[5] Rhode Island is the only state in which there is no such official as the county treasurer, the custody of local funds being intrusted to the town treasurers. _County Auditor._--In a number of states the office of county auditor has been provided. Generally he keeps the accounts of the county, so as to show the receipts and expenditures of the public moneys, and issues warrants upon the treasurer for the payment of bills authorized by the county board. In some states his duties are limited merely to an examination of the accounts of county officers to see that they have been properly kept and that there has been no misapplication of public funds. _Recorder of Deeds._--In all the states there are officials charged with keeping records of certain legal documents such as deeds, mortgages, and leases. They are designated by different names, the most usual being register of deeds or recorder of deeds. They make exact copies of the instruments to be recorded, enter them in large books, and keep indexes by which such instruments can be readily found. In some states these duties are performed by the county clerk. The importance of the office is evident because upon the careful preservation and accuracy of the records must depend in many cases our rights to property. _School Officers._--In the states outside New England there is usually a county superintendent or commissioner of schools and in most of the Southern states a county school board. In a large majority of the states the county superintendent is elected by the people, though in a few he is appointed by the governor, elected by the local school boards, or chosen in other ways. The principal duties of the superintendent of schools are to examine teachers, issue certificates to teach, visit the schools, organize teachers' institutes, give advice on educational matters to teachers and school trustees, make reports to the state superintendent of public education, sometimes decide questions appealed to him from the district trustees, and in general watch over and promote the educational interests of the county. County school boards in the South establish schools as do the town school committees and school district boards in other states. _Other County Officials_ are the surveyor, who makes surveys of land upon the application of private owners, prepares plats, and keeps records of the same; superintendent or overseers of the poor, who have charge of almshouses, hospitals, and poor farms where they belong to the county; health officers or boards of health, whose duties are indicated by their titles; and occasionally other minor officials with varying titles and duties.[6] [6] The county court and the justices of the peace are discussed in the chapter on the state judiciary (chapter vi). THE COUNTY-TOWNSHIP SYSTEM