Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1892-04-07
LEyr couer NIL nay.
A Sum OF $4,000 Ordered borrowed for
80 Days--JaiI Comm lssioners' Neport,


compished yesterday in the recording OF
, l6o names. This is about three times what
WINS done on good day at the beginning
of the month.
! There can be nothing said now but that
the Democrats have done everyth "a
allow the fullest and most unhindercd
work of Republican assessment aspirations
even to the most ext-avagant demands OF
lhe most diligent party workers. The
races Of the latter beam with qualification
over the prospects OF the situation. The
total to date shows 2,2l4 added this month.
The bonds of the following constables
were accepted: William p Dayett, Pen
cader hundred Frederick w. Ncutze and
isaac H. Brown, Wilmington hundred.
1T WAS A REPUBLICAN ASSESSOR.
Considering the courteous and honorable
treatment by the Democrats at Levy Court
TO their party opponents upon all ques-
lions throughout the closing month of i'm
portant assessment work, the following,
appearing in Wednesday mornings NcgS, is
commented on as not quite squares
OF tho colorcd men "a wero residents OF Red
Lion hundred, whose names had boen loft off
me assessment by tile Democratic hssussor.
TINS showsShat the proportion between tho
white and colored voters assessed to be three
TO ono In favor oil the white meo.
The point is that the Red Lion assessor
IS Republican and his name is Ander-
all the more surprising as any one ac-
9hainted with present local political condi-
tons would no more expect Democratic
assessor from Red Lion hundred than a
Republican senator from Texac.
Levy Court was alive with business
yesterday. The long line of appli-
cants waiting to be assessed stretched
all around the committee room, through
the passage-way and out to the main
hall of the county building.
What is strange about the whole
matter is that in addition to the regular
style of late.day applicants who as
usual matter can be pretty easily recog-
nized, quite number of very intelligent
looking citizens called this morning and
then finding they had to take their
places at the tail Of the line and come
up to the desk in due turn, uttered very
emphatic expressions of disgust at such
a condition Of things. They seemed to
have no comprehension of the fact that
they themselves are the ones to blame
Tor falling to take the oppor-
tunity of the past four months
when many of them daily saw
their assessor aud then would not take
the trouble themselves to see after this
very important business. Their negli-
gence has largely contributed to the
present congestion at Levy Court and
also to the great additional expense to
the county of the current work.
A total of 80 names were added Thurs
| day morning.
This closes tho most remarkable
appeal day." or more exactly speaking
appeal session" ever experienced in
New Castle county.
At l2,l5 P. m. court adjourned to lis
p. IN.
And now Levy Courts great worry is
oyer-that is to say, one of the great wor-
ries--the assessment trouble.
what great big sigh of relief the Levy
| Coilrtmen breathed at o'clock or a little
after, Thusrday afternoon, when Chair
man buckingham left the chamber in
order to catch the afternoon train. II ever
there was sight that the court, the re-
porters and the citizens in general were
thoroughly tired of ii was of those big
Undiscovered office records, with their
| golden-lettered backs, carried in and out
every day and thumbcd over and searched
through from o'clock in the morning till
late hour in these Unfortunately dismal,
rainy afternoons.
Il was with a heartfelt sigh of thankful.
ness that the dismal volumes were toted i
out once and for all from public view.
1t is to be devontiy hoped that by this
time next year some more intelligent and
reliable system of bookkeeping for county
business will have been established than
is contained in these volumes, scratched
and rescratched, corrected and recorrccted.
red marked and black ink marked, until
at this moment they offer about as con-
temptible pattern of county records as
probably exists in no other state Of the
union.
The smallest. little ''one-horsep store in
Wilmington would not tolerate for an
instant such an involved, puzzling anti 4
quated and unreliable system Of accounts
for "a hours. The books would be thrown
into the Christiana or sold as waste paper,
to Jake Trusty.
Among those who condemn the present
system and who consider it should be
abolished for something more modern and
lntelligible are Chairman Jolls of Levy
COURTS finance committee, County Clerk
Pierce Biggs and County Treasurer and
Receiver of Taxes John T. Dickey.
These are the gentlemen whose official
responsibilities are doubled and trebled by
this stupid system whose oniysanction Is
that OF vested rights, in other words of so
years of antiquity.
THEn GAZETTE has repeatedly stated
the reforms that these officials demand in
order that the county accounts be made
possible, OF any kind Of proper and geliable,l
accounting. These reforms are additionally
necessary on account of the intricate bush
ness OF property records, Witch now as the.
county. especially the city Of Wilmington, j
IS making such vast strides in property
value over the conditions that existed in |
lS4o-demands some such consideration
from'the authorities
Outside of the immediate matter of the |
keeping of the books what IL needed most
Is that there be an annual assessment of
the property OF Wilmington hundred.
~, The experience of the "big function" of |
the Levy Court assessment of the past
month OF March clearly indicates this to |
any who have observed with any care the |
details of the property transfer work.
Again County Treasurer Dickey's sug- 4
geestion of an individual ledger for owners |
OF real estate in the county is most practi-
cal and sound. It would be nn imme-
diate reference for all citizens, and 4
in it the transfers could be posted |
as reported. Thus the county commits
sioners would have at hand q reliable |
record of all assessable properties indexed |
and posted to date, the absence of which |
record ready-to-hand, has caused inter
minablee trouble, corrections and recorrec-
tions, double, treble and quadruplicate
assessments on the same property, two or
three citizens often taxed for the same
property, and mistakes and errors of this |
nature, almost all without exception due
to the hand-to-mouth way Lovy Court
obtains its information. Such record as
an indexed, alphabetical property ledger
owned by the county commissioners would
also furnish those gentlemen with Just
what they need, the necessary check on
the assessors returns. The Levy Court or
commissioners will need this In order 10
form basis for any authentic county tax
levy.
THE CLOSING DAY.
The number Of names added to the as