222 



CONNECTICUT. 



equipment to September 30, 1874, is $55,333,- 

 045.16; an increase of $773,952.96, of which 

 $656,697.14 was for extension, or alteration of 

 roads. The additions made in 1874 to the roll- 

 ing stock of the roads, in engines, passenger, 

 baggage, merchandise, and other cars, cost in 

 the aggregate $197,272.43. Total number of 

 miles run on all the roads during the year, 

 6,383,503, or 87,000 miles more than in 1873. 

 The total number of passengers carried in 1874 

 was 10,405,512, or 137,309 less than in 1873 ; 

 and the number of tons of merchandise trans- 

 ported in 1874 was 3,141,348, or 289,193 less 

 than in 1873. The total amount of the oper- 

 ating expenses in 1874 was $7,825,891.34, or 

 $560,667.23 less than in the previous year. 

 This seems due in a great measure to the re- 

 duction effected in the number of employes, 

 which in 1874 was 6,189, or 177 less than in 

 1873. The total receipts in 1874 were $560,- 

 667.23 less than in the preceding year, or $11,- 

 451,225.82 ; yet the total net income for 1874 

 was $2,557,867.34, or only $28,595.66 less than 

 the total net income in 1873. The number of 

 accidents on all the .roads during the year was 

 83, or 27 less than in 1873, namely, 14 passen- 

 gers, 35 employes, 25 trespassers, and 9 at 

 highway crossings. Thirty-eight of the said 

 accidents resulted fatally, comprising 4 passen- 

 gers, 16 employes, and 18 trespassers. In 1873 

 the fatal accidents on the same roads num- 

 bered 59. 



The construction of the new State-house at 

 Hartford is progressing. The two Legislative 

 Halls, it is estimated, will be ready for use by 

 May, 1877. The sum of $434,331.56 was ex- 

 pended on it last year, making a total expendi- 

 ture on that account, from the beginning, of 

 $705,445.80. Of this amount, $470,500 have 

 been drawn from the State Treasury, and 

 $229.50 from that of the city of Hartford. 



The militia of Connecticut is known under 

 the appellation of the National Guard of the 

 State. The whole active force, on March 1, 

 1875, consisted of a brigade of four regiments 

 of infantry, comprising thirty-five companies, 

 and one section of light artillery, numbering in 

 the aggregate 147 officers, and 2,206 enlisted 

 men, and making a total of 2,353. A new 

 company was organized at Pawcatuck on the 

 17th of March, 1875, which increases the num- 

 ber of companies to thirty-six, and of officers 

 and men to 2,393. The number of the inactive 

 militia in the State, as shown by the military 

 enrollment in 1874, was 61,488, an increase of 

 4,574 over the number returned in the previous 

 year. The whole number of persons assessed 

 for the commutation tax of $2 in the several 

 counties the past year was 38,493. The amount 

 collected on this tax is sufficient to defray all 

 the ordinary expenses of the military force of 

 the State. 



The constitutional amendment submitted to 

 the people, whereby all towns having five thou- 

 sand inhabitants, or more, are entitled to two 

 members in the House of Representatives, was 



voted upon at the October election of 1874, 

 and approved by the people; and is now a 

 part of the organic law of the State. 



The amendment was carried by a large ma- 

 jority ; and, in consequence of it, the towns 

 of Bridgeport, Derby, Meriden, and Vernon, 

 which before could send only one representa- 

 tive each to the General Assembly, now Lave 

 two in it. 



The boundary-line between New York and 

 Connecticut, on the western side of the last- 

 named State, is yet unsettled. The commis- 

 sioners, whom the two States respectively ap- 

 pointed to fix it in 1856 and in 1859, having 

 failed to agree, the Legislature of New York 

 in 1860 adopted that line, by way of fact, 

 which the New York commissioners had re- 

 ported to them, but which the commissioners 

 for Connecticut would not concur in, and which 

 the authorities of the State have refused to 

 recognize. The General Assembly, at its ses- 

 sion of 1874, conferred on the Governor certain 

 powers tending to the settlement of the dis- 

 pute; and the Governor brought the subject 

 to the attention of the Executive of the State 

 of New York, with the hope that he would be 

 vested by the Assembly of that State with 

 authority similar to that possessed by the Exec- 

 utive of Connecticut to adjust the disagree- 

 ment. 



Of much greater importance to the State is 

 the defense of her southern boundary - line, 

 which is at present judicially contested by the 

 State of New York. The origin of the contest 

 was as follows: In May, 1873, a New York 

 vessel, found engaged in taking oysters on the 

 shore of Long Island Sound, at Stratford, was 

 seized, condemned, and sold, by the authorities 

 of Connecticut, under legal proceedings of her 

 courts, " for a violation of the statute of Con- 

 necticut by the owners of the vessel, in taking 

 oysters in the waters of the State." In conse- 

 quence of this confiscation, a suit in law was 

 instituted by the aggrieved party in the Su- 

 preme Court of the State of New York, and 

 thence removed into the United States Circuit 

 Court for the Southern District of New York, 

 where it is now pending. As this suit involves 

 a question of jurisdiction, and this depends on 

 the boundary-line between the two States on 

 the Sound, the Legislature of New York has 

 taken action in the matter, and directed her 

 Attorney-General to assume the prosecution of 

 the suit, and made an appropriation for its ex- 

 penses, with special view to a judicial decision 

 by the Supreme Court of the United States on 

 the boundary question. 



The Joint Standing Committee on the Judici- 

 ary, in the Legislature, presented a report on 

 the subject on June 30, 1875, in which they 

 aver that Connecticut is manifestly in the right, 

 and append to their report the following reso- 

 lution : 



Eesolved ly the General Assembly, That the sum 

 of two thousand dollars be, and the same is hereby, 

 appropriated for the defense of a suit now pending 



