Life insurance companies of other states... Total.... 28 3 14 271 The total amount of stocks and mortgages held by the department for the protection of policyholders of life and casualty insurance companies of this state and of foreign insurance companies doing business within it, was $9,480,046, as follows: ..... For protection of policyholders, generally in For protection of casualty policyholders ex- ance companies of other states.... $3,715,199 3,033,847 1,000 For protection of fire policyholders in insur 30,000 For protection of fire policyholders in foreign insurance companies ... 2,397,000 During the year, eighty-three vessels have been detained in quarantine on account of sickness which had occurred on board while in port or on their passage to New York. On twenty-five vessels thirty-two cases of small-pox occurred, exposing to the infection in a greater or less degree 14,795 persons who were on board. Thirty-seven vessels had yellow fever on board, and sixty-two cases of VOL. VI.-40. this disease, of which thirteen were fatal, were received and treated in Dix Island Hospital. Seventeen vessels arrived in which ship-fever had occurred at the time of arrival. From these, seventeen persons were removed to hospital with fever, the number exposed to the disease being 12,024. Four vessels arrived on which there were seventeen cases of cholera, of which nine were sent to hospital and one was fatal after arrival. On these vessels were 2,872 persons. During the quarantine season 1,391 vessels arrived and were examined from ports suspected or known to be infected with yellow fever, and one hundred and ninety were detained for observation; of these one hundred and twelve were required to discharge the whole or a part of their cargoes before being permitted to pass quarantine. These vessels were from Havana, Sagua la Grande, Matanzas, New Orleans, and one from Rio Janeiro. The business operations pertaining to these discharges of cargo were, as last year, left in the hands of owners subject to necessary sanitary control. Although then an experiment, the success of this system for two years, and especially during the last summer, proves it to be practicable and safe. The malignant type of yellow fever of the past season and the epidemic cholera from northern Europe, none of which reached the city through quarantine, have shown that the system can safely be followed in the future. Twenty-two licenses to work in quarantine have been issued during the season, to the various firms of lightermen, stevedores, coopers and cleaners who have applied for them, thus relieving the great hardship so much complained of by merchants and shippers previously to the administration of quarantine by the present health officer; and business operations are now, for the first time, left in the management of those on whom it devolves to pay the expenses incident to them. Although during the past summer there has been an unusually large number of vessels lightened for sanitary reasons, there is under the present system no complaint, and it is a matter of congratulation, that after so many years of unseemly contention between the citizens of New York and the health authorities of the port, necessary sanitary restrictions are now enforced with the consent and approval of the commercial classes. BOARD OF HEALTH OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK. In order to carry out the measures necessary for the preservation of the public health in the city of New York, it is indispensable that the authority of the board of health should be extended over the waters of the harbor and bay within the quarantine limits. The health officer of the port is a member of the board, and should be empowered to execute its orders upon the waters surrounding the city in the same manner as the police carry its directions into effect upon the land. He has a steamer at his command and may do so without any additional expense to the state. When the bodies of dead animals and other nuisances have been removed beyond the city limits, they are often left floating in full view, upon the waters of the harbor, or land upon the shores of the lower bay, and are not only a source of annoyance, but quite as dangerous as other evils, which the organization of the board of health was designed to prevent and remove. Your interposition may also be needed to supply some defects and omissions in regard to the powers and duties of the board, in the act passed at the last session of the legislature for reorganizing the city government.5 EMIGRATION. The number of emigrants from foreign countries, who arrived at New York during the year 1872, was 294,581. The number in 1873 was 266,010; a falling off of 28,571. 5 Chapter 636, approved June 15, enacted general provisions relating "to the board of health of the health department of the city of New York; to the commissioners of health, and the officers of the said department, their duties and powers, and the expenses of said department." The commissioners state that, in consequence of the prevailing stagnation in business, a much larger number has been thrown upon them for support, and that without an increase of the head money they cannot pay the necessary expenses of their establishments. I believe they have made every possible effort to bring these expenditures within their means, and the statements which will be laid before you, are respectfully commended to your favorable consideration. INSANE. Statement showing the number and situation of the insane of the state on the 1st of January, 1872, according to reports on file in the office of the State Board of Charities: The information relating to insane in the "custody of friends" was obtained from physicians in the various cities and towns. The officers of the various public and private institutions furnished the information relating to this class in their respective charge. The board are now engaged in collecting information in regard to pauper and destitute children as provided by section 7 of chapter 571 of the Laws of 1873. Returns have been received from nearly all the institutions by which they are supported, and the results will be presented to you in tabular form. 6 A revision of the statutes relating to the custody, care and treatment of the insane was contained in chapter 446, approved May 12, which also created the office of commissioner in lunacy. The act included numerous and comprehensive provisions relative to the administration of the department. STATE PARKS. Near the close of the last session of the legislature, the commissioners of state parks made their first annual report, in conformity to a direction "to inquire into the expediency of providing for vesting in the state the title to the timbered regions lying within the counties of Lewis, Essex, Clinton, Franklin, St. Lawrence, Herkimer and Hamilton, and converting the same into a public park." Their report contains important views and suggestions in regard to the preservation of the forests in this mountainous district for the supply of water and timber. They came to no conclusion in regard to the main object of their inquiry, but recommend, until the question can be further considered and decided, that the wild lands now owned and held by the state be retained. SINKING FUNDS. In my annual message to the Legislature in January last, allusion was made to the duty of preserving inviolate the sinking funds pledged for the payment of the interest and the redemption of the principal of the state debts. By the Constitution of the State these funds are required to be sacredly applied" to that purpose. Any diversion of the moneys belonging to them to other purposes is a clear violation of this requirement and an act of bad faith to the public creditors, who have made loans to the state on the pledge of these funds for their re-payment. Yet the legis In 1889, (chapter 283) a State commission in lunacy was created, to be composed of three members appointed by the Governor and Senate, and to hold office six years. The statute prescribed the powers and duties of the commission and repealed inconsistent laws. The Constitution of 1894, article 8, section 11, required the Legislature to provide for a State commission in lunacy. In 1896, there was a general revision of the statutes relating to this subject, which was contained in the insanity law, chapter 545. This continued the State commission composed of three persons, with numerous additional and enlarged provisions relative to administration. a Const. 1846, art. 7, §§ 1, 2, 3, am. 1854, and §12. |