Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1858-06-03

therefore be seen that this company is solvent
and are able to complete their road with the
means placed in their hands.
But it is objected that we did not so frame
the law as to sell the canals to the highest
bidder to this objection the history of the
law passed to sell the Main Line is a sufficient
answer, besides the Legislature desired to aid
the completion of this road : not by giving
her bounty or loaning her credit as she had
done in almost all other portions of the Com
monwealth, this they did not ask but by a
wise and liberal policy on the part of the
State and there is a provision in the bill
that obviates this objection, by providing that
the company shall pay over to the State sew
enty-hve per Centum of any excess the Com
pany may realize above the price named in
the act besides had the canals been put up
at an auction sale to the highest bidder, it
would have led to combination among capi-
taliSts and companies for their purchase at a
lower price than the one named in the bill ;
or the valuable and paying portions would
| have been sold and the worthless and unpay
ing parts remained in the hands of the State,
thereby continuing the expense Of the Canal
board and other officers. | know of no bet
/ ter rule to govern business transactions than
.
fair offer is made you, to accept it. Had
other parties than the Sunbury and Erie Rail
road Company desired to purchase, why did
they not come forward and make their offers,
/ if any was willing to pay more none aoaS
mule, and therefore the Legislature were Of
necessity compelled to sell on the terms offer
ed. or postpone the sale until other parties
should offer to buy.
/ The Importance of the completion Of the
/ Sunbury and Erie Railroad to the State. in a
financial point of view, is very clearly set forth
! by the following extract from the report Of
/ the Committee of Ways and Means of the
! House of Representatives, to which was re-.
! ferred the bill for the sale of the canals the
/ facts set forth by this Committee derive force
and consequence from the fact of their init
mate knowledge and careful consideration of
! the whole question, besides, eight of the nine
members composing that committee signed the
report a significant and unusual unauimity
in so large a committee on 50 important u
measure. The committee say -
"The undeveloped and neglected wealth Of
more than fourteen thousand square miles of
our territory, awaits in the silence almost of
an Arabian desert, highway to the markets
of the world. Between the Pennsylvania
Railroad and the New York State line taking
Ridgway as the centre, there is an area at
least equal to 100 miles square, within which
not one mile of railroad has been laid and a
very large proportion of this immense region
/ is underlaid with butuminouS coal and iron ore,
its surface covered with vast forests of valuable
! timoer, and the soil when cleared, susceptible
of high degree of cultivation.
! Here then is presented an area of 9,2lG,
! 600 acres comprising abont one third of the
entire State, and abounding in wealth beyond
computation, to be improved and developed by
the Sunbury and Erie r lilroad and its tribu-
tarics.
"By the last report of the Re Ienuc Com
mSSOnerS, the assessed value of all the real
estate in the Commonwealth, taxable for state
purposes is $48s. 275,OOO.
! About $30000,0 900 of that amount is
charged to the 9,2l6,00O Of acres above men
toned, of which the average assessed value
is about three dollars and thirty three one
hundredths per acre.
1.-THE section Of country in the State Of New
! York, through which the New York and Erie
railroad passes, may be referred to as an H.
! luStratiOn of the effect of such improvem ents
on the value Of adjacent lands. Before that
road was constructed the price of wild lands in
the Southern part of that State did not eX-
| ceed three dollars per acre. On its completion
and almost Immediately after the first train Of
ears had passed over it, the minimum price
at which the same lands were sold, for wide
range on either side Of the road, was ten dol
lars per acre and they continue to incre ase
in value as the country fills up with new set
tiers. In various parts of our own State the
prices of mineral and timber lands have been
increased, through similar agencies, in much
greater ratio.
Instance the coal lands of SchuylkilI, Car
bon, Northumberland and Luzerne counties,
and the timber, and coal lands Clinton county
which five years ago were sold for one dollar,
and within the past year have been sold for
ten dollars and upwards per acre, in anticipa-
ton of the construction Of the Sunbury and
Erie railroad. 1t may fairly be assumed, that
within few years after that road shall have
been finished to the harbOr of Erie, the mineral
lands which now average in the State assess
ment but three dollars and thirty-three hun
| dreths per acre. will average at least ten times
that sum Allowing one-thrd only of the 0,
zig, 600 acres above mentioned, to consist of
mineral lands, the result will be that 3,072,-
600 will be worth on an average $33 per acre
or $Ill,376, 900
| The remaining 6, t4 900, increasing
| in no greater ratio than the New
/ York lands, will be worth ten dol
lars per acre, or S6l,ilOOOU
! I72 $50 ,OOO
Deduct the present assessed value,
! as above stated, 3O,O0OOOO
| And the net gain in The assessed
| value will be las ,O0U
Which, at the present rate Of taxa
| ton for State purposes, would
| give an increased annual revenue
to the Commonwealth of S351 ,pOC
F" This is by no means an improbable or ex,
travagant estimate. 1t covers an extent oI
country larger than the State of Massachusetts