State system of civil service. The principle of selecting the subordinate employees of the State on the ground of capacity and fitness, ascertained according to fixed and impartial rules, without regard to political predilections and with reasonable assurance of retention and promotion in case of meritorious service, is now the established policy of the State. The children of our citizens are educated and trained in schools maintained at common expense, and the people as a whole have a right to demand the selection for the public service of those whose natural aptitudes have been improved by the educational facilities furnished by the State. The application to the public service of the same rule which prevails in ordinary business, of employing those whose knowledge and training best fit them for the duties at hand, without regard to other considerations, must elevate and improve the civil service and eradicate from it many evils from which it has long suffered. Not the least gratifying of the results which this system promises to accomplish, is relief to public men from the annoyance of importunity in the strife for appointments to subordinate places.

BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

On the 4th day of May, 1883, an act was passed providing for the appointment of a "Commissioner of Statistics of Labor," and on the 10th day of the same month such commissioner was duly appointed.

It is declared by the act to be the duty of this officer "to collect, assort, systematize and present in annual reports to the Legislature, within ten days of the convening thereof in each year, statistical details relating to all departments of labor in the State, especially in relation to the commercial, industrial, social and sanitary condition of workingmen, and to the productive industries of the State."

In the prosecution of his work under the law, the commissioner has gained much from the experience of those similarly engaged in other States, and has possessed himself of valuable information which will, doubtless, aid him in the performance of his duties.

Blanks have been prepared for the purpose of collecting the facts and statistics which it is expected this department will report. Such as have been already sent were directed to parties who are engaged in the same branches of business and labor as are carried on in the prisons, reformatories and penitentiaries of the State.

Thus far, the commissioner has devoted his attention almost exclusively to the examination of the system of convict labor and the contract made by the State in connection therewith. The result of his investigation will appear in his report, which will soon be submitted.

THE PRIMARY ELECTION LAW.

The act passed by the last Legislature and approved by me extending the laws to prevent and punish frauds and corruption in the primary elections or caucuses throughout the State was in most focalities generally observed during the year, and seems to provide

absolutely for the correction in this State of what had come to be a great abuse.

In many sections of the State a nomination from one or the other of the principal political parties is practically equivalent to an election, and in every section, under our system of parties, pure primaries providing for an honest expression of public sentiment is one of the principal guaranties the people possess of their rights as citi

zens.

With this law in force the means are in the bands of the people, if they so will, to secure pure primaries.

BOARD OF CLAIMS.

The last Legislature abolished the office of Canal Appraiser and the State Board of Audit, and substituted in their place a Board of Claims, consisting of three commissioners. In accordance with the terms of the act creating it, the Board organized in June last, and has since proceeded with the work of hearing and determining the mass of business transferred to it from the two abolished boards,` and that which has since arisen.

The objections which were patent in the composition of the Board of Audit are obviated by the requirements of the law, while a single tribunal is provided, composed of men fitted by training and experience to examine all private claims against the State, many of which involve a judicial interpretation of the law. Instead of two courts of claims we now have one, and the satisfaction expressed by those who represent the interests of the State, as well as claimants, is sufficient proof of the wisdom of the law establishing this single tribunal.

Through neglect of the last Legislature no appropriation was made to meet the expenses of this Board, and you will, therefore, be called upon not only to make the ordinary maintenance appropriation for the coming year, but also to provide funds to pay the expenses of the Board from the time of its organization, June 1, 1883, until October 1, 1884, at which time the regular appropriation will become available.

NEW CAPITOL.

The people of the State are to be congratulated upon the unprecedented progress which has been made upon this structure since the 8th day of May, 1883, when the work was committed to new management, pursuant to a law of the last Legislature. A description in detail of the work done will not be attempted here, as the report of the Commissioner, containing a statement of the same, will be furnished as soon as practicable to the Legislature.

The rooms to be occupied by the Court of Appeals and its Clerk, located in the east end of the building, are ready for occupancy, and have been finished and furnished in an appropriate manner. The rooms adjoining them are also substantially finished.

A contract was made on the 19th of June, 1883, for the construction of the south-eastern staircase for the sum of $239,345.80. The preparation for the foundation of this great structure was a work of considerable magnitude. At the rate the work is now progressing it will be completed as soon as September 15, 1884, the date limited by the contract.

The Old Capitol and the State Library building, located east of the New Capitol, have been removed in preparing for the construction of the eastern approach. The State Library and Law Library have been temporarily placed in the room originally intended for the Court of Appeals and in the Golden Corridor adjoining, where they will remain until they are permanently located in the rooms designed for them in the west end of the building. It is exceedingly important that these rooms, and such others in the west end as are intended for the departments still remaining in the State Hall, should be completed as early as possible. When these apartments are finished, the whole interior of the building will be ready

for use.

When the work was entered upon by the present Commissioner the granite and brick walls of the west end of the building were unfinished. The dimensions of this part of the structure are as follows: From north to south, two hundred and ninety-one feet; from east to west, sixty-two feet, not including the space to be occupied by the great staircase, which is seventy-two by fifty-two feet all comprising fully one-fourth of the floor space of the building.

It was deemed very important, that the west walls should be completed and the roof put on before the winter closed in, so that the work on the interior might be protected and further prosecuted without interruption on account of the weather, or the expense of a temporary covering. This involved the preparing and setting of a large amount of granite necessary for carrying up the walls, the great central gables, dormers and chimneys, and preparing for the roof and covering the same with slate, tile and glass. The work was entered upon with vigor and energy, and it is gratifying to report that the whole edifice is substantially roofed.

The total cost of the building to the fifteenth day of December, was $15,318,680.67. The total amount expended from April 9 to December 15, 1883, was $900,481.23, leaving a balance on hand at that date of $99,518.77.

The number of men employed in all parts of the construction, for most of the time since the eighth day of May, has varied from thirteen to fourteen hundred. At the present rate of expenditure, the balance above mentioned will be exhausted within a very short time, and a failure to make an immediate appropriation will result in a stoppage of the work.

The Commissioner in charge has faithfully devoted himself to the performance of his important duties, and conducted the construction with energy and systein, and with the most gratifying results. The tax payers who have waited so long for relief from the burden of this gigantic work may cherish a well-founded hope that the day of

their deliverance is at hand. They have a right to demand, and they may expect, that the method, at last inaugurated, of exacting from employees a fair day's work for a fair day's pay will be continued without permitting the people's money to be wasted to secure partisan advantages. With an appropriation sufficient to continue the work with the same force of men as that employed during the past season, it can reasonably be expected that the entire interior of the structure will be completed by April 1st, of next year, and the approaches and porticoes comprising the exterior work unfinished, within two years from the present date.

The progress made this year is an added vindication of the usefulness in practice of concentrated responsibility.

Any regrets respecting the time which has been spent or the money expended in the erection of this building are out of place. Economy now is found in pushing to the utmost its completion.

There should be no check or interruption in the work so well in hand and so completely systematized; and I earnestly hope that in the interest of the tax-paying population, and to the end that the reasonable expectation of an early completion may be realized, the Legislature will make an early and liberal appropriation for its continuance.

PUBLIC BUILDINGS.

The act passed by the Legislature to remedy the evident neglect in the care of the public buildings, including the New Capitol, Old Capitol, State Hall, Agricultural Hall and Executive Mansion, and center in one person the care and maintenance of this property was, in my judgment, eminently wise.

Under the old system each of these buildings was separately managed, supplies were purchased for each in comparatively small quantities at various prices, and in every respect they were maintained as distinct from each other as though they were as many different properties belonging to different individuals.

The advantage of the new system is seen in the improved condition of the buildings and their furniture, in a reduced pay-roll and in lower prices for supplies. The State buildings at Albany and their fixtures have cost many millions of dollars, and in themselves constitute a large property, which requires constant and intelligent care to preserve from decay and dilapidation. That heretofore, because of divided responsibility and an absolute lack of system, there has been great neglect in this matter, involving immense losses to the State is conceded. That the new system is in the line of the application of business methods to the administration of public affairs, and is an important reform is already proven.

THE ADIRONDACK WILDERNESS.

The Hudson, Mohawk and Black rivers are to a very large extent fed by the streams and lakes in the southern slopes of the Adirondack wilderness; and the Black river may well be regarded as the

principal feeder of the Erie canal. This statement renders the importance of protecting the water in the sources of the rivers named from serious diminution, distinctly apparent. The fact that this can only be done by the preservation of the forests bordering on these sources of water supply needs no demonstration and was recognized by the last Legislature by the passage of an act prohibiting the further sale of our northern wilderness lands.

The immense volume of commerce which passes through the Erie canal and the Hudson river to the seaboard, and the low stage of water during the summer in the last-named water-way as well as the other rivers and streams of the State, have attracted the attention of the public to the necessity of arresting the further destruction of our northern forests.

This is certainly a very important matter, and should receive early and serious attention. We find ourselves facing the danger which now so excites the people, because the interests of the State have not been cared for in the years that are past, and because our forestladen lands have been recklessly disposed of at nominal prices until, at this late day, we are awakened to the fact that the control which the State should have always maintained over that part of those lands which are important to the preservation of our streams has been to a large extent surrendered.

The plan has been, it seems, quite generally adopted by the grantees from the State to refuse to pay taxes assessed upon these lands after their purchase, and to permit them to be sold for such taxes, the owner taking advantage of the time between the levying of the taxes and the sale of the land to cut off and sell such timber as he finds to his profit. In default of other bidders at such tax sale the State becomes the purchaser. Two years is allowed the delinquent owner after the sale to redeem his land.

Sales of these lands are customarily made by the Comptroller once in about five years, and they are then sold for taxes that have remained due and unpaid for a period not less than five years prior to the sale; thus, in 1881, forest lands were sold for taxes levied thereon between the years 1871 and 1876. It will be readily seen that this allows the grantees of these lands, who, from the first day of their ownership, deliberately refuse payment of all taxes, from seven to twelve years within which to cut off and sell timber thus realizing an immense return from the amount originally paid for the land.

Prior to the 23d day of November, 1883, the State had remaining of these wilderness lands, in the neighborhood of six hundred thousand acres. The day named was the last on which large quantities, which had been sold for taxes in 1881, could be redeemed; at the close of that day the State became the owner of one hundred and seventy-seven thousand eight hundred and forty-two acres more, which had been bid in by it at such sale, and which was not redeemed. It must be conceded that this was a fair day's work on