The Shasta courier., 1862-12-13
County Affairs.

attention of our citizens to certain matters
barring relations stosthe fashion and style in
which the county business is being carried
on We hope that enough has been said to
put the people on inquiry in relation to this
thing, and that the agit ton Of the subject
will not cease until every abuse shall be cor
rected. In doing what we have done, we
wish to disayow any intention Of rejecting
on the integrity of the present or any former
Board of Supervisors. If this tribunal, now,
or in the past time. has been composed of
dishonest material, we are not aware Of it,
and the people do not suspect the existence
of such a fact. The furthest that any objec-
ton to their action could go, would be to say
that they had been too yielding and gr .cious
to gentlemen having axes to grind. That
errors, arising from this cause have been
committed, there is no doubt
Abuses long continued, become after a
while, to be the rule and administering the
law strictly constitutes an exception. There
is one other time honored abuse in connex-
ion with allowances made by auditing
boards of the county, to which we invite at
tention. in the published reports of the
proceedings of the Supervisors, the reader
of this paper has observed that accounts are
allowed for fuel, candles, etc., for the use of
the various county officials. This has been
considered legmate charge against the
county from the first. Yet the Board has
no more right to allow such claims than it
has to allow claim for current personal ex-
penses of one of these officers. We knew,
in early days, a county Judgeof another
county who, when acting as as an auditorial
officer of the Court of Sessions used to allow
claims for fire wood, lamp oil, and candles,
but as he could not find any law for it, he
contrived, by process of logic not necessa-
ry to repeat, these articles to be :" stationa-
rv." for which the law did authorize allow
ances to be made Now this is small item,
as far as the amount is concerned, but any
sort of an amount is large one if charged
against a county as much embarrassed as
this one One other thing. If any gentle
man of the Board of Supervisors will trouble
himself to look over the proceedings had at
the meetings of the Board in the past time,
he will discover a number, we don't say
how ma V, of allowances which have been
made that were totally and absolutely unau-
thorized by law. the scrip therefore not
worth its face in Confederate bonds in the
hands of the original holder, if the county
would contest its payment.
The Board of Supervisors cannot create
charge against the county. The law c:e-
ates the charge, and the Board merely di-
rects it to be paid. If the charge is not a
lawful one. the Board cannot make it law.
full by allowing it. Perhaps it would be not
worth while to resist the payment of any OF
| these drafts on the comfy treasury, mas
much as the warrents have, no doubt in most
instances, changed hands, but there is a
remedy Many of these persons are contin-
ually bringing in claims against the county
which ought perhaps to be allowed. If by
| investigation the Board could satisfy itself
that some of these persons have heretofore
received scrip which they were not entitled
to receive the Board can offsett the amount
of the Illegal scrip heretofore issued, against
the amount of the present demand, or it can
bring suit, on sffcial bonds, to recover back
money that ought not to have been paid out.
Either way will do, and one way or the 9TH
should be adopted.
So much for correcting the blunders of the
past. Regarding the future, the Board can
protect ITSELF But there remains some leg
ISL; ton needful If we did not believe that
this subject had already attracted the atten.
ton of Senate; Shurtletf and Assemblyman
Chappel. and that they will do everything
possible to remedy the existing evil, we
should feel it duty to more specially call
their attention to these matters. Let the
axe be laid at the root of the tree, and let a
reform be thorough and complete.