Legal Decisions. - Reference was made in my last year's address to the law relating to the assessment of bank stock held by persons not residing in the Commonwealth. At that time the first tax under the new law had been levied by the assessors, and transmitted to the treasurer for collection. The constitutionality of the act being questioned, test cases were made against the city and its treasurer, at the March term of the Supreme Judicial Court. The decision affirmed the constitutionality of the law, and the taxes levied are in process of collection. Although the suit to test the validity of this enactment was brought against the city, Boston had no direct interest in the issue, the tax being laid and collected by the city assessors and treasurer, as the agents of the Commonwealth, to whose officers they account for the entire revenue from this source. But, apart from the fact that our officials are called upon to administer this law, the city, which pays so large a portion of the expenses of the State, cannot be indifferent to any result affecting the income of the Commonwealth, and consequently the city's proportion of State taxation.

New Laws. The legislature of 1868, by an

enactment of that year (chapter 211) required that the assessors should annually post in two places in each ward a list of all persons within the city to whom a poll tax was assessed. It probably did not occur to the committee who recommended the passage of this law, that a literal compliance with its provisions would entail a heavy expense upon the city, and that it would not be easy to find proper and convenient places for posting the many thousand names that make up the list of persons assessed within our municipality for a poll tax. This provision of law was, after a single year's trial, repealed by the legislature of 1869, which, however, by chapter 443, extended the time in which an assessment of a poll tax could be made, from the first day of August to the fifteenth day of September. Under the amended act two hundred and sixty-two persons, omitted by the assessors, were assessed in time for the tax and voting lists. An additional law in relation to taxation, contained in chapter 190, provides penalties of fine or imprisonment for bringing in to the assessors a false or fradulent return on list of property.

Abatement of Taxes. The abatement of the tax of 1869, at this time, represents an amount

equal to ninety-six one-hundredths of one per centum of the whole valuation of the city. The abatement of 1868, at the corresponding time, was eighty-eight one-hundredths of one per centum; that of 1867 was 1.42, and that of 1866, 1.27 per centum. This small advance over the preceding year, in view of the large increase of valuation, the increased rate of taxation, and the recent receding of values, is a result as gratifying as it is unexpected.

Amount Raised, and Rate of Taxation. — The amount raised by taxation for the current financial year was $7,279,324, of which $903,925 was for the use of the Commonwealth (the city's proportion of a State tax of $2,500,000), and $6,375,399 for the city and county. The rate of taxation was $13.70 on each one thousand dollars, an advance on the rate of the preceding year of $1.40 on a thousand dollars. In this connection, it may be of interest to note the fact that the average rate of taxation throughout the State for the year, as determined by the tax commissioner of the Commonwealth, was $15.52 on each one thousand

dollars.

Valuation of the City. - The valuation of the city by the respective Boards of Assessors for

1869, of the city of Boston and the town of Dorchester, now the sixteenth ward of our city, was

Exhibiting a total valuation of real estate in the two municipalities of $334,878,100, of personal estate of $224,949,200, and a grand total of $569,817,300.

The valuation of 1868 of Boston and Dorchester

Total of real estate for both, $296,927,000; of

personal estate, $211,973,000, and grand total, $508,900,000.

in

The increase of the valuation of 1869 over that of the preceding year was, for Boston, 15.09 per centum on the real estate, and 5.59 per centum on the personal estate; for Dorchester, 38.04 per centum on the real estate and 24.09 per centum on the personal estate. The large increase the valuation of the city, while it has marked, in some degree, permanent improvements in real estate, and the prosperity of the citizens, is, nevertheless, in a large measure, undoubtedly due to the efforts of the assessors to estimate values especially of real estate-by the amounts asked and obtained in sales of such property. It would seem, however, as the the currency approximates to a specie to a specie basis, and the purchasing power of our paper money increases, that a dif ferent and lower valuation of property must result. In the opinion of many observers the growth of value in real estate, which has constantly augmented in price for some years past, has already been checked; and the receding prices that have become manifest for some classes of this property, indicate, for the present at least, a decline of its value. It would appear by com