608 



NEW YORK. 



The above tax of 7J mills on the present 

 valuation will yield $15,727,482.08. 



Exclusive of extraordinary work on the 

 canals, and work on the new Capitol and other 

 public buildings, the following rate will be ne- 

 cessary for the ensuing fiscal year : 



Mills. 



For general fund If 



For schools li 



For bounty-loan 2 



For floating canal debt, chapter 271, laws of 1859, OJ 



Total 5 



The National Guard of the State consists of 

 eight divisions, containing nineteen brigades, 

 composed of one regiment and nine separate 

 troops of cavalry, one battalion and ten bat- 

 teries of artillery, thirty regiments and thir- 

 teen battalions of infantry. Total, officers, 

 non-commissioned officers, musicians, and pri- 

 vates (three brigades estimated), 20,532. 



For thirty years following 1818 the laws of 

 .New York restricted the banking business to 

 companies or institutions chartered by special 

 law. This was followed by the "free-bank- 

 ing" system, which was based on the deposit 

 of securities with redemption at a fixed rate 

 of discount. State and savings banks are re- 

 quired to report to the Superintendent of the 

 Banking Department, the former quarterly, and 

 the latter semi-annually. Three examiners are 

 constantly passing through the State, inspect- 

 ing banks. The Superintendent reports an-' 

 nually to the Legislature. In October, 1873, 

 eighty banks were doing business under the 

 laws of the State. The amount of circulation 

 outstanding, including that of the forty-one 

 incorporated banks, and of banking associa- 

 tions and individual bankers, was $1,400,116, 

 of which $656,240 was secured. In October, 

 1874, the number of State banks was eighty- 

 one. Their condition, September 13th, as com- 

 pared with that of the preceding year, was as 

 follows : 



Capital $26,958,890 



Loans and discounts 71,073,644 ~66;485,729 



Due depositors 70,738,491 62,471,306 



Total resources 116,536,734 111,180,300 



The diminution in capital during the year is 

 small, while the shrinkage in deposits, and in 

 loans and discounts, is considerable. This re- 

 duction is regarded as an exponent of the con- 

 traction in the volume of business since the 

 panic of 1873. 



The number of national banks on November 

 1, 1874, was 276, with a paid-in capital of 

 $108,339,691; bonds on deposit, $64,963,050; 

 outstanding circulation, $59,299,049. The cir- 

 culation per capita was $13.53; ratio of cir- 

 culation to the wealth of the State, 9 per cent. ; 

 to bank capital, 54.7. The total number of 

 savings-banks on January 1, 1874, was 155, 

 with 822,642 depositors, and deposits aggre- 

 gating $285,520,085 ; average to each deposi- 

 tor, $340.12; resources, $307,589,730; liabil- 

 ities, $285,140,778; surplus assets, $21,448,- 

 952. Insurance companies are subject to rigid 

 inspection by the Superintendent of the In- 



surance Department, who reports annually to 

 the Legislature. 



The canals of New York are an important 

 feature in its commercial facilities. The Erie 

 Canal, connecting Lake Erie with the Hud- 

 son River, affords a continuous water-channel 

 through which the produce of the Western 

 States and Canada may reach the port of New 

 York ; while the several canals traversing the 

 State from north to south supply transporta- 

 tion facilities to the interior of New York and 

 Pennsylvania. The canals and navigable feed- 

 ers owned by the State aggregate 857 miles in 

 length, and the river and other improvements 

 which have been completed increase the length 

 of the artificial system of navigable waters to 

 907 miles. This does not include the several 

 lakes which are used as a part of the canal 

 system. The total cost of constructing and 

 repairing these canals and improvements has 

 been $73,440,894, while the net profit to the 

 State arising from their operation to Septem- 

 ber 30, 1872, was $60,880,632. The general 

 superintendence of the canals is vested in 

 three commissioners, elected for three years, 

 who have charge of the construction of new 

 and the repairs of old canals. The State En- 

 gineer and Surveyor inspects the canals and 

 performs other duties, while the Canal Board, 

 composed of the above-mentioned officers and 

 the Commissioners of the Canal Fund, fix the 

 rates of toll, appoint officers, etc. The amounts 

 of freight transported on all the State canals 

 during 1873 was 6,364,782 tons, valued at 

 $191,715,500, including products of the forest 

 valued at $18,657,838; agricultural products, 

 $60,194,909; manufactures, $5,979,656; mer- 

 chandise, $76,173,336, and other articles, $30,- 

 715. The total quantity of freight carried by 

 the canals was more than half as great as that 

 transported by the Erie and New York Central 

 Eailroads. The amount of freight brought to 

 the Hudson River by the Erie and Champlain 

 Canals was 3,376,649 tons, valued at $97,869,- 

 497; 1,740,628 tons of freight, worth $73,- 

 260,034, were brought by canal-boats directly 

 to New York. The number of boats arrived 

 at and cleared from New York, Albany, and 

 Troy, was 33,608. Until 1875 the Legislature 

 was prohibited by the constitution from sell- 

 ing or leasing any of the State canals ; but in 

 that year an amendment was adopted remov- 

 ing the restriction except in the case of the 

 Erie, Oswego, Champlain, and Cayuga and 

 Seneca Canals. Besides the State canals there 

 are belonging to corporations the Delaware 

 & Hudson Canal, connecting Roundout with 

 Honesdale, Pa., 108 miles, of which 87 are in 

 New York; and the Junction Canal, which 

 extends from Elmira to the Pennsylvania State 

 line, 18 miles. In the following table are given 

 details of the canals owned and operated by 

 the State, including their termini, their length 

 in miles, total cost of construction, the financial 

 results of their operation, and the aggregate 

 income and expenditures for three years. 



