deaths, calls the town meeting to order, reads
the warrant under which it is held, presides until a moderator is
chosen, and then acts as clerk of the meeting.

TREASURER.--Taxes collected from the people for local purposes are paid
to the treasurer. He receives all fines, forfeitures, and license-fees
paid to the township. He is the keeper of the township funds, giving
bond for the faithful performance of his duties, and pays out money
upon the written order of the trustees, attested by the clerk. In some
States, as in New York, there is no separate township treasurer, the
above and other duties being performed by the supervisor, who is the
chief officer of the township.

SCHOOL DIRECTORS.--The school directors have charge of the public
schools of the township. The number of directors varies widely, being
usually three, five, or more. In a few of the States, the clerks of
the district trustees constitute the township school directors, or
township board of education. The directors levy taxes for school
purposes, visit and inspect the public schools, adopt text-books,
regulate the order of studies and length of the term, fix salaries,
purchase furniture and apparatus, and make reports to the higher school
officers. In some States they examine teachers and grant certificates
to teach. In many States a part of these duties falls to the county
superintendent.

ASSESSOR.--The assessor makes a list of the names of all persons
subject to taxation, estimates the value of their real and personal
property, assesses a tax thereon, and in some States delivers this list
to the auditor, and in others to the collector of taxes. In most
States there, is also a poll-tax of from one to three dollars,
sometimes more, laid upon all male inhabitants more than twenty-one
years of age. In some States there are two or more assessors to the
township, and in others real estate is valued only once in ten years.

COMMISSIONERS, or surveyors of highways, have charge of the
construction and repair of highways, summon those subject to labor on
the road, and direct their work.

SUPERVISOR.--In some States the chief executive duties of the town fall
upon the supervisor, but his principal duties are rather as a member of
the county board of supervisors.

CONSTABLES.--Constables are ministerial and police officers. There are
usually two or three in each township. They wait upon the justice's
court, and are subject to his orders. They