Markham

This is an original proceeding in which the petitioner asks this court to issue its writ of mandate directed to the state board of examiners of the state of California, requiring said board to allow the petitioner the sum of eight hundred and sixty-six dollars and seventeen cents, which sum petitioner claims is justly due it from the state of California for the support of minor orphans maintained in its orphan asylum in the county of Solano for the maintenance and education of orphans, half orphans, and abandoned children who are minors. The facts are undisputed, and the decision to be made by us depends entirely upon the construction of sections 1 and 7 of an act of the legislature of this state, approved March 25, 1880, entitled "An act to appropriate money for the support of orphans, half orphans, and abandoned children.” (Stats, of 1880, Bancroft’s ed., p. 48.)

*171 The only question involved in this proceeding is whether in the case of a minor orphan supported by the petitioner in its orphan asylum, and for whose support during the period covered by its settlement with the state there has been paid by others a sum less than ten dollars per month, the state board of examiners…