NEW YORK. 



543 



one law for that purpose can be submitted at the 

 same general election, or within three months of 

 its passage, and the debt to be created must be for 

 some single work or object to be distinctly speci- 

 fied in the law. The design of the Con- 

 stitution was that the specific purpose of the debt 

 should be specified in the act, that the Legislature 

 and the people who were to vote upon it could 

 read it there, and a departure from the letter of 

 the provision may frustrate its intent. It is true 

 here the appropriations and the authority for the 

 debt are in the same act, so that the law is not ob- 

 noxious to the objection that would exist if they 

 were in separate acts. But the difficulty remains 

 that notwithstanding the form of the second section 

 the "work or object" for which the debt is au- 

 thorized is not a single work or object; neither 

 are the objects defined or capable of being ascer- 

 tained from the act itself. * * * The act is clearly 

 violative of the constitution, so far as it authorizes 

 the creation of a debt, and this is the ground upon 

 which it should be declared void, as the ground 

 which best preserves the constitution in its in- 

 tegrity, and does not make the validity of the law to 

 depend on the accidental submission of a constitu- 

 tional amendment to the people at the same time. 

 But the whole theory of the act is entirely sub- 

 versive of the constitution. It proceeds upon the 

 assumption that a State debt may be created and 

 exist outside of the constitution, either by act of 

 the Legislature, or the acts of the administrative or 

 executive officers and agents of the State. * * * 

 A debt of six millions of dollars, or liabilities to that 

 amount, and resting as a burden upon the people, 

 resulting from the acts of the Legislature, and the 

 agents and officers of the State, is an impossibility, 

 for the reason that it is absolutely prohibited, and 

 any attempt to create such debt or incur such lia- 

 bility is a nullity. There can be no floating debt 

 under the present constitution, neither can a debt be 

 created by making appropriations and directing ex- 

 penditures in excess of taxes levied and means 

 provided. Could the constitution und the interest 

 of the people, in adopting it, be thus easily cir- 

 cumvented and frustrated, that instrument would be 

 of little value. The fallacy that there is or can be 

 a floating debt, or a debt created in the discretion 

 of the Legislature by excessive appropriations, and 

 scanty tax levies, lies at the foundation of this 

 act, and all the kindred schemes for borrowing 

 money under the pretense of relieving the Treasury 

 and preserving the credit of the State. Neither the 

 Legislature, nor the officers and agents of the State, 

 or all combined, can create a debt or incur an obliga- 

 tion for or in behalf of the State, except to the 

 amount and in the manner provided for in the con- 

 stitution. * * * As there was no valid law 

 authorizing a debt to be contracted, there was no 

 valid submisnon of any question to the people, and 

 this view is decisive of the ingenious position taken 

 by the counsel for the appellant, that it was the 

 popular vote and not the effect of the vote that de- 

 termined the question, whether the law imposing the 

 tax should take cflect. The law being^ a nullity, 

 it was aa no law in all its parts and provisions. 



On the 1st of October, eighty banks were 

 doing business tinder the laws of the State. 

 During the fiscal year, circulating notes to the 

 amount of $20,972 were destroyed by the Bank 

 Department. One hundred and fifteen banks 

 were credited with lost circulation to the 

 amount, in all, of $480,913, the time for re- 

 deeming the same, after the nsnal legal notice, 

 having expired. The amount of circulation out- 

 standing, including that of incorporated banks, 

 banking associations, and individual bankers, 

 WM, on the 1st October last, $1,400,116.50. 



Of this amount, the sum of $606,240 was se- 

 cured by deposits of cash, stocks, or stocks and 

 mortgages. The residue, being circulation is- 

 sued prior to the passage of the general bank- 

 ing law, is not secured by any deposit in the 

 Bank Department. There were forty-one 

 banks incorporated prior to the enactmeut of 

 the general banking law that had not, on the 

 22d of May last, the date of an act to provide 

 for their final closing, taken any steps toward 

 such closing. Twelve of these have since given 

 notice of final closing under the provisions of 

 that act. During the fiscal year one bank dis- 

 continued business, and thirteen were organ- 

 ized ; eleven of which commenced business. Six 

 of these latter were changed I'rom banks organ- 

 ized under the national banking laws. Condi- 

 tion of the banks in the State. September 13 : 



Capital $26,958,890 00 



Loan? and discounts 71,078,644 00 



Due depositors 70,733,491 00 



Total resources $1 16,636,734 00 



There were, on the 1st of July last, one hun- 

 dred and fifty-two savings-banks reporting to 

 the Bank Department, with assets aggregating 

 $314,765,770. The increase in assets during 

 the six months ended July 1, 1873, amounted 

 to $9,425,439. The number of persons having 

 deposits in these institutions was, according to 

 the number of open accounts on the 1st day of 

 January, 1873, 822,642, being an increase of 

 45.942 depositors during the year then ended. 



The number of insurance companies subject 

 to the supervision of the Insurance Depart- 

 ment, on the 31st day of December, was 271, 

 as follows : 



New York Joint-stock fire insurance companies 99 



New York mutual insurance companies 7 



New York marine insurance companies 



New York life insurance companies 2 



Fire insurance companies of other States 8 



Life Insurance companies of other Stales 88 



Casualty insurance companies of other States 



Foreign insurance companies - 14 



Total 271 



The total amount of stocks and mortgages 

 held by the department for the protection of 

 policy-holders of life and casualty insurance 

 companies of the State, and of foreign insur- 

 ance companies doing business within it, was 

 $6,840,046. 



The following statement shows the condition 

 of the pubic schools and the operation of the 

 common-school system for the year ending 

 September 30, 1873: 



Total receipts, including balance on hand 



September 30. 1672... $12.089,168 98 



Total expenditures for the year *i"':!' l S-?;X 



Amount paid for teachers' wages $7,217,179 69 



Amount paid for school-houses, repairs, 



furniture, etc fl .991 .932 



Estimated value of school-houses and sites, $27,070,310 (K) 



Total number of school-houses 



Number of districts (exclusive of cities)... 11,385 



Number of teachers employed at the same 



time for the fnll legal term of school 18,208 



Number of teachers employed during any 



portion of theyear 29,491 



Number of children attending the public 



schools 1 ,030,300 



Number of pupils attending the normal 



schools Si 535 



