The Opelousas courier., 1895-02-23
Correspondent
OPELOUSAs, Feb. 10, 1895

TX ELcoOAoS L W. W.
EDITORS COURIER:
The question as presented to the Po-
lice Jury Of mapping and listing the
entire lands of the parish for complete
and correct assessments is indeed a very
interesting one and should receive Sc
rious and favorable consideration.
The area OF the parish in acres is
about 1,051 900 acres, from which are to
be deducted about $4,000 acres situated
in the Atchafalaya swamp and other
lands which the State owns, and about
$4,000 acres belonging to the Govern
ment, leaving subject to assessment
about 1,004 900 acres, of which 676,00
leaving the large quantity of about $685.
600 acres unassessed and under the
present method not assessable.
The parish taxes III the unassessed
$685. 900 acres (about), at a valuation OF
So per acre, at the present rate OF taxa
ton, ten mills on the dollar, would yield
the large sum Of S6,560 per annum, but
inasmuch as a considerable quantity Of
the unassessed land would be valued at
$%al = I i Il islerefor safe to con-
Nude that the evenu to the parish by
a complete assessment would be i%ncreas-
ed from $4,000 to $4,000 each year.
In townships thickly settled and
where the holdings are small two years
will necessarily be required to complete
the listing, and in many cases, especl-
ally among the Settlement and Spanish
claims, actual surveys will be absolute
ly necessary to determine quantities and
boundaries in many of the other town
ships where the lands have mostly pass
ed from the government within the last
On ,>-,,J,fn liotr-~ cInrlA ho rn
Ouired to be made within one year; as
much AS possible should be done in time
to get those lands on the assessment
roll for '95. The townships composing
the parish (37 whole townships and 10
fractional ones) should be divided into
two classes, n of which should be com
pletely listed for the assessor for 1896
and the other for the assessor for 1897.
The work will be expensive; the par
ish should require faithful service and
should be willing to pay for it, consider
ing the revenue to be derived from a
complete and correct assessment. 1t
must necessarily be paid for as the
work progresses as soon as a list OF
one township is completed it should be
paid for.
The work can only be done by COM
petent surveyors of experience who
speak the language Of the country.
Maps showing the lands where in
many instances the holdings are small
would have to be made or a very large
scale, double or ever QuadTuple that of
the township maps e inches to a mile);
they would in the hands of the survey
or, who made them, be themselves
sources of errors; therefore imagine the
errors to be made in copying from the
proposed maps 10y inexperienced parties,
while descriptive list, on the contrary,
could be written out and collated 10y or
binary copyists.
These lists should show the name OF
owners, quantity and character and
concise description of the land by sec
tions, townships and ranges, each tract
to have a number, which in case of a
ub.diyision of that tract could always
be referred to.
The lists should be made in duplicate,
one for the assessor ard the other for
the archives Of the Police Jury.
Such a work when properly complet-
ed would be a monument to the practi-
cal sense of the Police Jury and a great
benefit to every land owner in the par
ish.
The writer notes with pleasure the
petent committee composed of Messrs.
Swords, Evans, Lafeur, O. H. Terwilli-
ger and E. B. Dubuisson, with the re-
quest that they make a report in writ
ing, and it is to this committee that we
must look Tor the advancement of this
subject.
Trusting that the subject shall be pre-
sented by some more able.
pROcRESS