Peacock

This is an original proceeding in mandamus to compel the respondent County Auditor, as ex-officio Auditor of Los Angeles County Flood Control District, to approve the petitioner’s claim for services rendered in appraising certain lands along the San Gabriel River below a point known as Whittier Narrows. The appraisal of the land was ordered by the board of supervisors, and the claim was approved by the board and ordered paid. The Auditor refused to approve the claim on the ground that the oia.i-m would be paid, if at all, from the proceeds of certain bonds issued for flood control purposes and that such expenditure from the bond fund would be unauthorized. As a return to the alternative writ the respondent filed a general demurrer to the petition.

The basis for the Auditor’s objection is that the portions of the bond funds here sought to be charged with said expenditure were voted for the control and conservation of *106 waters flowing through the San Gabriel Canyon; whereas the lands proposed to be acquired for conservation purposes below the narrows would not only control and conserve waters from that canyon, but would also control and conserve waters which flow into the San…