New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-04-26

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sources fos psynent;; nnet & vtich voFlk
would be Of do1btfuT expedisncy ~ any
time or lHder any 6ircunlS&anae. Il pro-
vides for the payment of the work 1t =
price four times ~ high - the same kind of
work cost the drainage commissioners;
three times as high az the estimate of the
City Surveyor, and nearly twice the price
at which parties Of the highest credit and
responsibility have voluntarily proposed to
do the work.
Permit me to urge the Council carefully
their action thereon. By persisting in this
measure you will voluntarily give away
more than a million Of dollars to a COM
pany which, although it has q nominal CAPT
tai of four million dollars, has not dime
Of stock paid in, and whose financial and
mechanical ability to do the work las been
derived exclusively from previous grant
from the State.cfor myself, having but
few days ago publicly and with alacrity
given notice, by. order Of the Council, to
that company that we did not consider the
city obliged to give them one dollar yard
for the work if we could get it done for less,
l feel extreme reluctance to say to them
now, publicly and officially: 1--WE
concede the work to you at dollar
a yard in preference to other parties more
responsible than yourselves, who offer to do
it for sixty cents yard Tho logical
inference to. be drawn from such a course
would be, either that our first proceeding
was an attempt to blackpail the company,
in which the public would naturally con-
clude we had been successful, or that our
second action had been taken, not freely
and voluntarily, but under some kind of
Now, as to the drainage fund. That part
drainage commissioners and processes to
turn over the drainage funds to the city
and the company to pay for the work, is a
delusiOn and a snare, as a glance at the
origin ands history Of this drainage fund
will conclusively show. BY the ninth Sec
ton of the TACT to provide for the drainage
of New Orleans" now Ander discussion,
the Board of Administrator of the city of
New Orleans is subrogated to all the rights,
powers and privileges of the commissioners
Of the several drainage districts, and is
directed to collect from the owners of prop
erty within said districts the balance due
on the assessments made under the act of
the eighteenth of March, 1853, and the
seventeenth of March, 1859; and all the
money thus collected, as weV as that which
may be received from the different boards
of drainage commissioners, it is enacted,
shall be placed to the credit of the Missis-
sippi and Mexican Gulf Ship Canal Com
pany. and held as fund to be applied to
the drainage of New Orleans and CarrQ)lton.
The question consequently presents itself,
what is the character of the fund and claim.
which is thus to be put to tue credit Of this
company! By reference to the act of 1858
we find that the whole city of New Orleans
and the lower portion of the parish of JEFF
ferson one the left bank Of the Mississippi
river, were divided into three distinct drain
age districts, for the purpose of draining the
city and retaining the waste lands within
their respective limits. The system of
drainage established by this law was to be
carried on by three boards of draining com.
missioners, to be appointed by the Mayor Of
the city Of New Orleans, by the Council Of
the City of Jefferson, by the Police Jury of
the parish Of Jefferson, and By the Council
of the town of Carrollton. To provide for the
payment of the work to be done, the COM
missioners are directed to prepare plan of
the land within their respective. districts,
and to ascertain the probable cost Of
said work. This plan and estimate are to
be fled in the district courts, and after due
notice to the parties interested the courts
are directed to enter a decree or judgment
subjecting the land to first mortgage, lien
and privilege in favor Of the commissioners
tor SUCH amount as may be assessed upon
such property for its proportion Of the costs
of draining each section.
All this has been done. A solemn
judgment has been entered against
the property and its owners for the
amount required to pay for the drainage
and improvement according to the plan and
estimates on which the judgment is based
under the act of 1858 1t becomes, there
fore, almost too clear to admit of contro.
versy that the funds thus assessed and
levied cannot be diverted from the
destination given to them by the law
as we'll as by the judgment of the
court. The money is assessed for the
sole purpose of defraying the expense
to be incurred for the benefit Of the prop
erty of those by whom'it has been paid.
Nothing is left uncertain. The nature and
extent Of the work to be performed, and the
probable cost of that work, is judicially de-
termined; and it is for this purpose and for
no other that the assessment is made. A
considerable part of the work has been done
with the money levied by these assessments.
1t is evident, therefore, that the owners of
the land assessed have a vested right to in
sist that the money which they have paid
shall be applied in conformity with the law
of 1858, and the judgment Of the court rem
dered in pursuance of that law. To divert
the fund from this object and to apply it to
the payment for the excavation Of canals
and the building Of levees under contract
between the State and the Mississippi and
Mexican Gulf Ship Canal Company, will be
u