300 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
exemption of piiblio l)uryinj^ grounds fmm taxes 
and assessments. Section 15, Cliapter 37, G. L. 
1851., was to that effect. This section unless repugr- 
nant to the constitution of 1857, was continued 
in force and effect by Section 2 of the Schedule. 
Since the constitution itself provided for an ex- 
emption of public buryinc: grounds from general 
taxes, it is not easy to find a statute repugnant 
thereto where it grants a like exemption from 
local assessments. The construction of the statute 
(the same as Section G2S0, G. S. 1013) was before 
this court in State ex rel. Oakland Cemetery Asso- 
ciation V. St. Paul, supra, and the word “assess- 
ments," as used therein, was held to designate impo- 
sitions made by municipalities for local improve- 
ments. as contradistinguished from funds raised for 
general revenue. It is true, the constitvitionality of 
the statute was not directly cbalUnged in that case. 
ITowe\er, it was there held that the cemetery 
was exempt from local assessments. After that 
decision has now for nearly 30 years been recog- 
nized as establislied law, the statute supporting 
it should not l»e lightly brushed aside as unconsti- 
tutional. We think public policy as well as the 
reluctance which courts should properly entertain 
against disturbing what has apparently been for a 
long time accepted as settled law' prohibit us from 
declar’ng tlie statute invalid at this late day. 
But even nnham{)ered by the foregoing consider- 
ations. it is by no means clear that any constitu- 
tional objections may be found to the statute. 
The proviso in Section 1, Article IX recognizes a 
pow'er in the legislature over the assessments for 
local improvements. The. court has held that muni- 
cipal] ries <lo not inherently possess the power to 
levj’ such assessment. “The authority of munici- 
palities to impose burdens of any character upon 
persons or property, is wholly statutory," Sew’all 
V. vSt. Paul, 20 Minn. 511. See also State ex rel. 
Oliver Iron Min. Co. v. Kly, 120 Minn. 40. As- 
sessments for public improvements are based upon 
benefits conferred upon the property assessed, and 
cannot exceed such benefits. The legislature may 
prescribe how' benefits sliall- be determined; and it 
w'onld seem to follow' that it may also determine 
w'hether or not a certain class of property will be 
benefited by local improvements. By the statute 
under consideration we may say, that the legis- 
lature determined that local improvements do not 
bestow benefits upon public cemeteries, hence such 
property is exempt from assessments therefor. 
Again, it w'otild appear to bo in consonance with 
sound reasoning to say that the constitution by 
exempting certain property from general taxation 
has invited rather than forbidden the legislature 
to exempt the same property from assessment for 
local improvements. The constitution of Ohio pro- 
vided that: “Laws shall be passed taxing by uni- 
form rule * * * all real and personal property 
according to its true money value, but burying 
grounds may be exempted from taxation." No 
statute had been passed exempting cemeteries from 
tlie burden of local improvements, hence the court 
properly held the cemetery liable for assessments 
in Lima v. Cemetery Association, 42 Oh, St. 128. 
But speaking of the hearings of the constitution 
in this respect upon the authority of the legisla- 
tui-e the court says: “There is nothing then, in 
the con.stitution forbidding either the assessments 
of siicli proi)erty or its exemption from assess.- 
ments." And decisions generally recognize the ex- 
istence of statutory as well as constitutional 
exemptions. City S’tr. Imp, Co. v. Regents of 
TTiivcrsity, 153 Cal. 77G. 
Appellant cites cases holding cemetery associa- 
tions liable for assessments of the character here 
in question; Bloomington Cemetery Association v. 
People. 139 Til. 10: Buffalo Cemetery Association v. 
BulTalo, 40 N. Y. 500: Baltiinore v. Props, of Green 
Mt. Cemetery, 7 Md. 517; Mullins v. IMt. St. Mary's 
Cemetery, 239 Mo. 081: Lima v. Cemetery Associa- 
tion supra; and others. In these cases there was 
either a lack of express statutory exemption, or the 
exemption wms from taxation merely which the 
court construed as not exempting from assessments, 
or else a construction w’as given to the word “as- 
sessments" in the exejiiption statute dlTerent from 
that given by this court in State ex rel. Oakland 
Cemetery Association v. St. Paul supra. After the 
decision in Buflalo Cemetery Association v. ButTalo, 
40 N. Y. 500, the legislature of New York passed a 
statute specifically exempting cemeteries from as- 
sessments for local improvements. 'J’his statute 
W’as sustained in Buffalo Cemetery Association v. 
Buffalo, 118 N. Y. 01; Oakland Cemetery v. Yonkers, 
63 App. niv. (N. Y.) 448 (affirmed in 182 N. Y. 
504); Matter of City of New York, 192 N. Y. 459. 
The learned court below denied the city the 
right to assess relator for benefits on the ground 
that relator W'as iticorporated prior to tlie adoption 
of the constitution, so that Section 15. Chapter 37, 
G. L. ISol, became a part of its charter, and the 
exemption also covered land acquired subsequent to 
the adoption of the constitution, whenever statutes 
w’ere passed, enlarging the quantity of land which a 
cemetery association may hold. This may also be 
correct; hut w’e prefer to base our decision upon 
the constitutionality of the statute, thereby placing 
all public cemetery associations In the same class 
with respect to local assessments. 
GLIMPSES OF OUR NATIONAL PARKS 
IX— THE MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK. 
CLIFF PALACE. MESA VEPvDE NATIONAL PARK. 
Where did the Indians come from? 
That is one of the innumerable questions 
which anthropologists have not yet 
solved. Some suggest that they came 
from Asia by way of Alaska because the 
Eskimo seem to somewhat resemble 
]\IongoIians. Others think they came 
from Europe by way of Greenland; 
others that they came from the South 
Sea islands by way of South America. 
Perhaps all these theorists are right. 
In one thing only do they agree and 
that is that, from the Arctic to the Ant- 
arctic, no matter what their tribal or 
other diflerences, due to varying condi- 
tions of climate and surroundings, all 
American Indians are of one physical 
type with similar mental characteristics 
and cultural tendencies. 
Their highest civilization undoubtedly 
developed in Peru, Central America and 
southern Alexico, where architectural 
ruins of quite astonishing beauty are to- 
day crumbling under the jungle. This 
civilization was ruthlessly destroyed by 
the Spanish conquest following the dis- 
covery of America. 
The next highest prehistoric civiliza- 
tion was in our own southwest, and the 
remains of its highest special develop- 
ment are the cliff dwellings of the Mesa 
Verde in southwestern Colorado, to pre- 
serve which Congress has set apart the 
Mesa Verde National Park. 
When one speaks of the Pueblo In- 
dians he does not mean an Indian, stock 
or tribe, but merely Indians, possibly of 
various stocks and many tribes, who used 
to live, and a few of whose modern de- 
scendants still live, in pueblos or com- 
munity houses of many rooms, holding 
entire tribes or villages under one roof. 
The builders of Mesa Verde’s prehistoric 
dwellings were of the Pueblo type. 
Those who have traveled through our 
southwestern states have seen from the 
car window innumerable mesas or small 
isolated plateaus rising abruptly, for hun- 
dreds of feet, from the bare and often 
arid plains. The word mesa is Spanish 
for table, and indeed many of these me- 
sas when seen at a distance may sug- 
gest to the imaginative mind tables with 
cloths reaching to the floor. 
Once the level of these mesa tops was 
the level of all of this vast southwestern 
country, but the rains and floods of cen- 
turies have washed away all the softer 
earth down to its present level, leaving 
standing only the rocky spots or those 
so covered with surface rocks that the 
rains could not reach the softer gravel 
underneath. 
All have heard of the Enchanted Mesa 
in New Mexico which the Indians of re- 
cent times considered sacred. The Mesa 
Verde, or green mesa (because it is cov- 
ered with stunted cedar and pinyon trees 
