The Sunday tatler and Jersey City express. (Jersey City, N.J.) 1883-1886, 1885-05-10
YALUING THE CENTRAL.
FEATURES oF1RE TESTIMONY IN THE
CER97ORAhI CASES.
The Great Fight Against the New Fax
Laws-The Methods Pursued by the
Experts In AscerfaiuImg Values.

The Great Fight Against the New Fax
Laws-The Methods Pursued by the
Experts In Ascertainfng Values.
Mr.. E. W. Harrison, on Friday last, fin
ished his direct testimony on the valua-
ton of the property of the Central Rail
road of New Jersey in Hudson county, and
now that he has done SO, resume of the
methods of himself and his partner-Mr
w. w. q. Sltes-may not be uninterest-
ing to the readers of The TATTLER. Mr..
Harrison first touched upon the value of
the main stem, and gave the methods used
by his firm in establishing their estimates
These methods were generally to base es-
Inmates upon the value of the ground COW
cred by the Railroad on deeds transferring
adjoining tracts of land. In giving the
testimony, he cited the deeds to which he
had referred. Some of these deeds were
made by the Central Railroad Company
itself to purchasers, and many of the
transfers were those made to the Ma
tional Storage Company. The figures
taken from these deeds show that
at varying points along their line in and
near Bayonne-the examination has been
confined, SO far, entirely to the stretch of
the Road lying in Hudson county-showing
that the Central held its property at fixed
values per lot. and made all their transfers
on the basis of these values. In Bayonne
he also consulted Messrs. Mitchell and
Murphy, who deal considerably in Bayonne
real estate, and he takes the Judgment
as to the values of the tracts Just
beyond Communipaw from Lewis E.
Wood and others. His testimony shows
that no pains were spared, by the experts
IN making the valuations, and all available
sources of information resorted to. Mr..
Harrison also went thoroughly into the
question of tracks. In this connection he
explained that the life of steel rail on
any well managed road for use in the two
main running tracks was ten or twelve
years. They are then placed in the main
sidings, where they are also used for
number of years, when they are placed in
the less used sidfngs. He also said that
there are some rails at Elizabethport that
have been there ever since the time when the
old Elizabethport and Somerville Railroad
was in existence, while the Err o has some
side rails which have been in use ever
since that road has made its terminus in
Jersey City. He also went very infinitely
into every detail connected with railroad,
including ties, spikes, bolts, fsh-plates.
washers, chairs, stone and gravel ballast;
the buildings in the main stem and outside
the main stem, bridges, piers, &c. Chan
cellor Williamson and Mr.. De Forrest will
tomorrow begin the cross-examination of
Mr.. Harrison, providing Judge Hoffman
does not get instructions to continue with
Mr.. Harrison in the estimations In other
counties of the State Mr.. Harrison gave
the TATTLER some interesting information
apart from his testimony yesterday. He
said that the bridge over Raritan Bay on
the New York and Long Branch Railroad
was the longest draw bridge in the world.
It had span of 200 feet When the
bridge was built the Pennsylvania Railroad
is SAID to have passed bill through the
Legislature providing that the draw should
be 200 feet in length, and this provision
was for the purpose of preventing the
Long Branch Road people from building
the bridge. The Pennsylvania people
opened their eyes indeed when they
learned that their little blockade bill had
not proved an obstacle in the way of
building the bridge, and that structure
was an accomplished fact.