NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



535 



portion as representatives to the general court. 

 Provision for submitting the amendments to 

 the people and ascertaining their decision, and 

 declaring and publishing it will be made by the 

 convention. 



Fire Insurance. The Commissioner makes 

 his eighteenth annual report, covering the 

 business of 1886, in which he says that the 

 fire-insurance companies organized under the 

 laws of New Hampshire, number eight stock 

 companies, seventeen State companies, and 

 twenty-one town companies. This constitutes 

 the legitimate fire-insurance force in the State ; 

 the outside companies, heretofore licensed, 

 having ceased active operations in this State. 

 The home fire companies assumed risks in this 

 State, in 1886, as follows: Stock companies, 

 $31,936,240; State mutual companies, $15,- 

 530,194 ; town mutual companies, $2,609,924 ; 

 total, $50,076,358. The Governor, in his 

 message to the Legislature, June 1, 1887, said : 

 " As a consequence of the insurance laws 

 enacted by the last Legislature, fifty- eight for- 

 eign fire-insurance companies combined and 

 simultaneously withdrew their agencies from 

 the State, refusing to continue to insure New 

 Hampshire property under those laws. This 

 concerted and organized movement of the 

 withdrawing companies justified the charge 

 that it was a deliberate attempt at coercion, by 

 discrediting the laws to make them obnoxious 

 to the people, the understood object being not 

 only to compel a repeal of the laws, but also 

 to intimidate other States from legislating in 

 the same direction. While they had an un- 

 doubted right to refuse New Hampshire risks, 

 each company acting in its own capacity and 

 independently of other companies, in banding 

 together and agreeing to act in concert to 

 punish and distress the property and business 

 interests of the State, their course was justly 

 open to censure. It was in effect a strike and 

 a boycott in the accepted meaning of these 

 terms." 



The total losses paid by home companies in 

 1886 was $112,030; by retired companies, 

 $155,487; by manufacturers' mutuals,$388 ; by 

 outside agency companies, $12,560 ; total, 



Life Insurance. The summary of business for 

 1886 is as follows: Number of policies issued, 

 3,341 ; amount insured, $4,534,356 ; policies 

 in force, December 31, 7,605: amount insured, 

 $12,694,803 ; premiums received in 1886, $379,- 

 037.55 ; death losses and other claims paid, 

 $306,263.29. 



Savings - Banks* Herewith is a condensed 

 statement of savings-banks at time of examina- 

 tions in 1886 and 1887: 



Railroads. The forty-third annual report of 

 the Board of Railroad Commissioners furnishes 

 the following information of the roads in the 

 State : Their value, which depends upon their 

 capacity to earn dividends, as represented by 

 the market value of their securities, is greater 

 than ever, and their physical condition is bet- 

 ter. Their rolling-stock has been greatly in- 

 creased, and is more serviceable. They are 

 doing more business, are operated with greater 

 regularity, speed, and safety, and with more 

 regard to the convenience of the public. The 

 cost of constructing and furnishing these sev- 

 eral roads, to the time they may be said to have 

 been finished, is estimated at about $35,000,- 

 000. Of this amount about $9,000,000 has 

 never paid any dividends, and is irrecoverably 

 lost. The capital stock of all corporations re- 

 porting is $45,691,742.74; funded debt, $25,- 

 075,100; floating indebtedness, $8,261,882.10; 

 total liabilities, $79,028,724.84. Total stand- 

 ard-gauge mileage in the State, with branches, 

 1,041; double track, 66 miles; sidings, 197 

 miles; total, 1,304 miles. 



The taxable property of the State for the 

 present year has been reduced for taxation 

 fifteen per cent, less than its actual value. The 

 valuation of railroads, telegraphs, and tele- 

 phones, was reduced in like proportion, de- 

 ducting amounts taxed in and paid to towns. 

 The amount thus obtained is assessed at the 

 rate of other property throughout the State 

 $1.38 on each $100 of valuation. 



The Nashua street-railway was opened for 

 business in the spring of 1886, and its business 

 covers six months in its report. The road is 

 two miles long. An extension of the Manches- 

 ter street road from Elm Street to Hallsville, a 

 mile, was opened in the autumn of 1885. The 

 earnings of the Manchester, Concord, Dover, 

 (nine months), and Laconia and Lake Village 

 roads in 1885, were $47,801.24, and the oper- 

 ating expenses for the same period was $42,- 

 208.28, leaving a net income of $5,593.96. In 

 1886 the earnings were $62,450.13 ; expenses, 

 $57,964.68; net income, $4,485.45. These 

 roads in 1885 carried 881,600 passengers, and 

 in 1886 carried 1,105,888. 



Board of Health. The annual reports of the 

 State Board of Health are prepared primarily 

 for the education of the people of the State 

 upon sanitary topics. The most noticeable in- 

 dications of progress appear in the abandoning 

 of polluted wells for water-supply in villages, 

 and the introduction of an abundance of whole- 

 some water ; the sewering of places that had no 

 system of drainage ; the demand for local 

 boards of health that will accomplish some- 

 thing ; the construction of public buildings upon 

 a thorough sanitary basis ; the introduction of 

 hygienic instruction in the public schools ; a 

 better knowledge of prevention of zymotic dis- 

 eases; a more rational view of avoidance of 

 contagious diseases among children, etc. The 

 board has accomplished much in efforts to se- 

 cure better water for drinking and household 



