526 



MASSACHUSETTS. 



annual saving to the treasury in interest of 

 over $54,000. 



The State had, on Sept. 30, 1886, productive 

 capital and credits to the amount of $5,302,- 

 285.90, and unproductive investments, from 

 which it is not improbable something may be 

 realized, to the amount of $28,126,034.06, of 

 which $25,371,966.53 is a claim against the 

 Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, $7,000,000 being 

 principal and the rest interest. 



The total assessable property in the State is 

 $476,829,611, which, at the present tax rate, 

 will realize $476,829.61 for public schools, and 

 $417,225.91 for interest on a portion of the 

 State debt and for the maintenance of the 

 sinking-funds. 



The gross receipts of the five tobacco-ware- 

 houses, for the fiscal year 1886, amount to 

 $73,850.67, while the disbursements by the in- 

 spectors for the same period amount to $69,- 

 957.39, leaving as the net earnings of the ware- 

 houses for the year the sum of $3,893.28. 

 There was received during the year balances 

 due for the fiscal year 1885, amounting to the 

 sum of $727.24, which, added to the net earn- 

 ings, make the aggregate net receipts for the 

 fiscal year 1886 amount to $4,620.52. The 

 disbursements do not include the inspectors' 

 salaries, which are paid under the law out of 

 the State treasury, amounting to the sum of 

 $9,000. The system is, therefore, a tax upon 

 the treasury for the year to the amount of 

 $4,379.48. 



The receipts on account of public - school 

 taxes for the fiscal year 1886 amount to the 

 sum of $517,702.93, being $11,291.09 less than 

 for the year 1885, while the disbursements for 

 the fiscal year 1886 amount to the sum of 

 $486,387.36, being $22,553.56 less than for the 

 year 1885. The receipts from clerks of courts 

 and registers of wills, for the fiscal year 1886, 

 were $488,259.47, being $24,098.36 greater 

 than for the fiscal year 1885. This increase 

 of receipts is mainly accounted for by the in- 

 crease from excess of fees of office, amounting 

 to the sum of $21,550.08 in 1886 against $13,- 

 185.36 in 1885. 



MASSACHUSETTS. State Government. The fol- 

 lowing were the State officers during the year : 

 Governor, George D. Robinson, Republican ; 

 Lieutenant-Governor, Oliver Ames ; Secretary 

 of State, Henry B. Peirce ; Treasurer, Alanson 

 W. Beard ; Auditor, Charles R. Ladd ; Attor- 

 ney-General, Edgar J. Sherman. Supreme 

 Court: Chief- Justice, Marcus Morton; Asso- 

 ciate Justices, Walbridge A. Field, Charles 

 Devens, William Allen, Charles Allen, Oliver 

 W. Holmes, Jr., and William S. Gardner. 



Legislative Session. The Legislature met on 

 January 6, and adjourned on June 30, after a 

 session of 176 days, a period technically ex- 

 ceeded since 1832 by but one, that of 1883, 

 the famous Butler session. In reality its 

 length was equaled by that of 1874. 



There was little radical legislation affecting 

 Boston. The principal acts were for the es- 



tablishment of truant schools ; relating to the 

 drainage of East Boston ; to authorize the pur- 

 chase by the city of the property of the Ja- 

 maica Pond Aqueduct Company ; the change 

 of time for the organization of the school 

 committee; extending the time for the com- 

 pletion of the Charles river embankment, and 

 enlarging the powers of the company that is 

 to do the work; authorizing the $2,500,000 

 park loan and the extension of the new Court- 

 House to include accommodations for the Reg- 

 istries of Deeds and Probate. 



Bills were passed, affecting the State at large, 

 to allow the election of women as overseers of 

 the poor ; to permit bakers to keep open for 

 business during certain hours on Sunday ; to 

 establish a new tax apportionment; to refer 

 to the Board of Education the question of a 

 half-mill educational fund ; the first stage for 

 a constitutional amendment to abolish the 

 poll-tax as a prerequisite for voting ; the rais- 

 ing of the age of consent, and the increase of 

 the penalty for rape ; the establishment of the 

 office of Auditor in towns; appointment of 

 Arbor-Day ; revision and codification of the 

 insurance laws ; to prevent forest-fires ; and a 

 new schedule for the collection of manufactur- 

 ing statistics. 



The principal law affecting the judicial sys- 

 tem is that which increases by one the num- 

 ber of Justices of the Superior Court. The 

 usual attempts to enlarge the Supreme Court, 

 and to take away from that court jurisdiction 

 over divorce matters, failed. A new district 

 court was established in Western Hampden, 

 and the East Boston Municipal Court was 

 abolished and the East Boston District Court 

 established in its stead. An order was passed 

 for a special committee to sit during the recess 

 and consider the changes, if any, needed in the 

 lower judicial system of the State i. e., courts 

 below the Superior and Probate Courts. 



The railroad legislation of the session is made 

 up largely of special acts. These include the 

 ratification of the Boston and Lowell leases 

 and purchases, and of the lease of the Worces- 

 ter, Nashua, and Rochester by the Boston and 

 Maine ; the authorization of the purchase by 

 the Naumkeag of the Salem Street Railway 

 and the consolidation of the Connecticut River 

 and Ashuelot Railroad Companies, and the New 

 Bedford, Vineyard, and Nantucket, and Nan- 

 tucket and Cape Cod Steamboat Companies, and 

 the incorporation of the Konkapot Valley Rail- 

 road. The general bills were those to protect 

 employes by the filling or blocking of frogs, 

 switches, and guard-rails; to allow railroad 

 companies to join railroad relief societies ; to 

 authorize action of tort for loss of life by neg- 

 ligence against street as against steam railway 

 companies; to authorize the consolidation of 

 the Boston street railway companies, and to 

 allow all street companies to use the cable sys- 

 tem under certain conditions. A union passen 

 ger station for the Boston and Maine and East- 

 ern Railroads was authorized. 



