580 NORTHBROOK, THOMAS G. B. 



NORTH CAROLINA. 



and more, $29,253,003.47; cities and villages 

 of less than 7,500 inhabitants, $843,238.54; 

 town or townships, $4,722,648.21 ; total, $45,- 

 973,007.64, exclusive of a State school-tax of 

 $2,945,199.55, and not including school-district 

 taxation. The statistics given for the city of 

 New York in these matters are : valuation of 

 real estate, $1,049,340,336 ; personal property, 

 $197,532,075 ; total valuation, $1,246,872,411 ; 

 bonded debt, $136,406,733.66; floating debt, 

 $6,039,966.41 ; total indebtedness, $142,446,- 

 700.07 ; share of State tax, $2,368,906.28 ; city 

 tax, $20,935,926.65 ; total taxation, exclusive 

 of school, $23,304,832.93 ; school-tax, $1,382,- 

 155.91. 



There were during the summer several disas- 

 ters of an unusual character, closely connect- 

 ed with New York. On the night of June 

 llth the steamers Narragansett and Stoning- 

 ton, plying between New York City and 

 Stonington, Connecticut, and connecting with 

 railroad for Boston, came into collision in a 

 fog near the mouth of the Connecticut River 

 on Long Island Sound. The Narragansett 

 took fire, and about fifty passengers lost their 

 lives. In the afternoon of June 28th the steam- 

 er Seawanhaka, plying between New York 

 and several towns on the north shore of Long 

 Island, took fire on its way from the city when 

 off College Point, and was run aground and 

 burned to the water's edge. In this case also 

 about fifty lives were lost, mostly by drowning. 

 On the morning of July 21st a portion of the 

 tunnel in course of construction under the 

 Hudson River from Jersey City to New York 

 caved in, and twenty workmen were suffocated 

 and buried in the ruins. Several weeks were 

 occupied in recovering the bodies and restor- 

 ing the work to the condition it was in previ- 

 ous to the disaster. 



The Hudson River Tunnel is intended to fur- 

 nish the means of extending the railways which 

 now terminate on the New Jersey side of the 

 river to the heart of the city of New York. 

 It is in process of construction by a company 

 with $10,000,000 capital, and consists of two 

 shafts about twenty-five feet in diameter side 

 by side and penetrating below the bed of the 

 river. The excavation is carried on with the 

 aid of compressed air, which keeps the soil and 

 silt in position until a casing of iron is put in, 

 within which the masonry of the tunnel is built. 

 The beginning is made on either side of the riv- 

 er from an upright circular shaft which is con- 

 nected with the horizontal shafts by an air- 

 lock. The tunnel has been extended some 

 hundreds of feet from the New Jersey side, and 

 work has been begun on the New York side. 

 The entire length will be about 12,000 feet ; or 

 one mile beneath the river, and nearly three 

 quarters of a mile underground on either side. 



NORTHBROOK, THOMAS GEOKGE BARING, 

 Earl of, first Lord of the Admiralty in the new 

 English Ministry, was born in 1826, and re- 

 ceived his education at Christ Church, Oxford, 

 where he graduated (second class in classics) 



in 1846. He is the eldest son of the first Baron 

 Northbrook, who was long known as Sir 

 Francis Baring. He was successively private 

 secretary to Mr. Labouchere at the Board of 

 Trade, to Sir George Grey at the Home Office, 

 to Sir Charles Wood at the India Board, and at 

 the Admiralty till 1857, when he was returned 

 to the House of Commons for Penryn and 

 Falmouth, which constituency he continued to 

 represent in the Liberal interest till he became 

 a peer on the death of his father in 1866. He 

 was a Lord of the Admiralty from May, 1857, 

 to February, 1858. He has since held the fol- 

 lowing offices: Under-Secretary of State for 

 India, from June, 1859, to January, 1861; 

 Under-Secretary for "War, from the latter date 

 till June, 1866 ; and again under Mr. Glad- 

 stone, from December, 1868, until February, 

 1872, when he succeeded the late Lord Mayo 

 as Viceroy and Governor-General of India. 

 He resigned the viceroyalty in 1876, and was 

 then advanced to the dignities of Viscount 

 Baring and Earl of Northbrook. 



NORTH CAROLINA. Governor Jarvis 

 called the General Assembly together on the 

 21st of February to take action on a proposi- 

 tion of W. J. Best, of New York, and others, 

 for the purchase of the State's interest in the 

 Western North Carolina Railroad, and the 

 speedy completion of the road. Of this rail- 

 road, the section running from Salisbury west- 

 ward to Asheville, 148 miles in length, was 

 practically completed. The other portions, 

 consisting of two branches, forking at Ashe- 

 ville, about 200 miles in total length, had not 

 been constructed. One of these runs from 

 Asheville northwestward along the French 

 Broad River to Paint Rock, near the Tennes- 

 see line, 45 miles. The other, or main line, 

 known as the Ducktown line, runs southwest- 

 ward for 135 miles to Murphy, the county-seat 

 of Cherokee County, and thence across the 

 State line to Ducktown, eighteen or twenty 

 miles distant in the direction of Chattanooga. 

 The proposition, as modified and perfected af- 

 ter extended conferences between the Govern- 

 or and the contracting parties, wae that the 

 State should make a deed of its entire interest 

 in the railroad property to the syndicate, con- 

 sisting of W. J. Best, J. N. Tappan, W. R. 

 Grace, and J. D. Fish, which instrument should 

 be held in trust, and not be delivered until the 

 completion of the railroad and the other stipu- 

 lations of the contract are performed. The 

 purchasers agree to construct the road to Paint 

 Rock and the Ducktown line to Pigeon River 

 before July 1, 1881, and to complete the line 

 to Ducktown by January 1, 1885. They as- 

 sume the $850,000 first - mortgage bonds on 

 which the State is paying interest from the 

 date of the ratification of the act authorizing 

 the sale. They are to be authorized to issue 

 bonds for $15,000 on every mile completed, 

 deducting the $850,000 already issued, on the 

 guarantee of a conditional mortgage which can 

 not be foreclosed until the railroad is completed 



