71 S.E. 520 | N.C. | 1911
The provisions of our Constitution applicable to the question presented and authoritative decisions construing statutes of similar import are against the ruling of the lower court by which these bonds were declared invalid. Thus in Jones v. Commissioners of Madison County,
Citing Hamilton v. Miguels,
Again, in Smith v. School Trustees,
"Districts for schools, highways, levee, irrigation, drainage and other similar purposes may be and often are invested by the State with a corporate character and may be endowed with the taxing power. These are quasi
corporations, mere subdivisions of the State for political purposes." Desty on Taxation, 226, has the following: "As distinct from its power of local assessment, the Legislature may create special taxing districts which may include all or mere subdivisions of the State or parts of subdivisions. It is not essential that such districts shall correspond with the territorial limits of such subdivisions. So it may create levee, school, swamp land, road highway and other taxing districts" — an extension of the principle affirmed and applied to school districts inMcCormac's case, supra; and to drainage districts, Sanderlin v. Luken,
The power of the Legislature, then, over these local agencies, when acting in matters governmental, being ample, certainly when given *316
territorial placing and whether designated as counties, townships, or as special districts, it is well established with us that the construction and maintenance of public roads is a governmental purpose, and the cost thereof is a necessary expense to be paid for by current taxation or by issuing bonds, having regard always to the requirements and limitations of the legislation under which these local authorities are acting, and for such purpose, and unless the statute so requires, no election by the people is necessary. Within the range of governmental action there could not be a more beneficent purpose or a more compelling need, and numerous and repeated decisions of our Court are in furtherance of the enlightened policy of which this statute is an expression. Highway Commissioners v.Webb,
Speaking to this subject in his learned and able argument counsel for the plaintiff well said: "Today, when the industrial activities of men have multiplied, when specialization is the order of the hour, and every man is to some extent dependent upon the products and the purse of his fellowman, when the social instinct has become a habit and demands a larger field than the neighborhood, the need for roads has become a necessity both to the commercial and social life of our people. (389) Without them the State can not maintain effective order nor administer adequate justice. In equal measure, they are dependent upon the power of the State. They can not be constructed without the right of eminent domain, nor maintained save by a community of interests made stable by legislative enactment."
The statute in question expressly creates the municipal corporation to be known as the Board of Trustees of Youngsville Township; gives them as such the entire management and control of the public roads of the township; confers upon them the power to issue and sell the bonds and apply the proceeds to the purpose designated. On authority, therefore, we are of opinion that the bonds are valid and that no good reason is shown why performance of the contract of sale should not be enforced.
For the reasons stated, the judgment of the lower court must be
Reversed.
Cited: Ellis v. Trustees,