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Excerpt from A Report: Prepared for the Committee on Taxation of the City of New York The following report represents results obtained from an investigation of the plan of exempting improvements from taxation carried on under the direction of the Committee on Taxation during the summer of 1914. The field work of the investigation was begun June 19th and completed September 17th. During this period the following cities and towns were visited in the order named: in the province of Manitoba, Winnipeg; in the province of Saskatchewan, Regina, Moose Jaw, and Saskatoon; in the province of Alberta, Edmonton, Leduc, Lloydminster, Ponoka, and Calgary; in the province of British Columbia, Vancouver and Victoria, and in the United States, Houston, Texas. The material presented which deals with the situation in other cities than those enumerated was gathered by cor respondence, by conferences with persons acquainted with conditions in those cities or from printed sources. The instructions under which the investigation was conducted were given through a letter signed by Professor E. R. A. Seligman, chairman of the executive committee, dated June 1, 1914, and through interviews with vari ous members of the committee. The method followed was first to present to the mayor of the city under investigation the credentials, signed by Mayor John Purroy Mitchel and Chairman Alfred E. Marling. In every case the resources of the city departments were thrown Open without reserve. Inquiry was made among the various officials as to the general economic position, the financial situa tion and history of the city and the present system of taxation and its history. With these facts in hand, attention was turned to securing data which might be used to judge the effects of the system in force. Such statistics of value as were available were gathered and the opinions of the officials and the citizens of the town were sought. Particular care was taken to inquire as to the e