The White Pine news. [volume] (Treasure City, Nev.) 1868-1906, 1899-04-13
Thursday, April IS. 1899.

aReese Wheeler of the firm oil
Whesler Bros, sheepmen, informs US
that his sheep wintered at Fish creek,
White Pine county, came through III
fine shape, the only trouble being that
thara was hardly enough snow To iur-
nish sufficient water. Mr.. w heeler es-
Inmates that about l50, 900 head were
wintered In that section. -Elk0 Ildlngs.
Fish Creek is in Newark valley, near
the Eureka county line. These sheep
are run in this county during the win
ter and In the summer they are taken
back to their home ranges In adjoining
counties, where they are assessed and
taxes on them are paid. This Is also
true on the porthern and eastern boun-
diaries OF the county, where sheep from
Elko county and even from Utah Craze
at will in the winter time; consume the
range that properly belongs to our own
cattle and sheep men and never pay
cent OF taxes to the county.
A bill to remedy this evil was intro
duced in the last Legislature by Assem-
blyman Deadly of Nye county, and
passed In the Assembly, but was killed
In tho Senate through the influence OF
the sheepmen, whose opposition was
rather inconsistent, as the law did not
increase their taxes in the least, but
simply provided for an equitable divi-
sion of the taxes paid in the home
county among the various counties in
which the stock grazed during the year.
Senator Comins informs US that he has
tried for several successive Legislatures
to pass such bill, but the opposition
has been too strong.
Under the present law, the Assessor
Is powerless. The Courts have decided
that the taxes on livestock shall be paid
Ia the county where the home ranch is
located; and furthermore. during the
months in which the outside sheep are
for the most part grazed in this county,
December, January and February, he
cannot collect taxes because he has no
legal receipt to give, and cannot get
blank receipts from the State Control
Ter during those months under the pres
emit laws. Even Utah sheep are safe
from taxation at that time. A bill to
remedy this evil was also defeated by
the last Legislature.
The sheep license law, which was de-
vised for the very purpose of catching
these wandering iocks, is practically a
dead letter In its present form. Two
sheep are exempted from paying license
for every acre of land held within the
State by the owner of the sheep. 1t is
therefore possible for a man holding
land In Washoe or any other county to
Craze his sheep in White Pine without
paying license. Sheriff Scott, in a
recent trip TO the Utah line, found that
with the exception of one small band,
all OF the outside sheep were protected
from the license by leases Of land from
the r lilroad. Two men living at Deep
Creek, UTAH. non-residents of the
State, were pasturing over TO- 900 head
of sheep in this county on the strength
OF lease of about 1000 acres OF rail-
road land In EllxO county, for which
they paid only 800 year, and thus
effected saving over the cast of a IL
cense of from 800 TO 5000. Another
man had lease Of $500 acres for which
he paid $50 year. The law seems to
be an entire success so far as the rail-
road Is concerned. The only remedy
seems to be to amend the law 30 as to
require that to exempt sheep from the
license, the land must be owned In the
county where the sheep are grazed; ,
but to try to pass such measure thrO'
aLegislature like the last one, would he
like trying to make water run up hill.
There has heen considerable criticism
OF our Sheriff and Assessor recently in
this matter that has been unmerited, as
their hands have been tied. Give us
one good, honest legislature free from
Wallace's control. and Governor who
will not veto laws demanded by the
people, and many a wrong would be
righted.