OF THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT. 19 
result? Why, the Commissioners have collected and paid into the 
State treasury more money than they have drawn out. The State 
is not yet out of pocket one cent. On the contrary, there remains 
in the State treasury an unexpended balance of $9,658.16, which 
the Commissioners have collected and placed there; and this 
balance would have been $40,000 to $50,000 larger had not 
thousands of acres of the best ground been taken up during the 
brief period of two weeks between the passage of the act 
of 1881 and its going into effect, whereby the Commissioners were 
deprived of what the State contemplated would be the proceeds 
of their sale. 
In laying out such a vast amount of work for the Commission- 
ers, the Legislature must have foreseen that its faithful perform- 
ance would lead of necessity to a large expenditure of money. 
The fact that the Commissioners were directed to employ a clerk 
shows that the Legislature realized that the Commissioners’ duties 
would be so extensive and varied, that the mere clerical work of 
the Commission would require the whole of one man’s time. 
As to “the falling off of sales:”” This was to be expected; and 
if the designation of grounds was all the work the Commission 
had to do, there would be some force in the statement. 
Again: “The Commissioners have increased their pay and 
“expenses from $1,162.14 the first seven months to $6,000 the 
“last year. As the sales of the grounds diminish, thetr pay and ex- 
“ penses tncrease.”’ 
To the first statement we reply that the first seven months the 
work was light compared with what it was in the following years, 
for, as we have shown, their duties increased constantly. Indeed, 
the State put new and more difficult work upon them every year, 
and they were forced to devote more time to it, tothe prejudice 
of their own business. In 1882 they had hardly got the work in 
hand; nor were there any tax bills to get up and collect. In 1886, 
when the $6,000 was spent, in addition to their ordinary duties, 
the determination of the boundary line between Connecticut and 
Rhode Island was put upon them, a work that has cost much 
time and expense; all of which, so far as the Commissioners are 
concerned, has been done by them without extra pay! But the 
writer of these reasons would have you believe that, because the 
sales of grounds diminished, the pay and expense of the Com- 
mission ought to diminish fro rata. The sale of grounds is but a 
small part of their work; and although these sales have fallen off, 
other duties have been forced upon them. 
