OF THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT. 23 
[Please read pp. 9, 10 and 11 of the Commissioners’ Third 
Report, and pp. 1o and 11 of their Fourth Report. | 
It is not strange, therefore, that they have made mistakes of 
this character. They will always be made under suchasystem of 
taxation. 
Again: “ Will not oysters grow as fast if the Commission does 
“not get $6,000 a year?’ Probably they will. The Commis- 
sioners are not in the oyster business, but they have duties im- 
posed upon them, the discharge of which is vital to the industry, 
and their pay has been fixed by the State. If they discharge 
those duties honestly and efficiently, the State will pay them, 
whether it cost $6,000 or any other sum, and this whether oysters 
grow or not. 
They ask the Commissioners to “resign.” Inthe midst of such 
a work, after acquiring all the material for its completion, and 
after their valuable experience, they would be false to themselves 
and the State to resign. And, further, they say that it would be 
doing them an injustice to deprive them of the honor of complet- 
ing the work which they have faithfully begun and carried along 
almost to completion—a work that has met the approbation of 
experts all over the world. Whatever money has been expended 
is fully justified by the results. The engineering work has been 
well done and at reasonable cost, and as for the pay of the Com- 
missioners, it has been really inadequate. The average pay and 
expense of each does not exceed $1,500 a year! If they had not 
other means than this compensation, they could not afford to do 
such work. The salaries of most of the young men in the State’s 
offices for mere clerical work are quite as large. 
“Cannot a competent officer at $1,500 or $1,800 a year, with a 
‘competent and honest engineer employed part of the time, do 
“‘ all that is now done?” We say, “No!” emphatically “No!” 
It will take a new commissioner and a new engineer six months to 
familiarize themselves with the work that has been done and the 
methods of the work, and we do not think it prudent, as we have 
already shown, to put such work, at its present important stage, 
into one man’s hands—a man who may be manipulated for base 
and selfish ends. 
Indeed, the present Commissioners could complete the work 
more efficiently and economically in half the time that one new 
man would require to do it. The most expensive part of the 
work is done, and it only remains for the Commissioners, with the 
