The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1889-01-10
THE STATE CAPITOL.
NJ alters Picked Up in Our Tour OF
the Departments.
Important and Interesting Infor-
nation for County Officials
and the People.
From Tneeday's Daily ]

die, L. LeBona, William Hansser, John U.
BAYLOR, A. E. Frelettiere, E. d. Cooper, A.
@. Washington, F. V. Blesse, r. Musguiz,
and William Hollis.
Bastrop and Lee County Farmers ALI
ance. Capital stock, $4,000 Incorpora-
tors: W. o. Rodgers, Il. I. Wineburger,
and W. T. Hunt.
The National Teachers Union of Ange-
lima county. Incorporators: John Thos.
Bowman, John Bruton, and Steve Storks.
coMpTRoLLER's DEPARTMENT.
Comptroller Mccall yesterday deposited
in the treasury about $4,000 to the school
fund and $4,000 to revenue.
The comptroller, in his report referring
to lands sold for taxes and bought in by
the state, says:
The act to provide for the sale of all
real estate bid off to the state by collectors
of taxes, at tax sales, the owners of which
have not redeemed the same, approved
April Z, 1879, as amended by act of Feb
ruary 5, 1884, requires the comptroller, on
or before the first day of January of each
year, to make out and forward TO the tax
collector of each county full and COM
plete list of all real estate that has been
sold to the state for taxes since December
81, 1876 the owners of which have failed
to redeem the same within two years from
date of said sales.
I have encountered the same difficulties
in endeavoring to comply with this law as
did my predecessors; lists were prepared
and sent to the collectors of many coun-
ties. 1t soon became apparent that the
sales of these lands would cast clouds
upon titles, which would require years of
litigation to remove. This being the case,
1 instructed the collectors to make no
sales of lands embraced in said lists, but
where parties came in to redeem, and the
sale found correct, to permit the parties
to redeem, as contemplated in section 3,
as amended by act of February s. 1884;
and where sales were found to be erroneuos
to cancel all such and notify this office,
stating reasons why cancellation was
made.
Lands which have been reported as sold
to the state for taxes have been shown to
have been paid on for the years for which
sales were made by presentation to this
Office of the collectors receipt, showing
payment of taxes for said year, in which
cases the sale was Cancelled and the col
lector charged with the amount.
The greater bulk of these sales are erro-
neous, owing to the fact that the owners,
from a want of knowledge, rendered their
lands in the name of the wrong grantee;
and paid their taxes in good faith. The
lands owned by them were placed upon
the unredeemed rolls with proper descrip-
ton, as shown by the abstract or land
titles, and sold for taxes, and the owner
holding the receipt describing the land as
rendered by hun slept on in peace, but
ignorance, of the cloud upon his title,
until rudely awakened to the fact that he
had rendered and paid upon grant that
did not exist
The tax laws of late years being so full
and explicit, and now so clearly under
stood by land owners and their agents,
and with the help of the assessors, who
are provided with the abstract of patented
lands, but little trouble in this direction is
in the future anticipated. The require
ments of the present tax laws are now
understood and are being strictly COM
piled with, lands are being properly rem
dered and the irregularities that have &C.
Cured in former tax sales will probably
occur no more, while the eagerness with
which individual purchasers seek to OBJ
tain claim to lands by virtue of tax titles,
and the meagreness of the more recent
sales to the state, are evidences of future
improvement in realizing more promptly
the taxes on realty.
The attention of your excellency is es-
pecially directed to this matter.
This is work that, to be understood
both as to its difficulties and magnitude,
must be examined in detail, as shown by
the records on file in this Office. If the
legislature should see proper to appoint
committee for this purpose, feel sure
they could devise some remedy that would
be Just to the state, and, at the same time,
relieve the citizen who had tried in good
faith to pay his taxes, of the great injury
that would be inflicted if the state should
sell these lands
DEFICIENCIES IN APPROPRIATIONS.
He says: II call the attention your
excellency to the amount of registered
deficiency claims against the state, to be
provided for by the Twenty first legisla-
| ture. proper regard for the honor and
good faith of the state will no doubt insure
an early appropriation to cover this char
acter of claims now due the officers of the
state. Insufficiency in appropriations of
| this character is false economy. No more
can be drawn from the treasury than is
req uired to pay for services authorized by
law, however large an appropriation may
| be. On the contrary, if the appropria-
ton is insufficient, the officers of the state
who hold claims for services performed
are greatly inconvenience, and, in many
instances, forced to sell their claims at a
hurtful discount, to enable them to con-
duct the business of their offices. In
making estimates for these appropriations
for the next two years 1 have used as a
basis the amount of claims filed and paid
since March l, 1887, amount of deficiency
certificates issued to this date, and the
probable amount of claims that will be
filed for payment before February %, the
close of the present appropriation year."
The following interesting figures from
the report show the number of railroads,
their receipts, expenses, indebtedness and
other items:
Number of railroads... 36
The capital stock and the amount &C
tually paid in:
Capital stock ....... ............ $2l1 $3.50 OF
Pad ll9UDl,Oo4 ~
Subscribed ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. l,2o3,2Oj w
The amount expended for the purchase
of land, construction of the road, for
buildings, and for engines and cars, re-
spectively:
/ Purchase of land ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 21l,A1 90