The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1897-03-17
TO FIND THAT LOST LAND.
TAX RECEIVER CANNON PREPAR-
ING TO BEGIN HIS ROUNDS.
viii Try to Straighten Out Tang led
Land Returns. Many Deeds
Are Wrong.


Receiver Cannon will begin taking
the tax returns of Terrell county for
1897 on Thursday, April 1st. His list
of appointments is published elsewhere
in The NEWS, and the Twelfth district
will be the first place visited.
There has been much said in the pa
pc throughout the the state recently
about the apparent loss of land in
Georgia. that is, the returns of land in
most counties show decrease in the
number of acres returned in 1896 as
compared with the returns of 1895.
There are several causes for this for
which tax receivers are not responsible,
but Receiver Cannon, always careful
and vigilant in his work, will, if posi-
BILE, be more so this year, and with the
assistance Of land owners hopes, to
some extent, to correct the discrep-
ancy so far as Terrell county is con-
Cerned.
In 1895 Receiver Cannon required all
land to be given by lot numbers
from deeds or records In the
clerks office and then checked on
the county map the numbers re-
turned. This developed the fact
that Is 900 acres of land had been re-
turned twice while about 10000 acres
had not been returned at all, making
a discrepancy, or loss of land, of TO-
600 acres. Last year Receiver Cannon
did the same thing and the number of
unreturned acres was reduced about
One-half. Now, that he is about to open
the digest for 1897, the receiver wishes
to impress upon land owners the I'M
pOrtance Of being careful to give cor
rect numbers of their land lots in max
ing their returns.
A comparison of the county map
with the tax digest reveals some inter
esting and important facts, and shows
how utterly impossible it is for the
digest to show correctly the number of
acres of land in the county and the
same number of acres each year.
Many parties hold deeds to the wrong
tracts of land and it is not infrequent-
ly the case that the same land is re-
turned by two parties. Farmers own
ing and living on land in one dis
trict have returned land that's in an
other district. A case of this kind is
found in the returns of an Eleventh
district farmer who owned and lived
on land lot number 1874. He gave in
lot number 81, which is in the town
district. This farmer held deeds to
the wrong land, and there are prOba-
bly, many more who hold titles to land
other than that which is intended.
A comparison of the county map
with the digest also shows that in 1896
about 200 lots of land were not return
ed at all. Nine adjoining lots do not
show single acre given in for taxes.
This is further evidence that tax pay
ers are returning The wrong land as
the parties who own and cultivate
these lands returned land to the re-
Ceiver in 1896. All of this Is proof that
there is something radically wrong,
and what is true OF Terrell is prOba-
bly, true of every county in the state.
In the opinion of Receiver Cannon
there is no way to correct the exist
ing trouble and bring order out of
chaos except to assess all land that has
not been returned when he closes his
books and place it upon the defaulter's
list.
There are 100000 acres of land in
Terrell county, and while, under the
present conditions, it will be impossi-
BILE to have the digest show it all, Re-
ceiver Cannon will exert himself to
have every acre possible accounted for
when his books close in June,