Lansing

The eighteenth week of the session has been very productive of comparar tively unimportant legislation - has yielded an immense erop of small potatoes, so to speak. The amending of city and village charters in matters of purely local interest and the revisine of old laws in unimportant particular have occupied the attention of the assembled Solons almost exclusively, and though this work is no doubt necessary to keep the machinery of government in good running and has, for aught I know, been done in a most skillful and niasterly manner, yet it is not that kind of Legislative proceedings from which interesting letters can be made. Indeed it is difflcult to conceive of anything more dry and dreary thanthe reading and discussion of verbal amendinents hour nfter hour to some verbose charter or statute wliicli few of the legislators know anything about, btit which they are morally certain to know about, if they don't get it just as some interested party wants it. MUNICIPAL INDEBTEDNESS. Mr. Henderson's large Manual just put in the hands of members contains much statistical and other information about State affairs, not included in former Manuals. From it I copy the following indebtedness of the eities named, as a matrer of general interest. It is to be regretted that we have not the means of com paring this with the indebtedness of the same cities a few years ago.but it is believed to be mueh less : BayCity $415,438 75; Big Rapids, $60,000 ; Corunna, $3,800 ; Detroit, $752,315 57 ; Dowagiac, $738 94 East Saginaw, $626,968 62 ; Cirand .Rapids, 514,350; Greenville, $14,000 ; Hastings, $33,700; Ionia, $15,000; Ishpeming, $12,000; Jackson, $183,500; Lansing, $114,400; Ludington, $5,800; Manistee, $30,000 ; Marshall, $6,500 ; Muskegon, $160,000; Xiles, $10,000; Pontiac, $25,000 ; West Bay City, $1,000 ; Wyandotte, $6,000; Ypsilanti, $15,000. THE NEW TAX BILL. The voluminous bill digested and reported by the special committee on revisión of the tax laws, has at last been printed, and the House devoted some hours yesterday and to-day to its consideration. The bill though , very important is altogether too hefty for your correspondent to serve up in these letters, however here is a specimen slice. showing some of the proposed alterations from the existing law : The new bill adds to the "money" or "moneys" whieh come under the provisions of the law "the stock of corporations organized under the laws of this State or of the United States." Section 980 as it now exists makes it the duty of the cashier of every State or national bank to furnish tto the assessors the names of all non-resident stockholders, whether resident or non-resident. Section 981 specifles the kinds of property which must be set forth in detail in the statement to assessors. The new bill contains the following snb-sections on this subject, which are different from the corresponding ones in the old law: Every gold or silver watch of the value of $25 and upwards, and all plate and jewelry ; All moneys and all credits including bonds, mortgages, notes and other evidences of debt, at their cash value ; All luinber, saw logs, round and square timber cut, either on his premises or any other preinises, or in any mili yard or in transit, and all other personal property held or owned by him; All vessels, boats, tngs, flat-boats, floats, wharfboats or other water craft whatsoever, owned by him ; All farming implements and mechanics' toojs of the aggregate value of $100 and upwards; All threshing machines, and wood-sawing machines, together with all steam engines and horse-powers used for propelling the same ; and all other portable horse-powers, steam engines, boilers and fixtures thereto To section 988 is added the following, "On or before the first Monday of March in each year, the Auditor General shall transmit to the county treasurers of the several counties of the State a list of the lands therein situated, held by the State and not subject to taxation, and the county treasurer shall immediately, upon receipt of the same, notify the several supervisors of the county, and such lands shall be omitted from the assessment roll." Section 1014 which is one of considerable importance, is amended so as to read as f ollows : "Whenever any tax which shall have been or may hereafter be assessed on personal property in this State shall be returned by any township treasurer for non-payment under the provisions of this act, or when any tax shall have been assessed upon the shares of the stock of any bank, and the same shall not be paid by the cashier of such bank on demand, it shall be lawful for such treasurer to sue, in the name of such township, the bank using such share of stock, before any court of competent jurisdiction, and to have, use, and take all lawful ways and means provided by law for the eollection of debts, to enforce the payment of any such tax." I shall try to serve up other slices of this bill as it slowly erystalizes into a law, which there is every probability that it will do. INVESTIGATING THE FLINT INSTITUTE The usual monotony of the proceedings has been somewhat disturbed by the introduction, discussion and passage of a concurrent resolution for the appointment of a committee to investígate certain recent froubles in lhe Institution for the Deaf, Dumb and the Blind at Flint. The immediate occasion for this action is briefly this : A few weeks ago the Institution choir, composed of blind pupils who had been practicing Morzart's inass, were directed by Principal Parker to prepare to sing it at the closing exercises of the school. Father Haire, the local Roman Catholic priest forbade the Catholic pupils from singing the mass in public. The Principal reported the case to the Board of Trustees, and by their direction he gave the Catholic pupils a certain time to make up their minds whether they should obey the Principal or Father Haire. At the expiration of that time, six of the pupils who ref used to sing the mass were sent home. This action of the Board of Trustees whether right or wrong, is as I understand it, the little ember from which certain parties have fanned a very large smoke. The resolution for an investigation passed the House yesterday by a vote of 61 to 23. The resolution was subsequently passsed by the Senate. THE AGKICULTTRAL COLLEGE. Souie progress was made last evening in the long-drawn-out diseussiün over the appropriatioas for the Agricultural College. The House reached the bill in committee of the whole when Mr. Stanchfield moved a reduc tion by striking out $6,000 for a 1)0 tanical laboratory. This was favorec in a long and excited debate by Messrs Stanchfield, Yerkes and Willett,and op posed by Messrs. White, Hall, Gould Sawyer, Allen, McNabb and Bowen and lost by a vote of 8 to 40. The bil was then agreed to, as amendedby the special committee. It appropriates L88,080 24, which is $11,400 less than the amount passed by the Senate. The rules were suspended and the bil passed, 68 to 16. Anothek step has been taken toward the holding of a Western Michigan Fair next fall. At a meeting of the Executive Board of the Western Michi gan Agricultural and Industrial Soci ety in Grand Rapids, Tuesday evening the Hon. George W. Thayer of that city was elected President ; Jas. Cox, Recording Secretary ; J. 1'. Thompsom, o Detroit, Corresponding Secretary; anc Edward B. Dikeman, of Grand Rapids Treasurer. Mr. Thayer, formerh Mayor of Grand Rapids, is one of the best knowa and most enterprising business men in the State, and hls election to the Presidency of the Society is a guaranty that what it undertakes to do, it will successfully accomplish President Thayer subsequently appointed the following committees : On Premium List - Judge Ramsdell C. Ij. Whitney, II. Uale Adams, II. C. Sherwood and Abrahara Ryerson. On Rules and Eegulations - C. L. Whitney, Wm. Ladner, and S. L. Fuller. On Business - II. C. Sherwood, E. B. Dikeman and Judge Ramsdell. On Finance - The President, S. L. Fuller.Thomas Wilde and Levi Averill. The Board adjourned to meet at the same place on Wednesday, May 28. The time for holding the proposed Fair though not definitely fixed, will probably be the week after the State Fair in Detroit.