<?8 ANNUAL REPORT Of THJC <>ff. Dc 



increasing. To withdraw the reserves from taxauon is simply to 

 compel the remaining owners of lands to bear the whole burden. 

 Whether the arbitrary amount of five cents per acre, apportioned 

 as above, is just to the State and to the other districts, is one open 

 to discussion. It is the thought of many that the State lands should 

 not escape without contributing their share, but that this share 

 ought not to be more than the lands formerly paid when in the hands 

 of private owners. 



A class of legislation especially valuable to farmers and those 

 owning large areas of timber land, is that which allows a rebate 

 of taxes for maintaining the lands with a forest cover. Why our 

 agriculturists are so slow to take advantage of these laws is a fact 

 not explainable. While it may be attributed to lack of information 

 on their part that there is such a privilege accorded them, it is true 

 that some persons in some of the counties have taken advantage of 

 or are about to take advantage of this legislation, and a more general 

 interest on the part of those who know of those laws would surely 

 bring them to the notice of others who may not be familiar with 

 their provisions. The difficulty seems to be not so much with the 

 people unacquainted with the legislation as with the officers whom 

 they elect to carry on the public business of their counties, and who 

 refuse to allow these privileges by taking refuge behind some ob- 

 scure idea of unconstitutional Igislation. They compel those seek- 

 ing these benefits to resort to legal action in order to procure the 

 rights and privileges plainly indicated in the body of the law, and 

 upon which successive Legislatures of this State have been only too 

 glad to set the stamp of their approval. A notable point in ques- 

 tion is cited in a letter recently received by the Commissioner of 

 Forestry from a prominent citizen in one of the richest agricul- 

 tural counties in the State. It reads as follows: 



"I have about 65 acres of timber and sprout land that is better 

 than the law requires, and did have the assessor, as required by law, 

 to go through the timber. After having the assessor see the timber, 

 I went to the Commissioners and they could say nothing before see- 

 ing their counsel. On going there the third time they sent me to 

 the collector and he said he is unable to do anything in that line be- 

 fore seeing the Commissioners. Upon seeing them they told him 

 to notify me to pay all of my tax on the timber of which I claim 

 a portion according to law. As I am the next to heaviest tax 

 payer in township, I do not want to pay more than re- 

 quired by law. There are ten acres of the timber heavy enough to 

 cut, twenty acres over eight inches, and forty-seven sprout cut in 

 1896. Now I would like to know who shall pay the rebate and 

 what shall be done next?" 



Is it any wonder that men who are engrossed with the details of 

 their business, or who do not have time or money to conduct lawsuits 

 to compel negligent or indifferent officials to do their duty, would 

 rather submit to such treatment than be harassed otherwise, as it 

 seems pretty certain they would be? Until the servants of the 

 people learn that those who give them office expect them to do their 

 full duty, and then proceed to do it, we may expect just such treat- 

 ment as the kind shown. A principle of this government is, that the 

 people rule and if those intruded with authority are unwilling to 



