Weekly Independent

CAN'T BE DONE.

Under the above head the Journal comments on the proposition of the Independent that all county offices be extended to a tenure of four years by legislative enactment, and though agreeing that the term of office should be so extended, the Journal says:

'It cannot be done under our present Constitution. The Assessorship and a dozen or two other minor offices not provided for in the organic law. They are of legislative creation and consequently subject under the Constitution to the law-making power. Not so of the offices mentioned on the Independent. They were created by the State Constitution which fixes their term at two years and the Legislature cannot extend them. It is idle to talk about the Legislature doing anything in the matter. It is as powerless in that respect as a Board of County Commissioners or School Trustees.'

We do not pretend to say that the Journal is in error, but on examining the matter we fail to find the tenure of office of county officers provided for in the Constitution of Nevada, the only reference thereto being the following:

'Section 8. The Legislature shall provide by law for the election of all officers whose duties are not within the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, County Clerks, County Recorders, who shall be ex-officio County Auditors, District Attorneys, Sheriffs, County Surveyors, Public Administrators and other necessary officers, and by law define their duties and compensation. County Clerks shall be ex-officio Clerks of the Courts of Record, and of the Boards of County Commissioners in and for their respective counties.

Section 19. All county officers shall hold their offices at the county seat of their respective counties.

Section 20. The terms of officers not herein provided for shall be fixed by law or when not so fixed, such officers shall be held during the pleasure of the authority making the appointment; but the Legislature shall not create any office the tenure of which shall be longer than four years, except as herein otherwise provided in this Constitution.

Section 21 provides that all county officers under the Territorial laws at the time when the Constitution shall take effect shall continue in office until the first Monday in January, 1865, and until their successors are elected and qualified; and the same section provides for an election of county officers in Lander county at the general election in 1864, and the officers then elected shall hold office from the first Monday in January, 1865, until the first Monday in January, 1867, and until their successors are elected and qualified.

If the Constitution does provide that the tenure of office of county officers shall be two years, we would take it as a favor if the Journal would designate the section in order that we, as well as others, may be set right in the matter.