ADDRESS v 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CITIZENS' ASSOCIATON 
 
 Of New- York 
 TO THE PUBLIC. 
 
 HISTORY OF ITS WORK— THE DEPARTMENT OF 
 DOCKS— THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH— 
 THE FIRE DEPARTMENT; 
 
 RESTING INFORMATION FOR IIU'liWTS AND TAX-PAYERS. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE ASSOCIATION. 
 April, 1871. 
 
IE* ICthrtfi 
 
 SEYMOUR DURST 
 
 When you leave, please leave this book 
 
 Because it has been said 
 " Ever'tbinQ comes t' him who waits 
 
 Except a loaned book." 
 
 Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library 
 Gift of Seymour B. Durst Old York Library 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CITIZENS' ASSOCIATION 
 
 Of ISTew-York, 
 TO THE PUBLIC. 
 
 HISTORY OF ITS WORK— THE DEPARTMENT OF 
 DOCKS— THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH— 
 THE FIRE DEPARTMENT. 
 
 INTERESTING INFORMATION FOR MERCHANTS AND TAX-PAYERS. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE ASSOCIATION. 
 ArRiL, 1871. - 
 
CLASS U 
 
 i 
 
 Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2013 
 
 http://archive.org/details/addressofcitizenOOciti 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Citizens' Association 
 
 TO THE PUBLIC. 
 
 m 
 
 Citizens' Association of New-York, ) 
 813 Broadway, > 
 March 10th, 1871. ) 
 
 The Citizens' Association, while steadily pur- 
 suing the objects for which it was formed, has en- 
 countered opposition at every step. Some of the 
 accusations against it have carried with them their 
 own refutation; and others have been disproved or 
 retracted. The rest must be decided by the recent 
 political history of the City of New-York, and the 
 labors and achievements of the Association ; and to 
 these the Association, tenacious of the public confi- 
 dence which it has always received and endeavored 
 to deserve, turns for the vindication of its course and 
 for support in its present and future efforts. 
 
 The Citizens' Association was organized in the year 
 I863, to undertake the task of regenerating our City 
 Government. 
 
 At first an effort was made to gain reform through 
 the ballot box, by uniting the law-abiding elements of 
 
4 
 
 the community in a reform party. Meetings were 
 held in every ward ; millions of documents were dis- 
 tributed, but party lines were too strictly drawn. The 
 masses, both Democratic and Republican, followed 
 their party leaders, and tested the candidates for city 
 office not by their ability or integrity, or experience 
 in municipal affairs, but by their opinion upon ques- 
 tions of national politics. 
 
 The attempt to establish a great Reform Party 
 failed, but from it the Association gained experience 
 which has proved invaluable, and by it party leaders 
 were taught a profitable lesson- 
 Abandoning a policy thus proved impracticable, 
 the Association entered the field in which it has ever 
 since labored. Its work was two-fold. 
 
 The sagacity, experience and professional skill of 
 the leading men in every calling were, employed in 
 planning and securing wise and far-reaching reforms 
 in legislation, while continued and fearless vigilance 
 invoked the aid of the Courts, the press and public 
 opinion in enforcing honesty and economy in the ex- 
 ecution of law. 
 
 The Legal Board devoted its attention to plans for 
 improving the laws governing the City, and its sug- 
 gestions have been gradually adopted by the Legis- 
 lature. The Sanitary Bureau made a most careful and 
 laborious examination of the condition of the City, 
 and its work culminated in the establishment of our 
 admirable Board of Health. 
 
 Bills to inaugurate a comprehensive system of 
 Docks and a new Fire Department, and to effect an 
 
5 
 
 improvement in our School System, the abolition of 
 the Board of Supervisors and a change in the man- 
 agement of the City finances, and the imposition and 
 collection of taxes, were presented to the Legislature 
 after the most thorough preparation. Some of these 
 reforms have been effected; others must yet engage 
 the eiforts of the Association and all friends of good 
 government. 
 
 Meanwhile the administration of municipal affairs 
 was vigilantly watched. Dishonesty was exposed. 
 Accounts were examined. Delinquent officials were 
 arraigned before the Governor and the Courts. Liti- 
 gations were carried on with varying success. 
 
 Every year the officers and counsel of the Associa- 
 tion attended before the Legislature at Albany, to urge 
 the adoption of reforms and to discover and defeat 
 every scheme of plunder. Their efforts procured in 
 the annual Tax Levies reductions which in no year 
 amounted to less than $2,000,000. Thus the Asso- 
 ciation furnished to our upright, law-abiding citizens 
 a means of expressing their approval of wise and 
 honest measures, and their disapprobation of the 
 partisanship, and selfishness which at one time 
 characterized our Municipal Government. 
 
 The success of the Association shows the influ- 
 ence which intelligence and integrity must exercise 
 where they have opportunity to act. 
 
 When the Legislature of 1870 met, grave fears 
 were entertained lest in a general remodelling of the 
 City Government, many of the reforms which had 
 been secured by years of effort might be lost. That 
 

 
 danger was avoided, and the Association desires to 
 repeat the assurances given at its general meeting last 
 April, of its approval of the system of government 
 established by the new charter and the accompanying 
 acts to regulate elections and to abolish the Board of 
 Supervisors, a system which the City owes to the 
 almost unanimous vote of both parties in the Legis- 
 lature. 
 
 The Association has already pointed out in detail 
 the advantages of our present charter, and has shown, 
 that while conforming to the principle of local self- 
 government and increasing the power of the Executive, 
 it retains all the advantages derived from the Metro- 
 politan Commissions, and the organization of per- 
 manent Bureaus. 
 
 The Association has congratulated the public upon 
 the union of the City and County Government, the 
 consolidation of the Street Department and the Cro- 
 ton Acqueduct Department, the establishment of the 
 Department of Docks, and the numerous other re- 
 forms inaugurated by the Charter. 
 
 The value of the new municipal system can only be 
 fully tested by time. As yet the administration of those 
 branches of the City Government in which the public 
 had the greatest confidence, such as the Department 
 of Police, the Department of Charities and Correction, 
 the Fire Department, the Health Department, the 
 Department of Taxes, has lost nothing of its efficiency. 
 
 The Commissioners of Parks have extended to all 
 our public places the policy which in the Central Park 
 has been so successful and popular. The affairs of the 
 
T 
 
 Croton Acqueduct are managed by the Department of 
 Public Works as economically, and in consequence 
 greater simplicity of organization more efficiently 
 than at any former period. 
 
 The Commissioners of Docks while engaged in 
 planning, with all the assistance that science and ex- 
 perience can give, a system of wharves and piers 
 worthy of our metropolis, have administered with 
 prudence and integrity the work of repairing and 
 regulating the existing structures on the water front. 
 
 All of the Departments, and the government of 
 which they form a part, are entitled to a fair trial ; 
 and the Association earnestly deprecates unreasonable 
 and undiscriminating attacks having nothing in 
 common with the criticism of true reform, which, 
 however severe, should be unprejudiced and impartial. 
 
 In the Departments of Public Education, of Health, 
 of Taxes, of Docks and of Parks, members of the 
 Association are enabled to aid in enforcing the mea- 
 sures of reform which they have urged on others. 
 
 Such is the brief outline of the history of the Asso- 
 ciation, At first it sought to drive partizanship from 
 the administration of city government, to confine both 
 political parties to their proper province, and to induce 
 men to decide municipal questions in accordance with 
 municipal interests alone. 
 
 Failing in this, the Association sought to gain 
 public measures of utility, and the correction of 
 abuses, without contending against party organizations 
 which it could not resist. 
 
 It advocated reforms, and when they were adopted 
 
s 
 
 by the party in power, gave its hearty co-operation in 
 carrying them out. Whichever party was able and 
 willing to introduce reform, received in that reform 
 the aid of the Association. 
 
 That such a course would provoke attack was to be 
 expected. When the Association urged the establish- 
 ment of Metropolitan Commissions it was abused by 
 Democratic journals, which have since urged the re- 
 tention of the essential features of those very com- 
 missions. On account of its approval of the present 
 charter the Association has been bitterly assailed by 
 Republican papers which, when not excited by the 
 partizan feeling evoked by a political contest, have 
 themselves approved that charter. 
 
 The taxpayer judges the changes in the City Gov- 
 ernment on their merits, and not on those of the 
 parties who make them. 
 
 During the last year an organized effort has been 
 made to check the corruption and mismanagement 
 which have prevailed in our Canal administration, and 
 to call back to New-York the trade which was rapidly 
 slipping away from it. With the co-operation of the 
 Chamber of Commerce and the Produce Exchange 
 the Citizens' Association founded " The Commercial 
 Union of the State of New-York," in which are en- 
 rolled the friends of Canal Reform throughout the 
 State. 
 
 It employs in State affairs the methods which the 
 Association has so effectually employed in local 
 matters. 
 
 For a great measure of reform now under dis- 
 
9 
 
 cussion the Association invites popular support. 
 The passage of the Tax Levy Bill, now before the 
 Senate, limiting taxation to two per cent, upon a val- 
 uation already fixed will tend to a wholesome public 
 economy, by restraining extravagance in municipal 
 expenditure, and by checking wasteful and wrongful 
 appropriations. It will fix responsibility where 
 power already exists, and save millions annually to 
 the people, 
 
 In its past history the Citizens' Association finds an 
 earnest of its future success. Its work has not become 
 less arduous or less important by reason of the pro- 
 gress already made. 
 
 Its mission is to watch the operations of the new 
 Municipal System and to advocate the improvements 
 in it which time will suggest, to check the growth of 
 the City Debt, to secure economy in expenditure, and 
 thus render possible the reduction of taxation, to abolish 
 sinecure offices, to devise some escape from the heavy 
 burden of assessments, to use every means to diminish 
 the cost and increase the efficiency of our government — 
 in a word, to devise a municipal system so broad as to be 
 adapted to the future growth of our City, so philoso- 
 phical that progress and reform may spring from regu- 
 lar development, and not be merely the result of un- 
 reliable and spasmodic effort. 
 
 The laws relating to the opening of streets, and to 
 assessments for that class of improvements, have not 
 been changed. They are old statutes, which the 
 amended charter did not affect. The recent case, 
 which causes so much excitement, is a proof that 
 
10 
 
 amendments in those laws should be sought, and that 
 some means should be devised to correct abuses in 
 their administration. 
 
 Steadily, earnestly and boldly the Association has 
 pursued its labors, caring for every interest involved 
 in the welfare and prosperity of our Metropolis. 
 Progress has characterized every year of its existence. 
 
 Every citizen, however humble, has the deepest in- 
 terest in the successful prosecution of its great work, 
 which will only be finished when every important 
 wrong is righted, and science, art and skilled ability 
 control all branches and departments of the govern- 
 ment of the City of New-York. 
 
 „ GO 
 
 SAMUEL SLOAN, 
 SAMUEL WILLETS, 
 COURTLANDT PALMER, 
 J. PIERREPONT MORGAN, 
 RICHARD MORTIMER, 
 CHARLES TRACY, 
 CYRUS CURTISS, 
 JOHN H. SHERWOOD, 
 JOHN A. WEEKS, 
 WM. L. JENKINS, 
 MURRAY HOFFMAN, 
 WM. H. GUION 
 JOSEPH STUART, 
 DANIEL PARISH, 
 PAUL N. SPOFFORD, 
 MOSES G. BALDWIN. 
 
11 
 
 PETITION OF PROPERTY-OWNERS 
 
 IN FAVOR OF THE BILL LIMITING TAXES IN NEW-YORK CITY 
 TO TWO PER CENT. UPON THE BASIS AS NOW FIXED FOR 
 
 1871: 
 
 New- York, March lst j 1871. 
 
 To the Honorable the Senate and the Assembly of the State of 
 New- York : 
 
 The undersigned, who are interested in the reduction of 
 taxation in the City of New-York, either as property- 
 owners or rent-payers, believing that the passage of the 
 bill now before the Legislature of the State of New- York, 
 entitled, " An Act to provide for the Government of the 
 City and County of New-York," of which bill a copy is 
 annexed to this petition, would effect a limitation of taxa- 
 tion, an economy in expenditure, and would check the in- 
 crease of the City and County Debt, respectfully petition 
 the Honorable the Legislature of the State of New-York, 
 that the bill may at an early day become a law. 
 
 EDWIN HOYT, JOHN Q JONES, 
 ROBERT LENOX KENNEDY, GEORGE S. COE, 
 
 SETH B. HUNT, MORRIS K. JESUP, 
 
 JACOB D. VERMILYE, THOMAS H. FAILE, 
 
 CHARLES TRACY, WILLIAM H. MACY, 
 
 RICHARD MORTIMER, PETER COOPER, 
 
 PETER GILSEY, ANTHONY HALSEY, 
 
 BENJAMIN B. SHERMAN, BOB'T H. LOWRY, 
 
 MURRAY HOFFMAN, SAM'L W. BARNARD, 
 
 JOHN BRIDGE, EDWARD N. TAILER, Ji>., 
 
 DANIEL PARISH, MOSES G. BALDWIN, 
 
 HENRY IVISON, ANDREW V. STOUT, 
 
 CYRUS CURTISS, EMIL SAUER, 
 
 SAMUEL V. HOFFMAN, HENRY A. BURR, 
 
 COURTLANDT PALMER, HARRIS COLT, 
 
 WILLIAM H. LEE, WILLIAM THOMSON, 
 
 WILLIAM T. BLODGETT, WM. ALEX. SMITH, 
 
 JOHN A. WEEKS, ALEXANDER GILBERT, 
 
12 
 
 * SPOFFORD BRO'S & CO., 
 J. & J. STUART & CO., 
 W. & J. SLOANE, 
 A. A. THOMSON, 
 
 HERRING, FARREL & SHERMAN, 
 GEO. D. H. GILLESPIE, 
 WILLIAM H. GUION, 
 ROBERT MACKIE, 
 ANDREW GILSEY, 
 WILLIAM L JENKINS, 
 WILLIAM A. BOOTH, 
 REUBEN W. HOWE, 
 EDWARD MATTHEWS, 
 JAMES M. CONSTABLE, 
 H. S. TERBELL, 
 GABRIEL MEAD, 
 J. R. ST. JOHN, 
 JAMES STOKES, Jr., 
 W. W. DkFOREST & CO, 
 ANSON PHELPS STOKES, 
 PARKER HANDY, 
 CHARLES LANIER, 
 JAS. C. HOLDEN, 
 H. H. CAMMANN, 
 
 daniel m. edgar, 
 wm. m. vermilye, 
 a. b. Mcdonald, 
 crowel adams, 
 thomas j. powers, 
 
 JOHN M. BURKE, 
 GEORGE W. KITTELLE, 
 R. LUVENTHAL, 
 A. D. VAUGHN, 
 WM. HOCTER, 
 S. P. SMITH, 
 D. BURRELL, 
 F. BARCKLAUSEN, 
 J. C. WHITING & CO., 
 CHAS. DUBOIS, 
 PHILLIP E. BOG ART, 
 D„ S. HILLYER, 
 J. S. MOONEY, 
 THOMPSON & BENSON, 
 FREDERICK ALLEN, 
 H. WALLER, 
 CHAS. E. HAWLEY; 
 P. BALEN & CO., 
 
 DAVID THOMSON, 
 FREDERICK MARQUAND, 
 ISAAC SHERMAN, 
 R. J. THORNE, 
 FREDERICK D. TAPPEN, 
 ROBERT JAFFRAY, 
 FREDERICK H. COSSITT, 
 WILLIAM OOTHOUT, 
 EBENEZER MONROE, 
 RICHARD ARNOLD, 
 RICHARD BERRY, 
 DAVIS COLLAMORE, 
 THOMAS BARRON, 
 WM. E. DODGE, Jr., 
 SAMUEL WILLETS, 
 ROBERT BAYLES, 
 J. PIERPONT MORGAN, 
 ROBERT CAMPBELL, 
 RICHARD P. BRUFF, 
 A. ROBERTSON WALSH, 
 J. M. CRANE, 
 A. R. FROTHINGHAM. 
 JOHN H. CHEEVER, 
 HENRY A. PATTERSON, 
 ADAM NORRIE, 
 CHARLES BUTLER, 
 CHARLES N. TALBOT, 
 WM. BLOODGOOD, 
 ROBERT DILLON, 
 WILLIAM H. FOGG, 
 O. W. LEONARD, 
 WM. T. CHURCH, 
 WM. D. HARRIS, 
 JAMES RICE, 
 THOS. L. JONES, 
 W. J. SANFORD, 
 WM. CHURCHILL, 
 S. D. LOCKWOOD, 
 JOSEPH E. BROWN, 
 OGDEN E. PARKER, 
 EMMET WELLS, 
 MORGAN GRAY, 
 CHARLES B. LEIGH, 
 CHARLES S. TAYLOR, 
 C. J. DEWITT, 
 W. H. COVERT, 
 A. D. PUTNAM, 
 
13 
 
 D. P. BENSON, 
 P. S. MARCH, 
 MICHAEL COONE Y, 
 J. A. BONN, 
 
 S. M. H. BOND, 
 W. M. BURDGE, 
 JACOB SCHOLLER, 
 GEO. KISSAM, 
 W. H. FARLER, 
 W. H. ERWIN, 
 P. M. HARDER, 
 T. C. FAXON, 
 H. M. POTTER, 
 H. N. ORMSBEE, 
 HIRAM YOUNG, 
 JAMES H. TYLER. 
 W. H. GILSON, 
 L. J. N. STARK, 
 
 E. DUSENBURY, 
 ROBT. BLARUKE, 
 P. M. WHITE, 
 
 H. A. CUPPIER, 
 J. E. DICK, 4 
 GEO. JENNISON, 
 J. M. MATHEWS, 
 GEO. C. HERKIMER, 
 JAS. BIRDSALL, 
 H. N. STEBBINS, 
 H. WRIGHT, 
 FOSTER J. WEEKS, 
 J. FRANK EAGLES, 
 C. T. IXSLEE, 
 N. ANDREWS,. 
 AKIN & BURNETT, 
 J. WM. DEARING, 
 RUNYAN PYATT, 
 J. A. STEXXOON, 
 A. R. GRAY, 
 E. M. SERGEANT, 
 A. McNICKEL; 
 CHAS. S. BRYCE, 
 JOHN H. HAYWARD, 
 R. COLE, 
 
 HENRY F. ROLLINS, 
 EDWARD H. GREENE, 
 C. S. J. SEYMOUR, 
 WM. H. WILLIS, 
 
 H. HERMEBUGER, 
 A. D. PUTNAM <& CO., 
 H. N. HOLT, 
 M. M. CALEB, 
 
 E. B. BROOKE, 
 W. T. SATERLY, 
 
 F. M. LAWRENCE, 
 W. F. TOMPKINS, 
 THOS. KENNY, 
 RALPH MEAD, Jr., 
 EDWARD HYDE, 
 H. SEYMOUR, 
 THEO. F. HAY, 
 JOHN KUNARD, 
 
 G. W. GREENE, 
 W. R. GREENE, 
 C. E. BIGELOW. 
 ABENDROTH, BROS., 
 
 H. F. MILLER, 
 
 JOHN SAVERY'S SONS, 
 E. F. HOLBROOK & BROS., 
 ALFRED H. HILDRICK, 
 J. R. VAN NEST, 
 CHARLES W. RUSSELL, 
 JAMES ALLEN, 
 W. A. PERRY, 
 N. F. THORPE, 
 L. P. ECKER, 
 JAS. McGRADY, 
 A. M. DOWNING, 
 E. H. RUTON, 
 
 A. JACOBS, 
 O. D. PECK, 
 
 B. F. CLARK, 
 W. WISDOM, 
 H. SNELL, 
 
 G. H. PECK, 
 
 W. R. WOODWARD, 
 
 R. F. BUSH, 
 
 W. H. ALLEN, Jr., 
 
 ROTHLISBERGER & GERBER, 
 
 EDWD. J. HOLDEN & CO., 
 
 A. HALSEY, 
 
 CHAS. E. WARD, 
 
 JAMES TURNER, 
 
 JAMES F. CLARKE, 
 
 DAVID PRINGLE, 
 
NICHOLAS L. CARL, 
 CLARK P. CARL, 
 S. M. WILLIAMS, 
 J. F. WATERS, 
 W. D. FISKE, 
 FRED S. NYE, 
 CHAS P. BARNETT, 
 JOHN D. PRICE, 
 J. C. CORNELL, 
 ALBERT B. WALDRON, 
 GEO. HARVEY, 
 BENJ. F. TEALL, 
 J. COOK, 
 
 WM. BUD WORTH, 
 ' THOS. CALLAHAN, 
 HENRY THOMPSON, 
 JCHN G. ROTH, 
 HENRY BUTLER, 
 WM. RAYNOR, 
 ROB'T L. YOUNG, 
 EDWARD C. ELLIOTT, 
 CHARLES H. GOING, 
 ROB'T J. NORMAN, 
 B. S. H. GOOD, 
 JOHN S. HARDENBURGH, 
 GEO. H. CORFIELD, 
 
 JAS. R. WILLIAMSON, 
 
 J. N. BROWN, 
 
 S. H. DAVIS, 
 
 J. R. ESTELL, 
 
 SAM'L B. POTTER, 
 
 CHAS. E. POTTER, 
 
 E. B. ELY & CO., 
 
 E. A. PACKER, 
 
 F. T. ROBINSON, 
 S. Y . FORM AN. 
 CHAS. RUNYAN, 
 F. J. PORTER, 
 
 S. H. CALDWELL, 
 E. ALLISON, 
 JAMES S. COX, 
 A. VAN ARSDALE, 
 BENJ. B. WOOD, 
 C. C. LASH, 
 J. C. CRANE, 
 C. CRONKITE, 
 
 E. WILSON, 
 
 R. S. CURTIS, 
 
 THOS. WEDDEL & CO., 
 
 W. H. TRACY, 
 
 P. H. BETTS, 
 
 W. SUNDMACHER, 
 
 J. P. CAREY, 
 
 GOFF & SMITH, 
 
 JAS. C. GRAY; 
 
 THEO. HADDEN, 
 
 J. M. AT WATER & BRO., 
 
 BERNARD SMITH, 
 
 H. E. AT WATER, 
 
 GEO. F. MANNING, 
 
 HAMMITT, NEIL & CO., 
 
 J. GEORGE REPPLICK, 
 
 FRANK HARRIOTT 
 
 ROB'T GORDON, 
 
 HARVEY CONRAD, 
 
 WM. WILSON, 
 
 F. P. WHITE, 
 
 WM. M. DAVIDSON, 
 
 ROB'T K. BUCKMAN, 
 
 W. H. MEEKER, 
 
 JAS. E. BRISLER, 
 
 M. C. R. MARTIN, 
 
 W. G. WELLS, 
 
 RICH'D HECKSCHER, Jit., 
 
 FRANK WALTER, 
 
 H. HOWLAND, 
 
 JNO. NAGLE, 
 
 FRANCIS M. WELD, 
 
 THOS. J. ATWOOD, 
 
 JOHN W. ATWOOD, 
 
 HENRY E. BOWERS, ] 
 
 S. A. LAST, 
 
 GEO. H LASH, 
 
 N. WETTS, 
 
 SAMUEL G. FRENCH, 
 
 TREDWAY & WELLS, 
 
 J. G. MOODY, 
 
 JOHN W. ANDREWS, 
 
 H. A. ACHTERNACHT, 
 
 N. P. IIOSACK, 
 
 E. D. DUNSGOMB, 
 
 A. F. JAYNE, 
 
15 
 
 GEO. MERIWEATHER, 
 
 JNO. P. ABIES, 
 
 JOHN PRESTON, 
 
 GEO. TUTHILL, 
 
 EDWARD GALLAGER, 
 
 SAMUEL CASTNER, 
 
 I. L. SHANER, 
 
 CHARLES A. SWARTHOUT, 
 
 C. C. PECK. 
 
 I. W. MERINGER, 
 HAMMETT & POTTER, 
 A. J. HAMMETT. 
 H. D. HARNGE, 
 AS. R. CRANE, 
 HENRY MEYER, 
 P. M. VERPLANCK, 
 M. B. HEILNER, 
 
 The following is the bill above referred to : 
 
 " An act to make provision for the local government of the 
 City and County of New- York. 
 
 "The people of the State of New York, represented in 
 Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows : 
 
 " Sec. 1. The amount to be raised by tax upon the 
 estates, real and personal, subject to taxation in the City 
 and County of New- York, in the year eighteen hundred 
 and seventy-one, and in the year eighteen hundred and 
 seventy-two, shall not exceed in the aggregate in each of 
 said years respectively a sum equal to two per cent, upon 
 the valuation of such estates now fixed for the year eighteen 
 hundred and seventy-one by the Commissioners of Taxes 
 and Assessments. 
 
 " Sec. 2. From the sum so raised in each of said years 
 shall be paid all the expenses of the city and county gov- 
 ernments for all their departments and purposes for each of 
 said years, and also the interest on the city and county 
 debts, the principal of such debts falling due, and the pro- 
 portion of the State tax payable by said city and county in 
 each of said years respectively; and no liabilities shall be 
 incurred for any purpose in either of said years which shall, 
 with the State tax for such year and the principal and in- 
 terest of the city and count3 r debts payable in such year, 
 make the aggregate of the expenses of the city and county 
 governments together for each of said years amount to more 
 than two per cent upon the valuation aforesaid. 
 
16 
 
 " Sec. 3. Within twenty days after the first day of June, 
 one thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, the following 
 persons, namely : 
 
 u The Mayor of the City of New- York, 
 " The Comptroller of the City of New-York, 
 "The Commissioner of Public Works, 
 " The President of the Department of Public Parks, 
 shall meet as a Board of Apportionment, and after setting 
 apart so much of said sum to be raised by tax in the year 
 one thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, under this 
 Act, as may be necessary for the payment of the interest on 
 the bonds and stocks of said city and county, which shall 
 become due and payable from taxation in the year one 
 thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, and for the pay- 
 ment of so much of the principal of said bonds and stocks 
 as may become due and payable from taxation within said 
 year, and also so much as may be necessary to pay the pro- 
 portion of the State tax to be paid by the City and County 
 of New-York in said year, shall apportion the remainder 
 thereof among and set apart to the various departments 
 and purposes of the city and county government, by 
 the concurring votes of the majority of the members of said 
 Board; and on the first day of June, one thousand eight 
 hundred and seventy-two, said Board shall meet and set 
 apart and apportion in the same manner the sum to be 
 raised pursuant to this Act in the year one thousand eight 
 hundred and seventy-two ; and said Board shall have the 
 power in each of said years to limit and transfer appropria- 
 tions which are found to be in excess of the amount re- 
 quired or deemed to be necessary, to such other purpose 
 as they shall find to require the same. 
 
 " Sec. 4. No bonds and stocks of the City or County of 
 New-York, except those authorized to be issued by direc- 
 tion of the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund, and revenue 
 bonds issued in anticipation of the taxes of the current 
 
17 
 
 year shall be hereafter issued except by the concurrence 
 and authority of a majority of the persons mentioned in 
 the third section of this Act (in addition to the authority 
 now required by law), and unless public notice has been 
 given in five of the daily newspapers published in the 
 City of New-York, of the time and place when the said 
 persons mentionad in section three of this Act will meet to 
 consider the propriety of issuing the amount and kind of 
 said bonds or stocks, and unless a notice of the amount and 
 special purpose of the bonds and stocks to be issued has 
 been first advertised, after such concurrence, for ten clays 
 in five of the daily newspapers published in the City of 
 New- York. 
 
 " Sec. 5. No liability for any purpose whatever shall be 
 hereafter incurred by any department of the City of New- 
 York, or officers of the County of New- York, exceeding 
 in amount the appropriation made for such purpose; nor 
 hall the City or County of New-York be held liable for any 
 indebtedness so incurred. 
 
 " No judgment against the City or County of New-York 
 shall be paid unless an appropriation has been made for the 
 same, and no judgment shall be entered up hereafter against 
 the City or County of New-York, except upon a verdict by 
 a jury ; and all actions or proceedings in which the Mayor, 
 Aldermen, and Commonalty of the City of New- York are 
 plaintiff or defendant shall have a preference, and may be 
 moved out of their place in the calendar. 
 
 " Sec. 6. This Act shall take effect immediately. 
 
IS 
 
 The following articles, from the Evening Post, contain 
 information in detail relative to several of the City Depart- 
 ments : 
 
 THE DEPARTMENT OF DOCKS. 
 
 THE DOCKS OF NEW-YORK. 
 A HISTORY OF THEIR MANAGEMENT. 
 
 The position and natural advantages of New- York are 
 unrivalled among the cities of the world. It lies at the 
 confluence of two broad and deep rivers, the one extending 
 a hundred and fifty miles almost in a straight northerly 
 line, amid scenery and landscape beauty unsurpassed by 
 that of any of the rivers of the old world ; the other extend- 
 ing along its entire eastern side out into Long Island 
 Sound, which runs an equal distance eastward with the 
 Hudson on the north. The whole shore on both sides of 
 this beautiful expanse of water, if not equal to the Hudson, 
 is rich in scenery, and embraces some of the most fertile 
 lands of the Atlantic border. With a noble bay of deep 
 water lying at its southern apex, capable of holding the 
 navies of many countries; with Staten Island, having a 
 fertile soil, an elevated and beautiful topography, and an 
 area adequate to twenty thousand ornamented villa sites, 
 lying like a jewel on the bosom of this bay ; with sixty- 
 miles of water front within ten miles of its centre, with 
 great salubrity of climate, with suburbs of great fertility 
 and health fulness of soil, and a natural beauty and capacity 
 for landscape art within a circle of twenty-five miles and a 
 railway time of forty-five to sixty minutes, it has advan- 
 tages such as almost no other city of the world presents. 
 With a topography of its own so rare and fortunate as to 
 admit of the most perfect drainage, and with a landscape 
 
19 
 
 art in its parks such as few continental cities can rival ; 
 with no excessive depth of rising and falling tides ; with 
 no quicksands and rapid currents to endanger the solidity 
 and permanency of well-built docks ; its entire water front 
 of nearly twenty miles in extent is susceptible of a system 
 of docks, piers and warehouse improvement not exceeded 
 by those of Liverpool, London, Havre or Cherbourg. In 
 all this her position is equally fortunate, and designates 
 New- York as the centre and seat of an immense commerce. 
 But the first principle lying at the foundation of this great- 
 ness is that on the proper and liberal development of its 
 water front depends the prosperity of every large commer- 
 cial city. This subject is not one of merely local import- 
 ance. It demands the highest concern — the protection and 
 wisdom of State authority. It his also a great national 
 importance. 
 
 SOME GLIMPSES OF HISTORY. 
 
 New- York City, in its early history, received the follow- 
 ing important grants : 
 
 From the Dongan charter in 1686, all wharves, docks and 
 waste lands of the Island at that time to low-water mark. 
 
 In 1708, from Queen Anne's charter, all lands between 
 high and low-water mark on Long Island from Wallabout 
 Bay to Ked Hook. 
 
 In 1730 the Montgomery charter gave to the city four 
 hundred feet beyond low-water mark from Corlears Hook 
 to Whitehall, on the East Eiver, and around to Bestaver's 
 Killitie, so called, on the Hudson. In 1826 the Legislature 
 gave authority to the Commissioners of the Land Office to 
 grant this four hundred feet beyond low-water mark to the 
 city, from Corlear's Hook to Harlem Eiver r and from Best- 
 aver's — about the point of Fourteenth Street — on the Hud- 
 son, four miles north to Spuyten DuyviL In 1852 the Leg- 
 
20 
 
 islature established an exterior line in Harlem Eiver from 
 the East Eiver to the Hudson, and vested in the city all the 
 land between this line and low-water mark, thus completing 
 the right of the city to lands under water around the entire 
 Island — all these grants subject to the public right. These 
 are freeholds of immense value. 
 
 During this long period, thirty-five to forty legislative 
 acts, and decisions of our court, under them, have given va- 
 lidity to these grants. The city, as a person, in its corpo- 
 rate capacity, has granted a large amount of these water 
 rights to private individuals. The entire control of the 
 public right rests always in the Legislature to delegate it, 
 as by the Act of 1870, creating a Dock Commission to con- 
 trol and use it for the best interests of commerce, having 
 due regard always to the rights of individuals. 
 
 There are now about one hundred and sixty piers around 
 the whole Island. Sixty-four of these are owned by the 
 city and individuals together — the city one side, and the 
 private owner the other ; and sixty-four or more are owned 
 by individuals. As the shores and small inlets have been 
 filled out by dumping, and the necessities of commerce 
 have grown rapidly, the larger portion of these piers extend 
 beyond this line of four hundred feet. 
 
 We have now at least five classes of piers : those within 
 and those beyond this line ; those owned by the city, and 
 those held by joint ownership, and others where the right 
 of soil under water has been given to owners beyond this 
 line. A more recent Act of the Legislature has fixed an ex- 
 tension line, beyond which piers cannot be extended. 
 
 While our commerce was growing to great magnitude and 
 value, this various ownership, many leases made under it, 
 unwise administration, and the conflicting interests which 
 grew out of all this, tended directly 'to the neglect and decay 
 of our wharfs and piers. This, and the effect of the war 
 upon our shipping, so reduced the wharf revenue in I860, 
 
21 
 
 that the Chamber of Commerce of the City reported it as 
 not exceeding two and a half per cent, of the cost. A me- 
 morial of this body to the Legislature, in 1865, set forth 
 their poor construction and decaying condition in the 
 strongest terms. The piers, mostly of wood, many mere 
 cribs filled in with loose stone, so located that they inter- 
 rupt the currents of either river, causing deposits from the 
 house sewerage, earthy matter and garbage from street gut- 
 ters, travelling through main sewers, to accumulate in many 
 places in enormous volume, gradually shallowing the water, 
 and compelling the frequent and expensive use of the 
 dredge. This often caused loss and serious delay to ship- 
 ping. 
 
 Of the one hundred and fifty-five piers in use at this date, 
 only five were in good order. Forty-nine had holes in the 
 planking, twenty-six were partly settled, seventeen needed 
 to be entirely rebuilt, and forty-four to be rebuilt or re- 
 paired. 
 
 The year after, a Committee of the State Senate reported 
 that not a single pier owned by the City, unless leased by 
 Steamboat, Railroad or Ferry Company, was commodious 
 or safe. 
 
 This was one of the first subjects taken up by the Citi- 
 izens' Association soon after its organization. The plan of 
 this work, and the great and patient labor with which it 
 was carried forward, was due to Nathaniel Sands. He fol- 
 lowed up the work of the Association by a full and exhaus- 
 tive investigation of the whole matter, showing by indispu- 
 table facts that the commerce of the West, and of the East- 
 ern Continent also, was seeking the harbor of New-York, 
 and that if proper dock, wharf and other facilities were 
 given, it would most powerfully aid the reviving of our 
 commerce, and enrich the City and State. Upon these 
 facts, we find the Chamber of Commerce and the Legisla- 
 ture even have relied, and have been confirmed by their 
 
22 
 
 own investigations, which have resulted at last in best 
 auguries for the future. 
 
 A brief statement of our shipping and canal interest at 
 that date will show its magnitude, and the imperative 
 necessity and value of the new Dock Board created by the 
 Act of 1870. At that time (1866) sailing or square-rigged 
 vessels had began rapidly to give place to steam propellers. 
 We had then one hundred and fourteen steamers plying to 
 foreign ports, rated at 225,000 tons ; in domestic trade we 
 had one hundred and seventeen steamers, rated at 135,000 
 tons. On the Hudson Eiver seventy-one steamers were 
 plying, many of them towing large barges, the whole bear- 
 ing a tonnage nearly equal to all the other domestic and 
 foreign steamers. The three great railways could also daily 
 bring into and despatch from the city 7,000 tons of freight. 
 
 OUR CANAL INTEREST. 
 
 The first legislative Act designed specially to foster the 
 canal interest in New-York was in 1 ?• 57, when a small space- 
 on the East River, near South Ferry, was set apart for 
 mooring canal boats and barges. In the brief period of 
 fifteen years prior to this, the canal tonnage had risen from 
 nothing to nearly one-half that of the whole port. In 1865 
 this tonnage had reached the enormous sum of 904,300 
 registered, and an actual of 1,200,000 tons. The number 
 of boats which arrived here with cargo in that year was 
 7,244, the average number daily needing berths 275 to 300, 
 and the records at Albany showed the tons of freight by 
 boat and barge to New- York that year to be 2,418,942. 
 
 This canal tonnage paid a revenue to the State of about 
 $5,000,000. This interest, so vast as to affect the people of 
 the whole State, exceeding half the commerce of the port, 
 and requiring Winter berths for about three thousand 
 boats, had for its special use only seven piers of the entire 
 
 / 
 
23 
 
 water front of the city. Not above one-quarter of this 
 ffreat interest could find commodious and safe dock room 
 
 o 
 
 in the space provided. Besides this the waiting for berths 
 and the want of proper machinery for discharging, and 
 warerooms in the vicinity was found to be a heavy tax 
 upon every ton of this cargo. The amount of cargo coming 
 into and despatched from New-York annually by railway, 
 canal, steamer and vessel must approximate to, if not 
 exceed, fifteen millions of tons. If $3 per ton could be 
 saved in handling this great aggregate by proper dock 
 facilities and mechanism on our water front, this saving 
 alone would be a sinking fund which would soon extinguish 
 the cost of the most admirable system of docks for New- 
 York in the world. 
 
 THE DOCK BOARD. 
 
 The Act passed a year ago creating the new Dock Board 
 was a part of the new city charter. It provided for the 
 appointment of five commissioners, who have exclusive 
 charge arid control of all wharf property belonging to the 
 city — wharfs, piers, bulkheads, slips, basins, water-fronts, 
 land under water, appurtenances, uses and rights of all the 
 city now owns or may hereafter acquire. From this the 
 Commissioners of the Sinking Fund except the twenty-five 
 ferry slips, which are held as a city franchise. 
 
 For this Board Mayor Hall selected five men of the 
 highest ability and integrity and of great experience in busi- 
 ness and public affairs, and above all suspicion, it is believed, 
 of partisan ambition. He deserves credit for its high char- 
 acter — a board which is to devise, construct and control 
 the most important work, in many aspects, on the continent. 
 John T. Agnew, its President, is one of our solid citizens, 
 for over thirty years a merchant in the export tobacco trade 
 with foreign countries; Wilson Gr. Hunt, -long known as 
 an able and high-toned merchant in commission dry goods ; 
 
21 
 
 William Wood, for a long period of the firm of Dennistoun 
 & Wood, bankers, and one of the most competent men in our 
 Board of Education ; Hugh Smith, proprietor of the Madi- 
 son Avenue line of stages, a man of superior capacity and 
 judgment in business ; and Richard M. Henry, a lawyer of 
 ability and good standing. Mr. Smith, from pressure of 
 private affairs was compelled io resign, and is succeeded by 
 Mr. Henry A. Smith, a man of high integrity and excellent 
 business character. The Board appointed Major-General 
 George B. McClellan, its Chief Engineer, who is devoting 
 all his time and eminent talents to the work. 
 
 In eight months after the organization, since May, 1870, 
 it has collected rents and dockage, and paid over to the 
 Commissioner of the Sinking Fund $261,361. It has issued 
 dock bonds to the amount of $500,000. It began active 
 work about the 15th of August last, and has expended 
 since then $250,000. A new system of piers could not be 
 begun at once, but only after the most careful surveys and 
 well matured plans. But to provide for our shipping ade- 
 quate facilities, while it continues under the old system, it 
 has made thorough examination of every pier and slip on 
 both sides of the city ; it has made thorough repairs of 
 forty-five piers and bulkheads, in many cases entirely re- 
 building them; it has expended $10,000 to $50,000 in 
 dredging around docks and in slips most seriously ob- 
 structed ; it has made six lines of soundings, from Ninety- 
 second Street on the East River around to Sixtieth Street 
 on the Hudson River, and for two months past has had 
 two steam machines boring through the mud to measure 
 the depth of the hardpan, along the entire water front of 
 the city. In these soundings and surveys the most intri- 
 cate points connected with the channels and currents of the 
 rivers have received careful study. 
 
 The most difficult problems have been solved, a complete 
 map of the water front has been made, and the plans of the 
 
25 
 
 Board are rapidly maturing. These plans cannot yet be 
 made public, but the solidity of piers and the method of 
 construction, and the breadth of the river street, as fore- 
 shadowed in a recent speech of the Mayor, will be adequate 
 to the transportation of freight and passengers around the 
 whole Island. The piers will have an average length of 
 about five hundred feet. They will be connected with the 
 bulkhead by solid iron bridges, leaving an open space along 
 its entire front for the free flow and ebb of the tide, and the 
 piers will be specially adapted to the business for which they 
 are to be used. The large steamers will have piers from 
 eighty to one hundred feet in width, with all the facil- 
 ities needed for landing goods rapidly; and passenger 
 steamers will have perfect protection for passengers from 
 heat or storm. 
 
 It proposes to give a certain section of water front to the 
 grain trade, and also a certain section to the coal trade, 
 where every facility will be given, in elevators and other 
 machinery, for quick receipt and despatch of cargo. 
 
 The system of hydraulic machinery and power used in 
 London, or its like, will probably be adopted. In Liver- 
 pool and London the rise and fall of tide is from twenty to 
 twenty-five feet, whereas in New-York the average rise and 
 fall is only four to five feet. Hence our system will be far 
 less expensive. We need no such provision to float large 
 vessels and steamers into our docks at high water. 
 
 Under our old system of piers the new Board have no 
 power to alter the wharfage, but of the new piers they will 
 have entire control of rates. They hold the opinion that 
 ships should pay a dockage as low as possible, and that 
 goods should pay a moderate wharfage, as in Boston, and 
 thus equalize the burden. • 
 
26 
 
 THE FIRE DEPARTMENT. 
 
 SOME ACCOUNT OF ITS MANAGEMENT. 
 
 COMPARISON OF LOSSES. 
 
 The Fire Department in the greatest commercial City of 
 the Continent, where immense interests of capital, trade, 
 and a vast population are centered within a small area, is 
 one of the gravest importance. The paid system, now in 
 successful operation, was begun in the spring of 1865. The 
 old system had then out-lived its day, especially for a great 
 city. 
 
 The Citizens' Association was one of the earliest advo- 
 cates of the paid system. The bill creating it was drawn 
 by its counsel. The Evening Post also took strong ground 
 in its favor, and a brief statement of facts now will show 
 the wisdom of the measure and its intimate connection with 
 the vast interests of real estate, merchandise, and the moral 
 well-being of the city. 
 
 FIRE INSURANCE CAPITAL. 
 
 It has relation, in the first place, to the large sums in- 
 vested here in insurance capital. In 1860 the amount of 
 home and foreign capital in use in this State — and nine- 
 tenths of it was used in the City of New- York — was thirty- 
 two millions. The income of this capital over losses and 
 expenses was about six millions. In 1870 there were fifty- 
 one millions of capital, and twelve and a half millions of 
 income over losses and expenses. The increasing capital 
 during this period shows the growing demand for insurance. 
 While capital was augmenting, and the number of fires 
 numerically larger, the losses under the paid system have 
 
27 
 
 diminished, and the ratio of income to amount of capital 
 has largely, in fire insurance, increased. In natural growth 
 of insurance — increase of new companies, and augmenting 
 capital in old ones, the competition reduced the premium. 
 But the efficiency of the paid Fire Department over the old, 
 the rapidity and unerring certainty of its action, has done 
 far more to reduce rates than competition. 
 
 The effort of the Citizens' Association to change the old 
 system was backed by all the underwriters and the general 
 public sentiment of the City. Saving property in fires and 
 the reduction of the aggregate loss in each, was not more 
 important than breaking up the practice of large bodies of 
 lawless youth running to fires with the volunteers. The 
 greater the fire, the more intense and often flagrant were 
 the scenes of disorder. So strong was this habit when the 
 new system went into operation, that reckless persons often 
 cut the hose and displaced the machinery. But the new 
 system grew steadily into favor, and in less than two years 
 began to lessen the losses and rates of insurance. The tele- 
 graph had been for several years in use in this service, but 
 the new Telegraph Alarm added about a year ago perfected 
 the system and gave it extraordinary power, 
 
 THE PAID ORGANIZATION. 
 
 A brief statement of the plan of the organization and 
 description of this machinery will show their great value. 
 The bill creating the system provided for each engine house 
 one steam fire engine with two horses, and one tender with 
 one horse, to carry hose, fuel and apparatus. Each of these 
 houses has a company of twelve men. They are provided 
 with comfortable lodgings within the houses, and are, night 
 and day, in constant attendance, except when at meals, 
 which are taken near at hand. It provides the requisite 
 hook and ladder companies of twelve men each, with the 
 same quarters and regulations. 
 
28 
 
 There are now forty -five engine bouses and fifteen trucks 
 for hook and ladder use, making a force of one hundred 
 and sixty-five horses and seven hundred and twenty men. 
 There are five commissioners, who control the department, 
 a. central headquarters, chief engineer, secretary, medical 
 officer, telegraph alarms, bureau of combustible materials 
 and fireman's library. To these officers are to be added 
 ten district engineers and one- chief-assistant, who devote 
 their entire time to the service. 
 
 THE FIRE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 The system of the telegraphy in use is the patent of 
 John N. Gamewell, but the machinery to carry out a more 
 perfect system for this city — the batteries and automatic 
 street boxes — are the invention and patent of Mr. Charles 
 T. Chester, one of the most accomplished electricians. 
 Colonel Stephen Chester, of the Potomac Army Engineers, 
 directed the surveys and the erection of the lines to com- 
 plete it. The entire work— posts, wires and machinery — 
 cost about $600,000. There are eighty-four stations, in- 
 cluding engine houses, insurance patrol stations and officers' 
 quarters, to which to send messages, and five hundred and 
 forty street boxes, from which alarms of fire may be sent 
 to the central office. The telegraph alarm apparatus, under 
 the hand of a good operator, works with a rapidity and 
 certainty before unknown in electrical apparatus. It con- 
 sists in brief of three parts : 
 
 1. A receiving apparatus, which has the capacity to re- 
 ceive and note fifty-six alarms of fire, from all parts of the 
 city, at one and the same time. With this apparatus the 
 modern hotel annunciator is so connected that it instantly 
 drops a figure, showing the line of wire over which the 
 alarm is coming, and at the same instant marks upon a 
 coil of paper the number of the station. Each of the fifty- 
 
29 
 
 six wires, which together cover the whole city, i Deludes a 
 given number of stations, and it required great skill to ar- 
 range them so as not to interfere one with another, since a 
 part of all might be in use at the same time. Fifty-six 
 pens, moved by fifty-six relay magnets, are arranged under 
 this coil of paper. Each pen and magnet is connected with 
 some one of these fifty-six wires. The street boxes are so 
 arranged that when an alarm is to be sent to the central 
 office the current of electricity, which always flows through 
 the line, may be broken so as to cause the discharge of any 
 one of these magnets. This works four results in the re- 
 ceiving apparatus at the office, namely — strikes a loud gong 
 or bell, throws into view the number of the wire on which 
 the alarm comes, starts the register wheel, and marks the 
 number of the box where the alarm is made. 
 
 2. A transmitting apparatus, equally beautiful, instan- 
 taneous and perfect in its work. 
 
 3. An apparatus for testing the condition of all these 
 wires ; for discovering at once in the office any break or 
 injury within a few yards of its actual locality ; or for test- 
 ing the connection of any of these lines with exterior lines 
 going out of the city. 
 
 At all times, night and day, two operators are on duty 
 at the central office. When an alarm is given the precise 
 engines and trucks which should answer know it. If the 
 fire spreads, and a second alarm is given, those who should 
 respond know it; and so of a third, which brings into ac- 
 tion all the force that can possibly be required. 
 
 RAPIDITY OF THE SERVICE. 
 
 The horses are all selected, groomed and kept in the 
 best manner. They are kept in sufficient force already 
 harnessed, and so surprising is their instinct and admirable 
 their training, when the electric gong strikes in the engine- 
 
80 
 
 house, the j back instantly from the stalls into position 
 before the engine, the harness is clasped by springs, the 
 doors are flung open and the engine starts on an average in 
 twenty-two seconds after the alarm is received, often in 
 eighteen. An alarm reaching the central office, it is trans- 
 mitted to every engine house, patrol station and officers' 
 quarters all over the city, in forty-five to fifty seconds. 
 Mr. Charles E. Chapin, superintendent of the telegraph, is 
 thoroughly versed in its working, and most assiduous in his 
 devotion to the perfection of the system. If we add to this 
 instant movement and rapidity of execution, the most per- 
 fect fire apparatus which modern science and skill can 
 devise, the unflagging power of steam, an enlarged and 
 skillful method of instructing the officers and men in 
 classes, which General Shaler, President of the Board, has 
 personally introduced, the effective power of this small 
 force stands in bold relief over that of the volunteers when 
 they numbered even 3,800 men. 
 
 The causes which elevate and give a higher moral 
 character to the new force are equally effective. The 
 Lyceum, in the hall of the central office, now contains a 
 valuable library of six thousand volumes, the gift of under- 
 writers and private citizens, comprising largely choice 
 biography, travels, history and practical science, from which 
 all the members of the force can draw and use. It has 
 been selected with great care and labor by the Secretary of 
 the Board, Mr. Charles E. Gildersleeve, whohas worked with 
 constant fidelity for the good of the service. Dr. Charles 
 McMillan, the medical officer of the Board, has also done 
 much to this end, in his strict examination for admission to 
 the. force, in rejecting men of bad habits or physically un- 
 sound, and in maintaining a s\ r stem of competitive exami- 
 nation for promotion, which rests on merit alone. 
 
81 
 
 LOSSES BY FIRE. 
 
 The following table of losses by fire from 1866 to 1870 
 shows unmistakably the good financial results of the system : 
 
 Ktiniber of Tires. Loss. 
 
 1866 796 $6,428,000 
 
 1867 873 5,711,000 
 
 1868..." 740 4,142,000 
 
 1869 850 2,626,000 
 
 Of the 850 fires in 1869 to 1870, 807 were confined to 
 one building, showing the promptness and efficiency of the 
 efforts to subdue them. 
 
 The cost of maintaining the present service is about 
 $950,000 per annum ; a sum well invested when we com- 
 pare it with the immense losses to which we are exposed, 
 and keep in view the growing intelligence, manly habits, 
 and pride of character which the discipline of the organi- 
 zation most sedulously fosters. It is most favorable when 
 compared with the service and cost of the old volunteer 
 department. The direct cost of that per annum was above 
 $500,000, but the indirect expense in other forms was proved 
 before a Committee of the Legislature to have swelled the 
 sum to rising $1,000,000. The above table, from the care- 
 ful reports of the Insurance Department, shows a reduction 
 in losses from 1866 to 1869 of $8,800.000 ; and the losses 
 in 1870, since the new charter went into operation, were 
 $506,000 less than in 1869, while the moral and effective 
 character of the force has improved more than in any pre- 
 vious period. 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF TAXES. 
 
 THE TAX COMMISSION. 
 
 The land of Manhattan Island is about fourteen thousand 
 acres. Allowing twelve city lots, exclusive of streets, to 
 the acre, we have within the city limits one hundred and 
 
32 
 
 sixty-eight thousand lots. Deducting fifteen to eighteen 
 hundred acres for the parks and broader avenues, we have 
 left for building purposes nearly one hundred and fifty 
 thousand. Upon these it is estimated there have been 
 already erected ninety six thousand buildings. Of those 
 reconstructed within ten years, and of all new dwellings, 
 stores, or public edifices erected upon vacant lots within 
 this period, the cost of structure, in both space and solidity, 
 has been increased from four to ten fold, 
 
 TAX COMMISSION — IMPORTANCE OF ITS WORK. 
 
 The valuation of the real and personal estate of the city 
 for purposes of taxation was, in 1870, $1,047,427,000. As- 
 suming that this is on the average but little above fifty per 
 cent, of the actual cash value, we have in the City of New- 
 York in real and personal property above two thousand 
 millions, and if the personal estate were as easy of access 
 and estimate as the real, probably a sum exceeding the 
 entire national debt. 
 
 The Tax Commission, which is to value this immense 
 and increasing aggregate of property, and whose duty it is 
 to equalize the value justly with respect to all owners, is 
 one of the highest functions of our government. It values 
 property to provide the means according to law of defray- 
 ing the public expense. This is the gravest function next 
 to that of taking life, and requires the most equal and exact 
 justice. It was organized in 1869 by a brief law providing 
 for the appointment of four Commissioners by the Comp- 
 troller of the city, who were empowered by this law to ap- 
 point the necessary force to place annually upon the books 
 of their office a fair and equal valuation of the property of 
 the city. 
 
33 
 
 ITS METHOD OF VALUING REAL ESTATE. 
 
 The City is divided into sixteen districts, and a Deputy 
 and Clerk appointed to each. Deputies and Clerks, with 
 field-books in hand, annually spend four months — from 
 September 1 to January 1 — examining every building or 
 lot within their districts ; they notice all lots newly filled 
 or improved ; all stores or dwellings erected within the past 
 3 r ear, and the probable cost ; all changes which tend to in- 
 crease or depreciate the rental, all buildings reconstructed 
 or enlarged. They take note of all actual cash sales and 
 prices, if they can be obtained. They record the block and 
 street numbers, and when the tax bill is made out, rely on 
 these to identify the property. 
 
 Clean copies of these field books are at once completed, 
 and the books are advertised to be open to the inspection 
 of the public for four months, from early in January to 
 April 30. The Deputies and Clerks are in daily attendance 
 during this entire period, to give information, to receive 
 complaints, and to refer these to the Commissioners, if de- 
 sired. During these four months early application for re- 
 duction is carefully examined by the Commissioners, in 
 consultation with competent experts, who are employed for 
 this purpose. 
 
 Whole sections of the different districts are also selected 
 for examination by these expert*. Their minutes are kept 
 for the use of the Commissioners, whenever required in gen- 
 eral consultation before the close of the books. After the 
 books are closed, they also receive and examine with equal 
 care the applications of those who have been absent or were 
 prevented by sickness, up to the time the books go into the 
 hands of the receiver. 
 
 In over four thousand applications from all parts of the 
 city in 1870, in which every case was submitted to this 
 careful examination, the total reduction was about fourteen 
 millions and a half ; the increase one-half million. 
 
34 
 
 These careful valuations every y ear are a matter of ne- 
 cessity, from the fact that above $40,000,0f in new build- 
 ings were added to the City in 1870 ; and this may be 
 equalled, or exceeded, in any year hereafter. 
 
 PERSONAL DEPARTMENT. 
 
 The method of dealing with personal estate is equally 
 laborious. There is $75,000,000 of banking capital, every 
 share and shareholder to be recorded. There are nearly one 
 thousand companies, including life, fire, marine and all 
 others, organized under the mining and manufacturing law 
 of the State. There are the city railroads, the great railroad 
 and steamboat companies, which have their offices and 
 much of their business here, to be examined and assessed 
 according to their liability. There is here also a large 
 amount of foreign capital invested in business. There is a 
 large sum in estates to be analyzed and vhe just liability de- 
 cided. New corporations and new firms are forming and 
 others retiring. Add to all this the great aggregate of res 
 idents and non-residents who are liable to a personal tax — 
 the changes in residence and in fortune. TheTax Commis- 
 sion durr g the year 1870 added seventy-five hundred names 
 not before taxed, and the Commission assert passed upon 
 seventy thousand names without a single claim for reduc- 
 tion which was not fairly met.