orable bodies: That there are now about four thousand Apache Indians located and near San Carlos on the White Mountain Indian Reservation.

The effect upon these Indians by the abandonment of San Carlos as a military post is not realized by the War Department; heretofore the Indians have furnished nearly all the fuel, wood, hay and barley consumed by the military, besides finding a market for the various other products of their farms and articles of Indian manufacture. These Indians have supplied the post of San Carlos yearly about

And besides a considerable additional revenue was derived from the sale and manufacture of Indian bead work to the officers and soldiers, which was expended for the staple articles of food and clothing. Nevertheless with all of this revenue these Indians have suffered for the necessaries of life, and the majority have had to go hungry several days of each week.

When these Indians who are only partly civilized, and whose savage spirit is only subdued by the constant presence of the United States troops, will be without adequate food and clothing for their bodily sustenance and comfort, and by the withdrawal of the troops they will be driven to desperation, by starvation and insufficiency of clothing and impelled to raid plunder and murder our citizens as in years past:

Now therefore, we, your Memorialists of the Eighteenth Legislative Assembly, do earnestly pray your Honorable bodies, that the foregoing are facts readily proven, and in view of the alarming situation, we earnestly protest against the removal of troops from San Carlos and ask your Honorable bodies to have the order rescinded.

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Territory is hereby requested to transmit a copy of the foregoing Memorial to the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives, to the Secretary of the Interior and to our Delegate in Congress and that our Delegate be, and is hereby, requested to use all honorable means to bring this matter to their earnest and favorable consideration.

On motion the above Memorial was adopted by a unani

mous vote.

On motion the House stood at recess until 2 P. M.

The House reconvened at 2 P. M., pursuant to adjournment, Mr. Speaker in the Chair.

Roll call showed Mr. Hull of Yavapai County absent.

The following message was received from the Council:

Mr. Speaker-I am directed by the Council to inform the House that it has refused to recede from its amendments to H. J. R. No. 1, and has appointed Messrs. Scott, Kemp and Edwards as a Conference Committee on part of the Council.

CHAS. F. HOFF,
Chief Clerk.

On motion of Mr. Marshall and seconded by Mr. Herrick, the Speaker appointed a committee of two to escort the Governor to the Assembly hall.

Messrs. Marshall and Skinner were appointed on said committee.

The Supreme Court of Arizona was announced, and was received by the House.

The following message was received from the Council.

Mr. Speaker-I am directed by the Council to inform the House that it has adopted the conference report of the Joint Committee on H. J. R. No. 1.

CHAS. F. HOFF.

The Governor of Arizona was announced by the Sergeantat-Arms, and he was received by the House, the members standing while he was escorted to the desk of the Speaker, and he then delivered his Biennial Message to the Assembly as follows:

GOVERNOR'S MESSAGE.

Fellow Citizens of the Council and House of Representatives of the Eighteenth Legislative Assembly:

I congratulate the people of Arizona for the blessing of health, for more than average prosperity, and for the general advancement of all moral, social, and material interests dur

ing the past two years. While clouds of doubt and despair have been overshadowing the land, financial distress and ominous threatenings challenging the confidence of the commercial world, especially during the past year, we have been vouchsafed exemption therefrom. Surely our people will join with us in a feeling of gratitude to Him who guides and controls human affairs.

The organic law of Arizona provide that the Legislative power of the Territory shall be vested in the Governor and Legislative Assembly, and that the Legislative Assembly shall consist of a Council and a House of Representatives.

Your honorable body being organized for the transaction of business, it becomes the duty of the Governor under the law to inform you by message of the condition of the Territory, and to recommend such measures as he shall deem expedient.

Before entering upon this duty, I take pleasure in expressing my sincere belief that the Eighteenth Legislative As sembly is comprised of a body of citizens in whose keeping the best interests of the Territory are safe.

For information concerning the Territory and its condition during the last two years, I would respectfully refer you to my annual reports to the Secretary of the Interior for the years 1893 and 1894, in which I have set forth in detail the financial, mining, agricultural, stock, commercial, transportation, and other industrial interests, as well as the educational, social, and moral progress of the Territory; also a series of recommendations touching the Indians, arid lands, their irrigation, and kindred subjects.

ECONOMY AND RETRENCHMENTS.

All political parties are pledged to retrenchment and economy in the administration of public affairs, and in the reduction of taxation. You have now the opportunity to make good this pledge. You are no doubt willing to keep good faith with your constituents. How can this be accom plised? Abolish all offices not absolutely necessary. Consolidate some of those which are necessary; reduce salaries and make them in harmony with services rendered, measured by the amount paid for like services by corporations and firstclass business concerns; remove, as far as possible, the cost of maintaining our penitentiary, insane asylum, our criminal

courts and jails by abolishing, curtailing or restraining the chief cause of crime-strong drink; reduce the cost of transporting convicts from the respective courts to the Territorial prison by amending criminal laws so that short term convicts can be sentenced to the county jails.

TAXABLE VALUES.

In my last annual report to the Secretary of the Interior will be found a tabulated statement of the class and value of taxable property for 1894, also the assessed valuation from 1883 to 1894 inclusive, which shows a shrinkage in the value of property in the Territory of $1,424,208.04 under the year 1893, and a shrinkage of $8,944,912.05 since 1883. The following shows the total value of the different classes of taxable property for the following years:

It only requires a glance at the foregoing rates of assessment to determine that they are extremely low. It is fair to estimate that not more than one half of the personal property is assessed, and only a small portion is listed at more than one half its value, and instead of Arizona's taxable property

being placed at a fraction over $27,000,000, it should not be less than $100,000,000. This very low rate of assessment necessarily makes the rate of taxation excessively high. There is just so much revenue to be raised to meet the cost of the government, whether we have a low or just valuation; if assessments were made on the basis of a cash value, the tax rate would be reduced more than one-half. It is a fact that the poor man pays all his possessions will bear, but there are those who have their herds of stock assessed at a much less than the actual number. In counties where there are thousands of blooded stock, there are but few, or none on the tax roll. The assessed value of blooded stock and the selling price is striking. The same can be said of the value of improved real estate and corporation property. The result is most injurious. This showing of high taxes and extremely low values, taken in comparison with the public debt, alarms capital, discourages immigration and investments.

Measures should be adopted to assess property at what it would be appraised, if to be sold for a just debt or a solvent debtor.

TAXATION AND REVENUES.

There is a large amount of property and many industrial interests which are now exempt from the tax roll. It is a fundamental principal of our Government that all property should bear its just share of the tax burden. I recommend the repeal of all laws exempting property from taxation, and that every kind and character of property, real, personal, or mixed without exception, save public property, be made subject to taxation. This would add much to the tax roll of every County.

In addition to this I would recommend that every interest which received the protection of the law should be required to pay its just share of the cost of maintaining and enforcing the law.

ASSESSORS.

I believe that County Assessors should be appointed instead of elected. The Assessor should be absolutely independent of political parties or the taxpayer to the end that he would not be answerable to them for their suffrage or his office. Impartial judgment would then be exercised in placing all property on the tax roll at a just valuation. The appointment of