The legislature meets biennially at Augusta, the capital, and is composed of a Senate of thirty-one members and a House of Representatives of one hundred and fifty-one members. Members of each house are elected for a term of two years: one senator from each senatorial district and one to seven representatives (one for a population of 1,500, and seven for a population of 26,250) from each township, or, where the township or plantation has less than 1,500 inhabitants, from each representative district, according to its population. There is a new reapportionment every ten years, counting from 1821. Every senator and every representative must at the beginning of his term have been for five years a citizen of the United States, for one year a resident of the state, and for three months next preceding his election, as well as during his term of office, a resident of the township or district which he represents; and every senator must be at least twenty-five years of age. All revenue bills must originate in the House of Representatives, but to such bills the Senate may propose amendments provided they relate solely to raising revenue. Other bills may originate in either house. In September 1908 a constitutional amendment was adopted providing for referendum and initiative by the people. Any bill proposed in the legislature or passed by it must be referred to popular vote before becoming law, if there is a referendum petition therefor signed by 10,000 voters; and a petition signed by 12,000 voters initiates new legislation. At the head of the department of justice is the supreme judicial court, which consists of a chief justice and seven associate justices appointed by the governor and council for a term of seven years. When it sits as a law court, at least five of its justices must be present, and it holds three such sessions annually: one at Augusta, one at Bangor, and one at Portland. But only one of its justices is required for a trial court, and trial courts are held two or three times a year in each county for the trial of both civil and criminal cases which come before it in the first instance or upon appeal. In Cumberland and Kennebec counties there is a superior court presided over by one justice and having extensive civil and criminal jurisdiction; and in each of the counties there are a probate court for the settlement of the estates of deceased persons and courts of the trial justice and the justice of the peace for the trial of petty offences and of civil cases in which the debt or damage involved does not exceed $20.