Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1898-01-06

N Few words More on the subject.
In this weeks News appeared an ar
ticle which attempted to answer one in
the REVIEW of the previous week and
some parts of it suggest few words in
reply.
We did not draw any comparison be-
tween the present board and the one OF
the previous year. We simply stated
that this years taxes were much high
er than the taxpayers had reason to
expect them to be, and much higher
than they should have been if the bust
ness of the town had been carried on
in the manner wished for by the voters
as indicated by appropriations made at
the last town meeting.
If these appropriations had not been
oyerdrawn the item of over eleven
thousand dollars for judgments would
not have appeared in the tax roll.
The News says that the taxes in
this town for 1897 are less on an aver
age than they were in 1896. This may
possibly be true as we have not had the
time to either verify or disapprove it,
this we do know, that the aggregate
taxes for 1897 are higher by several
thousand dollars than they were for
1896, when we had ever reason to sup
pose that they would be much less.
The News speaks of the great ex-
pense the town had to bear in inspect
ing the timber lands in the towns of
Minocqua and Arbor Vitae, in prepar-
ing the case before the equalization
commission. We know that this was
expensive but the News would hardly
ask us to believe that the persons who
looked over these lands and the attor-
neys in the case received in the neigh
borhood of five thousand dollars for
their services, # this is SO, it was
piece Of extortion that the board
should never have submitted to.
again the News says: "The ex-
panse of inspecting the new territory
Added to this town in 1897, and of pro-
carfng transcripts of the same from
the several Offices in Forest and Onei-
da counties, was so great that this
town derived but little, if any, benefit
from that source this year.
The editor of the News is too good
lawyer, and his sources of information
rs legal adviser of the town are too ac-
curate for us to think for a moment
that he believes the town paid for max
ing those transcripts which he speaks
of. He is aware that the taking of
those transcripts was the work of the
county and paid for by the county, and
he must plead guilty OF gross ignor-
ance or of wilfully trying to deceive
the readers of his paper. 1t is true
that the town engaged Messrs Graham,
Denton and Lawler to inspect those
lands but we do not believe that the
News will make the statement that the
town board allowed them and their
three assistants for their services, a
sum equal to the whole tax levied on
the property in that territory for this
year. If the town board allowed any
such sum as that for these services it
is one of those things that the tax-pay-
ers should know and the News should
furnish the information if it has it.
In regard to the statement made by
the News that the taxes for 1897 were
less, on the average, than in 1896, we
have interviewed large number of
resident tax payers and with two ex-
captions, they all stated that their tax
es on the same property was more this
year than last, the increase being from
ten per cent, to two hundred per cent
in one instance. Therefore If the
News is right the reduction must have
been made by lowering the valuations
of lands in the town owned by outside
Taxpayers, and at the expense of resi-
dent Taxpayers, whose little all is
bound in the house and lot where they
live, and perhaps COW.
If the News isright as to the tax on
unimproved lands being only Sc cents
per forty, they must have been valued
at only $500 per forty. We also have
it from good authority that the pine on
the timber lands in the western part of