480 



HAMPSHIRE. 



for a period of ten years all railroads there- 

 after constructed. At the time of the meeting 

 of the last Legislature, ahout 250 miles more 

 were required to complete the roads already 

 begun or projected, and a strong effort was 

 made to obtain direct aid from the State 

 Treasury for this purpose. This, however, was 

 not accomplished, though several new roads 

 were chartered, among them the Concord and 

 Rochester, and the Peterborough and Hills- 

 borough Railroads. A report upon the condi- 

 tion of the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Rail- 

 road represented that line, which is the only 

 one in Coos County, to be badly managed and 

 in a very dilapidated condition. The railroads 

 of the State constructed prior to the exempt- 

 ing act of 1868 paid a tax during the year 

 ending June 1, 1869, of $215,615. The railroad 

 from the foot to the summit of Mount "Wash- 

 ington was completed in the early part of the 

 summer. This road makes an ascent of 4,500 

 feet in a distance of a little less than three 

 miles, the grade in some places being thirteen 

 inches to the yard. The car is driven by an 

 engine placed below it on the road, and having 

 a cogged drive-wheel working in a cogged 

 track. It travels at about the rate of three 

 miles (the entire ascent) in an hour. 



An act was passed imposing a tax of one 

 per cent, upon the deposits and accumulations 

 of savings-banks, requiring one-half the loans 

 made by such banks to be to individuals and 

 corporations within the State, and forbidding 

 the payment of more than five per cent, in- 

 terest to depositors. This act was prompted 

 by the fact that the favors formerly granted to 

 savings-banks led capitalists to invest their 

 funds largely in them instead of employing 

 them in other ways. Provision was also made 

 for imposing a tax of one per cent, upon all 

 the premiums of insurance companies not 

 organized under the laws of the State. The 

 general statutes provide for two parades of 

 militia each year, at the expense of the State, 

 but the operation of this provision was sus- 

 pended for five years. Among the other prop- 

 ositions introduced was one for the forma- 

 tion of two new counties, to be called Amos- 

 keag and Monadnock. Final action on this 

 was postponed until the next session, to allow 

 the people of the towns to be included in the 

 new counties to vote upon the subject of their 

 formation. Several petitions were received 

 asking for an amendment of the constitution, 

 which should allow women to vote. 



A law was passed at this session of the Leg- 

 islature, to establish a State constabulary force, 

 intended particularly " to repress and prevent 

 crime by the suppression of liquor-shops, 

 gambling-places, and houses of ill-fame," sub- 

 ject, however, to the approval of the people 

 at a special election to be held on the second 

 Tuesday in November. This approval was not 

 granted. A large majority was given against 

 it on a small vote. 



The entire debt of New Hampshire on the 1st 



NEW JERSEY. 



of June was $3,137,000, which shows a reduc- 

 tion of $350,000 from the figures of the pre- 

 vious years. The State tax for the year 1868-'69 

 amounted to $625,000. 



New Hampshire is chiefly an agricultural 

 State, but there is at present a capital of more 

 than $22,500,000 invested in manufactures 

 within the State, about five-sixths of which, 

 however, is owned elsewhere. The annual 

 amount of local taxes paid by these manufac- 

 turing corporations is now about $235,000, and 

 they pay out over $6,000,000 per year in wages 

 to operatives. 



With regard to the resources of the State 

 yet undeveloped, the Governor in his last mes- 

 sage says: "The great amount of the still 

 undeveloped and unimproved resources of our 

 State is not, I think, fully understood by the 

 people. Thousands of acres of uncultivated 

 land await the labor of the husbandman ; large 

 forests of valuable timber cover our hill-sides 

 and skirt our valleys ; the greater portion of 

 our immense water-power is still unoccupied ; 

 while our mineral resources are as yet prac- 

 tically undeveloped." 



Henry Adams Bellows, LL. D., of Concord, 

 was appointed, in August, Chief Justice of the 

 Supreme Court, in place of Ira Perley, whose 

 term of office had expired by the constitutional 

 limitation of age. 



NEW JERSEY. The Legislature, which 

 assembled on Tuesday, the 12th of January, 

 was Democratic in its political complexion, 

 the vote on joint ballot standing 4V to .34. 

 The legislation of the session was principally 

 of local interest only, the chief measures being 

 the postponement to the next legislature of the 

 consideration of the fifteenth amendment, and 

 the abolition of all railroad transit duties, and 

 the substitution therefor of a tax of one-half of 

 one per centum upon the costs of their respect- 

 ive works, including all their property of every 

 description not otherwise taxed, until the 

 Legislature shall, by general law, impose a 

 uniform State tax, equally applicable to all 

 railroad and canal corporations of the State, 

 providing, however, that no company formerly 

 paying transit duties shall pay a less sum as 

 tax to the State than that paid by it for taxes 

 and duties of all kinds for the year 1868. 



The finances of the State, as shown by the 

 report of the Treasurer, are in the following 

 condition : 



STATE FUND. 



Income $678,903 73 



Disbursements $582,877 54 



Refunded to war fund 93,270 71 



Balance in bank . 2,76048 



$678,903 73 



WAR FUND. 



The receipts of the war fund were : 



From State tax $290,00000 



From United States 27,54945 



Refunded from state fund 93,270 71 



Balance received 1868 6,012 97 



$415,833 13 

 The disbursements were 415,833 13 



