The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1881-03-04

1t is not our desire to find fault with
any one, nor 20 cast blame upon any
private or public individual, but our plain
duty as journalists requires us to look af-
ter the interests of the tax payers of the
county, and in the performance of that
duty we again ask the County Treasurer
to give to the public an explanation of that
tax sale transaction with the Commits
sioners. Our questions of two weeks ago
have not been answered, though we have
been told that the whole matter will be
fully explained at the proper time. When
is the proper time if not now2 Ii the
thing was all right and done to protect
the interests of the county why delay
longer in satisfying the people of the
fact? To hesitate, is to throw suspicion
on the officers, and it is duty that they
owe themselves, to cast off suspicion by
making n full statement of the case.
We do not believe that there was u
dishonest intention on the part of any OF
the officers, but we do believe from our
present knowledge of the facts, that q
mistake has been made somewhere. and
that the county treasury has paid out
much larger sum of money than it
ought to have paid, for real estate.
Though the county is said to have pur
chased more than one hundred tracts of
land at Treasurers sale, there is no rec
ord on the books,of any such transaction.
The law clearly points out the duty OF
the Commissioners in such cases as fol-
lows:
'If any tract of unseated land. hereaf-
ter to be sold for taxes, due Mt this time,
vi winch shall hereafter be imposed, shall
not have hidden for it a sum equal to
the whole amount of taxes for which it
shall have been advertised, and the costs
accrued, then in that case, it shall be the
duty of the Commissioners of the proper
county, or any of them, to bid off the
same,and deed shall thereupon be made
by the Treasurer to the Commissioners
for the time being, and to theirsuccess-
ors in Office, to and for the use of the
proper county and it shall be the duty
of the Commissioners to provide n book,
wherein shall be entered the name of the
person as whose estate the same shall
have been sold, the quantity of land, and
the amount of taxes it was sold for, and
every such tract Of land shall not there
after, so long as the same shall remain
the property of the county be charged in
the duplicate of the proper collector; but
for five years next following such sale,
if it shall solong remain unredeemed,t the
Commissioners shall, in separate columns
in the same book, charge every spch tract
of land with reasonable county and road
tax, according to the quality of the said
land, not exceeding in any case the sum
of six dollars for every hundred acres.
BY an act of March l3 1877 it is made
discretionary with the Commissioners,
what lands they will purchase in, for the
use of the county. Did the Commission
ners exercise wise discretion in the
wholesale purchase of all the tracts ad-
vertised that We're not bought by any
body else? If so, they performed their
duty. If not,they are answerable to the
people whose servants they are.
We ask, again, how is the amount OF
1892, the sum paid the treasurer for
each deed, made up? The law gives
him $2.62 as his fees in ordinary cases,
and one dollar for entering the acknowl-
edgment of the deed, but we do not I'M
derstand the law to mean that the comfy
shall pay one dollar on each tract for the
entering of deeds maze to itself If we
are correct, the Treasurer has received at
least $l06 more than he was entitled to-
If we are wrong we should like to know
under what law that extra dollar was
paid. If it is all right, there is no diff
ticulty in explaining it. If there is any
thing wrong, the officers interested
shOul1 Drocapd ot Oupa fo rorrect tho on,
rorand not wait until they are forced in
TO it by an appeal from the settlement of
the county auditors.