OF THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT. ii 
arranged in alphabetical order, according to law, with one column 
for the owner's valuation and another column for the Commissioners’. 
When the list is complete the Commissioners carefully consider each lot 
and its valuation, not only with respect to the previous year’s estimate, 
but also with reference to the valuation of neighboring lots in other 
lists. All the information accumulated in the office, with the personal 
knowledge of the employees, is brought to bear upon the question of 
value before it is answered by the Commissioners. After the list is 
completed notice is given that it is open for inspection, and any one 
can examine it who desires to do so; and if he feels aggrieved by the 
Commissioners’ decision, he is notified that on a specified day the 
Commissioners will be at a place named, in or near his town, to hear 
complaints and correct errors. A patient hearing is given to everyone 
with his witnesses, at the time and place named; and if good reason 
is shown for a modification of his list, it is immediately made. In 
this way the Commissioners serve as a gvast Board of Relief. 
Their estimates of value have generally been received with ap- 
proval, and the taxes based thereon have been promptly paid by the 
great majority of owners. ‘There were some complaints which were 
presented, not only to the Commissioners personally, but also through 
the public press, with considerable acrimony; but the Commissioners 
did not deem it necessary to defend a work which commended itself 
to all impartial men. Persons who purchase more ground than they 
can cultivate, who hold large areas for speculative purposes, ought 
not to be relieved of their fair burden of tax because they reap no im- 
mediate benefit from their holdings. And yet this is the class of 
men, generally, who have been loudest in their complaints. When 
compared with the valuations of oyster grounds in town jurisdiction 
and the tax laid thereon by town officers, the State tax laid by the 
Commissioners seems trifling. Allusion was made last year to the 
oyster industry of Rhode Island. It was understood, at that time, 
that there were 11,000 acres under cultivation, but this was a mis- 
take; there were only 1,100 acres. And these pay the State annually 
$11,000, while 71,700 acres in Connecticut paid a tax of $6,447.07 
last year, and 56,793 acres a tax of' $3,681.47 the year before. It is 
true the Rhode Island growers do not own their grounds, while the 
Connecticut grower pays one dollar and ten cents fora guas? fee. But 
the interest on this slight expense does not materially vary the above 
comparison. As it is the whole area of designated grounds, cultivated 
and uncultivated, which last year was 71,700 acres, averaged the 
