts,
we find the ncement of the act creating the Sink
ing Fund and as the whole act is not long, prefer
giving in full to merely stating its provisions 1t is
as follows -
ACT To CREATE SINKING FUND.
Sec l. Be enacted by the General assembly Of The State
of North CarOl.d ord ii is hereby enacted by The authority
Of the same, That all such moneys dividends, taxes or re-
venues may be assigned and set apart by the General AS
sembly for that purpose shall constitute and be sinking
fund to pay the debt of the State.
SEC. 2. BE fryther enacted That Thomas Rufin,
Weldon N Edwards and David L. Swain, be- and they
hereby appointed the commissioners of the Sinking Fund.-
and hereby created body polite and corporate under
the and style of " the Commissioners OF the SINKING
Fund.- with all the powers conferred on corporations by
the 6th chapter Code far they are apple
vacancy
board shall be filed by governor and with the advice
and consent of the council Of state.
SEC 5. Be further enacted, That the commissioners of
the sinking fund shall appoint secretary, whose duty it
shall be to keep full and accurate record of the proceed
ngs Of each and every meeting Of the commissioners and
also books to be kept for that purpose correct account
of the receipts disbursements Investments and reinyes
ments of the sinking fund.
SEC L. Be further enacted, That all moneys dividends
taxes or revenues apart by the General Assembly
the purpose Of raising sinking fund.- increasing the
same shall be paid into the public treasury true and
curae account of which shall be kept by the public treasu
rer i'll a book to be kept by him for that purpose
SEC. s. Be II further enacted, That all moneys paid into
the public treasury for or on of the sinking fund.-
shall be under the exclusive control and management of the
commissioners Of the sinking fund.- and in appropr
aed or paid out by the treasurer except upon the order of
the commissioners Of the sinking fund and signed by each
and every member of the board
SEC G. Be 1t further enacted That the commissioners of
the sinking fund shall hold their meetings the Office of the
public treasurer, and shall receive three dollars per de
together with their secretary for each and every day
poycd in the management of the sinking fund.- to be paid
by the public treasurer out of any money the treasury
SEC T. Be further enacted, That it shall be the duty
the board of commissioners not only to invest and
all funds placed under their directions report to each
and every session of the General Assembly their
ngs with such suggestions they deem best for their
SEC 8. Be II further enacted, That all the dividends on
the stock Of the State in the North Carolina Railroad the
Raleigh and Castor Railroad and the dividends on stocks
in all other railroads built being built, all pankroads
rnpkeroads and navigation companies not Otherwise
prOprated and all revenue collected under Revenue
laws after paying the annual charges upon the treasury
and the hereby assigned and set apart to raise
sinking fund to pay the debt of the State and relieve the
people from taxation And the commissioners of the sink
ing fund Hereby authorised to sell any of the stocks Of
the State herein named whenever the may be sold
their par value Ratified The I'd dag Of Februnry a. D.
1871
This, of course, settles Mr.. McRae's Fayetteville
Road project Like all his other projects it is totally
impracticable.
There is thing that has struck us in connection
with this matter and that u.s. the little publicity givel
to the laws of State. The press with difficulty
arrive at any accurate knowledge of what is going on
Raleigh 1t is by mere accident that newspaper pro
pretor get possession of copy Of any law pending
before either House and after the laws have been pass
ed there adequate measures adopted to give then
due publicity.
We do not advocate any waSteful extravaganza, bu
think that laws to be obeyed ought to be known ant
certainly the legal axiom that ignorance of the law ex
cuseth mar must of tyranny, unless the Stat
has adopted the proper means for removing that gno
rance, Or has at least placed it in the power of the sub
ects of the law to inform themselves without incurrin,
so great an expense as to amount to prohibition, w
think Also that all laws pending before the Legislator
of the State should be printed in sufficient numbers t
admit of one copy being sent to every newspaper in tn
State and that the duty of seeing such copy sent shout
deyove upon some certain officer to be indicated Men
ber8 arc too apt to forget
The laws of the United States, published in certai
papers L" By Authority" are paid for at quite a o'
rate. 1t used to be one dollar a page. Now, this
very considerably below the average rates of ADVERTISING
but insomuCh as a good deal of the matter 50 put
lished is of interest to the readers of papers ther
has been 10 difficulty in having the publication mad
at the rates indicated. The laws of the last sesso
of our State Legislature made about 10 pages excl
sive of Index, etc, which need not be published
At one dollar page this would be $17O for each pi
per in which publication might be made and 81 SO
should this publication be made in one newspaper
each of the eight districts in the State This once
two years, would be $3.50 per annum, mere trie-
much less than was paid to Major Gwynn for maxim
jolly steamboat excursion through over and around Il
locks and dams of the Cape Fear and Deep River nav
CATION
Say, however, that it cost twice as much as we hay
estimated then it would be money well bestowed
thenewspapers for they could make nothing by the
ton and the magnificent of $3.50 or even 81 1850 Ok
annnm would be rather small brbe for the press otl
State-rather thin pap for its conductors to fatten
but for this small sum the laws of the State could
placed within the reach of nearly every in the Stat
of every man in fact who might choose to avail himse
of the opportunity of examining them
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