thereof, and with all duly authorized deductions, discounts and cancellations, and with all uncollected taxes and assessments which shall have been duly transmitted to the registrar of arrears. § 22. He shall countersign all checks on the treasurer drawn by the registrar of arrears for the redemption moneys upon the production and cancellation of the certificate of sale or lease of the property redeemed.

TITLE VII.

Department of Collection.

Section 1. The head of the department of collection shall be the collector of taxes and assessments, who shall be appointed by the mayor as herein before provided. His term of office shall be for two years and shall commence on the first day of February next succeeding his appointment. He shall receive an annual salary of five thousand dollars. He shall collect and receive all moneys that may be or may become due under any warrant deliv. ered to him for the collection of taxes and assessments, which moneys he shall pay to the treasurer of the city on the same day on which he received them. He shall render an account thereof to the comptroller in detail, who shall compare the amount received with the respective items on the tax and assessment-list in his office, and note all payments on the margin opposite such items, with the date of such payments. The amounts included in all warrants for the collection of taxes and assessments delivered to the tax collector, together with all default and interest, shall be credited by him on the books in his office to the city; and the amounts paid by him to the treasurer on account thereof, with all rebates, reductions and cancellations shall be charged by him to the city together with all items of uncollected taxes and assessments transmitted by him to the registrar of arrears.

§ 2. The said collector shall have the same powers as the collectors in the several towns in this State, not inconsistent with this act. It shall not be necessary for the collector to call personally or by deputy upon the persons named in the annual taxrolls and demand the taxes, in case where such taxes are for real estate, nor shall it be necessary for him to levy any such tax upon real estate by distress and sale of the goods and chattels of the person who ought to pay the same; but he shall, upon receiving such annual tax-rolls, cause a notice to be published for thirty days in the corporation newspapers of the said city that the said tax-rolls have been completed and the warrant for the collection of the taxes delivered to him, and that all persons are required to pay their taxes at his office without delay under the penalty of the law. He shall annex to such notice and publish therewith a copy of the tenth section to this title. He shall publish a like

notice immediately after the warrant for the collection of any assessment shall have been delivered to him. He shall also, within twenty days after said assessment-list and warrant shall be delivered to him, cause bills of the several amounts therein assessed to be served personally or left at the places of residence of the persons charged with or liable to pay such assessments, if residents of the city, and if not residents he shall cause bills to be sent to such persons by mail, addressed to their reputed places of residence.

§ 3. If any person who shall have become surety for the collector shall, by notice in writing, to be served on the mayor or city clerk, require the said collector to renew his official bond, such person shall be discharged from all future liability as such surety from and after the settlement of the accounts of the collector for moneys received prior to such discharge, who shall be required to make such statement within thirty days after notice from the common council to that effect.

§ 4. There shall be added to and included in every tax and assessment levied and assessed in the city of Brooklyn, the sum of two per cent. upon the amount of such tax and assessment for the expense of collection which, together with the amount to be added, for neglect to pay within the time specified in the warrants of the collector, as hereinafter provided, shall be for the use of said city.

§ 5. If any collector or deputy collector shall convert to his own use in any way whatever, or shall use by way of investment in any kind of property or merchandise, or shall loan in any way, or shall deposit elsewhere than in the city treasury, any portions of the moneys or checks received or collected by him as such collector or deputy collector, every such act shall be deemed and adjudged to be an embezzlement of so much of said moneys or checks as shall be thus taken, invested, used or loaned or deposited and is hereby declared to be a felony punishable by imprisonment in a State prison for a term not exceeding five years. If such collector shall retain in his possession for more than one business day any moneys received by him, he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof, shall pay a fine of five hundred dollars for every business day during which such moneys are retained by him.

§ 6. The supervisors of the county of Kings shall cause the corrected assessment-rolls of the several wards, or fair copies thereof, with warrants for collection, to be delivered to the collector on or before the fifteenth day of November in each year, and shall also deliver to the comptroller a copy of such rolls; and the common council shall cause every assessment-roll made for any improvement in said city, or a fair copy thereof, with a

warrant for collection, to be delivered to said collector within ten days after the same shall be finally confirmed, and also deliver to the comptroller a copy of such roll. But no warrant for the collection of any assessment shall be issued by the common council until all the proceedings had in laying said assessment shall have been examined and certified as correct by the commissioner of city works and the corporation counsel, which certificate shall be indorsed upon or annexed to the assessmentroll, and shall be presumptive evidence of the regularity of the proceedings. The collection of taxes shall be commenced on the fifteenth day of December, in each year. [Thus amended by Laws 1895, chap. 888.]

§ 7. The collector of taxes and assessments is hereby directed to prepare an abstract of each of the assessments for local improvements, the amount of which is directed by law to be included in or collected with the general taxes, showing first the amount of the respective assessments upon each parcel of land assessed, less any amount paid thereon; secondly, the installments which are to be collected in each year upon each lot, with interest added in those cases in which the interest is to be collected, and he shall furnish to the comptroller a duplicate of such abstract.

§ 8. The collector of taxes and assessments aforesaid is authorized to receive the total amount of said assessment upon any piece or parcel of land at any time before the time fixed for the complete payment thereof, with interest thereon to the time of payment, and any defaults accrued thereon, and upon such payment shall cancel such assessment upon the piece or parcel of land the assessment upon which is so paid.

§ 9. All warrants for the collection of taxes and assessments, in addition to any other signatures required by law, shall be signed by the mayor and comptroller, and all warrants for the collection of assessments shall be under the corporate seal of the city attested by the clerk, and all warrants for the collection of taxes and assessments shall require the collector to collect, within one year from the date thereof, from the several persons named in the roll and lists annexed thereto, the several sums mentioned in the last columns of such roll opposite to their respective names, and to pay the same to the treasurer, as hereinbefore provided, and to render detailed accounts thereof to the comptroller; and these warrants shall not be renewed except in cases where the collection has been stayed by any legal proceedings, and in such cases the common council shall have power, after the cessation of such stay to cause new warrants to be issued to the collector for the full term of one year, as if no previous warrant had been issued. This provision shall apply

to all cases where the collection has been or hereafter may be stayed by any legal process or proceedings. The warrant shall also require the collector upon the expiration of one year from the date thereof to make a return of all uncollected items to the registrar of arrears.

§ 10. On all taxes and assessments which shall be paid to the collector before the expiration of thirty days from the time the same shall become due and payable, an allowance shall be made to the person or persons making such payments, at the rate of seven and three-tenths per centum per annum for the unexpired portion thereof, and the amount of such allowance shall be credited to the account of the collector and charged to the account of the revenue fund. On all taxes, assessments and water rates paid after the expiration of thirty days from the time the same shall have become due and payable, there shall be added to and collected as part of every such tax, assessment or water rate, interest at the rate of nine per centum per annum, to be computed from the time the same became due and payable to the date of said payment. [Thus amended by Laws 1895, chap. 888.]

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§ 11. On every bill rendered for taxes by the collector of taxes and assessments, there shall be ruled a column headed "notices," and a further column headed "assessments due," in which the said collector shall cause to be written opposite the ward number of the lots the word "arrears" or "sold" or "assessments due," according to the entries in the assessment-rolls headed notices or assessments due." And it shall be the duty of the said collector of taxes and assessments, immediately upon the delivery to him of the annual assessment-rolls in each year, to cause to be entered opposite the ward number of the lots in the column headed " assessments due," in said rolls the title of any assessment then due and collectible in his department, or which may be delivered to him for collection during that current year and when any one of these assessments shall be transmitted to the registrar of arrears pursuant to section nine of this title, the collector of taxes and assessments shall cause to be stamped over the entry of such assessment in said column in the annual assessment-rolls, the word "arrears," and the collector of taxes and assessments shall, upon delivery to him of the annual assessmentrolls, immediately deliver the same to the registrar of arrears, whose duty it shall be to cause to be stamped in the column headed "notices" in said rolls the word 66 arrears" opposite the ward number of the respective lots which appear upon the list for the unpaid tax of the immediately preceding year, which shall have been returned to said registrar as required by section fourteen of this title, and the collector shall cause the same to be

noted on every bill for taxes rendered by him in like manner as when assessments are due. And at the foot of every such bill there shall be printed the following words, "The entries in the column headed assessments due,' indicates that a lot or lots referred to have assessments on them which can be paid in the office of the collector of taxes and assessments, and the entries in the column headed notices,' indicate that the lot or lots referred to have been sold for arrears or are to be sold therefor; the arrears to be paid and the lot or lots redeemed from sale at the office of the registrar of arrears." Any omission in any tax bill of such entry in the column "notices," or "assessments due of the words "arrears" or "sold," or assessments due," as above required, shall have no other effect than to postpone the time of sale of the property represented by the ward number opposite which the entry shall have been omitted in case of arrears for the further term of one year, and in case the property has been sold, to cancel the sale without prejudice to the city's claim; but no such bill shall be considered evidence of such omission unless actually paid and duly receipted, and upon any application, case or hearing arising upon an alleged omission of any such entry, the burden of proof shall be deemed to be upon the owner. Property, the sale of which has thus been cancelled, shall not be offered for sale again within one year from the date of cancellation. [Thus amended by Laws 1889, chap. 368.]

§ 12. If any of the taxes mentioned in the rolls annexed to the warrants shall remain unpaid at the expiration of one year from the time said warrants shall be delivered to the collector, and he shall not be able to collect the same, he shall deliver to the comptroller an account of the taxes so remaining due, with an affidavit that the same is a true account of the taxes remaining unpaid, and that he has not been able, upon diligent inquiry, to discover any goods and chattels belonging to or in possession of the persons charged in said rolls for personal taxes, whereon to levy the amount of such personal taxes, he shall be credited by the comptroller with the amount thereof, and if any of the assessments mentioned in the assessment-rolls annexed to the warrant for the collection of assessments for benefits shall remain unpaid at the expiration of one year from the time said warrant shall have been delivered to the collector, and he shall not be able to collect the same, he shall deliver to the comptroller an account of the assessments so remaining due with an affidavit as hereinafter mentioned.

§ 13. Upon affidavit being made before the comptroller, or before any other person authorized to administer oaths in the county of Kings, by the collector to whom any warrant for the collection of any assessments shall be delivered, as aforesaid, or