Evening star., 1898-12-05

Rate of General Tax
The rate of general tax for the wear WAS
fixed at $l.50 on each 500 for all taxable
personal property and for all real property
except that used solely for Agricultural
purposes, the rate of which was 81 per S1O0
of assessed valuation.
Estimates
Estimates for the fiscal year 1899 were
prepared as required by the organic law
ard submitted through the Secretary of
the Treasury. They amounted to IS. 1914
1880. including $40, S51. IL, payable out of
the water funds The details of these esti-
mates will be found in the book of esti-
mates prepared by the Treasury DEPART
ment
Defective License Laws.
Contrary to their expectations, the Com
missioners were unable to submit to Con-
gress at its last session a draft of a bill to
provide schedule of license charges other
than those pertaining to the issue of liquor
licenses, more equitable than those which
now prevail.
The assessor reports that, so far as the
other demands upon him permitted, he has
been diligently collecting data on the SUBJ
1ect and collating it In connection with the
experience of his own office relative there
to, and expects to soon have the matter
In form Tor the consideration of Congress
Bathing Beach.
ihe SoHtllueu popularity OF the municlDai
bathing beach is shown by the fact that
curing the past season its patronage was
very largely in excess of that of the season
of 1897,
The appropriation for the beach during
the current fiscal year enabled the authori-
ties to maintain it and its appurtenances
in good condition, and to add a few inn
proVements; but was not sufficient to pro-
vide for all the notifications deemed de-
sirable. So long as bathing beach is 10
Gated at the present site Ii should be made
as safe and enjoyable as practicable. The
Commissioners have included an item for
that purpose in their estimates for 1909.
Public Play Grounds
The Commissioners feel that the pubn<,
should provide play grounds for cities,
where youthful freedom of action is not
only restricted by lack of available area for
outdoor games, but where the general safe
ty and comfort require that many of sucn
diversions be prohibited on the streets.
The spaces in the city and suburbs where
sports and pastimes in the open air NAV
be permitted are becoming fewer and
smaller with each successive year, and the
opportunities for the municipality to ac-
quire, without prohibitive cost, tracts with
In the city sufficiently large for the pur-
pose have practically passed
The reclaimed ground at Potomac Park
embraces locations readily adaptable at
moderate expense for public outdoor field
diversions; while the basins, in addition to
bathing beach accommodation, would ad-
init of the establishment of public facilities
for rowing and sailing under municipal
regulation and surveillance.
Dfsbursing Oncer.
The Commissioners have been greatly
pleased with the results attained through
the enlarged powers vested in the disburs
ing officer by the District appropriation act
for the fiscal year 1899. They have been re-
ieved of a great deal of unnecessary and
merely routine labor thereby, and have been
enabled to give their entire time to the
more important public demands, without
the harassing Interruptions and postpone
ments caused by the perfunctory necessity
Of signing checks, to which they were pre-
viously subjected. The employees have since
been paid twice a month in cash, instead
of monthly by check as before, and citizens
having business with the District have been