When a majority of the resident freeholders owning one-third in area of the lands, or evidence of title to lands so owned within the limits of any such drainage district, shall petition the board of directors to call a special election for the purpose of submitting to the qualified electors of said district a proposition to vote on the dissolution of such drainage district, setting forth in the petition that all bills, claims and obligations of every nature whatsoever have been fully satisfied and paid, and that the necessity for a continuance of such organization no longer exists, it shall be the duty of the board, if satisfied as to the correctness of the showing made by the petition to call an election setting forth its object, and to cause notice thereof to be published in the manner and for the time prescribed by this act N.M. Stat. Ann. § 73-8-1 to 73-8-60, designating the time and places for the holding of the election, as by this act required. At such election the ballots used shall bear the words “For dissolution . . . . Yes” and “For dissolution . . . . No,” or words equivalent thereto.

Provided, the board of directors shall be without jurisdiction to entertain the petition or to call the election hereinbefore mentioned so long as contract with the United States, by this act authorized, remains in force, without the written consent of the secretary of the interior filed with the county clerk of the county wherein the office of the district is located.