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net Van Syckel, David A. Depue, Jonathan Dixon, William J. Magie, and Charles G. Garrison; Chancellor, Alexander T. McGill, Jr.; Vice-Chancellors, Abraham V. Van Fleet, John, T. Bird, Henry C. Pitney, and Robert S. Green. ViceChancellor Green was appointed on March 4, being the second of the two additional vicechancellors whose appointment was authorized by an act of the Legislature in 1889.

Population. The following table shows the population of the State by counties, as determined by the national census of 1890, compared with the population for 1880:

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Total.

2,763 87,182 * 3,215 21.917 9,468

3,240 1,519 86,186

572 1,149

16,896 36

1,181,116 1,444,938 818,817 Decrease.

Finances. The balance in the State revenue fund on Oct. 31, 1889, was $241,996.48; the receipts for the year ensuing were $1,794,698.14; the disbursements were $1,602,933.75; and there remained a balance of $433.760.87 on Oct. 31, 1890. The receipts include the following items: Tax on railroad corporations, $1,050.451.20; tax on miscellaneous corporations, $292,137.10; fees paid for certificates of new corporations, $99,359.72; tax on foreign insurance companies, $5.450.78; State - Prison receipts, $56,197.62; official fees, $21,825.65; judicial fees, $12,648.24; interest and dividends, $18,870; proceeds of arbitration in Morris and Essex Railroad matter, $235,000. The disbursements for ordinary State expenses were as follow: State and county lunatic asylums, $215,597.13; Home for Disabled Soldiers, $33,659.17; Reform School for Boys, $57,209.02; Industrial School for Girls, $7,437.13: pensions, $4,145.88; State Prison, $160,289.27; judicial expenses, $163,986.21; State government, $237,437.17; National Guard and military expenses, $89,685.13; advertising and printing, $175,419.80; support of blind and feeble-minded, $54,418.02; miscellaneous expenses, $104,064.20; loan to sinking fund to pay debt and interest, $37,389; appropriation to sinking fund to pay bonded debt, $90,000: total ordinary expenses, $1,430,737.13. The extraordinary expenses for the year amounted to $172,196.62. The balance of $433,760.87 to the credit of the revenue fund, on Oct. 31, will be absorbed by the payment of principal and interest of the public debt, on Jan. 1, 1891, amounting to $119,357, and the payment of ordinary State expenses until February, 1891, which will amonnt to about $300,

000. No considerable revenue accrues to this fund from October until February.

In the State school fund, which is distinct from the State revenue fund, the balance on Oct. 31, 1889, was $329,904.82; the receipts for the year ensuing were $1,273,997.02; the disbursements, $941,876.20; and there remained on Oct. 31, 1890, a balance of $662,025.64. The permanent investments held by this fund at the latter date amounted to $3,205,991.95, to which should be added the cash balance of $662,025.64, making the total value of the fund $3.868,017.59. The income only of this sum is used for the support of schools.

The receipts of the sinking fund during the fiscal year, including the annual State appropriation, were $166,418.03; the payments therefrom, including $100,000 of the principal of the State debt paid, were $170,726.69; and total value of the fund on Oct. 31 was $553,107.06. bonded State debt had been reduced to $1,096,300 on Oct 31. The floating debt at the same date was $400,000, but was reduced, as above stated, to $300,000 on Dec. 31.

The

County Debts.-The total debt of New Jersey counties is $5,159,339, a decrease of $2,133,105 in ten years. The bonded debt is $4,868,823, and the floating debt $290,516. Nearly every county has a debt.

Legislative Session. The regular session of the Legislature began on Jan. 14, and adjourned on May 23. A new election law, which includes the Australian ballot system, was an important result of the session. It provides for the appointment by the Governor of county boards of registration, which shall appoint local boards of registry and election in each election district. All ballots cast at any election for any public officer or officers within any municipality of the State shall be printed and distributed at public expense. Candidates for office may be nominated by the convention or caucus of any party that received at least 5 per cent. of the total vote cast at the last election in the district or political division for which the nomination is made. Candidates may also be nominated by petition, if such petition is signed by voters equal in number to at least 1 per cent. of the total vote cast at the last election in the district in which the candidate is to be voted for, provided, that if the candidate is to be voted for throughout the State, there shall be at least 800 signatures, and if in any district less than the State, the petition shall be signed by at least 5 voters for every hundred votes cast in the last election, but not more than 200 signatures shall be required in any such case. All candidates are required to write their acceptance upon the nomination certificate. The municipal clerks are charged with the duty of printing and distributing ballots containing the names of candidates filed with them, and all other ballots shall be printed and distributed by the county clerks. A separate ballot shall be prepared for each political party, containing the names of all candidates of the party, under the name of the party, as at pres ent, and a separate ballot may be printed containing the independent nominees. Ballots shall be of white paper, uniform in size, quality, and type, and shall contain on the back nothing but the words of "official ballot for," together with

the name of the election district, the date of the election, and a fac simile signature of the county or municipal clerk. The clerks shall also provide a sufficient number of official envelopes made of white paper and stamped on the back in the same manner as the ballots. They shall transmit the ballots and envelopes so prepared to the election officers for use upon election day, but on request of any voter, ten days before election, they may deliver to him as many of the official ballots as he wishes, provided he shall pay the cost of preparing and printing them, but no official envelope shall be so furnished. Such ballots may be distributed before election day, and may be used in voting; but if any ballot or envelope shall be found to contain any mark or device to distinguish it from others, the ballot shall be void.

Any voter may erase any name from his ballot, and write or paste any name thereon, but he must write with black ink or black pencil, otherwise the entire ballot shall be void, and pasters must be printed in black ink on white paper.

Questions submitted to the people shall be printed at the end of each ballot beneath the list of candidates, and if any such questions be marked off or defaced upon the ballot, it shall be counted as a negative vote; otherwise, as an affirmative vote. Polling places shall be provided with booths or compartments having a swinging door so arranged that some part of the person of a voter inside shall be seen from the outside. Said booths shall each contain a counter or shelf, and shall be provided with a sufficient number of ballots and envelopes and with lead pencils. There shall be at each polling place not less than one booth for every seventy-five voters at the last election, and in no case less than five booths. They shall be erected within a railed inclosure, in which the ballot-box shall also be placed, and shall be in full view of the election officers. Every voter, on entering within the railing. shall receive from an election officer at least one of each of the official ballots, and one envelope. With these he shall enter a booth, closing the door, shall then prepare his ballot and place it in the envelope so that it shall be entirely concealed, and shall then retire from the booth and forthwith deposit the envelope containing his ballot in the ballot-box. Only one voter shall be allowed within a booth at one time, but no limit is placed to the number of voters that may be allowed within the railed inclosure. Electioneering within 100 hundred feet of any polling place is forbidden. It is expressly provided that town meetings shall not be subject to this law.

Another act provides that if any railroad or canal corporation shall surrender to the State any right it may have of exemption from taxation, the State shall therefor surrender its right or claim to take or purchase the property of such corporation, providing, that every such corporation must pay to the State any awards made or hereafter to be made in favor of the State against

it.

The amendments to the State Constitution proposed by the Legislature of 1889 were agreed to at this session, and provision was made for their submission to the people at a special election to be held on Sept. 30.

Other acts of the session were as follow:

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Making desertion for two years a ground of divorce. Providing that the court of chancery may, on petition, authorize a married woman to convey her real estate without her husband joining in the deed in case he is unable to do so by reason of lunacy or other meutal incapacity.

Authorizing the consolidation of religious societies of the same denomination.

Providing that any corporation organized for benevolent or charitable purposes may hold real and personal estate not exceeding $500,000 in value. Provid ing for the incorporation of societies for the aid of children and the prevention of cruelty to children. Appropriating $40,000 for a new building on the State Normal School grounds.

Providing additional free scholarships at the State Agricultural College.

Directing that all license fees for sale of liquors received by the county clerks shall be paid over to the municipalities within which the respective licenses are to be exercised, for the use of such municipalities. To authorize the establishment of free public libraries in the towns, townships, or other municipalities of

the State.

Providing that every citizen entitled to vote at a general election for members of the Legislature shall be entitled to vote at any election of municipal officers held in the municipality where he resides.

To authorize the construction of an additional wing, and certain other alterations, at the State Prison, and appropriating $100,000 therefor.

building of the State Industrial School for Girls. Appropriating $25,000 to erect an addition to the

Creating a State board of medical examiners.

To punish any person who shall sell, pledge, pawn, or secrete any property that he has borrowed, hired, leased, or purchased under an agreement in writing, where the title of such property is not to pass until the agreement is fulfilled.

Home for Feeble-minded Women, at Vineland. Appropriating $12,000 for a new building at the

To establish in the State Ilouse a museum for the reception of collections of the natural products and mineral staples of the State and of specimens showing the geology and natural history of the State.

Making it unlawful for any person to sell, or offer for sale, baled hay or straw with more than 10 per cent. of the weight thereof in wood.

Authorizing cities to renew maturing bonds. Authorizing the Chief Justice and each Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, the Chancellor, and each Vice-Chancellor, to solemnize marriages.

Making persons who carry away with intent to steal, or who unlawfully appropriate, domestic fowl, liable to a fine of not over $100, or to imprisonment at hard labor not over three years.

Providing that all persons or corporations engaged in the business of finishing silk, or other goods of which silk is the component part, shall be entitled to a lien upon the goods and property of others which may come into their possession for the purpose of being finished and prepared for sale for any work and labor performed or materials furnished in such finishing and preparation.

Establishing at the State Agricultural Experiment Station, at New Brunswick, a central weather station, to be in charge of the officials of the experiment station.

Authorizing the appointment of a committee of six persons to take into consideration the taxation of property, and to report to the next Legislature a bill embodying the results of their inquiries.

Authorizing the school authorities in the various municipalities and school districts to purchase with school funds United States flags, and to display them upon the public-school buildings.

Education. The school census of 1890 shows the number of children in the State between the ages of five and eighteen years to be 409,762, an increase of 10,710 over the previous year. Of this number, there were enrolled in the public schools 234,072, an increase of 6,631. The number of children attending private schools was 47.269, an increase of 1,504. The number of children that do not attend any school is esti mated at over 100,000.

The following are some of the principal expenditures during the school year ending Aug. 31, 1890: Teachers' salaries, $2,227,131.68; fuel, $111,388.52; building, repairing, and furnishing school-houses, $593,083.73; janitors' salaries, books, stationery, taking school census, and expenses, $341,618.20. The total value of ordinary school property was $8,629,493; the estimated value of State, Normal, and Model schools, boarding houses, and furniture, $300,000; and the estimated, value of Deaf Mute School and furniture, $100,000.

There are 4,464 teachers in the public schools, of whom 822 are males, receiving an average salary of $76.02 per month, and 3.642 are females, receiving an average salary of $43.82 per month. The total amount expended for all school purposes during the year was $3,502,976.81.

During the year 266 pupils were in attendance at the Normal School. The number graduated from the advanced course was 11; the number graduated from the elementary course was 46.

Charities. At the Morristown Insane Asylum 1,070 patients were cared for during the last fiscal year, of whom 539 were males and 531 females. During the year 182 patients were discharged, leaving 888 remaining on Oct. 31. The daily average was 868. The receipts for main taining the institution amounted to $243,583.09; the expenditures were $231,894.15, leaving a balance Oct. 31 of $11,688.94.

At the Trenton Insane Asylum there were 955 patients under treatment, 481 males and 474 females. There were 168 discharged during the year, leaving 787 remaining on Oct. 31. The daily average was 774. The receipts, including the balance on hand Oct. 31, 1889, amounted to $205,844.83; the amount disbursed was $191,043.34; leaving a balance Oct. 31, 1890, of $14,801.49.

In the School for Deaf Mutes there were 119 pupils at the end of the fiscal year, an increase of 14 over the previous year. The amount paid for salaries of officers and teachers and all purposes connected with the tuition and maintenance of the inmates was $38.212.

Soldiers' Home.-There were 463 inmates at the home on Oct. 31, an increase of 32 over the number at the same date last year. There were admitted during the year 428, and discharged, 396. The average number was 450. The receipts for the year amounted to $57,736.84, of which $914 was on hand at the time of the last report. The disbursements amounted to $56,723.11, leaving a balance at the end of the year of $1,013.73.

Prisons. The daily average number of prisoners confined in the State Prison during the last fiscal year was 973, of whom 940 were males and 33 females. This is an average of 8 over the daily average of the previous year. There are

accommodations for only 706 prisoners, and the provisions of the law requiring separate confinement for each criminal are necessarily violated. The Legislature of 1890 appropriated $100,000 for an additional wing to the prison and hospital, and also $500 to purchase a library. There was also appropriated in the act approved April 7, 1888, for drainage and water supply, $30,000, making a total of $130,500 appropriated. The condition of the State treasury has not permitted the expenditures authorized by these acts. The expenses for the fiscal year were $158.961.39, and the earnings of prisoners were $61,082.64, leaving a deficit of $97,878.75, which was supplied from the State treasury.

At the State Reform School there were 372 boys on Oct. 31, 1889: 163 were received during the year ensuing; 189 were discharged; and 346 remained on Oct. 31, 1890. There was received for maintenance during the year the sum of $50,849.61, and from sales of produce and other sources $6,873.83, making a total of $57,723.44. The expenses were $53.962.38.

At the State Industrial School for Girls, on Oct. 31, there were 63 inmates, and 16 were under indenture. The total receipts were $10,083.82, and the expenditures $9,610.24.

Militia.-The National Guard consists of 325 officers and 3,895 enlisted men. There are 57 companies of infantry and 2 Gatling gun companies. The expenses for the last fiscal year were $91,502.78, being about $17.000 less than the expenses for 1888. The range for rifle practice was opened at Sea Girt July 15, 1890, and practice continued to and including Sept. 1, 1890. In 1889 there were 511 marksmen; in 1890, 804.

Riparian Commissioners.-The grants in fee made by the commissioners during the year ending Oct. 31 amounted to $55,616.25, the leases converted into grants to $357.240.40, and the rentals on leases heretofore made to $104,821.11, making the total cash received during the year from these sources $517.677.76. The commission, with the Governor, has visited personally the shore fronts of the counties of Bergen, Hudson, Essex. Union, Middlesex and Monmouth during the year for the purpose of ascer taining and determining prices which should be obtained by the State for its lands under water, and they have, in almost every case, advanced the prices.

Agriculture. On Jan. 29, 1890, the Governor, urged by complaints of the farmers, requested the State Board of Agriculture to appoint a committee to co-operate with him and a committee to be appointed by the Legislature to investigate the present depressed condition of this industry. The State Board responded by appointing a committee of one from each congressional district. After conferences, it was decided to request the county boards, granges, and other agricultural organizations throughout the State, to hold special meetings for the consideration of certain questions, which were formulated by the committee, the Secretary of the State board, and the Governor. The replies to these questions developed the fact that farm lands had depreciated about 40 per cent. in the past twenty years, that they are now valued too high for purposes of taxation, and that the farmers are suffering from unjust discriminations in freight

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