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1484 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 
February 26, 1891—House. 
Letter from the Acting Secretary of the Treasury, transmitting, in 
reply to the House resolution of the 14th instant relating to the 
Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, ete., the report of the First 
Comptroller upon that subject and a communication from the Secre- 
tary of the Smithsonian Institution. (Hx. Doc. No. 279.) 
TreasurY DEPARTMENT, February 25, 1891. 
Sir: I am in receipt of the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 14th 
instant— 
That the Secretary of the Treasury be requested to inform the House of Represent- « 
atives whether or not the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution have accepted the 
trust imposed by the act approved April 20, 1890, entitled ‘‘An act for the organiza- 
tion, improvement, and maintenance of the National Zoological Park,’’ and to report 
by what legal authority the Treasury Department has paid out that portion of the 
. appropriation made by said act which has been expended up to and including the 
27th day of January, 1891. 
In reply thereto I have the honor to inclose the report of the First Comptroller 
upon the subject, dated the 24th instant, together with a communication from Prof. , 
S. P. Langley, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, to the Comptroller, dated 
the 20th instant. 
Respectfully, yours, 
A. B. NETrrLeton, 
. Acting Secretary. 
The SPEAKER OF THE House oF REPRESENTATIVES. 
TREASURY DEPARTMENT, Frrst COMPTROLLER’S OFFICE, 
Washington, February 24, 1891. 
Sir: Replying to House resolution dated February 14, 1891, which was referred 
to me for report, and which is herewith returned, I have the honor to make the fol- 
lowing statement: 
The act of Congress approved April 30, 1890 (26 Stat.,79), being ‘‘An act for the 
organization, improvement, and maintenance of the National Zoological Park,’’ 
among other things provides— 
‘That one-half of the following sums named, respectively, is hereby appropriated 
out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, and the other half 
out of the revenues of the District of Columbia, for the organization, improvement, 
and maintenance of the National Zoological Park, to be expended under the direc- 
tion of the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, and to. be drawn on their requisi- 
tion and disbursed by the disbursing officer for said institution.’’ 
’ Following the provision are the sums appropriated for the purpose. 
Since this act took effect the money necessary to carry out its provisions has been 
drawn on the requisition of the Regents, through their Secretary, Prof. S. P. Langley, 
and by the Treasury Department passed to the credit of the disbursing officer of 
the Smithsonian Institution, to wit, William W. Karr, in the office of the Treas- 
urer of the United States. The money is subject to his draft for official purposes, 
when properly drawn and approved. Mr. Karr is the disbursing officer of the United 
States referred to in the act itself, and has given bond in accordance with law, and 
renders his accounts in accordance with the statute in such cases made and provided. 
The names of the officials of the Smithsonian Institution and the Regents will be 
found on page 249 of the Official Congressional Directory of the Fifty-first Congress, 
which please see. You will observe that these officials do not all live in the city, 
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