mission for the administration of the Department of Charities. So much criticism was aroused by the suggestion that the Legislature did not adopt it. It is not my purpose to renew the recommendation at this time, but rather to ask for the existing commission greater responsibility and authority. Our charitable institutions may be classed under the following heads: First, Reformatories. Second, Institutions for Feeble-Minded and Idiots. In the first class may be enumerated the Reformatories for Women at Albion, at Hudson and at Bedford, the State Industrial School at Rochester and the House of Refuge at Randall's Island. In the second class are the Rome Custodial Asylum, the Syracuse Home for the Feeble-Minded, the Newark Home for the Feeble-Minded and the Craig Colony for Epileptics at Sonyea. In the third class are the Thomas Asylum, the School for the House of Refuge, Randall's Island.. House of Refuge for Women, Hudson... House of Refuge for Women, Albion .. $333 4 15 4 65 4 76 The difference between the highest and the lowest is $1.43 per week. This margin of difference cannot be explained in any other way than by more expensive administration, as the cost of supplies does not vary enough to account for it. 1 Then, also, we have too many reformatories for women, as the present population could almost entirely be cared for at Hudson, with greater economy. With regard to the first class, I therefore recommend that the per capita cost be fixed at a fair mean, which would be $150 per year, and that a gross appropriation for maintenance be made on this basis. By this method an annual saving of $60,000 could be effected. In the second class the per capita cost could be put at $140 per annum, the reduction over reformatories being made possible because of the lack of necessity for the educational features which are essential in the first class. Under the present system the weekly per capita cost is as follows: Home for Feeble-Minded, Newark.. Home for Feeble-Minded, Syracuse Custodial Asylum, Rome.... Craig Colony, Sonyea... $2 39 3 65 3 91 393 If the latter suggestion of a gross appropriation be adopted, the saving would be $97,720 annually. Of the third class, the per capita cost of maintenance is not excessive, compared with that of private homes of a similar character, but the expense should be limited to the amount paid such private institutions, and care should be taken to prevent excessive appropriations for expensive buildings. To perform this work, I recommend that the present State Board of Charities be charged with the care and administration of our charitable institutions, and that visiting committees, as suggested in relation to the hospitals for the insane, be appointed annually, and that they be empowered to visit and report to the Governor as to the : conditions found; that the present Boards of Managers be abolished and the State Board of Charities be permitted to recommend, subject to the approval of the Governor, a Superintendent, either from their own number or otherwise, with a salary of $5,000 per annum, who shall have full authority, under such regulations as may be adopted by them, subject to executive approval, over all charitable institutions. If these suggestions are adopted, a saving will be effected of at least $750,000 in the appropriations for the insane and charitable asylums. From the miscellaneous appropriations, which aggregated last year $3,512,853.09, a reduction of at least $1,000,000 more could be made, if proper consideration is shown in the treatment of demands for appropriations in special bills. The reports that I have had from the various departments, showing as they do in almost every instance lower estimates, lead me to believe that the balance of the amount necessary to effect the saving of $2,000,000 over last year's total appropriations can be found here. I ask, therefore, the most careful scrutiny of all appropriation bills before their enactment. The Legislature should be not only an enacting but a vetoing body and should prevent bills carrying unnecessary items from coming to the Executive. All bills should be thoroughly considered and no appropriation made that will carry the total above the $20,000,000 limit referred to. ASSIGNMENT OF JUDGES TO DISTRICTS OTHER By an amendment to the Code, Laws of 1900, Chapter 414, the Governor is empowered to make assignment of judges to districts other than their own, but this authority is rendered inoperative through the action of the Appellate Division in extending invita tions to such justices without referring their request to the Governor for approval. Complaint is made that litigants are thus caused delay and additional expense. In my opinion the necessity for the services of justices in their own districts should not rest upon their own determination. The proper remedy would be to have more justices, but this would greatly increase the expenses, already large enough. I recommend that the Governor alone be empowered on the request of the Chief of the Appellate Division of any judicial department of the State, to make such assignments. I do this because I believe that it will protect the interests of litigants to a greater extent and will be more satisfactory than the present system. Your attention is also called to the overcrowded condition of the calendars in the First and Second Judicial Departments, and action by the Legislature to remedy the same should be taken. Perhaps the solution of the problem might be through a constitutional amendment providing for the temporary designation of County Judges to trial terms, either within or without their own judicial department, until such calendars shall have been cleared. THE FOREST PRESERVE. Under Chapter 94 of the Laws of 1901, the various commissions having to do with the Forest, Fish and Game Departments were consolidated under one head. I became convinced after the passage of the appropriation bill carrying an item of $250,000 for the purchase of Adirondack land at the last session of the Legislature that the amount of money necessary to carry out the scheme of ultimate purchase of the entire preserve was of too great a magnitude to be hastily sanctioned. A bill was passed by the Legislature and approved by the Executive in 1893 which provided that agreements might be entered into between the State and owners of lands in the Adirondacks, limiting the kind and size of timber to be cut, in return for which exemption from the State and county taxes upon such lands was given. The restriction was that nothing but soft wood above twelve inches in diameter should be cut. This provision has never been accepted by any considerable number of land owners. For the purpose of ascertaining the sentiment upon the subject, communication has been had with the owners of the greater part of the land in the Forest Preserve. I am convinced from such correspondence that if the law were amended to prohibit the operation of acid factories and the cutting of timber below ten inches in diameter, in return for the assumption by the State of all taxes, that the ultimate object aimed at in the preservation of the forests could be accomplished without any great expense. Such land now owned by individuals consists of about 706,514 acres of forest land, 1,080,204 acres of lumbered land and 107,767 acres of denuded, burned and waste land. This property probably could not be purchased for less than $5,000,000. Under the provisions of the present law, when the State purchases the land it assumes all taxes. In addition to this, under our Constitution, no public land can be lumbered. If, therefore, all property now owned by individuals and corporations were purchased, the result would be the destruction of the lumber and wood pulp industries, which are among the most valuable we have. The work in the Adirondacks should be pursued scientifically. Mature timber should be cut and denuded land, so far as possible, replanted. And if the agreement here outlined were entered into with individual owners, for restriction of lumbering and the replanting of their lands, a continuous growth and source |