The court shall fix the time for the hearing of said petition and shall order the clerk of the court to give and publish a notice of the filing of such petition. The notice shall be given and published once each week for four consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation published in each county wherein shall be situate any lands within the district. The notice shall state the time and place fixed for the hearing of the petition and the prayer of the petitioners, and that any person interested in the organization of said district or in the proceedings for the issue or sale of said bonds, or in any such other proceedings as may be in question, may, on or before the day fixed for the hearing of said petition, demur to or answer said petition. The petition may be referred to and described in said notice as the petition of the board of directors of . . . . . . irrigation district (giving its name), praying that the proceedings for the issue and sale of said bonds of said district, or that the proceedings for the authorization of contract with the United States or the validity of the determination of the rate of drainage benefits and of the award of damages, as the cases may be respectively, may be examined, approved and confirmed by the court.