XXIV REPORT OF THE

missioners, and Appeal Tax Court, and transmitted to the
Comptroller, as required by the 34th Section of said Act, to
be reported to the General Assembly ; together with the
valuation of the property of Railroad Companies, in the
several Counties, and City of Baltimore, made by the County
Commissioners, and Appeal Tax Court, in pursuance of the
Act of 1876, Chapter 159. The aggregate valuations thus
returned, are—

Real Property and Improvements.............................$361,857,517 94

Personal Property.......................................................... 110,616,699 73

Shares of Stock of Corporations in this State, and Bonds

of such Corporations................................................ 49,037,401 90

Railroad Property.......................................................... 25,532,650 84

Total valuation of of roperty in the State........................$547,044,270 41

This total valuation is larger than that made and returned
under the Act of 1866, Chapter 157, and 1867, Chapter
341, by the sum of $54,990,798.41, including the valuation
of the property of Railroad Companies, and excluding the
amount of Railroad property, is larger than that of 1866, by
the sum $29,458,147.57.

This result is as large as could have been expected, con-
sidering the shrinkage in values of property, and investments
throughout the country, and the immense amounts of capital
in this State absorbed in mortage debts, which since the Act
of 1870, Chapter 394, have been free from the imposition of
any kind of tax.

In my opinion, it would be wise for the General Assembly
to inaugurate a system, by means of which the basis of
assessment may be annually corrected and perfected, so as to
dispense in future with the labor and expense of general
revaluations. The system of decenneal valuations, has seldom,
if ever, failed to create dissatisfaction, and frequently works
hardship and injustice upon numbers of the taxpayers. So
generally has this been the case, that the system has been
abolished in several of the States, and a plan of annual cor-
rections, by trained officers, skilled by education, and practice
in arriving at true and impartial valuations, has been adopted.
This is notably the case in the States of New York and
Massachusetts, both of which States were visited by me dur-