Winter

The petitioner is the assessor of Tehama County and makes this application for a writ of mandate to compel the respondent, as auditor of said county, to draw his warrant in his favor for the sum of three hundred dollars, which amount is claimed by the petitioner as his salary as such assessor for the month of December, 1919.

The petitioner contends that his salary is three thousand six hundred dollars per annum as assessor of said county, as fixed by section 4266 of the Political Code, Tehama County, being a county of the thirty-seventh class. He bases this contention on the ground that the charter of said county adopted by the electors in 1915 and ratified by the legislature in 1917 (Stats. 1917, p. 1877), fixing the assessor’s salary at two thousand dollars per annum, is unconstitutional for the reason that the said charter “is inconsistent and does not substantially conform to section iy2) article XI, of the constitution.”

It would serve no useful purpose and would unnecessarily prolong this opinion to enter into an examination of the many objections raised by the petitioner to the constitutionality of this charter. The character of these objections may be shown by the…