The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-08-08

be done every year. The State found
out that her Board Of Public Works
was an expensive luxury and it was
abolished. The consequence was that
the works at the mouth Of Bayou
Plaquemine rotted and washed away,
and the .water and drift wood al
lowed a free entrance. Bayou
Sorrel was soon RATED up, and
so was Bayou Plaquemine for a consid-
erable distance, thus closing navigation
entirely. In this emergency the people
OF Iberville, through their police jury,
resolved, as soon as the bayou was dry,
to construct dyke across it. This was
done in 1865. After the dyke was built
the Bayou Plaquemine Navigation Com
pany was formed, and that company
spent several thousand dollars in clean
ing Bayou Sorrel and opening naviga-
tion from the interior country to Plaque
mine. Such in brief Is slight history
of the Bayou Plaquemine, leaving out
the many efforts made to induce, the
Legislature to close the bayou, and the
large sums of money spent in different
ways on this bete n0ir of the Attakapas
people.
In the first place, il Bayou Plaque
mine was opened, a work would have to
be constructed that would prevent drift
wood, RATS, fiatboats, etc.. from enter
ing its mouth. For ii opened and left
as it is, it would not be many weeks
after the next high water before the
bayou would be SO effectually and final
ly filled up from one end to the other
with drift wood, ETC., that no attempt
would ever be made to open it again.
II 1t should be opened and kept open,
1t would not be many years before the
Mississippi would have short cut to
the Gulf, and New Orleans would then
become an inland town. Hundreds Of
thousands Of dollars would have to be
spent before navigation through Bayou
Plaquemine could be secured.
We advise the editor of the Banner to
drop the idea of opening the bayou and
use his talents in aiding us to have it
canaled up to the town Of Plaquemine,
thus securing navigation all the year
round. It would cost but a mite. and
untold benefits would be the result.
Ten thousand dollars would do the
work, and the company is already in
existence and possessed Of franchises
granted them by the Legislature which
would make the canal paying institu-
tion instead OF waste OF money, as
would be the case in the opening Of the
bayou.
improvements ia our Constitution.
tMorehouse Clarion
In the new era of the peoples rule.
the duty Of holding q convention to
frame a new constitution for the State
forcibly presents itself. We owe it to
ourselves for certain reasons, dictated
by policy and urged by sentiment of
honor and a feeling Of self-respect-we
owe it to posterity for the same rea-
sons-to abolish our present constitu-
tion and establish new one.
Among the most important changes,
which strike US as polite aud necessary,
we recognize g. rearrangement OF our
judiciary system. Our present one is
entirely too expensive. We have too
many districts in this State. There are
pense with five of them. The expenses
of the old Twelfth District, composed
of the parishes Of Ouachita, Morehouse.
Caldwell, Catahoula, franklin aud the
largest part Of what is now Richland,
compared with the cost and expenses Of
the courts Of these parishes since re-
districted, affords a striking example.
The one district judge who presided in
the Twelfth district, with jurisdiction
embracing that OF the present parish
judges and two district judges, received
salary of $4,000. The salary of one dis.
trict attorney was 5000. Total expenses
goSOO. uCSC pttl lSuCS uOV GOu VI lSC
two districts. Two district judges re-
ceive $4,000; two district attorneys re-
ceive $4,000; six parish judges receive
about $4,000; total $23, ,000-a difference
of about $40, ,000-and yet litigation has
not been so great of late years as it was
anterior to the war.
We do not advocate by way of reduc-
tion here the abolition of the parish
courts, but the apportionment of fewer
districts by the Legislature. A new con-
stitution should, however, provide for a
supreme court, and such inferior courts
as the Legislature may establish. The
present judiciary of this State is partly
elective, partly appointed. It should
be made one or the other by the new
constitution There is worse than no
reason for the inconsistency Of the pres
ent mode of selecting our Judges.
The articles Of the present constitu-
tion fixing the jurisdiction of the courts
are obscure and need revising. A GER
tain class Of cases come within the juris-
dietion Of no court. For instance ::
Article IS declares that the District
Court has original jurisdiction where
the amount in dispute exceeds $500, ex-
elusive Of interest. Article 81 declares
exclusive original jurisdiction of the
Parish Court, in all cases where the
$500. Now where a suit was for $3.50,
with interest, amounting to over $500,
where would the jurisdiction lie? The
Supreme Court has virtually decided
that no court has it. Terbunl sat.
We confidently advocate biennial
term Of the Legislature. With the ma
chinery OF our State government in good
working order and quiet times. one ses-
sion of the Legislature every two years
might do US but little injury, and ot6 this
year.
We believe. besides, in the contraction
Of representation; there is no necessity
of Council Of Five Hundred" to make
our laws. There are few conflicting
interests in Louisiana, and each parish
might be safely apportioned but one
representative.
There are many other changes to our
present constitution that might suggest
themselves upon reflection. There is
one which SUGGESTS itself llnnn q mara