244 



CONNECTICUT. 



provisions. The usury-law, which was enacted 

 in 1872, has also been revised and amended 

 " by striking out the word six in the said act 

 wherever it occurs, and inserting in lieu there- 

 of the word seven ; " this being now fixed as the 

 limit of the annual rate of interest to be paid or 

 received on money loans in Connecticut. 



The greatest importance appears to have been 

 attached by the people to the acts passed this 

 year in regard to elections and naturalization. 

 The two previously existing laws on these sub- 

 jects had been enacted in 1868, when both 

 bills were vetoed by Governor English, and 

 both passed over his objections by the Legisla- 

 ture. At the present session both of them 

 have been repealed, or rather considerably 

 modified, by great majorities, though not with- 

 out considerable opposition. Concerning elec- 

 tions, all the provisions of the former law cal- 

 culated to protect the freedom of voting and 

 guard the integrity of the ballot-box against 

 abuse or fraud, have been retained in the new. 

 Those portions of it which might seem to have 

 a tendency to restrict the right of the electors 

 to vote, or put obstacles in the way of its law- 

 ful exercise, have been repealed. 



"With a view to accommodate the working- 

 classes by enabling them to exercise their right 

 of suffrage with the least inconvenience, a 

 provision has been inserted in the new law, 

 compelling the boards of selectmen to hold 

 evening sessions for the admission of votes ; 

 thus relieving workmen from the necessity of 

 losing, for that purpose, any portion of their 

 working-hours during the day. 



"With regard to naturalization, the authority 

 of receiving applications and issuing certificates 

 for it was confined by the law of 1868 to one 

 court in the state the Superior Court. The 

 new law generalizes that authority, by empow- 

 ering the courts of Common Pleas and the city 

 courts all the courts of record in the State, 

 except the Courts of Probate, to make records 

 of naturalization, and issue certificates of it. 



Early in the session the Legislature elected 

 "William "W. Eaton United States Senator for the 

 term of six years from March 4, 1875, in the 

 place of Wm. A. Buckingham. Three vacant 

 seats on the benches of the Supreme and Su- 

 perior Courts in the State were also filled by this 

 Legislature. Besides the usual appropriations, 

 the General Assembly appropriated $10,000 

 "for a triangulated survey of the State." 



The number of fire, fire and marine, and ma- 

 rine insurance companies, doing business in 

 Connecticut, is 120 ; representing a cash capi- 

 tal of about $30,000,000, with gross assets of 

 $77,000,000. 



The life and accident insurance companies 

 are 29 ; of which 10 are home companies. 

 The assets of these last-named companies 

 amount in the aggregate to nearly $65,000,000, 

 the assets of the other State companies being 

 about $191,000,000. There was a total increase 

 of about $25,000,000 over the assets of the pre- 

 ceding year. 



There are 22 railway companies in the State. 

 Their aggregate length measures 1,197 miles, 

 of which 896 are within the State. Twenty- 

 eight of these have been built during the last 

 year. 



Some details respecting these roads are ex- 

 hibited in the following official statement : 



They have transported during the year 10,542,821 

 passengers, being an increase over the preceding 

 year or 408,188, without fatal injury to any passen- 

 ger, except in two instances, resulting from incaution 

 of the passenger on leaving a train. Other instances 

 of injury, to the total number of 110, have occurred, 

 of which 59 resulted in death. Of the whole num- 

 ber of cases of injury, except of passengers or em- 

 ploye^, almost two-thirds were of persons walking 

 or lying on the track. 



The total cost of these roads and equipment was 

 $54,659,029.82, represented by a total nominal capital 

 of $44,690,700, of which $36,068,694.62 has been 

 paid in. 



The gross earnings of all the companies for the 

 year ending September 30, 1873, were $12,037,986.33, 

 of which about one-half was received from passen- 

 gers. The total net income amounted to $2,586,463, 

 of which all but about $50,000 has been paid in divi- 

 dends by nine corporations. 



The work of the State Board of Fish Com- 

 missioners, to whom the care of this interest 

 has been committed since 1865, when that 

 board was created, appears to have been 

 crowned with success. From June 21 to Au- 

 gust 21, 1873, 44,000,000 shad were hatched 

 at Holyoke. Forty millions of these were put 

 into the Connecticut Eiver. In four years the 

 shad, of good size, will reappear in the Con- 

 necticut. The catch of shad in 1873 was not 

 so large as in the previous year, because none 

 were planted in 1869. The black bass has 

 been introduced into 37 ponds and reservoirs 

 in different parts of the State. From 1868 to 

 1871 inclusive, 2,981 of these fish were placed 

 in the ponds and reservoirs, and the commis- 

 sioners find that they have increased and done 

 so well that they deem it best not to distribute 

 any more of them. Two hundred and forty- 

 four thousand young salmon were placed in 

 the various rivers of the State last year, 115,000 

 of them in tributaries of the Connecticut. The 

 commissioners have concluded to unite with 

 the commissioners of. Massachusetts, Vermont, 

 and New Hampshire, in stocking the Connec- 

 ticut river with salmon all their efforts for 

 the present being-devoted to that river. Eight 

 hundred and .fifty thousand young salmon will 

 be placed in the tributaries of the Connecticut 

 this year. 'About 50,000 California salmon 

 have also been placed in the rivers of the State. 

 Some thousands of the fresh-water, or land- 

 locked salmon, have been hatched at the hatch- 

 ing-houses in Westport, where the young fish 

 are at present. 



In compliance with the act passed by the 

 Legislature of 1873, for the establishment of a 

 Bureau of Labor Statistics, consisting of a chief 

 and his deputy, both of these officers were ap- 

 pointed by Governor Ingersoll in October of 

 that year. 



The whole number of births which took 



