The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1888-01-05
The Dilemma Of the New Board Of Ag-
riculture.
.SD,riul h Mc Mrs uul CGHricr.


COLUMBIA, JANUARY 3.-There is Il de
cided hitch in the terms of the Act recent
ly passed by the Legislature entitled 'An
Act to amend an Act entitled An Act to
create a department of agriculture, de-
tining its purposes and duties,'' &c. The
hitch is simply that thereis is IN the Act no
section or clause stating that it should go
into effect Immediately or at any specified
time. Consequently. under the law the
Act cannot 90 into effect until twenty days
after It's ratification.
Sone days must still elapse before it
will be in force, and Yet two weeks ago
the Legislature, acting under the provis-
ions of the same Act, elected the members
of the reorganized board Of agriculture
provided for by the Act. or course it is
! very evident that the letter OF the law has
not been carried out III this matter and
| that the elet ton Of the n"w board was IL
legal, but /. is also plain that the inten-
ton of the Legislature was that the Act
should take effect Immediately, this being
demonstrated by tine Immediate comph-
ance of the General Assembly with the
provisions of the Act in regard to the cleo
ton of the board. How this matter would
be decided if it should be brought before
the Courts it is difficult to say. There is
the actual illegal election on one side. and
on the other the evidence that the Legis-
lature intended it should be legal.
| 4 representative of the Bureau called
to-day upon the Governor, who was the
chairman of the old board, and asked him
whether he had noticed the irregllarity in
the election of the new board and whether
he proposed taking any action upon 1t.
The Governor stated that the matter had
been called to his attention and he recog-
nized that The letter Of the law had not
been carried out, but that it was evident
to him that this was caused BY an over
sirht in not having a clause put IN the
Act stating that it was to take effect at
once. and that it was evident that the in
tention of the Legislature was that the
Act should take immediate effect. He
considered it beyond the bounds of bis
duty to bring the matter to tle attention
of the attorney general, and particularly
out of place in him to DO so, as he had
been member OF the Old board, while he
was not upon the recently elected. The
Governor further stated that his desire
was always to carry ont the intentions OF
the Legislature.
In reply to question by the Reporter
us to whether the Governor was rot re.
quired by the new Act to countersign al
orders for money expended by the board
Governor Richardson said that he was
and that he considered that such obliga,
ton upon him had only been imposed by
an oversight of the Legislature. When he
was member of the board, and was in a
position to know every action that it took
and the object of every expenditure, II
was right and proper that ne should nave
the responsibility of countersignlng the
drafts made by the board upon the treas
ury, butSlow he was required to do this
when he had no opportunity of ascer'
tanning anything about the transactions
OF the board.
The Reporter wished to know if, now
that there was a question as to whether
the board was legally elected, the respon'
sibility of countersigning such checks
would not be greater? The Governor
stated that he would assume no response.
bility in the matter, and that upon the
point of his countersigning checks he
would act under the advice of the attor-
ney general.
Unless the Governor ,ountersigns these
checks the board can get no money.