Estate Record





AND   BUILDERS'   GUIDE.





Vol. VII.





NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JANTJARY 14, 1871.





No. 148.





Published Weekly by

THE REAL ESTATE RECORD ASSOCIATION.

. TERMS.,

One year, in advance......................§6 00

All communications should be addressed to

C.   "W.   SA?V-ICTGT.
106 Broauwat. cor. of Pine Street.

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Any subscriber not recei-ying his paper in due season may
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at the Record office wiU remedy the irregularity. Any
carrier deUvering the RECORD later than Saturday morning
is remiss in his duty.





THE WEST .SIDE ASSOCLATIOlf,

There was a large attendance of property
ownera at the meeting pf the West Side Asso¬
ciation on Wednesday evening last, and consid¬
erable interest was taken in the questions for
discussion. Mr. Wm. R Martin, the President,
delivered a very able and exhaustive address on
the subject of the taxation of bonds and mort¬
gages. He illustrated his ideas of the injustice
of this tax by three examples, viz. :

First,. the case of a lot of lamd free from
mortgage, and on which the tax assessors fix a
valuation of' $20,000; at the rate of two per
cent, the tax on this land would be $400.

Second, the case of a lot of land, adjoining
and similar to the first, on which the same valu¬
ation has been fixed, buib on which there is a
mortgage for $10,000 ; on this land, at the rate
of two per cent., the land-owner would pay a
tax of $400, and the mortgagee would be assess¬
ed for $10,000 of personal property, his mort¬
gage, and on it be taxed $200, making in all a
tax of $600 on that.property.

Third, the case of a lot of land, adjoining
and similar to the last, valued at the same sum
and taxed'at $400, on which there was a mort¬
gage for $10,000 for which the mortgagee was
taxed $200, but difEering from the second case
in this, that the land-^owner had also personal
property, assessed at $10,000, he could swear
off against this his- mortgage debt of $10,000,
and thus escape any tax upon his personal pro¬
perty. Now, whsit does this show ? In the
first case there is $20,000 worth of proper¬
ly which pays $400 tax; in the second case
the same amount of property paying $600
tax; and in the third case $30,000 worth of pro¬
perty paying $600 of tax. That is, the second
man pays as much tax as the third man who
has 50 per cent, more property, ani pays 50 per
cent, more tax than the first naan who has the
jmnie amount of. property.
^ These examples show conclusively that taxa¬
tion of mortgages is double taxation, and that
there is no just principle on which such taxa¬
tion can be susterined. The land taxation, so
far as land there is taxed, is an income tax ; for
it is in fact and in form a tax on the annual
value, the rent or income, of the land. The
taxation of .Gl-reat Brita,in is the most scientific,
the most .economical in collection, of any peo¬
ple. The Englishman pays no poll tax, no land
tax, no salt tax, no tax on any of the ngpessax-





ies of life, except it be on beer or tea and sugar.
They have taxes on successions and transfers of
property, stamp taxes. Their customs are
levied on five or six articles. Their income tax
affects those who have realized property pro¬
ducing income, and their excise tax is justly
levied on the -vices and indulgences of the peo¬
ple. Their taxes are thus paid as nearly as
practicable out of the profits of the people, and
not levied on property as such without regard
to its productive value.

It is also clear that the taxation of mortgages
cannot be defended on the pretence that if one
man has money, and another land, and the
moneyed man lends it to the land-owner, so
much personal property is lost to taxation, un¬
less the mortgage is taxed as personal property,
because the money either goes into the land,
and becomes transformed into an estate in the
land, as in the case of a purchase, or the
money remains in use as personal property,
represented by a bond, to which the mortgage
is merely a collateral, and very seldom actually
resorted to. In neither case should it be taxed;
for if it stiQ reniains in use as personal property
it is taxable as such in the hands of the man
who holds it, wherever it, in fact, is found;
and i£ it passes into an estate in the land, and
is really represented by the mortgage, then
there would be the same reason for taxing a
purchaser of land for the money with which he
had bought it as his personal property, on the
ground that he could seU his land and get his
money back again. This would be a case of
double taxation, and palpably absurd.

We regret that we have no space for the re-
maioder of Mr. Martin's speech, which was
very forcible and to the point.

Mr. W. H. Peckham followed Mr. Martin on
the same subject, and gave several good iUus-.
trations of the matter.

On the question of rapid transit nothing new
was elicited, and no new plans proposed. Mr.
W. A. Whitbeck, in a speech of ten minutes
length, set forward some of the difficulties and
objected strongly to the proposed viaduct rail¬
way, and stated that real estate experts
estimated the cost of right of way alone at
from three to five million dollars per mile. The
viaduct vrill ruin property wherever it goes. It
is estimated by some that its resulting damage
to property below Fifty-ninth street will be not
less than $10,000,000 per mile, and by others
competent to give opinions, that the viaduct
will in general diminish the .value of every
block through which it runs to the extent of
30 per cent. The consequential damages re¬
sulting from the construction of underground
railways in this city will be very trifling, and
win end when the road is completed, for the
sub-way buried beneath the surface of streets,
enclosed in masonry and surrounded by earth,
will not communicate either noise or vibration
to adjoining houses ; its operations vsdU be con¬
cealed and it will be perfectly, harmless. Inde¬
pendent of the cost of right of way and result¬
ing damages, engineers disagree as to which
win cost the most for construction—^tHe
undergrotrnd or -vdaduct way.





Mr. Church followed Mr. Whitbeck and pro¬
posed that the city take the project in its
hand and settle the matter by immediately un¬
dertaking the work on its own responsibility.
Mr. Church presented some interesting facta
and statistics demonstrating the fact that the
income derived by the city from increased
valuation of property would doubly compensate
the cost.





GOSSIP.

An important point, touching the ownersliip of lands
which were once stieets, and have since been convert¬
ed into lots, came up on Wednesday before Judge
Ereedman, of the Superior Court. The suit is entitied,
RusseU D. Miner agt. The City, and is brought to recover
damages for alleged fraud by the city in obtaining from
the plaintiff a deed of land In Seventj'-eighth street, be¬
tween Fourth and Fifth avenues. Years ago, when the
plaintifE owned land on the north side of that street, ex¬
tending from Fourth to Fifth avenue, and aUeged to be a
portion of lot No. 143, in what was known as the " Old
Common lands," he deeded it to the city. Subsequentiy
the position of the street was changed, and plaintifE now
claims that by an old common law in general usage a man
who o^-ns land adjacent to a stieet owns the fee simple to
the middle of the' street, and in case it is closed he is en¬
titled to one-half of the disused portion. It is claimed, in
defence, that this law does not apply to steeets in the city,
and it is denied that any fraud was committed in obtaining
the release, or that by general grant of the lot-in question,
any right to the disused road is vested in the plaintiff.
The strip of land in controversy is 900 feet long by 25 feet
wide, and is of great value. The case is expected to last
several days.....The present officers of the Elevated Rail¬
way were reelected on Wednesday last. They state that
the "dummy" .ha.8 proved such a success that they have
contiacted for one of the most approved pattern, and will
have it on the track drawing passengers in four weeks.
The cable-system has been entirely abandoned; the officer
who favored it has been elected a Director, and another en¬
gineer placed in the position.    The annual report was not

furnished for publication.....The carvers of this city and

vicinity met on Wednesday evening last in the Casino, on
Houston stieet, to adopt some plan by which a large body
of fellow-workmen now out of employment can obtain daily-
labor. A resolution was passed pledging each individual
member, after January 15, to decline working over eight
hours, and to submit to a proportionate curtaUment of
wages. By this action it is hoped that employers wUl be
compeUed to engage additional workmen to do the work
which now fiUs up the ten hours.___Mr. Husted has intro¬
duced a bUl iiito the Legislat-ure for a three-tier steam rail¬
road—^to run'on the west side of New York—being the same
bUl that passed the Legislature year before last, and was
vetoed by Gov. Hoffman, on the ground that it got through
by sleight of iand and not by the votes of members. The
bUl is generaUy known as " Swain's Three-tier Road," and
provides that the Company shaU buy- the right of way
between blocks and ran the cars on an elevated striic-
tiire having three teacks, one above another. Senator
Norton has given notice of a bill in the other House

for a simUar road, to run on the east side of the city.___

The Beal Estate Owners' Association listened at a meet¬
ing on Wednesday evening to some statements by Joseph
Haight, the President, which were cordiaUy endorsed by
those present. The laws, he said, regulating the erection
of tenements in this city are a dead letter, on account of
their impractica.biUty. Not a single house in this city has
been erected, in. conformity with those laws. Tenement
property would not-net four per cent, if those laws were
compUed with. They provide for permits to construct tene¬
ments otherwise than in conformity vrith the laws, if the
pjermits are sanctioned by the  Supreme  Court.   Every