NEW YORK. 



567 



The Legislature continued in session from 

 eftrly in January till the latter part of May. 

 Among the laws passed was one providing that 

 the Superintendent of State-prisons shall have 

 the management and control of the prisons and 

 the convicts therein, and of all matters relat- 

 ing to the government, discipline, police, con- 

 tracts, and fiscal concerns thereof. It further 

 provided that the system of labor in the State- 

 prisons shall be by contract or by the State, or 

 partly by one system and partly by the other, 

 the matter being left to the discretion of the 

 Superintendent. By another act the Superin- 

 tendent is authorized to 

 appoint a State agent 

 for discharged convicts, 

 whose duty it shall be 

 to visit from time to 

 time the various penal 

 institutions and refor- 

 matories of the State, 

 and to confer with all 

 convicts whose terms of 

 imprisonment are soon 

 to expire, for the pur- 

 pose of inducing them 

 to proceed at once from 

 their place of confine- 

 ment to suitable homes 

 and places where em- 

 ployment will be se- 

 cured for them. The 

 agent is empowered to 

 furnish discharged con- 

 victs with transporta- 

 tion, food, clothing, and 

 necessary tools and ad- 

 vice, so that they may 

 enter upon employment. 



The act to prohibit 

 the selling of intoxicat- 

 ing liquors to children 

 provides that no minor 

 under the age of 14 

 years shall be admitted 

 to or allowed to remain 

 in any saloon or place 

 of entertainment where 

 any intoxicating liquors 

 are sold, or at places of 

 amusement, concert-sa- 

 loons, or dance-houses, 

 unless accompanied by 



the sale of the lateral canals. Under its pro- 

 visions the Chenango Canal extension is to be 

 discontinued after May 1, 1878. The Chemnng 

 and the Genesee Valley Canals are to be aban- 

 doned after September 80, 1878, while the* 

 Crooked Lake Canal ceases to exist as a State 

 water-way. 



Among important bills vetoed by the Gov- 

 ernor were " an act to secure better public ad- 

 ministration of the city of New York," popu- 

 larly known as the Woodin charter ; an act 

 reducing the departments and commissions in 

 Brooklyn to a single head ; an act relating to 



TRINITT CHCBCH) KEW TOBK CITT . 



providing that boards of 

 education in cities and villages shall designate 

 the text-books to be used in the public schools 

 under their charge. In the other school-dis- 

 tricts of the State the text-books are to bo des- 

 ignated by a two-thirds vote of all the legal 

 voters voting. When a text-book has been so 

 adopted it cannot be changed or superseded 

 within five years from its adoption, except by 

 a three-fourths vote of the Board of Education 

 or of the annual school-meeting. 

 An important bill was passed providing for 



education in the city of New York; and the 

 bill conferring additional powers upon the in- 

 surance department. The act for the govern- 

 ment of New York City had consumed consid- 

 erable time of the Legislature, and the subject 

 had been much discussed by the general publi 

 Governor Robinson vetoed it for the following 

 reason : 



It would be a bulky addition to the crirting 

 of New York City statutes. It seeks to regulate man> 

 details of administration, and some of it* rrovw 

 are, on their face, unobjectionable and wholcao 



