The record-union., 1893-08-29

MI OTTeSleF SalU InaL MT. gray was
very careful man and paid great atten-
ton to all details from which his assess
ments were made.
MIR. Swan asked if the improvements at
Santa Monica and elsewhere had not
greatly enhanced the value of property
IN the county, making it valuable in the
future.
Mr.. Forester thought it did, but the
depreciation of other kinds of property
more than counterbalanced it.
Mr.. Cook read figures showing that al
though the acreage of the county was
2G3O,sS0, only l,0S4,OT acres outside of
cities was assessed, and $3.50 in cities
and town lois, leaving l,503,560 not as
sessed, it being Government land. Be
sides, the San Gabriel Reservation took
$4,000 acres more from the roll. Consid-
erable land had been taken up by the
PrOvidencia Land aud Water Com pany
and others, simply for the water privi-
Ieges, the land being nothing except for
the springs on it. There is a great deal of
other land in the county that is abso-
lutely worthless as far as revenue is con-
cerned.
The companies who brought water
down on their fruit lands, he said, con-
tended that as the lands could only grow
fruit through irrigation, the pipe lines
should not be assessed in addition to
rating the land high as fruit land. The
miles, were assessed at $4,000, but it had
never been done before.
HOW PIPES ARE ASSESSED.
Water and gas pipes in the county are
assessed at $570, ,505.
Mr.. Colgan said that amount would not
cover those in the city alone.
MIR. Swan said there was no doubt that
some property of that kind had been as
sessed, but it could not be told from the
assessed. a blank is furnished by the
state Board for the purpose of stating
those things, and Mr.. Gray knew it per-
tectly well, but he has left those columns
blank. He should have appeared here to
answer those questions and others which
this board wished 10 ask. 1t is an unfor-
tunate thing for the county that he did
not do so, as 1t leaves the board without
any means OF information on this and
number OF other points.
Mr.. Forester said that Mr. GRAY had
probably assessed all the water and gas
pipes in the county, as he was not the
man to assess one man and not another.
Various embers OF the board thought
that either all pipes could not have been
assessed, OF else the assessment was
lldiculously low.
AMOUNT OF FRUIT LAND.
Mr.. Cook went on to state that only 49,
raising, and the average assessment on it
was about Sl20 per acre. OF this only
81 ,o37 acres are actually set out, there be-
ing 2,2ZS, 800 citrus trees on it, about one
tenth of that number being in bearing.
There are also Is, $50 decduous fruit trees
Taking the percentage as a basis, he
said that b per cent, of the land in the
county was unfit for cultivation, 2S.2 per
cent. was grain land, 34.4 per cent pas
ture land, ~ per cent. fit for citrus fruits
and 2.2 per cent deciduous fruit land.
Mr.. Beamer asked some pointed ques-
tions about property in Pasadena, especi-
ally the Reed, Carr and Conger places,
Mrs. Carr's place sold recently for SAC, 900.
Mr.. Gray had assessed it at $4,000, while
the City Assessor OF Pasadena assessed it
at 0,G00. Mr. Smith said that was easily
explained as Mrs. Carr's place was a
fancy one, with hundreds Of varieties Of
forest trees planted on it. The City AS
SCISSORS figures cut no figure, he said.
IT WAVES WARM.
Mr.. Beamer said that the board had
made an effort to obtain information on
large proportion of the property in the
county for the purpose of comparing the
real values with the assessed values ac-
cording to Mr.. Gray, and he thought
they had done their work well. They
had taken the property as they found it
in riding along the road.
Mr.. Forester thought the places men
toned were fancy places and brought
fancy prices. 1t was not fair average
value.
Mr.. Beamer said that in no place did he
find SO much activity and business going
on.
Mr.. Griffith stated that it was a false
activity, a sort of boom, and was not
reliable index.
Mr.. Morehouse said if the gentlemen
,Nt 49, L :
land which he named, that he had long
list and he would read until he found
some property with which they were
familiar, and they would try and come to
some piece on which they could compare
notes and arrive at an estimate of what
they considered a fair assessment. He
thought they could find some piece
sooner or later.
PARALYZER.
Mr.. Morehouse asked about Lucky"
Baldwin's place, and asked what was a
fair valuation for the 600 acres in it.
Mr.. Smith said Baldwin was offering
the place for $3.50 per acre, but had not
found purchaser. He thought that 500
an acre would be fair assessment.
MIR. MorehOuse produced a circular in
which Baldwin offered it at from $3.50 to
$3.50 per acre, deferred payments, at 10
per cent. interest.
The Los Angeles gentlemen protested
that it was an old circular, and that it
was BaldWln's price two years ago. 1t
would be fairly assessed at 500 now.
In response Mr.. Morehouse stated that
it was assessed at $3.50, and he did not
think 1t very high at that. He asked
about the comparative values of Alham-
bra lands and those in other places and
showed by his questions that he was
thoroughly familiar with the various
qualities of land in the county, as well as
their values.
NOT BOOM LITERATURE.
The gentlemen from Los Angeles diff
fered widely from him in his Ideas of
value, and stated that various orange
orchards had brought their owners into
debt the past year, and that they had left
part of their crop unshipped on that ac-
count. The accounts they gave of the
profits OF orange growing were sadly at
variance with the circulars from the
southern citrus belt that have been so
literally distributed through the East
and attracted so many people to Los
Angeles.
THE CITY ASSESSMENT.
At the evening session Mr. Forester
adverted to the fact that the representa-
tives of Orange County had made some
statements with regard to the assessment
Of Los Angeles County. He said there
was very little waste land in Orange
County, and therefore the argument with
regard to one-ninth of the original terri
tory being in Orange County hardly ap-
plies in comparison with Los Angeles.
Further, the charter OF Los Angeles
city only allows a tax levy of one per
cent, and the Assessor has to assess very
high in order to produce enough to meet
expenses, therefore the city assessment is
much higher than that of the county.
He spoke of what he called dead nroD-