WEST KOXBURY PAPJv. 55 



paid into the city treasury more than $20,000 for taxes. 

 Wliy should I, strictly in justice, pay taxes on property 

 beyond my control, when virtually held, except in fee, 

 by the cit}'^ of Boston? My last tax on Newstead, lot 

 N^o. 17, was paid under protest for two reasons : one for 

 undervaluation, and the other because the taxes were 

 unjustly levied on it for the whole year, when your com- 

 mission seized it on the 25th of May, of the same year. 



The reduction by the assessors' valuation of city prop- 

 erty since 1875, averages 14 per cent., to wit: In 1875 

 the valuations were $793,000,000, and in 1883 the valu- 

 ations were $682,000,000: while my property has been 

 reduced by undervaluations ^'^ per cent., and seized for 

 the great park. 



The English laws are so sensitive in guarding and 

 protecting private rights that not even the sovereign 

 could violate them with impunity; these laws are our 

 own heritage; shall we ignore themV 



The fact must be kept in mind, that the prices at 

 which the park lands have been taken from many of the 

 poor OAvners should be no criterion for settlement Avith 

 other parties, because they had no means of redress, no 

 money to spare for litigation; and knowing, as we all 

 do, the uncertainties of the law, they submitted to the 

 exaction, took what they could get, and then groaned 

 over the compulsion forced upon them by their neces- 

 sities. Who will thank you, now, or in the future, for 

 exercising the arbitrary power of the right of eminent 

 domain, to an extent that robs me, and other owners, of 

 a few acres of land, for the benefit of the citizens of 

 Boston. Respectfully yours, 



Samuel E. Sawyer. 



