The above does not include the descriptions assessed for village taxes only. Fourth. What is the total number of assessed mineral reservations rejected for divers reasons? Answer: The county treasurers do not report the number of descriptions they reject. The number rejected by the Auditor General since the taxes were returned as delinquent is as follows: Fifth. Enumerate by counties the total number of mineral reservations returned delinquent? Answer: Answered in the answer to the first question. Sixth. What is the assessed value of the mineral reservations returned delinquent to date? Answer: The assessed value of mineral reservations returned to date is (not including those assessed for village tax only): Assessed in 1912 . Total $676,562 73 720,322 18 $1,396,884 91 The returns for the year 1914 have not been received. Seventh. What is the total revenue realized by the State on assessed mineral reservations paid to date? Answer: The following is a statement of the amount paid in taxes and charges to the county treasurers and Auditor General on descriptions of mineral reservations returned delinquent: Eighth. Enumerate by counties the cost to the State of advertising pursuant to the statute the mineral reservation descriptions returned delinquent? Answer: The following number of descriptions of mineral reservations was advertised for sale for the taxes of 1912, (including those advertised for village taxes); and the amount paid is at the rate of 40 cents a description less the number of descriptions that may be erroneously printed: Ninth. What is the additional departmental expense to the Auditor General's department occasioned by increased duties caused by operation of this statute? Answer: The estimated additional expense to the department of the Auditor General caused by the increased number of descriptions of min eral reservations returned for the past two years for the salaries of clerks and other office expenses is $13,000.00. Tenth. What disposition has been made of the Auditor General's petition for sale of delinquent mineral reservation taxes in the several counties? Answer: The petition of the Auditor General relative to the sale for taxes on descriptions of mineral reservations was objected to in the counties of Baraga, Gogebic, Iron, Menominee and Ontonagon and I understand will be objected to in Dickinson county. The court sustained the objections in all of the counties where they were made with the exception of Baraga county. The attorney for the objectors has appealed from the decision of the court in that county and the Attorney General has appealed in behalf of the State from the decisions in the other counties; and as an evidence of the difficulty of making a valid assessment of mineral reservations, I quote the following testimony of one of the assessing officers in Iron county at the time of the hearing of the objections to the petition of the Auditor General: “CHARLES W. HUGHES, Sworn on behalf of objectors, testified as follows: MR. SHERWOOD: Q. You were supervisor of the township of Hematite in this county in 1912? A. Yes, sir. Q. And you placed the valuation in that township upon the lands of these objectors on what you have called in your roll, mineral reservation? A. Yes, sir. Q. Did you know, in 1912, of any known deposit of ores or minerals upon any of these descriptions? A. Q. No, sir. In getting at that value, how did you reach the value? A. Why, we had a meeting of the county board; we all agreed that we had no way of finding out what was under the surface, and put on a flat rate. Q. You mean that the supervisors of the county agreed to assess the mineral estate in these lands that had been reserved, at a flat rate? A. Yes. Q. Regardless of location or any valuation of one compared with another, or anything of that sort? Ꭺ. Yes, sir. Q. And that was because none of you knew anything about the value of this mineral estate in this reservation? A. No; no way of finding out where it was. Q. It was arbitrarily fixed at this flat rate by an agreement between the supervisors of the county? A. Yes, sir. Q. And in assessing Hematite township you carried out that agreement? A. Yes. Q. And the board of review of your township followed out that assessment and that agreement? Q. You were well acquainted with the lands in that township? Q. Did you consider the mineral rights in the lands in that township worth that much? A. We put it at a dollar an acre. Q. What was your best judgment as to the value of the mineral rights in these lands? A. A dollar an acre. Q. You thought that was a fair value? A. Yes, sir. I didn't see any other way of getting at it. MR. SHERWOOD: Q. You thought some of those lands on which minerals were reserved were worth more than others? A. If we knew where the mineral was. COURT: Q. If you knew where the mineral was, did you fix the rate? A. No, because we were not positive. Q. If you were not positive, you didn't know? Q. Where you knew there was mineral, did you fix the rate? A. I didn't know where there was any mineral, or not. MR. SHERWOOD: Q. In other words, this was an arbitrary fixing of the values; and some, in your judgment, were worth more than that, and some less than that? A. Yes." It is apparent from the testimony of the assessing officer that it is impossible to determine the value of the minerals or the mineral reservation, especially where there is no way of knowing whether deposits of minerals exist or not. Respectfully, O. B. FULLER, REPORTS OF STANDING COMMITTEES. The Committee on Drainage, by Mr. Moore, Chairman, reported A bill to amend section 1 of chapter 3, section 3 of chapter 4, section 1 of chapter 5, section 1 of chapter 7 and section 1 of chapter 8, and tc add one new section to chapter 9 of Act No. 254 of the Public Acts of 1897, entitled "An act to provide for the construction and maintenance of drains, and the assessment and collection of taxes therefor, and to repeal all other laws relative thereto," being sections 4319, 4342, 4344, 4371 and 4379 of the Compiled Laws of 1897, as amended. With a substitute therefor, entitled A bill to amend sections 1 and 2 of chapter III; section 3 of chapter IV; section 1 of chapter V; section 1 of chapter VII; and section 1 of chapter VIII; of Act No. 254 of the Public Acts of 1897, as amended, entitled "An act to provide for the construction and maintenance of drains, and the assessment and collection of taxes therefor," the same being sections 4319, 4320, 4342, 4344, 4371 and 4379 of the Compiled Laws of 1897, and to add a new section to chapter IX to stand as section 13. Recommending that the substitute be concurred in and that the bill as substituted pass. The committee further recommended that the bill be known as the "Smith-Evens-Haviland bill." The question being on the adoption of the proposed substitute recommended by the committee, The substitute was adopted. The question being on the further recommendation made by the committee, that the bill be known as the "Smith-Evens-Haviland bill," The recommendation was concurred in. The bill was then ordered printed, referred to the Committee of the Whole and placed on the general orders. The Committee on Public Health, by Mr. Newel Smith, chairman, reported Senate bill No. 114 (file No. 160), entitled A bill to amend Act No. 98 of the Public Acts of 1913, entitled "An act providing for the supervision and control by the State Board of Health over waterworks systems and sewage disposal systems, and providing for the appointment, duties, salary and expenses of a State sanitary engineer, and providing penalties and defining liabilities for violations of this act; and to repeal Act No. 28 of the Public Acts of 1909," by adding thereto a new section to be known as section 14, relative to the appointment of assistant sanitary engineers. With the recommendation that the bill pass. The report was accepted and the committee discharged. The bill was referred to the Committee of the Whole and placed on the general orders. The Committee on Public Health, by Mr. Newel Smith, Chairman, reported House bill No. 223, entitled A bill to amend section 6 of chapter 83 of the Revised Statutes of 1846, entitled "Of marriage and the solemnization thereof," said section. being compiler's section 8593 of the Compiled Laws of 1897, as amended by Act No. 247 of the Public Acts of 1899, as amended by Act No. 136 of the Public Acts of 1905, and to add three new sections 6a, 6b and 6c. Without recommendation. The report was accepted and the committee discharged. Mr. Oakley moved that the bill be printed, referred to the Committee of the Whole and placed on the General Orders. |