640 



NEW YORK CITY. 



lating the sum of the city debt, and no new 

 bonds could be issued, except for water-supply, 

 so long as that sum exceeded the constitutional 

 limit. This decision was upheld by the Gen- 

 eral Term of the court in a decision rendered 

 Feb. 1, 1886, from which an appeal was taken 

 to the Court of Appeals. 



Expenditures and Taxes. The assessed valua- 

 tion of property for the year was : Real estate, 

 $1,168,443,137; personal property, $202,673,- 

 866; total, $1,371,117,003; a net increase over 

 1884 of $32,818,660. The increase in real es- 

 tate was $48,817,051, and there was a decrease 

 of $15,998,391 in personal property. The num- 

 ber of pieces of real estate assessed was 159,- 

 432. There were 75 banks, whose shares were 

 assessed to the holders upon an aggregate val- 

 uation of $60,746,294. The total assessment 

 of real estate for 1886, as returned by the De- 

 partment of Taxes and Assessments, and sub- 

 ject to revision, is $1,206,112,404. The State 

 Board of Equalization added $112,148,890 to 

 the valuation of real estate for 1885 in making 

 its adjustments for purposes of State taxation, 

 which threw nearly 47 per cent, of the whole 

 State tax upon the city. Its action was brought 

 before the Supreme Court at Albany for re- 

 vie w by a writ of certiorari, but the matter had 

 not been determined at the close of the year. 

 The controversy with the Manhattan Railway 

 Company over the taxation of the elevated 

 railroads was settled by an agreement that 

 was accepted by the company. The capital 

 stock of the New York Company was esti- 

 mated at $7,800,000, and from this was de- 

 ducted the assessed value of real estate and 

 structure, $4,361,306, leaving $3,438,694 as 

 capital subject to assessment. The assessed 

 value of real estate and structure of the Metro- 

 politan Company was $6,991,200, and, as this 

 exceeded the estimated value of capital, there 

 was no assessment on the latter. The capital 

 stock of the Manhattan was taken as $15,522,- 

 125, and $599,200 deducted for real estate and 

 structure, and $11,655,271 as the value of the 

 stocks of the other companies owned by it, 

 leaving $3,327,655 as the amount subject to 

 assessment. This made the taxable value of 

 the whole system $11,527,354, yielding to the 

 city about $300,000. 



The municipal appropriations for all purposes 

 for the year amounted to $34,078,465.41, of 

 which $2,000,000 was furnished by the general 

 fund. The final estimates for 1886 were $35,- 

 736,320.05, of which $2,250,000 was to be met 

 by the general fund, leaving $33,486,320.59 to 

 be raised by taxation. Of this, $4,199,606.15 

 was required for State taxes, $7,456,184.37 for 

 interest on the city debt, and $857,217.75 for 

 redemption of principal of the debt. Aside 

 from these items there were about $10,000,- 

 000 of the annual municipal expenditures that 

 were fixed by acts of the Legislature, leaving 

 only $13,594,722.88, or less than two fifths of 

 the whole, subject to the discretion of the Board 

 of Estimate and Apportionment. The most cost- 



ly departments of the municipal government 

 and the appropriations therefor are the follow- 

 ing: Board of Education, $4,700,300; Police. 

 $3,853,272; Public Works, $2,771,090; Fire 

 Department, $1,841,979; Charities and Cor- 

 rection, $1,552,300; Asylums, Reformatories, 

 and Charitable Institutions, $1,205,073 ; Street 

 Cleaning, $1,100,000; Parks, $1,075,750. 



New Aqueduct. The work on the new Cro- 

 ton Aqueduct proceeded under contract during 

 the year. The whole amount of bonds issued 

 for the work is $3,061,438, and the amount ex- 

 pended to the end of the year was $2,094,704.- 

 93. The question of constructing a vast stor- 

 age reservoir by means of a dam at Quaker 

 Bridge was still in abeyance, but it was decided 

 to build the Croton dam on one of the branch- 

 es of the Croton river at an estimated expense 

 of $1,250,000, which will increase the present 

 storage reservoir capacity to about 21,000,000,- 

 000 gallons. 



Power of Appointment. The controversy over 

 the conduct of Mayor Edson, at the close of 

 1884, in making certain appointments notwith- 

 standing an injunction from the Superior Court, 

 was settled by the General Term of that court 

 in favor of the ex-Mayor, which cleared him 

 from the charge of contempt that had been up- 

 held by Judge Freedman. The ground of the 

 decision was that the Mayor, in appointing a 

 Commissioner of Public Works and Corpora- 

 tion Counsel, exercised a discretion conferred 

 upon him by the Legislature which could not 

 be brought in question before a court. An 

 executive act, it was said, vested by the or- 

 ganic law of the State in the officer appointed 

 to perform it, is " beyond the jurisdiction and 

 control of the judicial power." The cases 

 of a Police Commissioner appointed in 1884, 

 when, as was claimed, the term of the incum- 

 bent of the place had not expired, and of the 

 Corporation Counsel appointed by the Presi- 

 dent of the Board of Aldermen after expira- 

 tion of the term of office of the Mayor (see 

 " Annual Cyclopaedia," 1884, pp. 589, 590), 

 were carried to the Court of Appeals, where 

 in the month of April the decisions of the 

 lower court were sustained. In the case of 

 the Police Commissioner it was held in effect 

 that an officer appointed to succeed another 

 holding over from an expired term retains the 

 office only to the end of the term that has be- 

 gun, and not for a full term beginning with his 

 appointment. In the other case it was held 

 that the President of the Board of Aldermen 

 had no power to make appointments as Mayor 

 in the interval between the alleged expiration 

 of the term of office of Mr. Edson at midnigl 

 of Dec. 31 and the beginning of that of Mr. 

 Grace at noon Jan. 1. The Court did not pas 

 on the question whether there was an actu 

 vacancy in the office of Mayor during thos( 

 twelve hours, but declared that it was t 

 plain purpose of the law of 1884 to give tl 

 appointment of the officers to be selected s 

 the beginning of the year to the new Mayor. 



