New Britain herald., 1922-12-02
THE OBSER YER
Makes Random Observations
 On the City and Its People

but in their place there were fou
 lanterns, two hung on each side Of tn, lear.
 The train started on It's way wher
 the conductor took one of the lights
 held it in his left arm and proceeded
 np the aisle to collect the tickets
 When the train had reached tho Whit
 Ing street railroad crossing the con ductor had finished collecting his tickets and evidently believing that lights were no longer needed proceed
 cd to gather the other lanterns hang
 ing in the car and left the passengers
 in total darkness until they reached
 the railroad station in New Britain.
 Adoption, at least in part, of the collecting system employed by the city Of SprinsHeld, Mass, is being urged upon the charter revision committee by Mayor A. M. Paonessa, who escort ed a group of revisionsts to the Bay State this week for study of the system.
 In the opinion of several members of the committee the scheme while it comes as close to ideal as any em- ployed in this section of the country. is far too elaborate and costly for this city to take over. Last year Spring fields plan cost the city 50,0000. many times as much as New Britain's plan.
 Under the Springfield plan, all rev cnues arc taken in through one off, flee. Taxes, property and personal. water rentals, building permit fees, marriage license fees and revenue from the sale of city properties are all handled by the same official. In addition to the collector and large staff of clerks, there is full-time auditor whose duty it is to audit every bill before it goes to the collector and again audit his receipts. l ]
 The personal tax emumerators turn over approximately 50.0o0 cards. charging the collector with the re- sponsibility. of collecting s25O,ooo for the city, s5 being the tax in Spring. field. The assessors and water board turn over their lists and again the of. ficial is charged with the collection Of the full amount. The auditor reviews all bills and makes such corrections IS are necessary. At the end of the year the collector must show collec-, ions or approved abatements for all that do not remain on the books as unpaid.
 In addition, anyone taking a build ng permit, or marriage license, pur- 'hasing city property or being assess-1 d for improvements is billed through he collectors office where payment must be made.
 In this way, no one but the coilec- or receives money due the city. He 5 responsible for all bills which have cen approved by the auditor, who at he time of his approval makes note f each account. The auditors and ollector's reports act as a check up- n each another.
 Mayor Paonessa has already com ined the offices of personal tax col .ctor and he is urging that water { entals, now handled by the water commission. be taken in by the col ,ctor. The matter will be taken up ( y the charter revision committee ext Wednesday evening.
 T All self respecting people dislike ' cling eavesdroppers. Most people [ i'll go to some trouble to avoid hear- g what is not intended for their Y ITS. But occasionally it is impos- T ble to escape that situation And L hen it does come it may be turned c to great game. The Observer was V alking along the street the other I ", attending to his own business li hich is quite difficult job for one Q ho delights in observing, while di- D ctly behind him were two women, U
 girls, or a girl and a woman-the II pserver, not having turned around n
 stare, could not state what the F mbination was But he could not sl lp hearing the conversation. There al IS nothing bad about it. There was =
 profanity, technically speaking lite possibly, there was My lwd," or twoAbut they were not in- nded as curses. The Observer dged, after five minutes of the con- rsation, that the persons of the fe- lie persuasion were discussing imming. A portion of the anatomy s frequently mentioned by it's slang which is not the part k