12 FOURTH REPORT OF SHELL FISH COMMISSIONERS 
trifling tax of less than ro cents an acre, this, too, including penalties 
for delay. 
The highest estimate made by the Commissioners last year of any 
ground was fifty dollars an acre. Reports have come in from trust- 
worthy sources of sales made during the past year at prices varying 
from one hundred to three hundred dollars per acre. Surely the com- 
plaint that the valuations of the Commissioners are excessive is as 
unreasonable as it is ungracious. 
An attempt was made last winter to secure a law for the appoint- 
ment of three persons to act asa Board of Relief, but it failed. So 
far as the Commissioners are personally interested, they have not the 
slightest objection to such a law; but acting for the best interests of 
the State, they do not hesitate to say that such a board would be a 
useless expense. If you take three men, one from the west end, one 
from the east end, and a third from some point between, as has been 
proposed, what will be the result? Conceding that each may be 
thoroughly conversant with his own immediate neighborhood, he 
knows little or nothing of grounds beyond; so that allowing the 
knowledge of each to be shared by all three, it is still limited, and it 
constitutes but a small fraction of what they ought to know. Thus 
half equipped, if they attempt to review the Commissioners’ work, 
what can they do? Each must of necessity adopt the individual 
judgment of the other as to lots in the latter’s neighborhood, with 
which alone he is familiar,—with a continual temptation before him 
to favor his neighbors by low estimates; while all three must blindly 
grope for conclusions in regard to the valuations of lots with which 
they are not familiar. They can, of course, have hearings and ex- 
amine witnesses; but if this is done without previous general knowl- 
edge of the field, such as the Commissioners have, it will take all 
their time during the year;—and thus, to say nothing of the great 
additional expense to the State, you will have a judgment which, 
from the nature of the case, cannot be more than half informed, 
overruling the judgment of three men who have made a thorough 
study of the business and of necessity must know what is just and 
reasonable better than anyone else. This business differs entirely 
from Boards of Relief touching lands upon the shore. There 
they are in full view continually, and their value is fairly known to 
every man of intelligence in the community; but in respect to lots 
under water, they are never seen, their character is unknown to all 
but the owner and his employees and the agents of the Board. The 
Commissioners have no interest in the grounds, beyond what pertains 
