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administrators, to claim a reduction under the provisions of § 79 of the school act above referred to; and under § 16, 1 R. S. 392, they may reduce the amount of such assessment by a specification of the value of the property. The question whether the real owners of the property are to be directly or indirectly benefitted by the expenditure of the tax assessed upon it, does not appear to have been one of the considerations in the provisions above referred to for it is manifest that the personal property in the hands of a trustee, guardian, &c. in Buffalo is liable to be taxed there, although the real parties in interest may live in Albany. After the administration of an estate in the hands of an executor or administrator, upon the rendition and settlement of a final account of his proceedings, the personal property is of course no longer liable to taxation where he resides; but so long as it is in his possession, or under his control, it is so liable.-Id 157, 230.

PERSONS AND PROPERTY EXEMPT FROM TAXATION.

By 81, (No. 119,) the trustees, in assessing a tax for building a school-house, are to exempt any person set off to their district without his consent, from any other district, within four years preceding the assessment of such tax, who shall have actually paid within that period, in the district from which he was taken, under a lawful assessment therein, a district tax for the same purpose. The burden of proof in this case, undoubtedly rests with the person claiming the exemption, as the trustees can have no official knowledge of the fact.

This exemption does not extend to taxes for repairs, or for any other purposes than building a school-house.

By 4, of chap. 13, 1 R. S. 379, (2d edition,) the following property is declared to be exempt from taxation: 1. All property, real or personal, exempted from taxation by the Constitution of this state or of the United States: 2. All lands belonging to this state or to the United States:

3. Every building erected for the use of a college, incorporated academy or other [incorporated] seminary of learning; every building for public worship; every schoo

house, court-house and jail; and the several lots whereon such buildings are situated, and the furniture belonging to each of them:

4. Every poor-house, alms-house, house of industry, and every house belonging to a company incorporated for the reformation of offenders, and the real and personal property belonging to or connected with the same:

5. The real and personal property of every public library:

6. All stocks owned by the state or by literary or charitable institutions:

7. The personal estate of every incorporated company not made liable to taxation on its capital by law:

8. The personal property of every minister of the gos pel or priest of any denomination; and the real estate of such minister or priest when occupied by him; provided such real and personal estate do not exceed the value of $1,500. If such real and personal estate or either of them exceed the value of $1,500, that sum is to be deducted from the valuation of the property of such minister, and the residue is liable to taxation:

9. All property exempted by law from execution.

The land owned by a minister of the gospel, if rented, can be taxed to the tenant. It is exempt from taxation to a certain extent only when occupied by such minister. If, however, the occupant is the agent merely of the minister, so as to render it necessary to make out the assessment against the latter, as owner, the property is then exempt.

Land occupied by a minister of the gospel, as tenant, has been held exempt to the amount of $1,500, under the provision above quoted.-Com. School Dec. 61.

6. WHEN TAXES MAY BE IMPOSED BY TRUSTEES WITHOUT BEING SPECIFICALLY VOTED.

By 14 of the act of 1841, (No. 127,) "When the trustees of any school district are required or authorized by law, or by vote of their district, to incur uny expense for such district, and when any expenses incurred by them, are made by express provision of law a charge upon such district, they may raise the amount thereof by tax in the same manner as if the definite sum to be raised had been

voted by a district meeting, and the same shall be collected and paid over in the same manner."

When Town Superintendents of common schools have ascertained the proportion belonging to a new district, of the value of the property of the one from which it was wholly or in part formed, the trustees of such last mentioned district are required by § 69, (No. 94,) to levy, raise and collect such proportion, with the fees for collection, upon the taxable inhabitants of their district, “in the same manner as if the same had been authorized by a vote of their district for the building of a school-house;" and when collected, to pay over the amount to the trustees of the new district, "to be applied by them towards procuring a school-house for their district; and the moneys so paid to the new district shall be allowed to the credit of the inhabitants who were taken from the former district, in reduction of any tax that may be imposed for erecting a school-house." That portion of the moneys so paid arising from the valuation of the district library, can only be applied to the purchase of books, or in reduction of any tax that may be imposed for their purchase.

The amount so raised is to be allowed only "to the credit of the inhabitants who were taken from the former district." It cannot be applied to the benefit of their grantees, assignees, or successors, in case they subsequently remove out of the district before an opportunity is afforded for its application in their own behalf; and in such cases it must of necessity be applied to the general purposes for which taxes are raised.

It is also to be borne in mind that such proportion is only to be ascertained and raised in the case of the formation of a new district; and that the provision in question is not applicable to the case of the annexation of inhabitants, with or without their consent, from one existing district to another.

By 4 of the act of 1841, (No. 96,) "in cases where by the dissolving a district, its school-house, or other property shall be annexed to or included in another district, the officer by whose orders such dissolution was effected, shall appraise such property in the manner provided by law in cases of the creation of new districts; and the proportions assigned to the inhabitants of such dissolved dis

trict who are not annexed to the district which includes the school-house or other property, shall be raised by the trustees of such last mentioned district, and paid over to the trustees of the district to which such inhabitants are annexed, in the same manner as in case of the creation of a new district, and to be applied to the same purpose." By 11 of the act of 1841, (No. 122,) the trustees are required to purchase two blank books, for the purposes specified in that section, and by sub. 1. of § 74 (No. 102,) a book is to be provided for recording the proceedings of the district. The trustees will be justified in imposing a tax, or adding to the amount of any voted by the district, for the expense of these books.

They are also to impose a tax for the deficiency of teachers' wages, occasioned by the exemption of indigent pupils, as will be explained in the remarks on that subject. 7. Form of a District Tax List to raise any tax voted or charged on a District, and of a Warrant for its collection. List of Taxes apportioned by the Trustees of District No. in the town of Trenton, on the taxable inhabitants of the said district, and corporations holding property therein, and upon real estate ly. ing within the boundaries of such district, the owners of which are non-residents thereof, for the purpose of raising the sum of laid and charged on the said district, according to law.

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Statement and description of unoccupied and unimproved Lands of non-residents of said district, upon which a tax has been imposed as above stated.

No. and description of lots and Quant. of land Valuation of Amount of parts of lots.

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To the Collector of School District No. in the town of Trenton, in the county of Oneida.

You are hereby commanded to collect from each of the taxable inhabitants and corporations named in the foregoing list, and of the owners of the real estate described therein, the several sums men. tioned in the last column of the said list, opposite to the persons and corporations so named, and to the several tracts of land so described, together with five cents on each dollar thereof for your fees; and in case any person, upon whom such tax is imposed, shall neglect or refuse to pay the same, you are to levy the same by distress and sale of the goods and chattels of the person or corporation so taxed, in the same manner as on warrants issued by the board of supervisors to the collectors of towns; and you are to make a return of this warrant within thirty days after the delivering thereof to you; and within that time to pay over all moneys collected by virtue hereof, to the trustees of the said district, some or one of them; and if any tax on the real estate of a non-resident mentioned in the said list shall be unpaid at the time when you are required to return this warrant, you are to deliver to the trustees of the said district an account thereof, according to law.

Given under our hands this thousand eight hundred and forty

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By § 29 of the act of 1841, (No. 105,) it is not necessary for the trustees to affix their seals to any warrant.

8. WARRANTS FOR THE COLLECTION OF TAX LISTS OR RATE-BILLS.

By various provisions of the school act (No. 128 to 131,) it is provided that the warrant annexed to any tax list for the collection of a district tax or any rate bill for the payment of teachers' wages, shall command the collector, in case any person named in such list shall not pay the sum therein set opposite to his name on demand, to levy the same of his goods and chattels in the same manner as on warrants issued by the board of supervisors to the collectors of towns.

The time specified in any warrant, for its collection and return begins to run from the delivery of such warrant to the collector, and not from its date.-Com. School Dec. 286.

Where a warrant is signed by two trustees only, the presence or concurrence of the third will be presumed. -Id. 258.

Trustees in office only, can sign warrants.-1d. 275. By 89,"If the sum or sums of money, payable by

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