CALIFORNIA. 



77 



in the North Sea. The English subjects who 

 were interested appealed to their Govern- 

 ment to secure reparation, but their request 

 was received coldly. The conference held 

 at the Hague in 1881 for the regulation of 

 the North Sea fisheries, in which the Nether- 

 lands, Germany, France, Great Britain, Bel- 

 gium, Sweden, and Denmark took part, 

 adopted a resolution recommending the gov- 

 ernments to take measures to prevent the 

 injury of submarine cables by fishermen. 



When this question came up at the Electrical 

 Congress at Paris, in 1881, the French Gov- 

 ernment proposed a conference for the dis- 

 cussion of the subject. The conference met 

 Oct. 16, 1882, in Paris. Representatives of 

 France, Austria, Germany, Great Britain, 

 Italy, Russia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Den- 

 mark, Switzerland, Turkey, Norway, Sweden, 

 Spain, Portugal, Greece, Servia, Roumania, 

 the United States, Colombia, British India, 

 Japan, China, Mexico, Nicaragua, the Argen- 

 tine Republic, and Costa Rica were partici- 

 pants. The conference confined itself to the 

 subject of the protection of cables in time of 

 peace. After long deliberations, a compromise 

 project was adopted. Any person who inten- 

 tionally or through criminal negligence in- 

 jures or breaks a submarine cable, is de- 

 clared an offender against the law. The 

 courts of the country to which the vessel be- 

 longs upon which the illegal act is committed, 

 are to have jurisdiction of the offense. 



CALIFORNIA. State Government. The State 

 officers during the year 1883 were the follow- 

 ing: Governor, George Stoneman, Democrat; 

 Lieutenant-Governor, John Daggett ; Secre- 

 tary of State, T. L. Thompson ; Treasurer, W. 

 A. January; Comptroller, John P. Dunn ; Su- 

 perintendent of Public Instruction, W. T. 

 Welcker; Attorney-General, C. E. Marshall; 

 Surveyor-General, H. I. Willey. Judiciary : 

 Supreme Court Chief -Justice, Robert F. Mor- 

 rison ; Associate Justices, M. H. Myrick, E. 

 W. McKinstry, E. M. Ross, J. D. Thornton, J. 

 R. Sharpstein, S. B. McKee. 



Legislative Session. The Legislature, consisting 

 of 30 Democrats and 10 Republicans in the 

 Senate, and 58 Democrats, 21 Republicans, and 

 one Independent in the House, met on the 8th 

 of January and adjourned on the 13th of 

 March. Among the measures passed were the 

 following : 



Bills in aid of the State University ; the road law ; 

 concerning tax-sale redemptions ; classifying munici- 

 pal corporations ; providing for a preparatory course 

 tor the university in the common-school system ; a 

 new and good street law ; in aid of decrepit veterans 

 of the Mexican War ; in aid of foundling asylums ; in 

 aid of viticulture ; in aid of horticulture and the de- 

 struction of fruit insect-pests ; protecting food-fish ; 

 settling contests as to preferred labor claims ; provid- 

 ing for a wall at the Folsom Prison ; a fair municipal 

 government bill ; giving boards of health control 

 over drainage-fittings for houses a county govern- 

 ment bill, about equally balanced between good and 

 ill provisions ; in aid of silk-culture ; to prevent the 

 introduction of contagious diseases into the State ; 



providing additional accommodations for the insane ; 

 requiring the insane with sufficient estates to pay for 

 their care : giving a fit salary to the Clerk of the State 

 Board of Equalization ; providing for better invest- 

 ment of school moneys ; aiding the State Agricultural 

 Society ; aiding the Mining Bureau ; paying some just 

 claims ; aiding the industrial education of the deaf 

 and dumb and the blind ; providing for the care and 

 repair of State buildings, and aiding State normal 

 schools ; and submitting the text-book question to a 

 vote ; some few amendments to the Code, of no par- 

 ticular significance, the best being a new provision for 

 authentication of marriage : the repeal of the Sunday 

 law ; the oleomargarine bill ; the Statistical Bureau 

 bill ; the street rail way -ticket bill ; the Lake Tahoe 

 forestry bill, limited to a small region, and hence 

 tending to prevent general remedies being applied; 

 the legislative and congressional partisan appor- 

 tionment bills ; the bill legislating out of office Ee- 

 publican Harbor Commissioners; vacating a judicial 

 office in Mono instead of impeaching the incumbent; 

 the hair-cutting bill for county prisoners ; for the 

 destruction of wild animals ; as to refunding the in- 

 debtedness of cities ; auditing the accounts of the In- 

 surance Commissioner; the jurisdiction of justices; 

 as to juvenile offenders ; as to the method of submit- 

 ting constitutional amendments ; as to drawbridges 

 in cities ; purchasing portraits of Governors ; as to 

 the manner of assessing railroad property. 



The following are the new congressional 

 districts: 1st Del Norte, Humboldt, Trinity, 

 Siskiyou, Shasta, Modoc, Lassen, Plumas, Sier- 

 ra, Tehama, Colusa, Mendocino, Lake, Sonoma, 

 and Napa counties; 2d Butte, Sutter, Yuba, 

 Nevada, Placer, El Dorado, Amador, Calave- 

 ras, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Tuo- 

 lumne, and Mariposa; 3d Yolo, Sacramento, 

 Solano, Contra Costa, Marin, and Alameda; 

 4th part of San Francisco ; 5th part of San 

 Francisco, and all of San Mateo, Santa Cruz, 

 and Santa Clara ; 6th San Benito, Monterey, 

 San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura, 

 Kern, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Bernardi- 

 no, Alpine, Tulare, Fresno, Mono, and Inyo. 



The Governor's Views. Gov. Stoneman was 

 inaugurated on the 10th of January. In his 

 address he expressed the following views re- 

 garding the regulation of freights and fares, the 

 Sunday law, the Chinese question, prison re- 

 form, and irrigation : 



Three years have now elapsed since the people 

 solemnly expressed their views upon the subject of 

 the regulation of fares and freights, and delegated to 

 a commission, chosen under the new organic law, the 

 authority to execute their expressed will. It is to be 

 deeply regretted that the retiring Railroad Commission 

 has entirely neglected and refused to take any posi- 

 tive steps toward enforcing its powers. It is to be 

 earnestly hoped that the incoming Commission will 

 prove to be composed of men of sufficient .courage and 

 sagacity to meet this issue in a spirit of fairness ; to 

 deal justly by the transportation companies and can- 

 didly by the people. I wish it to be distinctly under- 

 stood that all the power and influence of the Execu- 

 tive department ot the government will be cheerfully 

 exercised on behalf of the commission to bring the 

 issue between the people and the transportation com- 

 panies to a final and satisfactory termination. The 

 question of the regulation of fares and freights is the 

 great living issue of the day, and no postponement of 

 its solution to a future time will prove satisfactory 

 either to the people of this State or the Union. The 

 question of the power of the State to fix and regulate 

 the charges for fares and freights upon transportation 

 lines within the State has passed beyond the line of 



