Bisbee daily review., 1906-11-13

an abstract of the assessment roll of his county. The property is required to be classified in the returns thus
 decided to be made.
 ,l Upon the examination of these re-
 turns the board found last year that , the property, other than patented mines and railroads, had been assess , ed at from 40 to 75 per cent of its
 value, and that patented mines. to- gether with their Improvements. were , assessed at not more than 5 to per cent of their values.
 It is conceded to be difficult to ascertain the real value of mine. On
 conservative estimate. however. It
 may be entirely safely said that the
 mines of the territory are worth and would readily sell for not less than [ s100, ,000, ,oo0
 1 Whether the value of the mine it. 5 self can be accurately estimated or : not, there is no difficulty in ascertain . ing the value of it's product. The production of the mines for 1904 was r not less than s30,000.000 in gold, sil- . yer and copper Last year it was ? still greater This year it will exceed < $50. 100000 All the mines in the l Territory, and the improvements upon l them were. in 1905, returned for tax t ation at a value of less than s5,000, coo, notwithstanding that the pro- s ductiveness of the mines had at that e time increased over the year 1904 r The Territorial board of equalization
 undertook to equalize these valua Il tions. It never had been attempted q before as to mines, but for nearly .f l.. I -Fr.+.F
 its powers of equalization by raising t in the various counties the returned ,f values of cultivated and uncultivatet $ lands, cf town lots and improvements is of horses, cattle, sheep, swine, and 5 indeed, of every class Of propert! a other than mines.
 q The board last year. in ordeI s to bring the patented mines a
 least more nearly to valuation fol taxation on an equality with that o # other property, raised the valuation O. . patented mines in the Territory iron 70 s2. 800, 900, as returned by the loca Il officers of the various counties, tt n s11 .500,000.
 t It should be borne in mind that tt; of valuation of improvements on thes' 1t mines was not attempted to be ai 1f fected. The raise was upon the yalu le of the mines only and not upon an. of other property of the mine owners. - The officers of some of the cour
 ties, charged by law with the duty O making these raises effective, refuse to do so. To determine the lega } questions raised by the action of tn
 Territorial board, will state them a
 they were stated in the opinion of tn
 district attorney of the counties
 being the duty of the district attorre
 to advise the county officials upon lt
 gal matters), who, in writing, advise
 the local board to ignore the action (
 the Territorial board. He advised hi
 board as follows:
 1. The Territorial board of equal
 zation may, for the purpose of adjus
 ing and equalizing, increase the aggr,
 gate value of one county and decreas / that of another, but it has no power
 increase the aggregate valuation (
 property above the valuation return
 ed by the boards of supervisors (
 the several counties.
 g. The Territorial board of equal .4 zation, in equalizing and adjustin
 iproperty valuations between the Sc L
 crease or decrease the valuations
 certain kinds, classes, or grades | property within any county. IT N Territorial board must deal with u | respective valuations as returned
 the counties as entities, by mahr
 such changes in each county, as
 whole, as will relatively eGual;ze Il
 entire property values in the Giffere
 counties.
 Practically applied, these two pro iesitions meant, first, that, no matt how low property in one county mig be assessed, the property in that cou l. ty could not be raised unless proper
 in other counties, even though prope
 ly assessed, was lowered, so that a
 gregate valuation of all property the Territory should remain as ori N inally returned and, second, even Y it be found in a given county that mine worth unquDsadonabiy sl00C 900 was valued by the local board H $10,000-that is to say, at per ce iU of it's value-and mans house al M lot in the same county, worth S5,0t II was assessed at s4.00o-that is to S at 80 per cent of it's yalue-that [ Territorial board had no power tor place the mine to somewhere near not real value without raising the val ail- of the house and lot In the same @ e@n tio. That is if the rains was rais md to 50 per cent of it's value, which nd. quired that it's returned value must sad multiplied by 50, the valuation Of t r1l- hopse and lot must be multiplied sS 50, the valuation of the S5,ooo hou
 and lot for the purposes of taxau
 s200, GOO. The absurdity of this ful depreciation needs no discussion. len our statute really meant that and v 'le, capable of no other construction, it. ought to have been held void as bel If repugnant to all notions of justice. 'ot lit were capable of any other constr oie ton. it should be given it.
 The statute created the Territor
 hoard of enualization and charged