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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 22, no. 549: September 21, 1878

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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