NEW JERSEY. 



623 



NEW JERSEY. State Government The follow- 

 ing were the State officers during the year: 

 Governor, Leon Abbett, Democrat; Secretary 

 of State, Henry 0. Kelsey; Treasurer, J. J. 

 Tofiey ; Comptroller, Edward J. Anderson ; 

 Attorney-General, John P. Stockton ; Superin- 

 tendent of Public Instruction, Edwin O. Chap- 

 man. Supreme Court: Chief- Justice, Mercer 

 Beasley ; Associate Justices, Alfred Reed, Joel 

 Parker, Edward W. Scudder, Bennet Van 

 Syckel, David A. Depue, Jonathan Dixon, M. 

 M. Knapp, and William J. Magie. Chancellor, 

 Theodore Runyon. 



Legislative Session. The Legislature met on 

 January 12, and on April 16 adjourned to June 1. 

 Upon reassembling, it remained in session until 

 June 3, and then adjourned sine die. The recess 

 was taken to await the action of the Court of 

 Errors on the railroad-tax cases, the Supreme 

 Court having held the tax law of 1884 uncon- 

 stitutional. The Court of Errors reversed this 

 decision, and thus rendered new legislation un- 

 necessary. The Senate was occupied for some 

 time with the impeachment trial of Patrick H. 

 Laverty, State-Prison keeper, charged with im- 

 proper conduct with female convicts. On April 

 22 he was found guilty, removed from office, 

 and disqualified from holding any office of hon- 

 or, profit, or trust under the State. Among 

 the acts of the session were the following: 



An oleomargarine act. 



For the partition of lands held by copartners, etc. 



Kelative to assessments for public improvements in 

 towns and villages. 



Increasing the limit of the annual appropriations 

 for current expenses for public schools in incorporated 

 cities. 



Providing for the annual election of city clerks in 

 certain cities. 



Making it lawful to impose but one poll-tax. 



Eequinng railroad companies to give bond on ap- 

 pealing cases from commissioners. 



Eegulating the compensation of prosecutors in first- 

 class counties. 



Giving recorders and police justices exclusive con- 

 trol of all complaints under the vice and immorality 

 act. 



Authorizing the State Charities Association to visit 

 jails and other public institutions. 



Making certified copy of any certificate of insurance 

 company's organization evidence in court. 



Granting the Legislature's consent to the leasing of 

 the New Jersey Junction Eailroad to the Central and 

 Hudson Eailroad. 



Eelative to the publication of the financial state- 

 ments of counties. 



Authorizing the Governor to _ appoint two assistant 

 inspector-generals of rifle practice, with the rank of 

 colonel. 



Extending the Chancellor's power over the property 

 of minors. 



Empowering benevolent and charitable associations 

 to pay death-benefits, etc. 



Authorizing railroad companies leasing their stock 

 and franchises to issue bonds secured by mortgage. _ 



For the investigation of the Morris and Essex Kail- 

 road's alleged fraudulent tax returns. 



Giving the Governor, Comptroller, and Treasurer 

 power to pledge the State securities to provide moneys 

 for the use of 'the school fund whenever a majority of 

 them decided it necessary. 



Prohibiting persons not residents of the State for 

 six months from planting oysters in Earitan Bay for 



private use under a penalty of $500 fine or a year's 

 imprisonment. 



Appropriating $225,000 to rebuild the State-House. 



Enabling the Lunacy Committee of the Board of 

 Freeholders to employ physicians and nurses outside 

 the State. 



Empowering Boards of Freeholders in counties hav- 

 ing no hospital to appropriate $1,000 annually for the 

 support and maintenance of county patients in private 

 hospitals. 



Providing daily compensation for officers and men 

 of the National Guard while in camp. 



Permitting cities to vote on the question of giving 

 the mayor a two-year term, making him President of 

 the Board of Aldermen, etc. 



Providing that where a foreign will directs the sale 

 of land in this State, it shall have the same effect as 

 if filed originally in this State. 



Prohibiting the erection or maintenance, within one 

 thousand feet of railroad or public road, of any store- 

 house, factory, etc., for gunpowder, dynamite, or other 

 explosive ; the penalty is a fine of $1,000. 



Empowering the Governor to retire commissioned 

 officers of the National Guard after fifteen years' serv- 

 ice, if they so desire. 



Concerning the removal of trust property out of the 

 State. 



Amending an act concerning the drainage of lands. 



Conferring title to oyster-beds not cultivated to 

 such person or persons as take possession thereof and 

 cultivate. 



Taxing the real and personal estate of every manu- 

 facturing corporation the same as real and personal 

 estate of individuals. 



Eegulating the term of residence in the State before 

 one can apply for divorce. 



Facilitating the foreclosure of mortgages made by 

 consolidated railroad companies of roads lying partly 

 within and partly without the State. 



Eegulating the proceedings in cases of assignment ' 

 for the benefit of creditors. 



Eegulating the season for shooting European pheas- 

 ants and other birds of foreign origin. 



To prevent non-residents of the State from taking 

 oysters out of the waters of New Jersey. 



Authorizing street railway companies to increase 

 their capital stocK. 



Providing for the government of orphan asylums 

 by a board of managers of not less than five nor more 

 than twenty-five persons. 



Corporate Taxation. On this subject the Gov- 

 ernor, in his message to the Legislature of 1887, 

 says : " The act of April 10, 1884, under which 

 the tax upon railroad and canal property is 

 now levied, has been declared to be constitu- 

 tional by the Court of Errors and Appeals aft- 

 er, a two years' struggle, during which the 

 litigating corporations have exhausted every 

 legal resource to nullify the act of the Legisla- 

 ture, and the practical work of the State Board 

 of Assessors, in determining the value of their 

 property subject to taxation. The State has 

 been successful, and the Supreme Court has, 

 in its recent division, sustained the work of the 

 State Board, except as to a very small percent- 

 age of the total tax. With the exception of 

 the ruling of the court as to franchise-tax upon 

 non-dividend-paying corporations, it would be 

 wise to subject its adverse rulings to the criti- 

 cism of the appellate tribunal. The property 

 of individuals is free from the imposition of a 

 direct State tax for governmental purposes, and 

 can ever remain so, under an economical ad- 

 ministration of public affairs. 



