Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1864-08-06
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS RE-
PORT

We publish to-day, the long looked for
Report of the County Commissioners. II
is a formidable document, and one Of alb
sorbing and uncomfortable interest to all
taxpayers. We have neither the time nor
the inclination to wade through the fearful
array of figures which tell the people
where the money goes" but those un-
fortunate citizens to whom friend Easter
ling is a terrible and unwelcome visitor,
can do so for their own satisfaction = or
dissatisfaction, as the case may be. We
have not given sufficient attention to the
financial affairs of the county to enable US
to discourse learnedly upon the subject,
and shall leave that unpleasant argument
to the committee appointed to investigate
matters, and the Commissioners them
selves. The Commissioners, in their re-
port, give the reasons which actuated them
in the course pursued in the matter of the
sale of the heavy amounts of county scrip,
of which so much was said in the recent
Report of the Grand Jury. They also
give the Grand Jury side-winder "
upon the disastrous effect which their re-
port had upon the County warrants, re-
ducing them from seventy-fye cents to
twenty-five cents on the dollar. The
County Hospital appears to have been the
heaviest drain upon the cash fund Of the
county, and it appears from the statement
of the Commissioners, that Storey county
has been saddled with the support of vast
numbers of patients from other counties,
and from California, not justly EMIT ID to
the charity of the taxpayers Of this coun-
". Court Rooms, and rooms for county
officers have been another heavy item, but
the most stupendous and outrageous
swindle upon the people is the item Of
Jurors Fees, which amounts in the ag-
gregate to nearly tkirty three thousand
dollars. Those warrants were issued on
the certificate of the Clerk of the District
Court, and this the Commissioners say,
"is priuaG faeia evidence Of the County's
Indebtedness to Jurors" It may be
"prinsa tacia" evidence, but it would GER
tainly seem that the amount Of those fees
was also prima taeia evidence ofrobbery,
and that the Commissioners should, I'M
der the circumstances, have demanded
conclusive evidence of that Indebtedness.
The report of the Grand Jury upon that
point and the statements Of gentlemen
who have probed the matter satisfy US
that not ten per cent. Of that sum was
ever received by the Jurors themselves,
and that not 1.-THE of the jury service
which would have amounted to that sum
was ever performed.
The grand total into which this Report
resolves itself, and which is calculated TO
make each particular hair on the head of
each particular taxpayer stand like the
quilts on the "fretful porkentine" is the
statement of the county's present indebt-
edness. one HUNDRED AND SEVENTY
POUR THOUSAND and some odd dollars I!
" But" says the Report, sit should be
borne in mind that ours IS new coun-
.ty." Just so. We bear that strictly in
mind, but admitting that knoek-down
argument-where has the money gone,
and what have we got to show therefor
Has this enormous amount besides all
that has been collected, been necessarily
expended and in jsdieiOns manner:
That's the grand question which each
mans mind propounds to ITSELF and the
community in a mass PROFOUND to the
Commissioners. ave started" says the |
report, without a dollar" The footing |
up of that report shows that we have
held our own amazingly, and are likely |
to do so to the end of time-in fact a
little more so. The Report is before the
citizens let them read and digest the
same, and we have no doubt that all will
concur in the words Of Scripture, that
% Blessed be he who has no property for
he shall fear not the tax-gatherer.