of immigration. SEC. 1721. In order to attract immigration and capital to Louisiana, and to aid in developing her resources, the Governor is hereby 1869-106. authorized and directed, by and with the advice of the Senate, to Appointment of appoint six commissioners, two of whom shall hold their office for commissioners the term of two years, two for four years, and two for six years, and upon the expiration of their several terms of office, their places shall be filled, as aforesaid, for the term of six years. The Governor of this State and the President of the German Society shall, by virtue of their respective offices, be commissioners as aforesaid. The said commissioners shall be known as the "Commissioners of Immigration," and by that title shall be capable of suing and being sued. The said commissioners shall appoint one of their number to act as officers of the president of the board and general agent of the commission; all commission. money appropriated for said commission by the General Assembly, or received for commutation, as hereafter provided, shall be paid out on the warrant of said commissioners, or a majority of them. It Title. shall be the duty of the said commissioners to provide for the main- Duties of comtenance and support of such of the persons for whom commutation missioners. money shall have been paid, as hereinafter provided, or on whose accounts bonds shall have been taken, as would otherwise become a charge on any city, town or parish of this State; and the said commissioners shall appropriate the moneys for that purpose in such manner as to indemnify, so far as may be, the several cities, towns and parishes of the State for any expense or charge which may be incurred for the maintenance and support of the persons hereinafter mentioned. And the more fully to effect the object contemplated by this act, the said commissioners are authorized to apply in their discretion any part of the said money to aid in removing any of said Masters of ves sls to report foreign passen gers to the com missioners of immigration. contain. persons from any part of this State to another part of this or any other State, or from this State, or in assisting them to procure employment, and thus prevent them from becoming a public charge. SEC. 1722. Within twenty-four hours after the landing of any passenger or passengers from any ship or vessel arriving at the port of New Orleans, from any of the United States, other than this State, or from any country out of the United States, the master or commander of the ship or vessel, from which such passenger or passengers shall have been lauded, shall make a report in writing, on oath or affirmation, to the "Commissioners of Immigration," or to such person as they may designate and appoint as their agent, which report shall state the name, place of birth, last legal residence, age and occupation of every person or passenger who shall have landed from such ship or vessel, on her last voyage to said port, not being a citizen of the United States, and who shall have, within the last twelve months, arrived from any country out of the United States at any place within the United States, and who shall not have paid the commutation money or been bonded according to the provisions of this act; the same report shall contain a like statement of What report to all such persons or passengers aforesaid as shall have been landed or been suffered to land from any such ship or vessel at any place during such last voyage, or who shall have been put on board or suffered to go on board of any other ship, vessel or boat with the intention of proceeding to and landing at the said city of New Orleans or elsewhere within the limits of this State. The said report shall further specify whether any of the said passengers so reported are lunatic, idiot, deaf, dumb, blind, infirm, maimed, or above the age of sixty years, also designating all such passengers as shall be under the age of thirteen, or widows having families, or women without husbands having families, with the names and ages of their families, and shall further specify particularly the names, last place of residence and ages of all passengers who may have died during the said last voyage of such vessel, also the names and residences of the owner or owners of such vessel. In case any such master or Penalty for non-commander shall omit or neglect to report as aforesaid any such person or passenger, with the particulars aforesaid, or shall make any false report or statement in respect to any such person or passenger, or in respect to the owner or owners of any such vessel, or in respect to any of the particulars hereinbefore specified, such master or commander shall forfeit the sum of one hundred dollars for every such passenger in regard to whom any such omission or neglect shall have occurred, or any such false report or statement shall be made, for which the owner or owners, consignee or consignees of every such ship or vessel shall also be liable, jointly and severally, and which may be sued for and recovered as hereinafter provided. compliance. mutation. SEC. 1723. It shall be the duty of the said Commissioners of ImmiBonds and com- gration, or their appointed agent, by an indorsement to be made on said report, to require the owner or consignee of the ship or vessel from which such persons were landed, to give a several bond to the people of the State in a penalty of three hundred dollars for each and every person or passenger included in said report; such bond being secured as hereinafter provided and conditioned to indemnify and save harmless the Commissioners of Immigration, and each and every city, town or parish, in this State, from any cost which said commissioners or such city, town or parish shall incur for the relief or support of the person named in the bond, within five years from the date of such bonds, and also to indemnify and refund to the said Commissioners of Immigration any expense or charge they may necessarily incur for the support or medical care of the persons named therein. Each and every bond shall be secured by two or more sufficient securities, being residents of the State of Louisiana, each of whom shall prove by oath or otherwise that he is owner of a freehold in the State of the value of three hundred dollars over and above all and any claim or lien thereon or against him, including therein any contingent claim which may accrue from or upon any former bond given under the provisions of this act; or such bond may, at the option of the party, be secured by mortgage of real estate, or by pledge and transfer of public stock of the United States or of the State of Louisiana, or of the city of New Orleans, or by deposit of the amount of penalty in some bank or trust company, such security, real or personal, having been first approved by the said Commissioners of Immigration. It shall be lawful for any owner or consignee, at any time within twenty-four hours after the landing of such persons or passengers from any ship or vessel in the port of New Orleans, except as in the section herein provided, to commute for the bond or bonds so required by paying to the Commissioners of Immigration, or their appointed agent, the sum of two dollars for each and every passenger reported by him as by law required; the receipt of such sum by said commissioner or agent shall be deemed a full and sufficient discharge from the requirements of giving bonds as above provided, but no owner or consignee shall be authorized to commute for the bond so required for any passenger arriving in the port of New Orleans who may be sent to any hospital from shipboard by the health officer, or by the authority of the Board of Health of the city of New Orleans, on account of illness from ship fever, cholera or yellow fever. The Commissioners of Immigration shall have authority to commute specially for any bond in such cases, at such rates and in such manner as shall appear to them equitable and proper. It shall be the duty of the health officer to report without delay to the Commissioners of Immigration the names of all passengers sent by his order, during the above mentioned period, from shipboard to any hospital, on account of illness from ship fever, cholera or yellow fever. regard to for charge, SEC. 1724. It shall be the duty of the Commissioners of Immigration to examine into the condition of passengers arriving at the Duties of comport of New Orleans in any ship or vessel, and for that purpose all missioners with or any of the said Commissioners, or such other person or persons eigners likely to as they shall appoint, shall be authorized to go on board and through become a public any such ship or vessel, and if on such examination there shall be found among such passengers any lunatic, idiot, deaf, dumb, blind, maimed or infirm person or persons above the age of sixty years, or widow with a child or children, or any woman without a husband and with a child or children, or any person unable to take care of himself or herself without becoming a public charge, or who, from sickness or disease existing at the time of departure from the foreign port, are or are likely soon to become a public charge, or, if it shall appear from the report of the master or commander of said ship or vessel that any of the class of persons described in this section of this act as likely to become a public charge, have been brought on the said ship or vessel on her last voyage, thereupon the said Commissioners of Immigration, or their appointed agent, shall require, Commissioners to provide for foreign 8 becoming public charge. Agents and clerks. in addition to the commutation money, that the owner or consignee of such ship or vessel, with one or more sufficient sureties, shall execute a joint and several bond to the people of the State, in a penalty of five hundred dollars for every such passenger, conditioned to indemnify and save harmless the Commissioners of Immigration, and each and every city, town or parish within the State from any further cost or charge which said commissioners, or any such city, town or parish shall incur for the maintenance or support of the person or persons named in such bond, or any of them, within five years from the date of such bond. The securities to the said bonds shall be required to justify before and to the satisfaction of the officer making such indorsement, and by their oath or affirmation shall satisfy such officer that they are respectively residents of the State of Louisiana, and worth double the amount of the penalty of such bond over and above all debts, liabilities, and all property exempt from execution. The subsequent indorsement authorized in this section may be made at any time within thirty days of such examination or of the landing of any such passenger or person. The Commissioners of Immigration shall have authority to commute especially for any bond in such cases at such rates and in such manner as shall appear to them equitable and proper. SEC. 1725. In case any of the persons for whom commutation money has been paid as aforesaid or for whom a bond has been given as aforesaid shall at any time within five years from the payment of such money, or the execution of such bond become chargeable upon any city, town or parish within this State, it shall be the duty of the said commissioners to provide for the payment of any expense incurred by any such city, town or parish for the maintenance and support of any such person out of the commutation money to be paid as aforesaid, and the money collected on such bonds so far as the same will enable them to do. The said commissioners shall prescribe such rules and regulations as they shall deem proper for the purpose of ascertaining the right and the amount of the claim of any city, town or parish to indemnity under the provisions of this and the preceding section. The said commissioners shall have power to provide for the support and maintenance of any persons for whom commutation money shall have been paid, or on whose account a bond shall have been given as hereinbefore provided, and who shall become chargeable upon any city, town or parish, in such manner as they shall deem proper; and after such provision shall have been made by such commissioners, such city, town or parish shall not be entitled to claim any further indemnity for the support and maintenance of such person. SEC. 1726. The said commissioners are authorized to employ an assistant agent and such clerks and servants as they shall deem necessary for the purposes aforesaid, and to pay a reasonable compensation for their services out of the moneys aforesaid; Provided, That the salary of the assistant agent shall not exceed two thousand dollars per annum, and that the salaries of the clerks shall not exceed fifteen hundred dollars per annum. SEC. 1727. The said commissioners shall annually, on or before Annual report. the first day of February in each year, report to the General Assembly the amount of moneys received under the provisions of this act during the preceding year, and the manner in which the same has been appropriated particularly. SEC. 1728. In case of a vacancy in the said board of commissioners, the same shall be filled by an appointment to be made by Vacancies. the Governor, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. The person so appointed shall hold his office for the remainder of the term of the person in whose place he shall have been appointed. The said commissioners shall in all cases be residents of the city of New Orleans. penalties. SEC. 1729. The penalties and forfeitures prescribed by this act may be sued for and recovered, with costs of suit, by and in the Recovery of name of said Commissioners of Immigration, in any court having cognizance thereof, and, when recovered, shall be applied to the purposes specified in this act. It shall be lawful for the said commissioners, before or after suit brought, to compound for any of the said penalties or forfeitures upon such terms as they shall think proper. tracts with the SEC. 1730. The Commissioners of Immigration shall serve without pay, and shall annually make and return to the General Assembly, Commissioners with their annual report, an affidavit, in and by which they shall not to me conrespectively swear or affirm, each for himself, to the correctness of commission. said report, and that he has not, directly or indirectly, been interested in the business of boarding immigrants, in the transportation of any immigrant passengers through any portion of the interior of this country, or had made or received, directly or indirectly, any gain, profit or advantage by or through the purchase of supplies, the granting of any contract or contracts herein, or licenses, privilege or privileges, or the employment of any officer, servant or agent, mechanic, laborer or other person, in the business under the control of said commissioners; Provided, That nothing in this act shall prevent the commissioner appointed by the board to act as general agent of the commission from being paid such a salary for his services as shall be stipulated by the said board; Provided further, That the said salary shall not exceed the sum of three thousand five hundred dollars per annum. bonds. SEC. 1731. If any person for whom a bond shall have been given as aforesaid shall, within five years from the date of such bond, Actions on become chargeable upon any city, town or parish of this State, or upon the Commissioners of Immigration, the said commissioners may bring an action on such bond in the name of the people of this State, and shall be entitled to recover on such bond from time to time so much money, not in the whole exceeding the penalty of such bond, exclusive of costs, as shall be sufficient to defray the expenses incurred by any such city, town or parish, or the said commissioners, for the maintenance and support of the person for whom such bond was given as aforesaid. tribution of grants. SEC. 1732. Whenever any alien immigrant whose personal property shall not exceed the value of twenty-five dollars shall die on the Care and dis passage to the port of New Orleans, or in any hospital or other property o establishment under the charge of the commissioners, and in all ceased mu... cases in which minor children of alien passengers shall becom orphans by their parents or last surviving parent ding, the personal property which such alien immigrant or such parent or parents may have had with them shall be taken in charge by the Coners of Immigration, to be by them appropriated toe sole benefit of the next of kin of such alien immigrant or of said orphan children; and said commissioners shall give, in their annual report to the Legislature, a minute description of all cases in which property shall do |