254 



CONNECTICUT. 



His Excellency the Governor, a Judge of the Su- 

 preme Court of Errors, to be designated for that pur- 

 pose by the judges of that court at their annual meet- 

 ing, and four persons to be appointed by the General 

 Assembly, one of whom shall be a physician, shall 

 constitute a Board of Pardons for this State. 



A unanimous opinion will be necessary to a 

 pardon. 



The new law which enlarges and explicitly 

 defines the duties of coroners makes a sweep- 

 ing change, and a radically new departure, in 

 the methods for the initial proceedings in prob- 

 able cases of murder or suicide. 



The Governor's salary was raised a little, 

 made $4,000. The State tax was made 1 

 mill. A new military code bill was passed ; 

 a bill to stop the auctioneering of town pau- 

 pers to the keeping of thrifty providers in 

 other towns also became a law; the act to 

 wind up the Townsend Savings-Bank passed ; 

 and so did a bill to compel dealers in oleomar- 

 garine to stamp their packages of that article 

 with that name, and put it up also in large 

 letters over the door. 



A bill was passed to prevent a drunken father 

 from taking the wages of his minor son. 



A so-called consolidation bill was passed 

 permitting any Connecticut railroad to unite 

 with any other road that is entirely outside of 

 this State, and to issue bonds, provided the 

 line thus formed shall make one continuous 

 route, and not be a parallel and competing line. 



A bill to punish frauds in party primary 

 meetings was passed ; as was a bill to put a 

 stop to u baby-farming." The commission to 

 look into the irregularities of Secretary North- 

 rup, of the Board of Education, submitted, and 

 the legislature passed, a bill to reorganize that 

 board on a new basis. A bill that practical- 

 ly permits Sunday- evening concerts passed. 

 There was an appropriation of $5,000 for a 

 statue of Nathan Hale, to be placed on the 

 Capitol. 



An important and just measure was enacted 

 empowering the judge, in divorce and other 

 cases of separation, to assign the child or chil- 

 dren to either parent, as he may decide. 



Other measures passed were the following : 

 Bill relating to annual meetings of Superior 

 Court Judges; bill relating to pay of county 

 commissioners; bill amending the liquor law ; 

 resolution appropriating $2,500 for repairs at 

 the State Prison. 



The Governor vetoed a bill reducing the tax 

 on the bonds and floating indebtedness of rail- 

 roads from one to one half of 1 per cent. 



Biennial Sessions. On this subject the Gov- 

 ernor, in his message to the Legislature of 1884, 

 says: 



A proposed amendment to the Constitution, pro- 

 viding for biennial sessions of the General Assembly, 

 received a ma.iority vote of the last House of Kepre- 

 and will be presented to you for final legis- 



it. As nothing has occurred since to add to the 

 strength of the argument then urged in its favor, it is 

 not likely, if again submitted, to be disposed of in a 

 different way. The objection to tbe present constitu- 

 tional provision is, I apprehend, founded more upon 

 the length than the frequency of sessions. If the pub- 

 lic business could be annually disposed of in six or 

 eight weekSj instead of occupying more than seven- 

 teen, as it did last year, there would be less difficulty 

 in obtaining the services, as legislators, of the hett 

 citizens of the State ; and few would favor abandon- 

 ing yearly sessions with their traditional and educa- 

 tional influences. 



Finances. The falling off in the income 

 $102,638.17 from the previous year, is largely 

 accounted for by the failure of certain railroad 

 companies to meet their taxes, and by the re- 

 duction of the amount heretofore paid by mu- 

 tual-insurance companies of the State, as au- 

 thorized by the act of 1882. 



The funded debt was, Jan. 1, 1883 $4,590,600 



There has been paid in reduction thereof during 

 the year 818,500 



So that the amount of funded debt now is $4,272,100 



Three and one half per cent, bonds of the 

 issue of Dec. 1, 1883, have been sold, amount- 

 ing to $1,068,500, at a premium of 6'85 per 

 cent., the largest ever received from the sale of 

 State bonds. 



The balance in the Treasury, 

 Dec. 1. 1882, was $1,192,897 91 



The income of the fiscal year, 

 ending Nov. 80, 1883, was. . . . 1,617,800 04 



Received from sale of bonds . . . 525,197 50 



$3,335,895 4ft 



The expenditures were $1,630,526 65 



Paid for State bonds redeemed .. 867,500 00 



Balance on hand . . . 



The people had an opportunity in 1879, after ex- 

 haustive discussion, to express their opinion of such a 

 proposed change in our organic law ; and the record 

 shows that more than two thirds of them voted against 



Total $3,335,89545 



Taxation. On this subject the Governor says : 

 Under the law, as it is, if taxable property is not 

 returned to the assessors, and they fail to discover it, 

 it absolutely escapes all taxation ; for no provision 

 exists for the enforcement of a claim for taxation on 

 property which has been concealed from the assessors, 

 or inadvertently omitted from the grand list of a 

 town. A large amount of property, in this way, is 

 continually evading its part of the burden of public 

 expense. If a statute were enacted authorizing towns, 

 upon the discovery of unassessed property, to demand 

 and collect of the party, who failed to return it, the 

 amount or double the amount it would have been 

 liable for, if it had been properly listed, it would be 

 greatly for the advantage of citizens who comply with 

 the law. 



Savings-Banks. There is in the control and 

 management of the savings-banks of the State 

 the sum of $92,679,063.01, a larger amount than 

 ever before, and mostly belonging to the thrifty 

 industrial element of the population. There 

 has been an increase of 8,659 during the year 

 in the number of depositors, and of $3,155,973.- 

 22 in the amount of their deposits. The com- 

 missioners suggest that, in their opinion, this 

 interest needs no new legislation, except, it 

 may be, in relation to a class of investments 

 against which they have heretofore strongly 

 protested. It appears that some of these insti- 

 tutions have invested in simply promissory 

 notes, without collateral securities, the sum of 

 $4,030,766.79. 





