Yorkville Enquirer

Correspondence of the Yorkville Enquirer.

FROM THE STATE CAPITAL.

COLUMBIA, December 1.—The present session of the Legislature promises to be a very quiet one. The absence of long winded talkers, especially in the house, is quite apparent. There seems to me to be an unusual number of young men in the House; but to their credit they do not seem disposed to talk on all occasions, as is generally the case with young members.

The most important matters to be considered, this session, are the questions of a change in the mode of assessment and collection of taxes and that of continuing the work on the Columbia Canal.

The present system of assessment of property in this State is generally conceded to be unjust and unequal, inasmuch as it does not secure equality of taxation between counties, nor even among townships of the same counties, as the Comptroller's report shows.

To illustrate the inequality of the assessments between the counties, take for example, the counties of York and Lancaster, as they lie contiguous to each other. A record of the lands sold at public sale in York county during the past year shows that they were assessed on the auditor's books at 81 per cent. of what they sold for, while in Lancaster county they were assessed at only 25 per cent. of what they brought at public sale. In the matter of personal property the present system gives results equally as unjust. The average value of mules in Laurens county is $48; in York it is $73.50. It requires no argument to show that a system which gives such results as these needs amendment, and I think our Legislature will make an effort to remedy the system.

The present system of collecting taxes upon an assessment made the year previous gives our people great dissatisfaction, and an effort will be made to have the assessment for May 1885 dispensed with, and the assessment made in the Spring of 1886, so as to bring the assessment within the same year as the collection of taxes and have the books for the collection of taxes open from the 1st of October to the 1st of December. This would, I think, be much more satisfactory and convenient to the tax-payers.

The probabilities are that the Legislature will put a stop to the expenditure of money on the Columbia Canal, as soon as it can be done without losing to the State what has been expended. The proposition, which seems to meet with most favor, is to construct a dam across the Congaree at the point to which the canal is now completed and let the water into the canal at this point, which it is thought will give ample power to run all the machinery necessary to employ the convicts within the walls of the Penitentiary, and thus stop any further extension of the canal.

Both Houses have gone industriously to work, and all signs point to a short, laborious session.

J. G. B.