The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-03-03
VERY QUEER TAX LAWS
Assemblyman Coles Fight
Against Promoter Lands
Two Sides of the
Story.
Especial to aThe Jersey city Sews.ol

by the House. Yesterday afternoon, of Mr..
Coles bill, which allows municipalities 10
offset overdue taxes against Judgments
when the Judgment creditor owes the
taxes, has brought to light the nj
tax shirker. If Mr.. Coles allegations are
good. The pugnacious little Assembly
man from Cape May county has three
other bills which seek to extend the Mar
tin act to seaside boroughs.
These are all aimed at one nan Charles
X. Lands. the great promoter and found
er of villages of South Jersey. Among
the places which he established is Sea
Isle City. where today he owns consider
able property, upon which he refuses 10
pay taxes. According to the sworn state
ment of DAME H. Wheaton, collector of
Sea Isle City, Mr.. Lands owes that muni-
cipality $S,997.S1 for X and assessment
for improvements, which have accumu-
lated against him since 1898. Mr.. Lands,
Mr.. Coles says, has managed to avoid
paying these taxes by resort to the courts
by certiorari. In some of these cases he
has been successful and has obtained a
judgment against the borough for $53 for
costs. and it is this which Mr.. Coles wants
to offset against the taxes. The affair
appears to be a personal matter between
Mr.. Lands and Mr.. Coles, and yesterday
the former flooded the Assembly Chamber
with a circular in which he says:-
ssMr. Cole. by these bills attempts to
revolutionize ali the laws of New Jersey
and traditional policy in regard to taxes.
He appears to forget that We already
have tax laws made by some of the best
legal minds of the State; that we have
Assessors, Commissioners of Appeal, a
State Board of Taxation and ordinary
courts of law. In his royal statesman
ship he steps over all these time honored
securities to property, and makes a law
for himself, to facilitate his cases for the
and the Sea Isle City Improvement Com
pany in our endeavor to defend ourselves
in the courts against unjust and eNorbi-
tant levies of taxation. h costs I'M
der his law which he attempts to ac-
cumulate upon property would be oppres-
sive and wrong. In one single case of 4
notice to a property holder he allows him
self a fee of one dollar for each notice.
and he may accumulate as many notices
as there are lots, in some instances sew
era1 thousand by one owner, and thus
make several thousand dollars of fees in
the course of half a day simply by print
ed notices. This is only one instance of
the absurdities of this bill.
THE assertion that l have not paid
taxes the past four years is a gross false
hood. AT Vineland 1 lave paid taxes each
year upon some 5000 acres, and have
only refused to pay upon lots which have
been greatly o~vervalued in Difference to
the Single Tax Club which exists there.
My residence in the town, an old frame
building, concrete stable and two acres,
are taxed at $3.50 per annum. | awe ais
paid full personal tax. AT Sea Isle have
paid axes upon every lot l ave sold,
and besides upon all the other lots which
are out of the borough. AT Vineland l
have helped to build up a cultivated gar
den. where it was a wilderness, and now
upon the whole tract in the three coun-
ties a population of 1900 pros
porous people exists. 1t covers 3d.
000 acres-fifty-five square miles. Sea
Isle was a barren island, which /
bought from 800 different owners, and
built a railroad to it with the generous
assistance of the Pennsylvania Railroad,
and it is now a beautiful place with about
800 houses upon it, and 1 could have had
ZOO houses if the people had not been
fomented to constant and uncalled for lit
igation by a class of lawyers. who can
only be considered as a calamity to hui
manity.
1.-THE improvements which I have made
at Hammonton, Vineland and Sea Isle
have spread their influence over South
Jersey, increased the taxable value Of
property where before it was compare
lively worthless, and for many years
poured these taxes into the State and
county treasures and now do so. l
founded Hamnonton in 1871 years ago
and ever since have been laboring for
the Improvement of the State. The per-
sopal SANDERS against me as a tax dod-
ger and a person unwilling to pay taxes,
because ] have refused to submit to ex-
tortion. are false. For lands, improve
ments, ETC., ! have incurred in my time
millions of dollars of contracts inc obli-
cations, and | can refer to every promf-
nent man in South Jersey as to whether
/ have not kept them all. On the records
of South Jersey ] am responsible for some
1000 deeds, and / defy any man to show
where a bad title has been given, or a
deed with an i-ncumbrance upon 1t. At
the same time, not denying human infirmi-
ties, etc, ] protest against the use Of
private suits or malice, especially Upon
a subject that has already secured ample
legislation under the supervision of the
best minds in the State"