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MARITIME, COMMERCIAL, AND FINANCIAL AFFAIRS.

ences to the matter in communications from Mexico; and no tax was ever assessed upon property according to its value, all exactions being in the nature of duties on articles changing owners, or of licenses. By a law of October 1833 all citizens were relieved from the civil obligation to pay tithes, and most citizens took advantage of the privilege, some officers settling with their conscience by offering in payment claims of the government for back pay. What tithes may have been collected before the law was published in California in May 1834, there are no means of knowing. Deliberations on ways and means for municipal funds were frequent in meetings of ayuntamiento and diputacion from November 1833, and the result was a law or plan published by the governor on August 6, 1834, and appended substantially in a note.^[1]

I append also an alphabetical list of all the vessels that touched at Californian ports in 1831-5. The names number ninety-nine, but more than twenty

↑ Plan de Propios y Arbitrios para fondos municipales de los Ayuntamientos del territorio de la Alta California, 1834. Printed bando signed by Figueroa and Zamorano, in Earliest Printing; also in Dept. St. Pap., Mont., iii. 25-30; Los Angeles, Arch., MS., i. 23-30; Dwinelle's Colon. Hist., add., 29-30. The substance is also given several times over in proceedings of dip. and ayunt., with reports of committees, discussion, articles not finally embodied in the plan, etc., in St. Pap., Miss. and Colon., MS., ii. 222-53; Leg. Rec., MS., ii. 154-67, 181-2. Art. 1. Ayunt. to apply for assignment of egidos and propios lands. Art. 2. The propios in small tracts may be leased at auction; and present holders will pay as required by the ayunt. Art. 3. Grantees of town lots for building, of 100 varas square, will pay $6.25, and 25 cents per front vara for a smaller lot or for the excess in a larger one. Art. 4, 5. For the grant and registration of a brand for cattle, $1.50. Art. 6. For killing cattle or sheep for market, 6.25 cents per head; hogs, 25 cents. Art. 7. Shops for sale of dry goods are to pay $1 per month; grocery and other shops, and bar-rooms, 50 cents. Art. 8. Each weight and measure, sealed by the fiel ejecutor, 12.5 cents. Art. Circuses and other shows, $2 for each performance. Art. 10. Billiard-rooms, $1 per month. Art. 11. At the 5 ports, including S. Pedro, 12.5 cents for each parcel landed from foreign vessels, and 6.25 cents from national vessels. Art. 12. The 25 cents per ton on foreign vessels to be asked for in behalf of the treasury of the dip. Art. 13. Hunters are to pay 50 cents each on large otter and beaver skins. Art. 14. Fines for minor offences, imposed by alcalde or gefe, to go into the munic. fund. Art. 15, 16. Liquor taxes are reduced as follows: National brandy to $3, Angélica, $2, and wine $1.50, per barrel; foreign brandy to $1, gin $1, wine and beer 50 cents, per gallon. Art. 17. A voluntary contribution to be requested from each vessel anchoring at Monterey, for the building of a wharf. Art. 18. Tax of $3 on each auction sale. Art. 19-21. Provisions for execution of the law.

[1] Plan de Propios y Arbitrios para fondos municipales de los Ayuntamientos del territorio de la Alta California, 1834. Printed bando signed by Figueroa and Zamorano, in Earliest Printing; also in Dept. St. Pap., Mont., iii. 25-30; Los Angeles, Arch., MS., i. 23-30; Dwinelle's Colon. Hist., add., 29-30. The substance is also given several times over in proceedings of dip. and ayunt., with reports of committees, discussion, articles not finally embodied in the plan, etc., in St. Pap., Miss. and Colon., MS., ii. 222-53; Leg. Rec., MS., ii. 154-67, 181-2. Art. 1. Ayunt. to apply for assignment of egidos and propios lands. Art. 2. The propios in small tracts may be leased at auction; and present holders will pay as required by the ayunt. Art. 3. Grantees of town lots for building, of 100 varas square, will pay $6.25, and 25 cents per front vara for a smaller lot or for the excess in a larger one. Art. 4, 5. For the grant and registration of a brand for cattle, $1.50. Art. 6. For killing cattle or sheep for market, 6.25 cents per head; hogs, 25 cents. Art. 7. Shops for sale of dry goods are to pay $1 per month; grocery and other shops, and bar-rooms, 50 cents. Art. 8. Each weight and measure, sealed by the fiel ejecutor, 12.5 cents. Art. Circuses and other shows, $2 for each performance. Art. 10. Billiard-rooms, $1 per month. Art. 11. At the 5 ports, including S. Pedro, 12.5 cents for each parcel landed from foreign vessels, and 6.25 cents from national vessels. Art. 12. The 25 cents per ton on foreign vessels to be asked for in behalf of the treasury of the dip. Art. 13. Hunters are to pay 50 cents each on large otter and beaver skins. Art. 14. Fines for minor offences, imposed by alcalde or gefe, to go into the munic. fund. Art. 15, 16. Liquor taxes are reduced as follows: National brandy to $3, Angélica, $2, and wine $1.50, per barrel; foreign brandy to $1, gin $1, wine and beer 50 cents, per gallon. Art. 17. A voluntary contribution to be requested from each vessel anchoring at Monterey, for the building of a wharf. Art. 18. Tax of $3 on each auction sale. Art. 19-21. Provisions for execution of the law.

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