Number of children attending the public schools. 1,029,955 4,734 11,705 The money which we cheerfully pay for the purposes of general education is well and carefully applied, and the extent to which the opportunities afforded are made use of, proves how highly the people appreciate our common schools. I am sure, the Legislature needs no recommendation from me to extend to our school system the most liberal encouragement. STATE MILITIA. The State militia, organized under the name of "The National Guard of the State of New York," numbers now over twenty thousand officers, non-commissioned officers and privates. For details I respectfully refer you to the Report of the Adjutant General. The Military Code, adopted at the last session, has been received with approval by officers and men alike. I consider it of great importance that the State military organization should be generously sustained by the Legislature. To make it thoroughly efficient, it should be armed with breech-loaders of the best quality and most approved pattern, and I recommend a suitable appropriation for that purpose." A further settlement of over six hundred thousand dollars ($600,000) of the war claims of this State upon the general government, has been effected this year. QUARANTINE. The experience of the past year has furnished additional evidence of the security afforded to the public health by the proper administration of quarantine laws. Out of 365 7 The general appropriation act, chapter 718, authorized the Governor to expend $250,000 in altering the small arms of the National Guard, or exchanging them for breech-loaders. vessels which arrived in the port of New York from ports. infected with yellow fever, 107 had had cases of this disease on board, either in the port of departure or on their passage, or were found on their arrival here to have some of their crew or passengers sick with it. The total number of cases on these vessels, as nearly as could be ascertained, was 470, out of which 112 died. Twenty-six cases from vessels under quarantine were admitted to the West Bank Hospital, only six of which proved fatal. In addition to these, eighty-three patients, prostrated with yellow fever, were admitted to the hospital from among the troops on Governor's Island, thirty-one of whom died. Thirty vessels have been detained at quarantine on account of smallpox, having an aggregate of over 18,000 persons on board, from among whom sixty-six patients, sick with this disease, were sent to the hospital on Blackwell's Island. Ten vessels have arrived, having ship-fever on board, with an aggregate of nearly 6,000 passengers, twenty-two of whom died with the disease on the passage, and forty others, sick with it on their arrival, were transferred to the Ward's Island Hospital. These statistics of disease show the dangers to which we are exposed through our foreign commerce. Happily, they have been so warded off, that, notwithstanding the intense heat of the past summer, the general health has not been disturbed by them. It is reasonable to assume that this result is, in a great measure, due to the vigilance and fidelity of the quarantine authorities, and to the increased. facilities afforded them by the West Bank Hospital for the care and treatment of patients. This is the first year that it has been in full operation, and the success which has attended its workings has fully met the expectations of the public and demonstrated the wisdom of its erection. It is claimed, however, that until a suitable place for the detention of those who, while not actually sick, have been exposed to disease by passage in an infected vessel, and until warehouses for the storage of infected goods are provided, it will be difficult to protect the public fully against the dangers of imported disease. A structure on West Bank for the former purpose has been commenced, but an additional appropriation will be required to complete it. IMMIGRATION. The number of emigrants arriving at the port of New York this year is 212,000, a loss as compared with last year of 47,000; the number of arrivals this year being about the same as in 1868. We may reasonably expect that, with the return of peace in Europe, emigration thence to this country will be very largely increased. REVISION OF STATUTES. I appointed, under chapter 33, of the laws of 1870, Amasa J. Parker of Albany, Nelson J. Waterbury and Montgomery H. Throop of New York, Commissioners, to revise, simplify, arrange and consolidate all statutes of the State of New York. The work is being prosecuted with diligence. TAX REVISION. Under the authority of the joint resolution of the Legislature passed at its last session, I appointed David A. Wells, George W. Cuyler and Edwin Dodge Commissioners, to revise the laws for the assessment and collection of taxes. Their report will be submitted at an early period of the present session." 8 The completion of the West Bank quarantine buildings was provided for by an appropriation in the supply bill, chapter 715, of $200,000 for various quarantine purposes. 9 See special message of February 16, transmitting the tax revision commission's report, which appears as Assembly Document No. 39. The supply bill, chap. 715, made an appropriation for the compensation and expenses of the commissioners, and directing them to report a "tax code or law" at the next session of the Legislature. CANALS. I hold to the same opinions, concerning our canals, as were expressed in my annual messages of 1869 and 1870. The magnitude of our internal commerce is far beyond that of our foreign trade. Our canals are a necessary means of facilitating this great domestic traffic, and their maintenance in good navigable condition is essential to the general welfare of the people of this State. Our Constitution, from obvious considerations of public policy, has provided that these works shall always remain the property of and be under the management of the State; and the suggestion to surrender them to the control, in any degree, of the Federal government, deserves no consideration. The Federal government has already enough of administrative duties. This State built these canals without any extrinsic aid; it owns them, and is quite competent to take care of them. Our own people are directly interested in their good management, and these great works are much more likely to be well administered by ourselves, than if put under so remote a supervision as that of the Government at Washington. The Canal Board, by authority of the Legislature, adopted last year a reduced scale of tolls. As was anticipated, there has resulted a diminution of revenue, as compared with the previous season. As compared with a period of years, however, the falling off is not serious. The average annual receipts of the canals from the year 1846 down to 1869 inclusive (the period of high tolls) is very little in excess of those of 1870; and this includes the exceptional period of the war, when the receipts were unusually large. The falling off last year is not all due to the low rate of tolls. From purely commercial causes, there has been a diminished traffic. The business of the canals, moreover, suffered, during the past summer, from Const. 1846, art. 7, § 6. a great reduction of railroad rates of freight temporarily made by rival companies in a struggle for the Western trade. Whether this diminution of revenue is to be temporary or permanent, the interest of our people requires that whatever changes in the toll sheet the experience of the past year may suggest, we should adhere as far as possible, to low tolls. We produce in this State not more than six million (6,000,000) bushels of wheat in a year. We consume, every year, twenty-one million (21,000,000) bushels. One-half of the total quantity of other grains consumed in this State, to wit, Indian corn, oats, rye and barley, are also supplied from other States. It is obvious that cheap transportation from the grain producing States is essential to our comfort and prosperity. To say nothing of the importance of having cheap means of forwarding to the West our own manufactures and the merchandise imported from abroad, our people gain much more by lowering the rates of transportation on the supplies they must procure from other States than they lose in reduced revenue from low tolls. When we built our great canals the people of this State produced all the food necessary for their consumption and had a surplus to sell. If in a spirit of far-seeing and liberal enterprise it was wise then to construct these works for general benefit to the internal commerce of the country, how much more essential is it now, for our own interests as well as theirs, that we keep up the freest intercourse with our western brethren. Nature has favored us in the great lakes upon our borders, and in the unequaled outlet to the sea afforded by the Hudson river; our people have united these by the construction of great artificial water-ways; the interests of the State and of its people seem to me to be irrevocably bound up now with the preservation, in full efficiency, of the connecting channels so established. The people of Europe and of Canada are projecting canals on a grand scale; our government is expend |