The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1861-02-21

1880. 000,) and the aggregate of all such
payments to the sum of thirteen millions
five hundred and seventy thousand dol
lars, (sl3.570,000.) and shall agree to
ray on the said thirty first day of July,
eighteen huudred ana ninety. into the
treasury the balance then unpaid Of the
principal and interest Of said bonds, and
shall further agree to reduce its local
charges for the transportation OF grain,
-four, cattle, iron, minerals and ether
property, as hereinafter provided and if
the said company shall in the manner
azores i'd, on or before the first day of Ju-
" next. make and enter iuto with the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania a writ
ten contract to that effect, and shall on
or before said day deliver the same to
the Commonwealth, BY deposlting the
same in the Office CT the Auditor Gene
raj, then aud in sucl case and in consld.
Grafton thereof, the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania shall not at any time here
after lay, impose. levy, or collect any tax
or duty upon, ar IN respect to freight or
tonnage passing over the said Pennsly-
vania railroad or the Harrisburg, Ports
mouth, Mount Joy and Lancaster rail-
ROAD, or any part of them, either of them
unless a like tax shall at the same time
be imposed, laid or levied upon all other
railroads or railroad companies of this
Commonwealth and all laws imposing
taxes or duties upon freight or tonnage
upon the railroads, canals or slackwater
navigation companies, for the use of the
Commonwealth, be and they are hereby
repealed, and no further Or other pro-
ceedin@s shall be had or taken on the
part Of the Commonwealth to enforce the
collection Of any tax or duty, or obliga-
tion given therefor, or judgement recov-
cred, or obtained in pursuance Of any
existing laws on tonnage carried or con-
veyed on the railroad of said Pennsylva-
pia railroad company, or on that of any
other company incorporated By this State,
and the said companies shall be, by the
proper officers of IT, Commonwealth. ex-
onerated, released and relieved from eve
ny lien and liability to the State on &C
count thereof"
Under the present laws the Penna
Central pays one hundred thousand dol
lars a year on her bonds and about three
hundred thousand a year is due for ton
mage. So it will be seen, that the effect
of the repeal bill will be to increase our
present revenues. 1t is true the tonnage
tax in twenty years, will doubtless be
greater than this substitute. But ia
twenty years the revenues of the State
will be large enough to dispense with all
extra and onerous taxation.
Under the proposed bill the Penna
Central will pay into the Treasury Of the
State over haTa mutton ann~qHy. We
think it is decidedly To the interest Of
the whole people that it should rass-at
the same time the State tax should be
reduced another mill.
La relation to the Sunbury and Erie
relief bill we are not so clear. But our
present impression Is, that the State
would lose nothing by its passage and
as the road is of vast Importance to a
large section of the State, it ought to
pass if the interests of the Common
wealth as a whole would not suffer b.
It.
Since the above was written we find
the following dispatch i'll the daily papers
Of Saturday:
HARRISBURG, Feb. Is, 1S61.-Tbe
bill to commute the tunnage tax of the
Pennsylvania Railroad, passed the House
this morning by a vote OF 70 to p.
The Sunbury & Erie (now Philadcl-.
phia & Erie) Railroad Bill passed the
same day by a vote of 70 to %