FLORIDA. 



271 



the total gross assessment $237,420. The total 

 net tax assessment after deducting insolven- 

 cies, etc., was $208,107"; and the license-taxes 

 amounted to $62,237. The county tax proper 

 amounted to $128,084; the county school-tax 

 to $75,537; the special county tax to $87,852 ; 

 making the total taxes for county purposes, 

 $291,474. The amount of auction-tax col- 

 lected was, as stated in the revenue exhibit, 

 only $731. In many counties no reports of 

 auction-tax are made at all. The Comptroller 

 suggests that the law be either repealed and 

 the license of auctioneers be made uniform 

 with those of other merchants, or that it be 

 modified so as to be made effective. The tax on 

 sales by land agents is also inoperative, no re- 

 ports being made at all. The Comptroller con- 

 siders that the right of assessment of lands held 

 under the homestead laws of the United States 

 ought to be more clearly defined. Assessors 

 have usually been instructed that, when the 

 occupant is entitled to a patent, his land is lia- 

 ble to assessment. Even though the home- 

 steader is taxed as soon as the legal time has 

 elapsed which is necessary to secure a patent, 

 his land is often improved and rendered valua- 

 ble in the interval, and he remains exempt from 

 taxation, while his neighbors are assessed reg- 

 ularly, and under such circumstances are taxed 

 unequally. A smaller amount of land was sold 

 for taxes' and bought in by the State in 1880 

 than in 1879, and a larger amount was re- 

 deemed, indicating that the collection of taxes 

 is more efficient, and that the fraudulent or 

 heedless mistakes in the descriptions of lands 

 on the tax-books, which discourage bidders, 

 have been better guarded against. Many of 

 the collectors and assessors of the taxes for 

 1876 and previous years had not yet settled up 

 their accounts with the State 'at the beginning 

 of Governor Drew's term of office, owing to 

 the fact that the appropriations for the pay- 

 ment of commissions for the collection of the 

 revenue had been exhausted, and an account- 

 ing at the regular time was thereby prevented. 

 The assessors could not be paid off until the 

 collectors had made a final settlement; and 

 these officers did not press for a settlement, 

 having, as they did in most cases, in their pos- 

 session funds of the Stats more than sufficient 

 to balance their claims. In order to close up 

 the accounts of these delinquent officers, war- 

 rants were issued in excess of the appropria- 

 tions during the last and the preceding admin- 

 istrations, which in many cases were paid into 

 the Treasury on account .with balances due 

 the State. These warrants run through four 

 years, the largest number having been issued 

 in 1877, and were $15,709 in excess of the ap- 

 propriations of those years for the collection 

 of taxes. The Comptroller has been much 

 embarrass 3d by the presentation of accounts 

 from county officers, who have been denomi- 

 nated such by a decision of the Supreme Court, 

 and therefore payable by the counties. This 

 decision was cited by a letter from the Attor- 



ney-General to the Comptroller in reference to 

 these accounts. The last Legislature enacted 

 that coroners, etc., should be paid by the State ; 

 but there was no appropriation made to meet 

 such payments. They also enacted that the 

 expenses of justices' trials, in cases of felony, 

 should be paid by the State, but there was no 

 specific appropriation made to pay them, and 

 the appropriation for paying jurors and wit- 

 nesses has been construed as only applicable 

 to jurors and witnesses of the circuit courts. 

 Under these circumstances the Comptroller has 

 not felt authorized to issue warrants for such 

 expenses. 



The sales of public .lands have continued to 

 increase. In regard to the entries and sales of 

 State land the retiring Governor, in his part- 

 ing message addressed to the new Legislature, 

 offered the following suggestions: 



The law, as it now stands, requires the payment of 

 the purchase-money in cash, upon the entry of any 

 public landj and many of our citizens and some of 

 the poorer immigrants are unable to do this, and so 

 they settle upon these lands without entry. And 

 there these squatters remain. They make only such 

 improvements as are essentially necessary to health 

 and life frequently they live on in this way for 

 years, exhausting whatever fertility there may be hi 

 the land, and when worn out they move off, leaving 

 only worn-out land and dilapidated improvements, 

 while, in the mean time, the State has received not 

 one cent of tax or remuneration in any way for the 

 use of the land. Then, again, it checks and kills the 

 spirit of improvement among the class of people set- 

 tling on these lands. If asked why they do not build 

 more comfortable houses, plant fruit-trees and make 

 other improvements, the reply invariably is : " This 

 is State land ; I am not able to buy, and I don't know 

 how soon I may be entered out." And on this ac- 

 count many a poor man is prevented from becoming a 

 landholder and a tax-payer. To obviate these difficul- 

 ties in the way of their becoming tax-payers instead of 

 squatters, ana to increase the revenue from the public 

 domain, I think every settler or intending settler upon 

 State land should be allowed to pay for his homestead 

 (say one hundred and sixty acres or less), in three in- 

 stallmentsone third of the purchase-money in cash, 

 upon entry, one third in two years, and the other in 

 three years, after date of entry, in the mean time the 

 land to be assessed and taxed as the property of the set- 

 tler. In this way not only a considerable revenue will 

 be brought into the Treasury from lands which, under 

 the present system, are of little or no benefit to the 

 State, but a door will be thrown open for the encour- 

 agement of settling and improvement among the poorer 

 classes of our citizens and immigrants which will, in 

 the course of years, prove of incalculable benefit to 

 the State of Florida. A home will he placed within 

 easy reach of the poorest, and a feeling of protection 

 and security will be produced amon^ the settlers on 

 public lands that will develop the thrift and economy 

 necessary to secure the means with which to buy the 

 land. 



Governor Drew was instrumental in procur- 

 ing the conveyance to the State of a large 

 quantity of land from the United States Gov- 

 ernment which was claimed under the acts of 

 Congress relating to swamp and overflowed 

 lands. Learning, upon entering upon the gov- 

 ernorship, that a considerable area of swamp 

 and overflowed lands existed in the State, for 

 which the General Government had omitted or 

 had refused to issue patents to the State, he vis- 



