558 



NEW YORK CITY. 



Cleaning, $5,031,282.27; Fire Department. $4,840,- 

 676.52; Department of Buildings, $546,525; De- 

 partment of Taxes and Assessments, $334,450; 

 Board of Assessors, $42,700; Department of Edu- 

 cation, $14,594,111.09; College of the City of New 

 York, $200,000; Normal College, $175,000; total, 

 Department of Education, $14,969,111.09; Coro- 

 ner's office, $165,150; Commissioners of Accounts, 

 $156,000; Civil Service Commission, $76,000; 

 Board of City Record, $460,200; Bureau of, Muni- 

 cipal Statistics, $11.200; Examining Board of 

 Clumbers, $3,594; for library purposes, $214,- 

 779.30; courts, $966,050; charitable institutions, 

 >-' v,7 iiM.27: mixvllanrous. $549,000; grand 

 total, city budget, $79,201,763.26; New York 

 County, $8,391,332.16; Kings County, $2,613,663.- 

 I'i: Queens County, $436,039.58; Richmond Coun- 

 ty, $136,174.02; total of counties, $11.577,209.22; 

 grand total, city and counties, $90,778,972.48. 



The total budgets for all boroughs of New 

 York city for 1899 aggregated $93,520,082. The 

 budgets for 1900 therefore show a decrease of 

 $2.741,109.52. 



Taxes and Assessments. These are under the 

 care of a department of which Thomas L. Feitner 

 (salary, $8.000) is president. The other members 

 are Edward C. Sheehy, Arthur C. Salmon, and 

 Thomas J. Patterson (salaries, $7,000 each). 

 Office, 280 Broadway. They reported the total 

 valuations of real and personal property for taxa- 

 tion at $3,478,252,029, of which $2,932,445,464 was 

 for real estate and $545,806,565 for personal prop- 

 erty. The valuation for the real estate was sub- 

 divided as follows: Manhattan, $2,054,903,875; 

 Brooklyn, $609,822,267; the Bronx, $123,702,030; 

 Queens, $103,752,600; and Richmond, $40,264,- 

 692; total, $2,932,445,464, an increase of $403,912,- 

 023 over last year. That for personal property 

 \\as subdivided as follows: Manhattan, $483.575,- 

 942; Brooklyn, $45,270,713; the Bronx, $6,806,988; 

 Queens, $6,314,032; and Richmond, $3,838,890; 

 total, $545,806,565. Among the larger properties 

 assessed are the following valuations: The Wash- 

 ington Building, 1 Broadway, $1,250,000; Brown 

 Brothers & Co., 59 Wall Street, $650,000; the 

 Sampson Building, 63 Wall Street, $670,000; the 

 Seamen's Bank for Savings, 74 Wall Street, $425,- 

 000; the Hoyt Building, 44 Pine Street, $390,000; 

 thr Metropolitan Telephone and Telegraph Com- 

 pany, 13-17 Dey Street, $475,000; the Corbin 

 UniMing. 192 Broadway, $580,000; the Evening 

 Post Building, 206 Broadway, $525,000; the St. 

 Paul Building, 218 Broadway, $1,300,000; the 

 Park Row Building, 13-19 Park Row, $2,000,000; 

 the Temple Court Building, 5-9 Beekman Street, 

 $850,000; the Vanderbilt Building, 132 Nassau 

 Street, $450,000; the American Tract Society Build- 

 ing, $1,000,000; the Casino Theater, $450,000- the 

 Empire, $260.000; Wallack's, $575,000; the Wal- 

 dorf Hotel, $1,800,000; the Astoria, $3,150000- 

 and the Murray Hill Hotel, $650,000. Applica- 

 tions from William W. Astor, Bradley Martin, 

 and others for the reduction of their personal 

 property assessment on the ground of nonresi- 

 dent* (having removed to England) was denied 

 by this board, and in consequence it was publicly 

 announced later that Mr. Astor had become a 

 riti/cn of (Jn-at Britain. 



Law. This department is under the direction 



the Corporation Counsel, who receives $15 000 



The incumbent during the year was 



John \\halcn. His report was for the thirteen 



months previous to Jan. 31, 1899. He said of 



ills introduced to the Legislature affecting 



the city, 402 were defeated, 7 were vetoed by the 



Governor^ and 57 by the Mayor on representations 



of his office. Had these bills been enacted the 



city's debt would have been increased $48,000,- 

 000. The number of suits disposed of was 5,860, 

 and 4,356 cases were begun. The judgments 

 against the city aggregate $1,305,000, and those 

 in favor of the city, $17,091.15. By the increased 

 number of assistants which he was able to em- 



The District Attorney, Asa Bird Gardiner, hav- 

 ing been denied permission to enter any part of 

 the Court of General Sessions during important 

 procedures by the Recorder, sought redress in 

 the Supreme Court. Later charges were preferred 

 against him by members of the' City Club, and 

 a committee named by the Governor had them 

 under consideration. On Nov. 9 Job E. Hedges 

 was appointed by the Attorney-General of the 

 State as Deputy Attorney-General, with charge 

 of the prosecution of election law violations in 

 the city. The new Courthouse for the Appellate 

 Division of the Supreme Court, at Madison Avenue 

 and 25th Street, was opened Dec. 20, 1899. 



Surrogates' Court. There are two surrogates 

 in New York city, each of whom receives a salary 

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

 years. At the beginning of the year Frank T. 

 Fitzgerald and John H. V. Arnold were in office. 

 In January, rumors of the inefficiency of the 

 office having been circulated, the Assembly ap- 

 pointed a committee to investigate the manner 

 in which the various judicial, clerical, and other 

 duties were performed in the Surrogates' Court 

 and office in New York. As this investigation 

 was specially directed against Mr. Arnold, he soon 

 resigned, and James M. Varnum was appointed 

 to the vacancy on Feb. 15, and then held office 

 until Dec. 31. Of 2,059 wills offered for probate 

 in 1899, 121 were foreign and 1,835 were ad- 

 mitted to probate. Of the 112 wills contested, 

 1)0 have been decided, not including 18 that were 

 unfinished on Jan. 1, 1899. The surrogates heard 

 4,462 motions and held 462 hearings in will con- 

 tests, rendering 3,270 written decisions and 1,741 

 oral decisions. There were 87 hearings on issues 

 of fact. 



Public Improvement. The Board of Public 

 Improvements consists of the president of the 

 board, Maurice F. Holahan (salary, $8,000), the 

 Commissioners of Water Supply, of Highways, of 

 Street Cleaning, of Public Buildings, Lighting and 

 Supplies, and Bridges, each of whom receives a 

 salary of $7,500. Offices, 15 Park Row. The re- 

 ports for 1898 were issued during the year. That 

 on water supply shows that the watersheds of 

 Manhattan and the Bronx have an area of 

 more than 360 square miles, and that there 

 are 93 miles of conduits, with a maximum daily 

 capacity of 400,000,000 gallons. In the Croton, 

 Bronx, and Byram watersheds the reserve sup- 

 ply in 10 reservoirs and 5 lakes is more than 

 42,000,000,000 gallons. The total cost of the 

 Croton, Bronx, and Bvram systems to Dec. 31, 

 1898, was $86,236,63075, including, under the 

 new aqueduct system, $38,036,519.29 for 'the new 

 aqueduct, reservoirs, lands, etc. The revenue was 

 $4,459,905.17. Brooklyn's watershed has an area 

 of 154 square miles, and the supply is from the 

 Hempstead reservoir and 15 ponds, with 1,283,- 

 480,000 gallons' capacity, and from streams and 

 wells. The water revenues for Brooklyn were 

 $1.928,581.85. Part of the borough of Queens 

 has public water plants and part private water 

 companies. The receipts from water revenue were 

 $85,690.96. Richmond borough has a water plant 

 at Tottenville with a daily capacity of 400,000 

 gallons; 52 supply wells with a capacity. of 510,- 



