The Helena Independent

Statement From the Attorney General Regarding County Commissioners' Terms.

The Northern Pacific Asks Tax Exemption for Its Unpatented Lands.

Report From the Work Along the Line of the Burlington Extension Into This State.

Attorney-General Haskell, who is now in the eastern part of the state, has, according to the Yellowstone Journal, authorized the announcement that the public are wrong in supposing that the county commissioners elected in the fall of 1892 retire from office in January next, and that it will be the duty of the political conventions to nominate candidates for a new board to be voted for at the election this fall. The Journal says:

"From information had of Attorney General Haskell in a recent interview the Journal is authorized to announce that this presumption is erroneous and that as a matter of fact the existing boards of county commissioners in the various counties of this state will continue to hold office for the full term for which the constitution provides, which is four years. At the election of 1892 there was a constitutional amendment voted on and carried, which provided for a change in the original constitutional provision concerning county commissioners in that it limited the term of office of the commissioners elected in 1892 to one year - from January, 1893, to January, 1894, and provided for a new board in November, 1894, two of them to serve two years and one to serve four years. The amendment, as we have stated, was carried by a vote of the people and hence the erroneous supposition herein referred to. The amendment, though approved by the voters, is inoperative for the reason that a constitutional requirement in regard to putting it before the people was not conformed to. The constitution provides that any proposed amendment to it shall be published in full in at least one newspaper in each county for three months previous to the general election at which the amendment is to be voted on, and as this was not done in the case of the amendment relating to county commissioners, the vote upon it was in the opinion of Attorney General Haskell void, and the old provisions remained in force at the election of the commissioners in 1892, fixing their term at four years."