

NEW YORK CITY. 



501 



debtedness was $91,447,311.81, an excess of the 10 

 per cent, of $23,852,422.21. The result of consoli- 

 dation, therefore, was the creation of a city the net 

 bonded indebtedness of which was $16,010,895.62, 

 less than 10 per cent, of the assessed valuation of 

 its real estate. A summary of his figures shows : 



Subsequently these figures were materially modi- 

 fied by opinions of the Corporation Counsel, which 

 enabled him to exclude from statements of the city 

 debt liabilities chargeable against the fund for 

 street and park openings and certain contracts 

 based on uncertain quantities of work to be per- 

 formed, until, according to the Mayor's message pre- 

 sented at the beginning of the new year, " the ex- 

 cess of the city's indebtedness over its constitutional 

 limit on Jan. 1, 1898, was found to be $13,566,875.- 

 69." 



Board of Estimate and Apportionments. 

 This body consists of the Mayor, the President and 

 Secretary of the Department of Taxes and Assess- 

 ments, the Comptroller, President of the Council, 

 and the Corporation Counsel. The city tax budget 

 for 1899 was passed by this body on Oct. 30, and 

 was adopted by the Municipal Assembly on Nov. 15. 

 It included the following items : The Mayoralty, 

 $63,755 ; Municipal Assembly and City Clerk, $200,- 

 052; Department of Finance, $779,391 ; interest on 

 city debt, $9,278,385 ; interest on bonds and stocks 

 to be issued after Oct. 10, 1898, and in 1899, $1,277,- 

 393; interest, on revenue bonds of 1899, $875,000; 

 redemption of the city debt, $9,412,950; install- 

 ments payable in 1899, '$2,633,110; rents, $291,761; 

 borough officers, $51,300; the Law Department, 

 $399,758 ; Board of Public Improvements, $239,500; 

 Department of Highways, $2,520,099; Department 

 of Sewers, $787,479 ; Department of Bridges, $406,- 

 522; Department of Public Buildings, Lighting 

 and Supplies, $3,617,804; Department of Water 

 Supply, $1,450,817; Department of Parks, $1,729,- 

 235 ; Department of Public Charities, $1,941,215 ; 

 Department of Correction, $704,065 : Department 

 of Health, $1,110.538; Police Department,"$11.182,- 

 531; Bureau of Elections, $615,065; total, Police 

 Department, $11,797,596; Department of Street 

 Cleaning, $4,575,800 ; Fire Department, $4,443,664; 

 Department of Buildings, $523.265 ; Department of 

 Taxes and Assessments, $329,200; Board of Assess- 

 ors, $35.700 ; Department of Education, $13,415,- 

 053; Coroner's Office, $165,150; for library purpo- 

 ses, $226.564 ; courts, $967,500 ; charitable institu- 

 tions, $1,784,846; miscellaneous, $4,990,513; grand 

 total, city budget, $83,710,793 : New York County, 

 16,961,101 ; Kings County, $2,326,098 ; Queens 

 County, $403.806: Richmond County, $118,283; 

 total of counties, $9,809,288 ; grand total, city and 

 counties, $93.520,082. 



The total budgets for all boroughs of New York 

 city for 1898 aggregated $63,669,103.23. The bud- 

 gets for 1899 therefore show an increase of $29,- 

 850.978.80. 



Taxes and Assessments. These are under the 

 charge of a board consisting of Thomas L. Feitner, 

 President ; Edward C. Sheehy, Arthur C. Salmon, 





Thomas J. Patterson, and William Grell ; office, 280 

 Broadway. They report the total valuations of real 

 and personal property, as assessed for taxation in 

 1898, at $2,365,490,372, against $2,168,635.856 in 

 1897, showing an increase of $196,854,516. The as- 

 sessed valuation of real estate is $1,856,467,923, 

 against $1,787.186,791 in 1897. The assessed valu- 

 ation of personal property is $509,022,449, against 

 $381.449,065, distributed as follow : Resident, $325,- 

 892,478 ; non-resident, $108,105,545 ; and sharehold- 

 ers of banks, $75,024,426. The increase under the 

 classifications of resident and non-resident is $134,- 

 485,344. There is a decrease in the assessed valua- 

 tion of the shareholders of banks of $6,911.960, 

 leaving the net increase $127,573,384. Among the 

 largest personal assessments were the following : 

 William W. Astor, $2,000.000 ; Russell Sage, $500,- 

 000; Cornelius Vanderbilt, $400,000; William K. 

 Vanderbilt, $400,000 ; Adrian Iselin, $400,000 ; John 

 Jacob Astor, $250,000: Frederick W. Vanderbilt, 

 $200,000 ; George W. Vanderbilt, $200,000 ; Andrew 

 Carnegie, $150,000; Robert Bonner, $125,000; 

 Caroline W. Astor, $100,000; Morris K. Jesup, 

 $100,000; Joseph H. Choate, $100.000; George 

 Ehret, $75,000 ; Jacob Ruppert, $50,000 ; Theodore 

 Roosevelt, $50,000 ; and Henry Clews, $50,000. 



Surrogates' Court. There are two surrogates 

 in New York County, each of whom receives a sal- 

 ary of $15,000, and serves for a term of fourteen 

 years. The incumbents during the year were Frank 

 T. Fitzgerald and John H. V. Arnold. There were 

 1,955 wills offered for probate in 1898, and of this 

 number 1,726 were admitted to probate. Of the 123 

 wills contested, 104 have been decided. The surro- 

 gates heard 3,801 motions and held 336 hearings in 

 will contests, rendering 2,953 decisions. 



Public Improvement. The Board of Public 

 Improvements consists of the president of the board, 

 the Commissioners of Water Supply, of Highways, 

 of Street Cleaning, of Sewers, of Public Buildings, 

 Lighting and Supplies, and of Bridges, each of whom 

 is appointed for a term of six years. The president 

 of the board receives a salary of $8,000, and the 

 other members $7,500 each. According to a report 

 presented toward the close of the year, there are- in 

 Manhattan nearly 400 miles of paved streets, and 

 136 miles of these are paved with asphalt, nearly 

 all of which has been laid since 1889. The follow- 

 ing shows to what extent the different kinds of 

 paving material are in use: With specification 

 granite, 156.04 miles; with square granite, 13.19; 

 with specification trap, 42.66 ; with Belgian trap, 

 32.49; with sheet asphalt, 130.31; witlTblock as- 

 phalt, 5.83; with wood, 0.08; and with macadam, 

 18.94 ; total, 399.54. The longest stretch of asphalt 

 in Manhattan is on Eighth Avenue, and runs from 

 Thirteenth to One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Street, 

 more than 7 miles. In some places it is 48 feet 

 wide, and in others 60 feet. 



Shortly before the opening of the campaign cer- 

 tain documents prepared by the Commissioners of 

 Accounts were presented to the Grand Jury by the 

 District Attorney, in which it was charged that the 

 Department of Public Works, by letting out con- 

 tracts for the paving of the streets with asphalt, 

 contrary to the requirements of the law, had caused 

 large losses to the city. The charges were investi- 

 gated and then dismissed by the Grand Jury, by a 

 vote of 17 to 5. Much comment was elicited toward 

 the end of the year by the fact that not a single 

 new street improvement in the entire Borough of 

 Bronx had been initiated during the year, although 

 the cost of running the several departments, which 

 were formerly embraced in one department, was 

 much greater. The Commissioner of Street Im- 

 provements was paid a salary of $5,000. and was an 

 elective officer, responsible directly to the people. 



