YALE MAY BE TAXED. [Continued from first page. | clude any provision for recreation, like cymnasiums, nor boarding houses and dormitories for students. It does include libraries and buildings used for labora- tories and recitation rooms, which are in use in the course of the usual instruction and study of the students. : The public acts of 1895, page 700, provide as follows: “The funds and estate which have been, or may be given, or provided by the state, or given by any person or persons to the President or Fellows of Yale College, etc., shall, with the income thereof, remain exempt from taxation ; provided, however, that neither of said corporations shall ever hold ini this sta'te real estate free from taxation, affording an annual income of more than $6,000.”’ It is certain that the General Assembly has not declared that the corporation should be exempt from taxation upon every sep- arate piece of property which did not it- self afford an income of more than: $6,000, and I am of the opinion that the Legisla- ture did not so intend. The act can be read, and the intention of the General Assembly undoubtedly was, that the cor- poration should hold free from taxation real esttate consisting of one or more separate tracts, which in the aggregaite’, yield an income nit ‘to exceed $6,000. I am, therefore, of the opinion that real estate of the corporation, for the pur- poses of taxation, should be divided in three parts. 1. 'The buildings) and parts of buildings with the Yand on which such buildings are situated, which are exclusively occu- pied as colleges, are not taxable. Such a part of the remainder of the real estate and buildings of the corpora- tion, which yield a yearly income up to pc are also exempt anid should not be laxed. oa 3. All the rest and remainder of said corporation’s real estatie, consisting of lands, buildings, dormitories, gymnasi- ums, restaurants, ete., should be as- sessed and taxed. This seems to indicate that taxes Should be levied on all the dormitories, including Vanderbilt, Welch, Law- rance, Farnam, Durfee, White, Berke- ley, South Middle, Lyceum, and Pier- scn, also the Gymnasium and Univer- sity Dining Hall, and on all real es- tate bringing in over $6,000 in the ag- gregate. The necessity of paying such a tax as this yearly would cause a se- rious drain on the University’s re- sources. A LEGAL OPINION. In regard to the possibility of this opinion of Mr. Goodhart’s being put in- to practice, a prominent New Haven lawyer said as follows: ‘For nearly two hundred years, the policy of the State has been to exempt from tax- ation Yale’s buildings, including gym- nasiums, dormitories and other struc- tures incident to a college. There is no new statute requiring interpreta- tion, and the old ones, which include the State policy of exemption, will be, I am confident, so interpreted as to protect Yale.’ A precedent, dealing directly with the dormitory and gymnasium ques- tion, is the test case made by the town of Princeton against Princeton Col- lege in 1852. That year the Assessors included in their list the dormitories, literary society halls, libraries, refec- tories and even the dwelling houses of the President and Professors. The Court decided in this case that all these items of real estate were in- cluded under the term “college,’’ and were hence exempt from taxation. The words of the Supreme Court were as follows: “If the term (college) be not confined to the mere lecture or recitation room, then it must be so construed as intended to include ev- erything necessary.to the proper man- agement of the institution, according to the plan or principle in which it was orizinally founded or by authori- ty subsequently adopted. The plan of the trustees was to lodge and board as well as instruct the students.’’ This dJecision of the Supreme Court in the Princeton case will undoubted- ly be of much weight in the discussion of the question now at issue. —_—__»49¢—________[. ‘* Sheff” Senior Class Elections, The Scientific Senior class held a meeting in North Sheffield Hall last Monday, at which J. W. Best, ’978.,_ presided. The following committees were elected: Class Book Committee, Bredt, A. Barnes, Lamphier and Ches- ter; Statisticians, Ryman, Colgate and Belden; Class Book Historians, Beers, J. J. Miller,’ Cert; Cameron, Wi, Barnes and J. Shaw, and Class Day Historians, Cameron, Flinn, Cerf, Hitchcock and Lamphier. YAH “ALU MNe A REMARKABLE COLLECTION. [Continued on first page. | guage and literature, ancient law, an- tiquities, mythology, runes and folk- lore.. The literature in the narrower sense, the belles-lettres of Scandinavia is not represented to any extent, nor is modern history, i. e., since the lat- ter part of last century, well repre- sented. SOME OF THE FEATURES. Some of the more valuable features may be suggested in detail. There are many Swedish books from the 16th and 17th centuries and some of them rare impressions and important in the history of printing in Sweden; also qa full set of the publications of the Swedish early Text Society, Icelandic literature, ancient and modern, and books relating to Iceland, its history, topography, biography, etc., constitute a very large and valuable _ section, with many books printed in Iceland, some of which are early and rare im- pressions. The ecclesiastical history of the Scandinavian lands is as might be expected, very fully represented. Under this head a considerable special collection is that of editions of the Revelations of Saint Birgitta and of studies relative thereto. Here are not a few works, rare and valued by col- lectors. Among the many editions of, and works on ancient law are some rarities. Numerous are the books of travel and exploration in Scandinavia, the Arctic regions, Greenland, Nova Zembla, Spitzbergen. The main body of this portion of Count Riant’s library is of course works on the history, geography, and biography of Scandinavia, of each Seandinavian country, of its provinces and cities, and of the territories about the Baltic, that once were Scandina- vian. The history of Sweden is most fully represented; much relates to the Thirty Years’ war. There are not a few works on Scandinavian colonies, among which are the early Swedish settlements in this country and rela- ting thereto, some very valuable rari- ties. ; Of small special groups may be men- ticned those on Queen Christina, Stru- ensee, Schleswig-Holstein. There are many costly illustrated works on ar- chaeology, numismatics, architecture, art, costumes. No less than fifty numbers of manuscripts constitute a highly interesting and valuable group: among these are Icelandic sagas, laws, biographies and treatises on various subjects, also in Swedish, German, French, Dutch, etc., histories, chroni- cles, diplomatic papers and _ corres- pondence. One is tempted to go on indefinitely in specifying the great values of this remarkable collection, to the donor of which the hearty thanks of every friend of our University, are due. WHAT IT SUGGESTS. I trust it will not seem ungracious for me to add, that if some similar additions could be made relating to the belles-lettres and literary history of the Scandinavian countries, espec- ially in later times and the present, our library would then have a collec- tion of books concerning these lands unequalled I suppose, in this country. Will not this need appeal irresistibly to some of the Scandinavian friends of Yale University, which now hag many Scandinavian foster-sons? ARTHUR H. PALMER. ————__++o—____ New Haven Symphony Orches- tra, The guarantee fund established last year to insure a series of concerts by the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, has been renewed for the coming sea-