Northern tribune. [volume] (Cheboygan, Mich.) 1875-1885, 1876-01-22

go Lecping and recording tho same, tile
extensive correspondence necessarily arts
;no ont of so much diversified business,
are all things involving vast amount Of
labor; but they cannot be particularly
mentioned i'm newspaper article. \
=, AUDITOR GENERALS OFFfeE.r-
q OF allthe state Departments itheresare
none with duties so v,rie and compiled
ted as this. 1t is really the accountant o.;
all The other departments and of the vari-
Gus state Institutions. At its head is
Cen Ralph Fly of Alma, Gratiot county.
Hubert K Pratt of Flint, Genesee coun-
ty, is his deputy. At present there are
fOrty-six clerks i'm the office. ~
The larger part of this force is employ
ed on the delinquent tax returns, records,
and payments, which require an enor-
nous amount of labor during tile year.
In the month of March, the county treas
urers make their returns of all delin-
qnent taxes to this office. They are not
always in. the best shape, and are first ar
ranged and copied into books, one for
each county After being copied, the va
rious amounts of taxes are extended and
proved, and each description is carefully
examined as toits legality. The Illegal
descriptions are rejected, and lists of them
made out and forwarded to the different
county treasurers. After the tax-books
are complete, the work of receiving tax
es commemorative greater portion of
the extensive landowners paying their
taxes at this office, prefering to submit to
the additional charges for the sake of
greater accuracy in their receipts, rather
than pay to the township treasurers
AS soon as practicable after the first of
July, lists of the lands remaining unpaid
are prepared for advertising. The lists
are all made at this Office, interest and
dharges on each description being com
puted separately, and the lisIs are then
sent to the various newspapers which
have been designated for publishing
them. After publication every descrip-
ton is carefully examined in the office
for printers errors, which are often
found in such abundance that there IS
weeping and crashing of teeth i'm the
proOf-rOom where these lists have been
read. A mistake in a single heading
often takes many dollars out of the care-
less publisher. The total number of de-
scriptions advertised in 1875 was 81, 93l.
of which 455 were erroneous.
After these lands are sold, the county
treasurer. makes Il return to this office,
which is carefully examined and tran
scribed into permanent books. When
the county treasurer makes his return OF
sales he makes at the same time his an
1 nual settlement with the sttte, paying
into the state treasury the amount OF the
sales, and receiving from the state any
amounts that may be found due to his
county, under section l06 of the tax law:
or in case the balance be or is in favor OF
the state, paying tho amount so found
due into the state treasury, provided he
has funds for that purpose.
After the returns of sales are tran.
scrlbed, the redemption and sale of state.
tax lands goes OH tor one year; then the
lands which are not redeemed are decided
by the state to the purchaser. If the
lands are redeemed, the purchaser is en-.
titled to the redemption money and th,
interest theret at % per cent.
In addition TO his duties i'm connection
with delinquent taxes, the Auditor Gen
eral Is required TO examine, decide on
and liquidate the claims of all person:
against the state in cases provided by
law, and give his warrant therefor also
to examine and settle the claims OF al
persons indebted TO the state. The law
further provides that no money shall be
paid out OF the state treasury except OIL
the warrant OF tie Auditor General. and
all receipts tor money paid to the State
Treasurer are brought to this office to be
countersigned. BY this means lie is en-
abled TO keep the account between the
state aud the treasurer, charging him
with all moneys received and giving him
credit for all moneys disbursed. The
c,ish books in this .iice are BALANCED
every night, and the amount of money
that should be in tile State Treasurer
hands is clearly shown thereon. Durin:
the last fiscal year, ending Sept. 30, 1873
the State Treasurer was charged WITH
Balance on hln 81 07h
s i5a 1922 3 g
Credited with warrants paid......-... 2.ofo,"97
Balance on han'l at close of Year, S., %, Ic6 3
To cover the above amounts. over Ii,
800 receipts were cOuntersigned and ell
tered on the books, and to cover the dis
bursements, over 1000 accounts were eX
amined and entered
Under act us of 1873, this department
is charged with the duty of keeping &C
counts with the various edu .ational. char
liable, penal, refOrmatOry, or other insti
buttons of the state, the officers i'm charge
thereof being required to furnish The
Auditor General with the proper vouch-
ers and accounts necessary for the pur
pose. This is work of much magni
tude, and it is believed to have been pro
ductive of great good In leading to ;
more careful and accurate manner o
keeping accounts in some of the iastitul
tiOns thus subjected to supervision.
The Auditor General also has the wOrl
of apportioning the state taxes to the va
riOus counties in September of each year
and sending out notices thereof. The II
counties each require ten separate ant
exact computations, many of them de
handing hundreds of figures. %
The correspondence OF this Office is inn
mense. During the year just passed Is.
24S letters We're received. Each one O
these is entered on the record book, Will
a memorandum of contents, and charged
to the clerk to whom it is referred for at
tentiOn. All these letters have to be an
swered, many of them requiring the so
luton of knOtty questions, which Otter
take up days OF inquiry. All these an
swers are copied into letter book, ant
the letters received are bound in volume
of suitable size, and become part or tn
records of the office.
1t is made the duty of the AuditO
General to collect all specific taxes from
corporations, with the exception of in
Esurance, express, and telegraph compa
MES organized outside the state. In cas-
of failure to report the proper items OF
which to base the tax. he is empowere,
to assess the same by estimate and il
case of delinquency, TO enforce paymen
by peremptory process, the state havin;
a first lien on al property belonging tt
these corporations. iessl
The amounts of money covered BY th