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 paper, and, receiving a majority of the votes cast at the election, it was elected official newspaper and qualified as such. The defendants in this action are the members of the city commission, members of the special assessment board, and the city auditor of the city of Minot. Just prior to the beginning of the action the defendants had prepared for publication nine notices of special assessments which are required by law to be published, once each week for two successive weeks before being spread on the tax lists. The defendants refuse to cause the publication of these notices in the Ward County Independent. They base their refusal on the ground that the city commissioners had previously designated the Minot Daily News, a paper of general circulation in Minot and northwestern North Dakota, as the official newspaper of the city; and it is the contention of the defendants that the notices of special assessments may properly and legally be published in the Minot Daily News as the official newspaper of the city.

The question presented is a narrow one, depending upon the construction of recent legislation. Chap. 187 of the Laws of 1919 is an act entitled ‘An act providing for the selection and designation of one state, county and municipal official newspaper in each county in the state, prescribing the manner of its selection and duties.” § 5 of this act provides that—

The official newspaper chosen in the manner prescribed by the preceding sections as the state, county, and municipal official newspaper, “shall publish all official proceedings of the board of county commissioners in said county and all other notices and publications that are now required by law to be published by county officers; all summons, citations, notices, orders and other process in actions or proceedings in the Supreme, district, county or justice courts, which are or may hereafter be required by law to be published in the respective counties of the state. All publications of every nature that now are or may hereafter be required to be published by state officers, elective or appointive; all notices of foreclosure of real estate or chattel mortgages or other liens on real estate or personal property foreclosed by advertisement in said county; and all legal notices of whatsoever kind and character required by law to be published or which may hereafter be required to be published in said county. Provided, however, that in organized cities, towns and villages where no official newspaper is published, said city, town or village, board, council or commission may designate an official newspaper for the pub-