HYDROLOGY OF NEW YORK 



073 



With 2625 net horsepower in use on the canal proper, and 

 3835 on the west branch of Eighteenmile creek, the total actually in 

 use at Lockport, and dependent on Erie canal for its water supply, 

 is 6460 net horsepower. 



No statements as to the value of the annual product of the 

 manufacturing establishments on the raceways of the Lockport 

 Hydraulic Power Company have been given. It is therefore im- 

 possible to state accurately the value of the total annual product 

 at Lockport. As several of the establishments there are very 

 extensive, including the Holly Manufacturing Company, it may 

 be assumed that the annual output of this portion of the Lockport 

 manufactories has a value, at least, of f 1,000,000 ; hence we reach 

 a total value of the annual product for the whole city of about 

 $3,000,000. 



The annual rental paid to the State, under the terms of the 

 original lease, is only |200. At first sight it appears that there 

 is here a most marked case of what could only be termed blunder- 

 ing on the part of State officials, although 011 analyzing the matter 

 it is found that this extreme view is hardly correct. In the first 

 place it must be remembered that this lease was granted not only 

 by authority of an act of Legislature, but was only granted after 

 a public auction had been held, at which Messrs Kennedy and 

 Hatch were the highest bidders. As already shown, had not the 

 special conditions created by the Erie canal existed at Lockport, 

 there would, in all probability, have been no thriving city at that 

 point, but the area on which Lockport now stands would have 

 been farming land, with no more value than now attaches to 

 farming lands in the adjoining township of Lockport. 



In order to show the results of this lease, at $200 a year, a 

 study has been made of the growth of Lockport from the year 

 1865, when Lockport became a city, to 1896. From such study 

 it appears that the valuation of the city has increased from less 

 than $3,000,000 to over $6,700,000, and that the total State tax 

 collected up to and including the year 1896 has amounted to over 

 half a million dollars. If this had remained a farming community 

 the State tax would probably not have been more than 3 per 

 cent of this amount. Using this tax return as a basis, it has 

 been computed that there has been an actual increase of wealth 



