In several cases coming before us at the last Term, Read v. Durham, and others, it was held, Associate Justice Walicer delivering the opinion, that the recent constitutional amendments were valid as parts of our organic law, and that the same became effective on 10 January, 1917, as provided by the statute submitting such amendments for ratification to the people, this on the ground chiefly that as the act providing *217 ■for tbe election fixed upon 10 January as tbe day, tbe people, in ratifying tbe amendments pursuant to tbe act, thereby determined tbe date in accord witb its provisions.
Tbe act in question here, chapter 575, Public-Local Laws 1917, authorizes and empowers tbe commissioners of Iredell County to issue bonds in tbe sum of $40,000, “for tbe purpose of building bridges over ■the Catawba River jointly witb tbe county of Catawba,” payable Seriatim to tbe amount of $4,000 per year till tbe full obligation is discharged .and tbe levy of a specified tax for tbe purpose of 5 cents on tbe bun-fired dollar’s worth of property and 15 cents on tbe poll. Ratified on 5 March, 1917, it comes within tbe purview and control of tbe Constitution as now amended, and tbe question presented is whether tbe statute is a constitutional enactment and chiefly in view of Article 2, sec. 29, by which tbe Legislature is prohibited from .passing any “local, private ■or special act or resolution” relating to various enumerated subjects, among others, “authorizing tbe laying out, opening, altering, maintaining, or discontinuing highways, streets, or alleys, or relating to ferries and bridges, relating to nonnavigable streams, relating to cemeteries, relating to pay of jurors,” etc.
Shortly after these amendments were ratified, a case was presented involving tbe question whether, in view of these provisions, “An act ■authorizing tbe commissioners of McDowell County to issue bonds for road purposes in North Cove Township, in said county,” was a valid law.
Brown v. Comrs.,
It is said in some of the decisions on the subject that the significance of the term “local” in constitutional provisions of this character is comparatively of recent use and importance and has received no fixed or generally recognized meaning. Like other legislation or written instruments sufficiently ambiguous to permit of construction, it must be defined by reference to the context, the purpose appearing in the terms of
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the law and the attendant circumstances relevant to its true interpretation. In Lewis’ Sutherland Statutory Construction, it is said (2d edition, sec. 199, p. 358) : “That special laws are those made for individual cases. . . . Local laws are special as to place”; and further (at section 200) : “It seems impossible to fix any definite rule by which to-solve the question whether a law is local or general, and it has been found expedient to leave the matter, to a considerable extent, open, to be determined upon the special circumstances of each case.” It is well understood that our General Assembly, at session after session, was called on by direct legislation to authorize a particular highway or street or to establish a bridge or ferry at some specified place. Such questions being not infrequently at the instance of rival parties or opposing interests, were urged and debated with great earnestness by their respective advocates and renewed and protracted to such an extent that they were of serious detriment to the public interests and, at times, prevented full and proper consideration of vital piublie measures. The Legislature in these cases was in fact called on to usurp, or rather to exercise, functions which were more usually and properly performed by the local authorities, and it was in reference to local and spiecial and private measures of this character that these amendments were adopted, and, as stated in
Brown’s case, supra,
it was never intended to prohibit legislation authorizing the raising of proper funds by the sale of bonds, or by taxation for measures required for the public good, though such funds should be for improvements in some fixed place or in restricted territory determined upon by local authorities in pursuance of general laws on the subject. It is now very well known that the limit of taxation allowable by the Constitution for ordinary State and county purposes has been very generally reached by the different counties in the State, and for any additional demands or unexpected emergency authority to exceed these limits can only be conferred by legislative enactment.
Commissioners of Johnston County v. Lacy,
An interpretation of these recent- amendments which would destroy or impair the legislative power to the extent suggested would be of such serious and threatening consequence that it should not be sanctioned except by provisions so plain of meaning that no room for a different construction is allowable.
"We are clearly of opinion that this well-considered case of Brown v. Comrs. is fully supported by the authorities cited and is decisive of the questions presented on this record.
It is suggested that the legislation in question is in some way in contravention of Article 8, sections 1 and 4 of the Constitution, the latter *219 section being also one of the recent amendments referred to, but we do not see how either of these sections is in any way involved in the present appeal.
While it is not desirable nor ordinarily permissible to decide questions of this nature otherwise than on an issue directly presented
(Commissioners of Johnston County v. Lacy,
There is no error, and the judgment for defendants is
Affirmed.