Page:North Dakota Reports (vol. 1).pdf/510

 judgment. Ratification is equivalent only to original authority, and we are of opinion that the inhabitants under the statute had no authority to direct the building of a schoolhouse whose cost would exceed the funds provided for that purpose. We hold that this contract was void, not only for want of power in the district to make it, but because prohibited by the spirit and necessary implication of the statute.

The sections of the act essential to the solution of this question are as follows: “§ 29. The inhabitants qualified to vote at a school district meeting lawfully assembled shall have power (5) to vote a tax annually not exceeding one per cent. on the taxable property of the district as the meeting shall deem suffcient to purchase or lease a site, and to build, hire, or purchase a school house, and to keep the same in repair.” “§ 56. The district board shall purchase or lease such site for a school house as shall have been designated by.the voters at a district meeting, in the corporate name thereof, and shall build, hire, or purchase such school house as the voters of the district in a district meeting shall have agreed upon out of the funds provided for that purpose.” Laws 1879, c.14 The manifest purpose of this legislation is to prevent the district, unless bonds are issued under chapter 24 of the laws of 1881, from either mortgaging the future resources, or increasing beyond one per cent. of the assessed valuation the present burden of the inhabitants of the district. The inhabitants, in meeting lawfully assembled, select a site, direct the building of the school house, and levy 1 per cent. tax to pay forthesame. Itis out of the funds provided for that purpose that the board is to build and pay for the house. The funds provided for that purpose are those on hand, or subject to collection for that purpose, and, in addition, the amount which can be raised by a levy of a tax of not exceeding 1 per cent. on the assessed valuation of the district; and the tax must be levied before it can be said that the funds are provided. The inhabitants cannot in any one year levy this maximum tax for any number of years in advance. No funds can be deemed as provided for that purpose which the district has not then on hand for that purpose, or subject to collection, or
 * * * (4) to designate by vote a site for a school house;