REPORT OF THE COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY. ix

thereof, $6,693,849.72, leaving the net debt of the State at the
close of the fiscal year to be $3,735,076.41. A conservative
valuation., however, upon the State's holdings in the stock of
the Annapolis Water Company, Fanners National Bank of
Annapolis and the annuity of the Northern Central Railway
Company, would rather place those securities nearer to
$2,325,000.00 than the price at which they are carried, viz:
$1,576,470.

In said Statement "J" you will observe that the Consoli-
dated Loan of 1899, aggregating $3,253,926.13, as authorized
by Chapter 219 of the Acts" of 1898, matures in 1914,
January 1st. There is now to the credit of this loan in its sink-
ing fund, bonds amounting to $2,958,229.72 so that the sinking
fund securities will virtually carry this loan to maturity. It
will "be necessary, however, that provision be made to exchange
the State's bonds of other loans held in this fund by refunding
the debt to this extent and transferring these State Bonds to
their respective sinking funds.

NEW ASSESSMENT.

In Statement "K" you will find the assessed value of prop-
erty for State Levy for 1911, together with the State Tax of
22 cents on each $100, the former aggregating $951,926,271,
and the tax producing $2,094,237.80. The new assessment of
1910; increased the basis from $836,665,067, in 1910, to
$951,926,271, in 1911, or an increase of $115,261,204, despite
the fact that several counties, viz: Garrett, Kent, Cecil and
Talbot levied and collected the 1911 levy on the old basis of
assessment. Therefore, those counties do not show the new
basis, but the old. Had those counties completed their assess-
ment as required by law, the present basis would be much
larger, and the State and counties would have derived the
benefits accruing therefrom. Such a course was not fair or
equitable to the other counties and the local taxing authorities
of such delinquents are guilty of gross laches in not being more
expeditious in the performance of their duties.

To show how the State has developed in material prosperity,
I beg to submit herewith a statement giving the assessable basis