NEW YORK (STATE). 



603 



to facilitate the formation of asricnltural and 

 horticultural societies; amending the acts re- 

 lating to contagious diseases among animals; 

 incorporating the Western New York Horti- 

 cultural Society; authorizing the State Agri- 

 cultural Society to borrow money for the erec- 

 tion of new buildings ; for the destruction, at 

 the expense of the State, of animals afflicted 

 with glanders ; appropriating $2,500 to extend 

 dairy knowledge throughout the State; allow- 

 ing the State dairy commissioner to appoint 

 five extra butter-and-cheese-makers to inspect 

 butter and cheese throughout the State. 



A bill was passed which substitutes electric- 

 ity for hanging, to take effect in the execution 

 of sentences for crimes committed after Jan. 1, 

 1889. 



It was provided that the thin paper used 

 on type-writers shall hereafter be classed as 

 legal paper. 



The following became laws: For the incor- 

 poration of societies for providing play-grounds 

 for children; providing for police matrons in 

 cities of the State, who shall serve in places of 

 detention, no more than two to be appointed 

 in any city; permitting the burial without a 

 coroner's inquest of persons dying suddenly 

 without medical attendance, in case of accident 

 or organic diseases, where no suspicion of foul 

 play can exist ; requiring all plumbers in Al- 

 bany to be registered; providing schools for 

 nurses; providing that the remains of persons 

 dying at the Quarantine Hospital in New York 

 shall be cremated unless taken away by rela- 

 tives: amending the act to protect owners of 

 bottles by including those used for medical 

 preparations, perfumery, etc. Provision was 

 made for supplying water to Albany, Syracuse, 

 Schenectady, Watkins, and Little Falls! 



An extra session was held on July 17-20. 

 The Governor did not give his reasons for call- 

 ing the session, as had been the custom here- 

 tofore. When the Legislature convened, his 

 first message said that the convicts in the State 

 prisons were in idleness, and recommended 

 legislation applying to all State institutions. 

 The Legislature passed a bill the main points 

 of which were as follow : No motive-power 

 machinery for manufacturing shall be placed 

 or used in any of the penal institutions of the 

 State ; and no person in such institutions shall 

 be required or allowed to work, while under 

 sentence thereto, at any trade or industry 

 where his labor, or the production or profit of 

 his labor, is farmed out, contracted, given, or 

 sold to any person or persons whomsoever ; 

 the Superintendent of State Prisons, and all 

 other officers having in charge the manage- 

 ment of the penal institutions of the State, 

 shall hereafter cause to be manufactured there- 

 in, by the inmates thereof, such articles only 

 as are commonly needed and used in the pub- 

 lic institutions of this State, for clothing and 

 other necessary supplies of such institutions 

 and the inmates thereof; and all the articles 

 manufactured in such penal institutions, not 



required for use therein, shall be furnished to 

 the several institutions, supported in whole or 

 in part by the State, for the use of their in- 

 mates, npon the requisitions of the trustees or 

 managers thereof upon the Superintendent of 

 State Prisons, and no article so manufactured 

 shall be purchased for the use of such inmates 

 unless the same can not be furnished upon 

 such requisitions. The Comptroller, the Su- 

 perintendent of State Prisons, and the Presi- 

 dent of the State Board of Charities shall 

 constitute a board whose duties shall be to 

 determine the price at which all articles manu- 

 factured in such penal institutions, and fur- 

 nished for use in the several institutions of the 

 State, shall be so furnished, which price shall 

 be uniform to all institutions ; the comptroller 

 shall devise and furnish to the several institu- 

 tions a proper form for such requisitions, and 

 also a proper system of accounts to be kept 

 for all such transactions. All moneys received 

 for such articles so furnished upon requisition 

 shall be paid into the treasury, as now re- 

 quired by law in case of sales of the products 

 of State prisons. There was appropriated 

 $250,000 to purchase materials and to carry 

 out the provisions of the act. The Governor 

 signed the bill. The Governor sent in a mes- 

 sage advising that the conspiracy laws of the 

 State be so amended that workingmen might 

 gather for peaceful discussion with less em- 

 barrassment than at present ; but the recom- 

 mendation was not acted upon. Another 

 message by the Governor called attention to 

 alleged irregularities in the work of the com- 

 mission appointed to construct the new aque- 

 duct for New York city. The Legislature 

 immediately passed a bill legislating the old 

 commissioners out of office and making the 

 new commissioners the Mayor, the Comptrol- 

 ler, and the Commissioner of Public Works, 

 together with four citizens (two Democrats 

 and two Republicans), to be appointed by the 

 Mayor. The Governor signed the bill, and the 

 board was appointed. 



Finances, The State debt was reduced $601,- 

 650 during the year by the payment at matur- 

 ity of $100,000 Niagara reservation bonds ; by 

 the purchase and cancellation of canal stock, 

 forming part of the canal debt, to the amount 

 of $403.250 ; and by the redemption of canal 

 stock that matured on July 1, 1887, amount- 

 ing to $98,400. On Sept. 30, 1888, the total 

 funded debt was $6,965,354.87, classified as 

 follows: Indian annuities (general fund), 122,- 

 694.87; canal debt, $6,142,660; Niagara reser- 

 vation bonds, $700,000; canal debt sinking- 

 fund, $4,076,289.39. Total debt unprovided 

 for but not yet due, $2,889,065.48. The latter 

 sum is about one tAvelfth of 1 per cent, of the 

 valuation of the State. On Sept. 30, 1887. the 

 total debt was $7.567,004.87, and the sinking- 

 fund $4,061,188.84, leaving as the net debt 

 $3,505,816.03. The increase of the sinking- 

 fund during the year was $15,100.55. Valu- 

 ing investments at par, the capital of the more 



