[40 FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. 
mation they can obtain, and add ten per cent. for the default. 
The commissioners are authorized to “equalize if necessary, and 
determine the value of all the property so returned and de- 
scribed,” and to lay a tax of one per cent. thereon, and said tax 
is a lien upon the grounds so taxed from the time it is so laid by 
the commissioners until paid. If the tax is not paid by the first 
day of July, the commissioners are required to make and issue 
their warrant for the collection thereof, with interest at one per 
cent. per month from the time the tax became due until paid. 
The commissioners are further empowered to enforce such war- 
rant by the seizure of any taxable property which the party in 
default may own. 
Under this law the commissioners collected in 1883, $3,681.47, 
the entire tax laid. Of course there are difficulties in estimating 
the value of oyster grounds, and the commissioners were obliged 
in many cases to equalize and determine the value of the 
grounds returned. The general plan of valuation adopted was 
the following. The commissioners assumed that the very all 
best grounds should be assessed at a given figure, and then 
were graded with reference to their proportionate value com- 
pared with the best. This subject is one requiring careful con- 
sideration, and the system may doubtless beimproved by further 
experience. As no appeal can be taken from the assessment of 
the commissioners, they have themselves acted as a board of re- 
lief for the present year. In other words, after the valuations of 
the grounds had been fixed according the best information ob- 
tainable by the commissioners, appointments were made of cer- 
tain days on which they would be present with the lists at each 
of the principal towns along the shore, and listen to any parties 
who might wish to present reasons why the assessment of their 
grounds should be reduced. This proved to be a very popular 
move, and when the assessment was finally fixed, the only person 
seriously dissatisfied with the result was the one owning the 
largest acreage of oyster grounds in the State. The oystermen 
of this State are divided into two principal classes, namely, those 
who own and cultivate grounds of their own, and those who gain 
a subsistence by work upon the natural or public beds. The 
former are generally men of some means, and work with steam- 
