The Newtown bee., 1908-06-19

NA**$*s*$*ee < plete statement of the Selectmen's ac- count, l did not consider it advisable tt take up the following fiscal years of the Selectmen's accounts, in like manner, without further instructions. For full knowledge of the Select. mems account it is necessary to give this report a careful study. l have all so compiled under separate cover a statement of the Town Orders for this same fiscal year in order to show bet ter form for the printed report of the Selectmen than the form now used in giving the town order in numerical or der. In this manner of report it II shown, the amount paid to each per, son, and for what purpose. and l would recommend that this form be adopted for future reports, and the account called Ordinary Expense" be omit. ted, and the names of accounts be usec as in this statement. 1 would also sug. gest that a Pauper Ledger be kept by the Selectmen showing an itemized ac' count with each poor person helped by the town.
 TOWN CLERKS ACCOUNTS.
 Under separate cover show de- tailed statement of the records of ant the amounts paid to M. J. Houlihan by town orders for fees for services as Town Clerk for the three fiscal years from September 15, 1904, to September 15. 1907. amounting to S412.S & and for other purposes than fees 353.2l Total amount for town orders
 / for three years S766.O9 Overpayments by error in paying tht same charge twice appear as follows On order No. 3649, S16.40 and order No. 1113. $l4.36, total $3O.76. This amount has been paid by M. J. Houli han to Frank Wright, treasurer, or March 28, 1908.
 Under separate cover I show state ment of the Town Clerks accounts per taining to the matter of Dog Licenses for 1905, in which find the amount of the same should be $451. 15, instead o1 S449. 15, as entered on the Treasurer's book as received for Dog Licenses.
 TAX COLLECTORS ACCO UNITS.
 The examination of the Tax Accounts of Robert A. Clark, Collector of Tax es, during his term of office, December, 1893, to October, 1904, has necessitatec an enormous amount of work, due: first to the fact that no lists of collec' tions were filed by the Collector with the Town Treasurer as required by law and secondly to the fact that the As sessors' books were incomplete ant not correct in additions, and thirdly tt the fact that the Collectors books fol the seven years in evidence were moi correct copies of the Assessors books and not correct in extensions and addi tions. A detailed report of each years list is given under separate cover for each year. The errors above mentioned are corrected and given in detail in my reports of examination of each years list, which also shows an itemized statement of the amount of taxes and interest the Collectors books show tc have been collected, together with lists of abatement }, outstanding taxes, liens, uncollected interest. etc.
 The Assessors book of the 1899 list does not contain the full assessment of poll taxes, the omission of which is a loss to the town of about $200.
 Aside from the above, the work was further complicated by the Tax Collec- tors books for the 1897, 1898, 1899 and 1900 lists being missing, which prohib- ited the same treatment of these four years, as used in the examination of the other seven years lists It was therefore necessary to ascertain the amount that the Collectors book should have been and my report of the exam. ination of these four years gives in de- tail an exact copy of the items which the Collectors book should contain to- gether with an itemized list of taxes collected, outstanding and abated. This was derived by a comparison of the four years with the preceding and sub- sequent years, that is; persons tax that was paid for the 1895 and 1896 lists and for the 1901 and 1902 lists, was considered to have been paid for the 1897, 1889. 1899 and 1900 lists (the lists the Collectors books are missing.)
 While it is possible that the omis- sions of the poll taxes on the 1899 list may have been discovered before the Collectors book was completed and they may have been included in the book (the book not being in evidence to verify this) it is not so considered in this examination and only the l9 poll taxes entered on the Assessors book are included in the total of the Collectors book for that year.
 The Collectors books for the 1889. 1890, 1891. and 1892 lists, which were issued to George H. Botsford, Collec- tor, and which were given after his death to MT Clark, who was appointed to collect the remainder of the four books, are also missing, which further complicates the examination, since 1t is impossible to definitely ascertain the amount collected from these four books by Mr Clark however an analysis of the collections of the 1893 list show that a certain amount (see report on 1893 list) was collected after the last payment was made by Mir Clark to the Town Treasurer to the credit of 1892 taxes and the amount of collections from these four "Botsford" books that