SECRETARY'S DEPARTMENT.

The almshouse returns embrace separate returns from the State Primary School, and the State Workhouse.

2. From Institutions aided by the State.-These vary in number from 8 to 12. The Asylum for Blind and the School for Idiotic make quarterly returns. Other institutions aided by the State, as well as these two, also make an annual report to this office, relating chiefly to expenses. These returns are authorized by chapter 243, Acts of 1867.

3. From State, County and Municipal Prisons.-State Prison monthly detailed return of prisoners received and discharged. County prisons (21 in number, embracing 19 jails and 15 houses of correction): from 3, weekly returns of prisoners received and discharged; from 11, monthly returns ; from 1, quarterly returns; from 6, semi-annual returns. Municipal prisons: 1 only; Boston House of Industry, weekly

returns.

To this may be added the Boston House of Reformation weekly returns. From each of these institutions there is also received an annual statement of expenses, etc., made by the warden, the sheriffs or the board of directors in Bostonall by authority of chapter 307, Acts of 1864.

4. From Overseers of the Poor. Each city and town in the State (340 in number) sends annually,

1. A general return concerning the mode and cost of support and relief of its paupers, with summaries of the numbers relieved and supported.

2. A detailed return of paupers fully supported.

3. A descriptive list of vagrants entertained.

All made by authority of chapter 209, Acts of 1867. Fourth. Clerical Work of the Office.-Keeping registers of· the inmates of the Lunatic Hospitals, the State Primary School, the State Workhouse, the three Reformatories, the Blind Asylum, the School for Idiots, each of the prisons whether State, county or municipal, including the Boston House of Reformation, and registers of town paupers throughout the State. In the preparation of these registers it is often found necessary to procure correction of returns by correspondence. This is particularly so in the town pauper returns, as stated in Senate

EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT, 1871.

Document No. 119, 1870. During the present year upwards of two hundred letters have been written to secure correct returns from overseers of the poor.

The information furnished by the returns is tabulated by the clerks, and finds place in the annual reports of the Secretary, chiefly in the Appendix. For examples, see Eighth Report, pp. 294–374 for prison and reformatory statistics; and pp. 375-422, for pauper statistics, State and town.

The financial returns from the State institutions are annually tabulated (see Eighth Report, pp. 107-115); also the sheriffs' returns of expenses, etc. (see pp. 172-178 of the same report); also the town pauper expenses incorporated with pauper statistics. Considerable time and correspondence are also devoted to the collection of reports and statistics from other States and countries.

Fifth. Employés and their Compensation-Expenses.There is a permanent force of six clerks-two men and four women. Occasional temporary assistance is required.

The clerks receive at present the following salaries: one, $1,700; one, $1,000; four, $700 each, per annum.

For the year ending September 30, 1871, the cost of the department was,—

Office expenses cover the cost of printing, binding registers, postage and expressage, stationery and incidentals.

II. THE GENERAL AGENT.

A large part of what is called the out-door business of the Board is assigned to an officer called the General Agent. This department embraces divers duties, and it has been found expedient to separate them (so far as can be consistently with their mixed relations), to the end that certain trained subordinates may, in a lesser degree, share with the Agent the duties and responsibilities incident to the labor of the department.

THE GENERAL AGENT'S DEPARTMENT.

Thus, the investigations necessary to fix the legal status of an inmate of either of the State charitable institutions, and questions affecting the propriety of his detention, transfer or removal, are assigned to the Sub-Department of Settlement.

The examination of aliens landing at the ports of the Commonwealth, and the inquiries relative to their present and prospective condition which may be necessary for an intelligent administration of the law governing their reception, devolves upon the Sub-Department of Immigration. The transfer of lunatics and paupers from one charitable institution to another, their removal to their homes, to their place of settlement, or, of aliens, to their places of landing, is remitted to the Sub-Department of Transportation. The examination of all applicants for assistance under the Acts of 1851 (General Statutes, chapter 71, section 25) and 1860 (chapter 83), the transcribing of all examinations, investigations and reports of inmates and applicants for assistance, belongs to a Sub-Department of Local Business.

Various other duties enjoined by special statutes, or resultant therefrom, which naturally belong to the department, or arise from its relation to the administration of pauper laws by municipal officers, are, from time to time, transferred to the several sub-departments, or performed by the Agent in person. Such are the duties required by the statutes of 1866 (chapter 198), establishing a State workhouse, and that of 1871 (chapter 321) relative to the insane; consultations with overseers of the poor.of the several towns and cities of the State upon public business, and with individuals concerning their relatives or friends, who are or desire to become inmates of some of the charitable institutions, etc. These duties, arranged substantially in the order of their importance, are:

First. Sub-Department of Settlement.-It is required that the General Agent shall visit, either in person or by deputy, the State lunatic hospitals, the State almshouses, and all other places where State paupers are supported, and obtain all necessary information as to where they properly belong. This often requires personal examination of the parties; and

EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT, 1871.

as to

sometimes a visit to their relatives or friends, so ascertain whether their legal settlement is within or without the Commonwealth. The fact of such settlement being established to the satisfaction of the Agent, he must take all legal means to transfer the burden of support to the place of settlement. If the settlement be within the Commonwealth he must collect the needful evidence, and prosecute to final adjudication a suit for the recovery of all expenses incurred. If the party has property, the General Agent must take measures to indemnify the State from that source. If the party has claims upon relatives or friends in good circumstances, they must be induced, if possible, to contribute according to their means.

In cases of bastardy, where the mother is a State pauper, the General Agent must make a complaint, and prosecute the guilty party. He must, if possible, obtain some justice for the injured party; and secure the State against any expense for the support of the child.

The General Agent is continually called upon to make and prosecute complaints against certain inmates of the State almshouses for offences. If found guilty, he must transfer them to the State workhouse.

He must make the needful examination prior to the transfer of all children of proper age and condition from the State almshouses, and elsewhere, to the State Primary School.

He must, with the assistance of the superintendents, select from the inmates of the State lunatic hospitals, such of the harmless insane as may properly be transferred to the asylum at Tewksbury.

He must receive and investigage all complaints from persons confined in lunatic hospitals, or other places for the treatment or custody of insane persons; and, if so directed by the Board, he must apply to a judge of the supreme judicial court for the discharge of persons so confined.

The persons employed to assist the General Agent in the discharge of these duties are, a deputy, an assistant, and an examining officer, the aggregate of whose salaries is $4,000 per year.

GENERAL AGENT'S DEPARTMENT.

Second. Sub-Department of Immigration.-The General Agent, as Acting Superintendent of Alien Passengers for the Port of Boston, supervises the landing of passengers at all the ports in the Commonwealth, and enforces, in regard to such passengers, all the provisions of law concerning the introduction of aliens and strangers, by sea.

He requires the master, owner, consignee or agent, to furnish a bond for each alien landed; or he receives from the said master, owner, consignee or agent, such sum (not less than two dollars for each passenger) as in his judgment will cover the risk incurred by the Commonwealth in permitting such passengers to be landed. This money he must refund, upon receiving satisfactory evidence that the passengers left the State within forty-eight hours after arrival.

The assistants of the Agent in this department are a deputy and two boatmen, and the superintendents of the ports of Provincetown, New Bedford, Salem, Marblehead, Gloucester and Newburyport. The aggregate of their salaries is $3,100.

Third. Sub-Department of Transportation.-When the examination of parties who have drifted into the several charitable institutions, proves that any have a settlement in another State, such party must be removed to the place of his settlement as soon as practicable. If he is a foreigner, and it has been ascertained that he landed and paid his head-money at some place without the limits of Massachusetts, the General Agent must remove him thither forthwith. He must, moreover, take care not only that all paupers and lunatics are removed to the places where they belong, or whence they came, but that such removal is attended with the least possible injury to the parties thus removed. If necessary, he or his deputy must give personal attention to the removal of all who are physically or mentally unfit to take care of themselves.

All parties transferred from one lunatic hospital to another or from any public institution to another, must have the personal attention of a suitable officer.

The persons employed in this sub-department are a deputy and an assistant, whose salaries amount to $2,000 a year.

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