The Portland daily press., 1893-01-11

es of statistical tables, giving the valua-
ton and polls, etc.. of every town in the
state, by counties, descriptions OF the
public lands, etc., taxes assessed on rail-
roads, etc.
The total valuation of Maine is S3l4,-
$50, 1871; whole number Of polls in Maine,
167,37S; valuation for taxation OF the
icalinstruments in the state, 81, ILL.,
491; of carriages, 81, 1885, 16; of our
shipping, $6,346. 22S.
The total railroad tax is 1926, 043.05.
The commissioners complain of
great lack of uniformity in the methods
| for classification and valuation of prop
erty in various parts eff the state, and
they repeat the suggestion of a. year ago
that some legislative enactment be made
obliging town assessors to meet the
Board of State Assessors in a county
| convention to be called by the State
Board, and at which the town assessors
shall have he town tax books and an
swer such questions as may be put to
them by the State Board, or by their
order. In order that the taxes shall be
borne equally it is necessary that the
standards and methods of valuation
| shall be uniform.
The commissioners apparently do not
consider the listing system as cure Tor
the inequality of taxation. They say:
Comparing the returns of town assess
ors with the statements of the United
States census bureau, as reported and 1t
appears that not quite one-half of the
property in the state is exposed for taxa
ton. How much more can be brought
out is the question. Many regard the
so-called listing system as the proper
| Ac e., do, ato1
no one can know better what the proper
ty is, its value and where it is, than the
one who owns it. How to make him
disclose it is quite another matter. 1t is
| hard thing to do, to make truthful
man out of liar by legis alive enact
ment One who has the opportunity to
observe is often surprised to find the
number of men of apparent good stands
1 ing, men whose word is considered as
good as their bond who will use every
| means in their power to evade truthful
expose of their property for taxation.
eff we cannot get all the property in
| the state into exposure for taxation, IT a
part must carry the burden for the whole
! if it is good policy to exempt any prop
erty from taxation, then let us get fair
and uniform value upon such as can be
exposed, and determine fairly what shall
be exempted.
I'm 1890 the city, town and plantation
assessors returned as the value of prop
erty in the state the sum of $3.50, ZIG, $780,
90. In 1892 they return $265, 025, 4S1. CO..
From these figures it is apparent that
! the local assessors are increasing the
valuations gradually. In every instance
that has come to our Knowledge of as
SCISSORS making new list or careful re-
valuation there has been a very sub
stantial increase If there was anything
like uniformity in standards or fractions
| of values used by the assessors the val
uations all over the state would be large
ly increased,
Is this not another argument in favor
of bringing these officers together for
consultations"
As to wild lands, the commissioners
say they can't find out much about them.
Their owners are reticent, and as there
are 4S3 townships of wild land in the
state, containing over nine million acres,
an inspection of them would require
months of tramping and camping.
1T would be of great benefit if the
owners were required by law to return a
list once in two years to the Board OF
State Assessors, giving the township
number, range, county where located,
part owned whether in common or
severalty and an estimate of it's value.
There should also be some provision
made for ascertaining the amount and
value of lands held in unorganized town
ships for purposes other than timber
growing, as well as Of other property
therein