[ No. 11. ] Ledger balance on Auditor General's books, Nov. 30, 1851. *To the above balance charged State Treasurer, is to be added $147 98 for outstanding Warrants, making actual cash balance in State Treasurer's hands, $97,391 21, Opinion of the Attorney General in regard to the Specific State Tax of the Chippewa Portage Com pany. ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE,) DEAR SIR:-Your letter of the 13th instant, asking my opinion as to the liability of the boats and vessels of the Chippewa Portage Company to assessments for State, County and Township purposes, came to hand last Saturday, and I now proceed to reply to it. The sixteenth section of the act of incorporation, approved March 17th, 1847, provides that the company shall pay to the State Treasurer, an annual tax of one-half of one per cent. upon its capital stock' including loans for constructing the road; in consideration whereof, the property and effects of the company are declared to be exempt from all and every tax, charge and exaction, by virtue of any law of this State now, or hereafter to be in force. There can be no doubt, I think, that this latter clause exempts all the real and personal property acquired by the company, under and by virtue of the provisions of its charter, from all public exactions except the Specific State Tax. But the exemption from taxation is restricted to corporate property, or such as may be lawfully acquired and held by the company. It cannot be extended so as to embrace property, the acquisition of which is not contemplated or authorized by the charter, or which is not necessary for the exercise and enjoyment of the powers and rights conferred by it. What these are, will be seen by reference to the third section, which provides that the Company may construct a plank road or a Railway around the Sault Ste Marie, and transport thereon such freight and passengers as may be entrusted to its care. The transportation is to be by land carriage The act gives to the Company no authority to construct or use boats or vessels for any purpose whatever. If the company has in violation of its charter, acquired property of this description, it cannot for that reason claim the benefit of the exemption. I am, therefore, clearly of the opinion that the boats and vessels of the Company are as liable to assessment for State, County and Township purposes, as the property of individuals. I am, Dear Sir, very Respectfully, yours &c., WILLIAM HALE, HON. JOHN SWEGLES, Jr., Auditor General, Lansing. Att'y General. 1852. DOCUMENT No. 2. ANNUAL REPORT of the State Treasurer. STATE TREASURER'S OFFICE, To his Excellency, ROBERT MCCLELLAND, Governor of the State of Michigan: I beg leave to submit herewith, as I am by law required to do, statements showing the condition of the several funds for the fiscal year ending November 30, 1851. The balance in the treasury on that date was ninety-seven thousand, three hundred and ninety-one dollars and twenty-one cents, (897,391 21.) During the fiscal year which is past, all demands upon the general fand have been promptly met including the semi-annual interest on our State debt, and funds have also been provided to meet promptly the interest due this day. It affords me pleasure to say that sufficient funds have accumulated in the treasury, added to the prospective receipts of the coming month, to justify the Fund Commissioners of the State to advertise for and call in one hundred thousand dollars of the bonds of the State in accordance with the provisions of Act No. 200 of the laws |