Town clerks have no authority to conduct insanity inquests.

priated by said section is available to pay the expenses and costs of supplies and publications necessary to effectually carry out the provisions of the act. Wherever, under a regular appropriation made by any act of the legislature of 1907, appropriations are made for annual salaries or annual expenses, section 2 of the fiscal year act will apply for the purpose of reducing salaries and expenses one- twelfth, to correspond with the shortened year; but it is my opinion that the appropriations made by §3 of the act creating the legislative reference department of the public library are in the nature of specific appropriations to pay the salary of the legislative reference librarian for a part of a year only, namely: from April 1st to September 30th, and for the specific purpose of providing a fund for use in carrying out the purposes of the act from the date of its passage to September 30th, the end of the new fiscal year; and that §2 of the act changing the fiscal year has no application to it; that the whole of the fifteen hundred dol- lars appropriated by §3 of the act of March 9, 1907 (Acts 1907, p. 236) is available for the above uses. TOWN CLERKS-NO AUTHORITY TO CONDUCT INSANITY INQUESTS. June 17, 1907. Dr. S. E. Smith, Medical Superintendent, Eastern Hospital for the Insane, Richmond, Indiana: Dear Sir-Your communication of June 11, 1907, received, in which you request my opinion as to whether town clerks are authorized by the law to hold insanity inquests. Prior to the provisions of the act of 1901 (Acts 1901, p. 57), concerning town officers, town clerks had no judicial powers, but by the terms of that act it was provided that clerks of incor- porated towns should possess all of the powers of a justice of the peace, as defined by law. On April 26, 1901, and after the above act came in force, the Hon. William L. Taylor, construing it, together with the former acts prescribing who should conduct such inquests, gave it as his opinion that town clerks were not authorized by law to hold insanity inquests. (W. L. Taylor, Attorney-General, Report, Vol. 3, page 134). And again, on June 8, 1904, my predecessor, the Hon. Charles W. Miller, in a letter written to you, indorsed the opinion of Attorney-General Taylor, and gave it as his opinion that town clerks had no authority to conduct insanity inquests. A re-examination leads me to the conclusioa that these opinions were, correct, but it is my opinion that -town clerks have no judi- cial powers at this time, and hence no authority to conduct in- sanity inquests, because the only judicial power such officers ever had was given to them by the act of February 28, 1901 (Acts 1901, p. 57), and by section 272 of the act of March 6, 1905 (Acts 1905, p. 219), concerning municipial corporations, all former laws within the purview of the act were repealed. It is my opinion that the act of 1901, giving town clerks judi- cial powers was repealed by the act of 1905, and hence for this reason, in addition to those found in the opinions of my predeces- sors, I am of the opinion that town clerks now have no authority to conduct insanity inquests. BANKS-BRANCH BANKS, ETC. June 19, 1907. Hon. John C. Billheimer, Auditor of State: Dear Sir-Your communication of June 10th received, in which you ask: First. "May a state bank in Indiana establish and operate a branch bank under its act of incorporation as a bank ?" Second. "May a state bank in Indiana accept deposits and cash checks at a place not named in its articles of association, transacting such business through an agent employed for that purpose?" Third. "Has the auditor of state authority to enforce the discontinuance of such branches or agencies as may exist, if they are not authorized by law; or, if they are authorized, may he examine and supervise them, and require them to report as in the case of ordinary banks?" Section 203 Burns' Annotated Indiana. Statutes 1901, being §4 of art. XI of our state constitution, provides that: "The general assembly may also charter a bank with branches without collateral security, as required in the preceding section."