The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-04-13
NEW LIGHT ON
 OYSTER DEAL
Sealshipt Official Takes Ex- ception to Statements of
 EX-Gov. Woodruff
PURCHASE OF SMITH co.
Price Paid Included All Properties of All Kinds in Different States.

New Haven, April 13.-A new light is thrown upon the purchase or the extensive oyster interests of Jeremiah Smith & Sons of this city by the Seal shipt company which recently has ap- sorbed a number of important oyster concerns in Connecticut and else where This light came from Fred s. Beards1ey, an official Of the Seal shipt company, who in an interview here yesterday with reporter took exception to certain recently publish ed statements credited to eX-Gov. Woodruff, one of which follows:
 "It is reported that Jeremiah Smith & Sons have just sold out for $1.0OO.- 900 or more, and the plant must have been worth that sum or the parties would not have paid so much. Two years ago and prior to that time they had paid a tax of $534. Last year they paid $1,500 under the new assessment and now sell the property for S1,000,O00 or more. As l under stand it, the acreage is about $500 acres.
 MT. Beardsley points out that the above statement in particular is mls- leading and sayP-
 '"rhe Sealshipt company is report ed as paying $1.000,000 for the Smith properties and rights. That price IS too high when it is considered that a large portion of the purchase price was included in real estate and float ing property. Governor Woodruff says the total acreage is $500 acres. As a matter of fact in the plant se- cured from the Smith company there is not more than 25 per cent. of the total acreage in Connecticut. The rest is in New York, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The total acreage sold was 5000 acres, of which 5000 Rhode Island, on which the annual rate is $5 an acre; 1000 in New York, on which the annual tax is IF 1-2 cents an acre; the balance in Massa- chusetts on which the anual tax is cents an acre. thousands of acres in Connecticut and elsewhere, and the value of the acre age itself, as distinct from the prod uct, has been arrived at satisfactorily between buyer and seller. So that it is an established fact that there of arriving at the value of the oys- ter grounds. In all plants that we purchase the value lies in the oysters themselves, not in the land. Even assuming that we paid $l.OOO,O0O Tor the Smith property, S1OO,OOO or that real estate alone aside from the veS- sells of the fleet.
 While there are many thousands of bushels of oysters on the ground, these are absolutely unmark0IdDlo un- til transported to some other state. They may remain on the grounds here for five years and still be unsafe able, and by transplanting to other states may be made marketable in six months.
 .'Mr Smith has paid taxes to the city of New Haven on wharf and real estate. The Sealshipt company pays big taxes in Bridgeport and various taxes in four other states. We don't object to a tax on oyster grounds, We are willing to pay taxes on the real value of grounds but we do object to being singled out by special form of tax, and, inaSmuch as the value of oyster grounds can be arrived at as well as the value of other property we want to pay a fair rate of as- sessment on the value, no more.
 'The distinction between oyster properties here and in other states in which a per bushel tax is laid, is that in Connecticut the planter owns the grounds and has developed an in- dustry from a barren territory and the crop is the result of his efforts and investment under adverse condi- tions. In other states where there is a per bushel tax the state owns grounds and oysters on them are of natural growth. Both ground and oys- terS belong to the state and the per bushel tax is the charge of the state against the individual for the privil- ege on the states ground and for catching from the state."