The Territory, ex rel. McKinnis, v. Hand.
the probate court, one district attorney, one coroner, one superintendent of public schools, and one assessor; and said officers so appointed shall hold their offices respectively until their successors shall be elected and qualified according to law." Section 7 relates to the qualification of the officers so appointed; sections provides for the election of justices of the peace at a special election; section 9 defines a quorum of the board, the duties of clerk, etc., and section 10, is as follows: "This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage and approval, and it amends and modifies all acts and parts of acts inconsistent with its provisions, so far only as it is necessary to carry this act into effect, but all other such acts, except those bounding and defining counties herein defined, are in force, except so far as this act governs and takes the place of other law." This is all there is of special legislation relating to these counties, and we must look elsewhere for an explanation of some of the phraseology used in this act. It will not be contended but what these Black Hills counties might and could have been organized without any of the provisions of this special act, except those embraced in the first five sections, naming them and defining their boundaries. Sections 1 to 5 inclusive, of chapter 21, Political Code, clearly define the mode and manner, and confer ample power and authority for the organization of new counties, and it seems clear that these statutes must be construed together, chapter 42 as being merely supplemental, for a special purpose, to the sections last cited. They certainly both have the same purpose in view and relate to the same subject-matter.
It is an established rule of law, that all acts in pari materia are to be taken together as if they were one law; and they are directed to be compared in the construction of statutes, because they are considered as framed upon one system and having one object in view. (Dwarris on Statutes, 189.) And the Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of Patterson v. Winn, 11 Wheat., 385, has laid down the rule that "several statutes that are in pari materia are to be construed as one statute in explaining their meaning and import."
