The Nezperce herald. (Nezperce, Idaho) 1900-1957, 1911-04-27

same shall be collected. Under the
following provision in said Section
so4, to-wit: "Road poll tax due
from persons within included muni-
CAPABILITIES shall be collected by such
. persons as the Board of Commits
sioners may determine. !" The cues
; ton of your authority to levy the
poll tax against Inhabitants of in
corporated cities. towns and villages
will be hereinafter considered.
AS 10 the time when the tax may
be collected. it becomes due and
payable Immediately after the same
is levied and becomes delinquent on
the 18th day of November in each
yeav, at which time the Clerk of the
Board of County Commissioners
shall transmit to the tax collectors
Of the county a list Of all delinquents.
now come to the consideration of
your third question, upon whom
shall the tax be levied1" Said Sec
ton so4 provides among other
things, that the Board. MAY in its
discretion levy a road poll tax for
highway purposes of the county up
on each adult person within the
county, including persons within IN
incorporated cities, towns and vii
lagos" The words, ''adult person"
as a designation of persons asainst
whom a per capita tax shall be lev
led, have not heretofore been en-
ployed in the similar statutes of this
state, nor have such words been en-
ployed in similar statutes of other
states as far as I have been enabled
in the limited time at my disposal to
examine the same, The word cad
ult'' would seem too indefinite and
uncertain term to be adapted for
such designation. 1t has no legal or
technical meaning in the connection
employed in the statute. In con-
strung the same the word should be
given its common and ordinary
meaning. The definition of the word
as applied to persons is. "a person
having arrived at mature years, or
a person grown to maturity" 1t is
possible that our Courts might con-
strue that it was intended to desig-
nate all persons other than minors
as defined by other provisions of the
Code. If such construction we're to
be accepted, then it would relate to
all male persons over the age of
twenty-one and all female persons
over the age of eighteen. There is
nothing in the statute to indicate
that it is intended to limit the taxes
to citizens or electors. On the other
hand it would seem that it was the
intention to impose the tax upon ev-
cry adult person regardless of their
citizenship. The difficulty in apply
ing the statute and giving the ordin-
airy force and effect to the word
"adult' as contained in the statute,
is that it fixed no definite age as a
period of liability for the tax. Unless
We constiue the word adult 50 as to
give it significance beyond the or
binary and usual meaning of the
term, or in other words unless We go
outside Of the language employed by
TIE Act to determine the intention Of
the legislators, it seems 10 me that
the question as to whom the tax
should be levied against would lave
to be determined as to each individ-
ual for there is no definite age fixed
by Law at which a person becomes
an adult. 1t is true that the Courts
should so construe statute, if pos
sible, to give it force and effect and
It is possible that the Courts of this
state may construe the statute in
question as limiting the tax either to
all persons other than minors as
above defined, or possibly to all per-
sons above twenty-one years of age,
being the age Of legal qualification
IS an elector. But in my opinion
here is no sound reason based upon
he language Of the statute or upon
he generally accepted rules Of stat
itory construction to warrant such
On the other hand to
attempt to apply the law withou. tx