, 1877-12-29
Special Correspondencs.

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Special Correspondence.
olympia, ". T., pee, "a, 1877
To rfE..EDiTOE OF TnE DISPATCH:
/ My last, written soon after the
organization of the late Irerrito-
rial Legislature, set forth the
high hopes entertained by the
public mind that it would prove
itself to be the ablest body ever
gath cred together in this capitol.
But alas! no man can tell in asE
vance what a day or a legislas
ture may bring forth. Now that
the session has ended andsfhe
advance sheets of the new stat.
utes begin to fall like autamnal
leaves from the press of the.pub-
lie printer, | hear about me a
| dirge Of comment as biting and
unenarita bic as the wintry wind.
/ OF these laws, the act "topro=
vide for the assessing and col
lecting of county and territorial
revenue seems to have attract
ed the most attention, and natur-
ally enough, perhaps, for, not
only issits subject matter the one
which directly concerns the most
people, but in addition, it's get
up is OF that peculiar character
which delights the critical mind
and invites scandal.
AS chapter VI Of this act pro-
] vides d mode of procuring tax
! titles, novel at least to our Ter
ritory, a brief notice Of It's promi-
nent features may be of interest
/ to your readers.
Before referring to. this law
more particularly, however, |
| will state there seems to be some
| difference Of opinion in official
circles as to whether the Secre-
tary of the Territory should
hand the laws over to the prin-
ter for publication, just IS they
come into his hands, or whether,
! in cases where the originals are
lso repiete with errors and blum
ders OF a clerical nature as to
make chem nonsensical and alb
surd he should make such cor
rections as will give them their
true meaning. Upon this POINT
| it will be sufficient to observe,
that while the Secretary has
been unexceptionably modest
and cautious in his corrections,
he has failed, as will hereafter be
lshown, even in the matter OF
suggesting numbers for the Sec
tons, to give the law any clearer
meaning than it had before
lnterllned, scratched, plastered,
marred, ili-written, misspelled,
Eunpunctuated and incomprehen-
sible laws are but the legitimate
fruits of hasty legislation; and
discreditab BILE in these respects as
the forthcoming statute promises
ito be, itAis questionable whether
its appearance is worse than that
of many of its predecessors
would have been had they gone
to the press just as they came
from the law making power. 1t
is notorious that the real legisla
ton Of the short session is al
ways, for omnibus purpose, de-
layed up to the last few days,
and that as a rule the most i'm
portant bills, if passed at all
must so through without being
either engrossed, enrolled, or
critically examined by the COM
mittees Of the two houses or the
governor; andlf the publication
Of q volume like the one before
me should have the effect of i'm
pressing upon future Assemblies
the fact that they, and not the
secretary printer, will be held
responsible for the form as well
as the matter of the laws which
they enact, it will prove the
most valuable volume that has
yet issued from our public press.
Of this revenue law, the ope-
ing Section of Chapter vi
which provides the new proceed
ing for obtaining tax titles is as
follows: