The weekly Butte record., 1863-02-07
eP4e-le44 4e51sllIel


as martyr TO the venality, corruption and
bribery Of that party. In 1859 Law was
passed, authorizing the Supervisors of or
county to levy a special tax of not over %
cents on the sl00 worth of all the property Of
the county for contingent purposes, with the
distinct understanding that the fund so created
should in DO wise Be used for any fees or sal
ares Of officers OF Butte county" but that it
should be sacred fund, applicable to all coun-
ty expenses liable to be paid in cash. This
law remained intact until May, 1861, when
the salary law was passed and clause insert
ed in it authorizing the Supervisors TO transfer,
quarterly, any surplus funds in the contingent
to the salary fund, to pay the officers of Butte
county, thus violating the spirit and intention
Of the parties creating the original contingent
fund for cash expenses Of the county. The
people all acqaiesced in the necessity Of the
original contingent fund law, and, with the
prohibitory clause, deemed il safe for the pur-
poses intended. There never has been a yearly
surplus in the contingent. fund as originally
created, and the provision of the salary law Of
1861, to transfer quarterly, was catch to d.
vert, at the end of the heavy tax paying quar-
ter, the surplus that might be on hand at that
particular period, and leave the fund in the
lurch for the balance of the year.
In March, 1862, the first section of the law
Of 1859 was amended 50 as to reduce the tax
for contingent fund to 10 cents on the 800
worth Of taxable property in the county, and
in no way interfering with section of the old
act, which prohibited the application of said
fund to the salaries of county officers At the
present session of the Purity Legislature, by
some arrangement or hocus pocus unknown to
our people or the Board of Supervisors, Sena-
tor Gaskill introduced and procured to be
passed, an act appropriating absolutely three
ffths Of the contingent fund to the salary fund,
thus reducing the cash expense fund so low
that it will not much more than pay for the
fuel for the Court House for the year. Now,
as our offices are pretty much filed by Purity
party men, and as the entire delegation in the
Legislature are of that party, has there not
been underground logrolling among them, to
divert this fund to ilegtimate and selfish pur-
poses? 1t certainly was the invention of those
who have the salaried Offices, and the fact
should be ventilated among our tax payers.
The contingent tax of fifteen cents on the
one hundred dollars, under the law of 1862,
take it altogether, the Supervisors estimate,
will not be sufficient for the current cash ex-
penses of the county during the year, especially
as everything is at higher rate than hereto
fore, and the stationery expense will be nearly
double. Why were not the Supervisors of the
county not consulted on this matter?
There is another law before the Legislature,
introduced by our Purity delegation, increasing
the pay of constabes in criminal cases TO an
extent greater than under the old law of years
ago, and these constables are all, or nearly so,
Purity party officers, who instigated this law,
to increase taxation upon our people in these
trying times, when the Purity howlers are all
calling upon them to sacrifice everything to
patriotism and at the same time these very
Purity and Reform advocates are moving in
every direction to accumulate the funds of the
people and increase taxation for their Own
aggrandizement and selfish purposes. The
swamp land fund they appropriate to them
selves as legislators, and they transfer every
thing on the outside to the pockets of Purity
officers. Retrenchment and reform were never
so badly needed as under present rule