“ By an act of 1933 [2] a substituted tax on oil production was imposed with an accompanying provision that the tax 'shall be borne ratably by all interested parties including royalty interests' and with other provisions designed to secure prompt and certain payment of the full tax as by charging the active producer, or the purchaser of the oil where sold in the pipe line, with a primary duty to pay the full tax, and authorizing and requiring him to withhold from royalty or purchase money due interested parties the proportionate tax due from them. ”

“ But, be this as it may, the lease was made in subordination to the power of the State to tax the production of oil and to apportion the tax between the lessors and the lessee. The taxing act does not purport to reach or affect any term of the lease. Plainly no stipulation in the lease can be of any avail as against the power of the State to impose the tax, prescribe who shall be under a duty to the State to pay it, and fix the time and mode of payment. ”

“ It is true that the law in force when the lease was made and for some years thereafter laid a production tax on the lessee alone, and it is equally true that under the act of 1933 a part of the tax is imposed on the lessors and the part imposed on the lessee is less than what would fall on him under the earlier law. ”

“ The lessors have put into the venture their right to explore for and to extract the oil under their lands, and the lessee has put into it various drilling and pumping appliances and much expense, labor, and time. All that has been put in is devoted to the common purpose of producing oil in which the lessors and the lessee are to have stated interests. It is this production that is taxed against the lessors and the lessee according to their respective interests. ”