528 



NEW YORK. 



During the year there was expended for houses 

 and sites, furniture and repairs, $4,061,002, of 

 which $2,688,906 was expended in the cities 

 and $1,372,126 in the country. The estimated 

 valuation of school property, including build- 

 ings, sites, apparatus, and furniture, was $49,913,- 

 605 ; for cities, $34,131,958 ; and for towns, $15,- 

 781,647. The average valuation of the property 

 in city districts is $55,319, and for country dis- 

 tricts $1,384. The increase in total valuation 

 during the last decade for city schools has been 

 from $20,375,152 to $34,131,958. while that for 

 country districts is from $11,562,799 to $15,781,- 

 647. The vacancy in the Board of Regents, 

 caused by the death of Bishop McNierney, was 

 filled by 'the election of Rev. Father Sylvester 

 Maione. of Brooklyn, at a joint session of the 

 Legislature on March 29. The Democratic can- 

 didate was Eugene Kelly of New York. 



Charities. The twenty-second annual report 

 of the State Charities Aid Association to the State 

 Board of Charities shows that the contributions 

 lor the year ending Sept. 30 amounted to $5,- 

 002.50, and the expenses to $7,430.77. /There 

 was a balance in the treasury at the beginning 

 of the year, which reduces the deficit to $248.82. 

 The association secured the passage of a law 

 establishing and organizing a State colony for 

 epileptics, thus bringing to a successful issue 

 the efforts of four years in behalf of dependent 

 epileptics, 600 of whom are in the State. The 

 passage of an important law affecting the com- 

 mitment and care of dependent children in 

 Kings County was also secured. 



A system of supervision of children formerly 

 public charges, but who have been placed out in 

 families, has been put in operation. There are 

 6,000 such children in the State. The work of 

 the agency for providing places in the country 

 for destitute young mothers with infants dis- 

 charged from hospitals and other institutions in 

 New York city reported that 142 women have 

 been placed in situations since June 1, 1893. 

 'The number of inmates of public charitable in- 

 stitutions subject by statute to the visitation of 

 the agents is 35,000. In 1893 the association 

 reported that the insane had been removed from 

 nil the poorhouses and poorhouse asylums of the 

 State, with the exception of those of Oneida and 

 Queens Counties. The last 166 patients of the 

 Oneida County Asylum are now in the St. Law- 

 rence and Utica State Hospitals, and the de- 

 pendent insane of the Queens County Asylum 

 have been removed to the Hudson River State 

 Hospital. There are now no insane persons in 

 any of the poorhouses or poorhouse asylums of 

 the State, the total number removed from 57 

 counties since the passage of the State-care act, 

 in 1890, being about 2,200. There are in the 

 poorhouses idiots, epileptics, and aged persons 

 whose minds are affected, but no insane. 



Crime. The report of the Secretary of State 

 on criminal statistics for the year ending Oct. 

 31, 1893, submitted to the Legislature in March, 

 shows the whole number of convictions reported 

 by county clerks to have been 3,283 81 more 

 than in 1892. The convictions reported, corn- 

 pared with 1892, are as follow : Offenses against 

 the person, 397; decrease, 171. Offenses against 

 property, with violence, 826 ; increase, 28. Of- 

 fenses against property, without violence, 1.597; 



increase, 242. Offenses against the currency, 

 88. Offenses not included in the foregoing, 

 363 ; decrease, 118. The convictions reported 

 by sheriffs were 3,402 ; females convicted, 175. 

 Convictions in special sessions, 73,965; males 

 convicted in courts of special sessions, 65,900 ; 

 females convicted in courts of special sessions. 

 8,065. Convictions in special sessions in cities, 

 86,292 ; females convicted in special sessions, 

 21.05,-). 



Elmira Reformatory. During 1892 charges 

 of cruel and inhuman treatment of prisoners 

 in the Elmira Reformatory by the superintend- 

 ent, Z. R. Brockway, were brought to public 

 notice through the efforts of a New York city 

 newspaper, in consequence of which a special 

 committee was appointed by the State Board of 

 Charities to investigate the charges, and their 

 report, transmitted to the Legislature on March 

 19, said : 



We find that the charges and the allegations against 

 the general superintendent, Z. K. Brockway, of cruel, 

 brutal, excessive, degrading, and unusual punish- 

 ment of the inmates are proved and most amply sus- 

 tained by the evidence, and that he is guilty of the 

 same. 



Subsequently the Governor appointed a special 

 commission, consisting of William L. Learned, 

 Dr. Austin Flint, and Israel T. Deyo, to take 

 testimony and make examination of witnesses as 

 to the truth of said charges, and to report the 

 same to him with the material facts which they 

 deem to be established by the evidence. * 



Pending the investigation Dr. Robert T. Bush 

 was appointed to the place of superintendent by 

 the managers. The commission spent some time 

 in taking testimony, and finally submitted a re- 

 port signed by Messrs. Flint and Deyo, in which 

 it said that 



In no case does it appear that a convict has re- 

 ceived any serious or permanent injury, mental or 

 physical, at the hands of the general superintendent 

 or any of the subordinate officers or keepers of the 

 reformatory, or even an injury leaving any perma- 

 nent mark. The charges tli at convicts have died or 

 been maimed from the eifect of violence, or neglect 

 on the part of the officers of the reformatory, or any 

 of them, are unsubstantiated in every particular. 



A minority report by Judge Learned said : 



The proof presented has not shown satisfactorily 

 that in any case a prisoner has ever been permanent- 

 ly injured by a flogging in the reformatory. Men 

 liave' claimed that eyesight and hearing have bee 

 made defective by this cause, and ruptures produc 

 Very possibly these claims have been made in 

 faith, for the rupture or defective eyesight or 

 fective hearing existed ; but they were not cai 

 by the flogging. Nor do I think that any teeth we 

 knocked out by blows of the superintendent's fist, <>r 

 scars of any magnitude made by his punishments, 

 either by the blows of the strap or by the hamli'iitfs. 



In consequence of these opinions, resulting 

 from a careful study of the evidence, Gov. 

 Flower, in an elaborate review of the reports, 

 decided on Dec. 10 that " the charges are in the 

 main not proved, and are therefore dismissed." 



National dUiard. The supervision of the 

 State militia is chiefly under the charge of the 

 Adjutant General on the Governor's staff. The 

 incumbent during 1894 was Maj.-Gen. Josiah 

 Porter, who died on Dec. 14 and was succeeded 

 on Dec. 21 by Brig.-Gen. Thomas H. McGrath. 



