Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





YoL. XXII.





NEW YOKK, SATÜEDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1878.





No. 549.





Published Weekly by

TERMS.
ONE YEAR, in advance.. ..SIO.OO.

Communications should be addressed to

C.  ^V.  SIVEET.

Nos. St5 AND :M7 Broadway

STAT^ TAXATION.

The State Board of Equalization recently held
its annual meeting at Albany, aud, as usual, com¬
pleted the perfunctory dischai-ge of its duties.
The business and dutj- of this Board is to ensure
the equitable und just distribution of the .State
ttixes among the various counties of the State.
To say that this duty htus been faithfully and in¬
telligently, or even legally discharged iu the
liast, would be saj-iug more than any member of
this board would have tho hardihood to claim. It
is simply stating the truth to .saj' that these
duties have beeu performed during the present
}-ear, as they bave beeu for decades, in a purely
arbitrary and partial, uot to .sjiy illegal, manner.
Perhaps it is but simple justice to the members of
this Board to concede at tho outset the utter im-
possibility of making the apportionment of these
State taxes strictly in accordance with the law.
This must relieve them from tbe odium which
would attach to any deliberatelj' illegal or «;xtra
oIRcial acts. They aro called upon to perforiu an
impossibilitj', and instead of returning the trust
iuto the hands of the law makers, the members of
the Board content themselves with performiiig
their functions according to their own ideas. If,
instead of going through the formality of votiug,
the members should throw dico as to how the
State taxes should be distributed, such a method
would have quite as much sanctiou of law and
reason in it, as that which has been coutinuously
and persistently adopted.

The law requires the assessoi-s iu every town
and ward iu the State to assess füll aud true
values of real and personal estate. These valua¬
tions are returned to various boards of assessors
until they finally reach the hauds of the three
assessors specially appointed bj' the State to take
cognizance of these values for the a.ssessmeut of
State taxation.

In passing through theso various hands, the
valuations are liable to be modified. It is alleged
that in all cases they are made to conform to the
exigeucies of the locality and to subserve the
special interests of the different counties. It is
claimed that they are kept arbitrarily and ridicu-
lously low in amount in order to escape the proper
shax-e of State taxation.

After tlie State as,sessors have made up their
report embodying their views of the equities of
these valuations, the State Board of Equalimtion
then have a right to sit in judgment upon the
work of all these sub-assessors, including the
three State assessors, and to determine arbitrarily
the valuations upon wbich the State tax should
be levied.

We have no disposition to go into the numerical
demonstration of this problem, for the reason
iibat it would make this artiele appear Ijke a table





of logarithms aud bo equally intelligiblc to ordi¬
narj' render.s. Sullice it to say that this aiimial
meeting of the State lioard of E«iualizatioii has
gotteu to l»o quite a stereotj-pcd ulfair, aud, we
may .add, disgraceful to the intelligence of the
Empire State. The meinbers of this Board meet
annuallj- and hear the protests of tbe a.ssembled
asses-sor.s representing tlio dill'erent counties. In
110 Single instance that we are aware of has any
jLssessor protestcd that his county wits taxed too
little, Init with surpri.sing uniformitj' all the as.ses-
scrs havo declared that their several counties
were over taxed. To a'dispassiouate observer
these coutroversies seem to take the form of
market womeirs conteutiotis. Ono .siys, "You
lie,'" aud another says, " Vou're another.'' The
re.^ult i.s almost invariable thattlie «pioti of taxa¬
tion assigned to Now York aud Kings counties
contiiiuoiisly bear au increasing ratio to the whole
amount (»f State taxation.

It is pitiuble and deplorable that .such a .scene
.should be aiiuually re-cnacted iu this great State,
wheu at auy se.ssioii of the State L^gislatiire a bill
of not more thau tweive lines might be enacted
which would cover the equities of this wbole sub¬
ject, aml place thom forever oittsido of the ütiiits
of debate.

The proposition hus been sot forth with a good
deal of plausibilitj' that tho proper method of
levying of State taxation woiilu bo tu set apart for
direct taxation certain specific interests, .such as
manufacturing companies incorporated under
the general law of this State, as well as certain
other corporatioii.s. This, we believe, is the only
tangible proposition which has beeu made, de¬
signed aiul calculated to settle the whoie matter
iu di.spute. lu our humble opinion no more ob¬
jectionable metliod could be proposed, for the
simple reusou that the corporations selected for
this direct State tax might be centralized in a few
given localities; aud thus, in practice, the tax
would be drawii from such localities while other
parts of the State would be exempt The fatal
aud iusuperable objection to this plan is tlmt it
overturns the time-honored method of compelling
the central State government to appeal to the
couuties for its support and concedes to it the
privilege of levying direct taxation. The propo¬
sition itself is not worth referring to here, except
as being the only one that has ever been intelli¬
gently propouuded. As it has failed to receive
the slightest attention, we have no desire to
further perpetuate tue recollection of it, except to
illustrate the paucity of ideas upon this subject.

Supposing the method of apportionment to be
preserved, as we hope and believe it will be,
against all incoming propositions, it is merely
requisite for the State to enact a fixed, fair and
authoritative measure of distribution. Instead
of making this distribution upon the lying and
incoherent valuations of sub-assessors, let the
distribution be effected by some stable and reli¬
able measure ; for instance, by the enumeratiou
of the population as made for the pm-pose of
redistricting the State, or by the land value only
of the counties assessed expressly for Stata tax¬
ation by disinterested State assessors or ap-
praisers, wbo shall be men of conspicuous inteUi-
jgence and integrity, above the rank of mere
placp-huntinjg politicians.





The gross amount of State taxation has been
reduced by recciit administrations to so small a
ligure, that it is becoming of less conseiiueiice
every year as to how this State tax is to be ap-
portioned. For this very reason the Legislaturo
should take up the subject at a time wheu it may
be dis-scussed calmly aud dispassiouately : free
from anj' overshadowing self-interest Some
special eniergency may arise in the future which
will augment the volumo of State taxation to
such an oxteut as to render its distribution of
greater co'nsequoncethan it is.'it the present time,
and füll of bitterness.

The minds of those wbo are aeciistomed] to
frame legislation, and particularly those who are
familiär witli taxation, ought to be fertile enough
iu expodieiits to suggest sr)me fair and equitable
method of di.stributiiig this tax other than to
abandon tbe revercd and traditional method of
its apportionment among tbe couutie.s.

If the Stute capitol could be removed to New
York City, and the State canals be made free, we
fancy that the Solution of this (piestion of State
taxati(Ui might become a very uiuirb easier prob¬
lem.

AH.STHACT  OF TITLK.

This term is perhaps but little used outside of
the oillces of lawyers aud real estate brokere, and
the substtiuce which it is inteiiiied to denote luaj'
be entirelj' unknown except to real estate Oper¬
ators aud those coneerned iu the preparation of
real e.state titles. As its languago implies, the
abstract of title is supposed to present u sj'iiop-
tical aud detuiled history of the title of property.
It is well to bear in miud that in trausactions in
real estate it is uot tiie property which is bought
aud .sold, but the title to the property. A pur¬
chaser's occupancy and eiijoyuient ilepeiid less on
po.sses.sion than upon the valid ity of the chain of
title by which he aciiuires tbe property. Titles
are made up of succcssive links, extending bnck a
greater or less «listance into aiiti(|uity. These
links may be faultless from their origin to the
latest ono that is welded, in which event the titlo
is considered perfect. There are few if any ab-
solutely perfect title.s. In too manj- there are
fal.se, fraudulent or missing links, which impair
the value of titles. A good title is ordinarily the
highest attainable type.

On account of the ar:ißcial method in which
real estate is dealt in, that is, bj' certificate of
record, it becomes necessary to call in the assist¬
ance of a conveyancer—a professional man, ex-
pert in all questions of law relating to titles, upon
whose judgment, aftercritical examination of the
various links of the chain of title to a given piece
of property, the purchaser invests or withholds
his monej'.

The abstract of title presents not onlj' the re¬
suits of such examination, but the füll details of
the examination itself. It is impossible to as¬
sign too great a value to an abstract that has
been fully, carefully and intelligentlj- prepared.
■\Ve would irapress upon every property owner,
whether holding property for investment, for sale
or on speeulation, that it is his bounden duty to
himself and to the public to be posgessed of a
clear and infcelligible abstract of title. No man
should begrudge tbe outlay of a rea,soijable mm