If we would secure in this most important undertaking the best and broadest advantages, conveniences, and economies for the present and for the future, it needs that we look to those whose vision is equal to taking in a wider horizon, rather than to those whose apprehensions, however groundless, naturally incline them against that union which is so manifestly desirable and which whole communities are looking with confidence to the Legislature to see perfected.

While neither expecting nor desiring any pecuniary advantage from their employment, which indeed they are by the law of their creation expressly prohibited from receiving, the Commissioners respectfully suggest the necessity of a moderate appropriation to meet the expenses of clerical and technical service that obviously will be required in the discharge of the responsible duties committed to them.

The Commissioners submit the accompanying bill as an initiative measure, to be supplemented by such further bills for legislative action as may be required for public convenience or demanded by its necessities.

ANDREW H. GREEN, President.

J. S. T. STRANAHAN, Vice-President.

CAMPBELL W. ADAMS, State Engineer and Surveyor; JOHN H. BRINKERHOFF, Queens County; GEORGE J. GREENFIELD, Richmond County; CHARLES P. MCCLELLAND, Westchester County; WILLIAM D. VEEDER, Kings County; EDWARD F. LINTON, Brooklyn; FREDERIC W. DEVOE, JOHN L. HAMILTON, CALVERT VAUX and J. SEAVER PAGE, New York, Commissioners.

NEW YORK, December 31st, 1894.

PROPOSED BILL FOR CONSOLIDATION-1895.

SECTION I. The municipal corporations and parts of municipal corporations known as the city of Brooklyn and the town of Flatlands, in the county of Kings; the city of Long Island City, the town of Newtown, the towns and villages of Flushing and Jamaica, the villages of Far Rockaway, Richmond Hill, Whitestone, and College Point, and that part of the town of Hempstead, in the county of Queens, which is westerly of a straight line drawn from the southeasterly point of the town of Flushing through the middle of the channel between Rockaway Beach and Shelter Island, in the county of Queens, to the Atlantic Ocean; the town of Westchester, the village of Williamsbridge, and that part of the towns of East Chester and Pelham, in the county of Westchester, which lies southerly of a straight line drawn from a point where the northerly line of the city of New York meets the center line of the Bronx River to the middle of the channel between Hunter's and Glen islands in Long Island Sound; and the towns of Castleton, Middletown, Southfield, Northfield, and Westfield, and the villages of Edgewater, New Brighton, Port Richmond, and Tottenville, in the county of Richmond; are hereby consolidated with the municipal corporation known as The Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty of the City of New York.

SECTION 2. For all purposes the local administration and government of the territories in Section 1 of this act enumerated shall remain in and be performed and exercised by the respective bodies politic and corporate to which they are now intrusted, until and except so far as hereafter changed by authority of law; and for such purposes, and until such time, and except to such extent, the said bodies politic and corporate shall continue to exist, and to possess the

same rights, properties, privileges, and franchises, and to exercise the same. powers, and discharge the same duties, and be subject to the same liabilities, and the various officers thereof shall be elected or appointed in the same manner, as heretofore.

SECTION 3. The commission appointed under chapter three hundred and eleven of the Laws of eighteen hundred and ninety, to which the Mayor of the city of New York and the Mayor of the city of Brooklyn are hereby added as commissioners, is hereby authorized and directed to prepare for the government of the municipal corporation, The Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty of the City of New York, as by this act enlarged, a charter and such other bills as will, upon their enactment into laws, provide among other things for attaining an equal and uniform rate of taxation, and of valuation for the purpose of taxation, throughout the whole of the territory of the said municipal corporation as so enlarged. Said commission may, in and for the performance of said work, employ counsel and such other persons as it may deem necessary, and fix their compensation; subpoena witnesses; compel the production before it of any public record or document of any of the bodies politic or corporate aforesaid; administer oaths and examine thereunder any person touching the subjectmatter hereby committed to its charge. And each of the said bodies politic and corporate, its agents and servants, is hereby directed, for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this act, to furnish to the said commission or its representative free access, at all reasonable hours, to all such records and documents, and all information within its possession or under its control. The said commission shall proceed as continuously as may be with the work aforesaid, and shall from time to time report to the Legislature its progress therein and its recommendations, and shall prepare and submit to the Legislature bills in proper form for enactment embodying such recommendations.

SECTION 4. For the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this act each of the cities of New York and Brooklyn shall raise such proportion of the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars as the value of all its real property, as fixed by the Board of State Assessors for the purpose of State taxation, bears to the aggregate value, as so fixed, of all the real property in both cities. Upon the requisition of said commission upon the Board of Estimate and Apportionment of either of said cities, such board shall raise the whole or any part of the proportion of said sum to be raised by such city from any unexpended balance of appropriation in such city for any year prior to the year eighteen hundred and ninety-six, or by the issue of revenue bonds of such city in the manner provided by law, or by the inclusion thereof in the annual tax levy upon real and personal property liable to taxation in such city. Payments shall be made by the comptroller of each of said cities from the respective proportions of said sum so to be raised by each of said cities for the expenses incurred by the said commission in carrying out the provisions of this act, upon vouchers certified by the said commission, or by such officer or officers thereof as it may designate for that purpose, in form to be approved by the comptroller making such payment. SECTION 5. Nothing in this act contained shall be construed as attempting or intending to affect in any way the government, rights, powers, duties, obligations, limitations or disabilities of any county or officer thereof, as fixed by the constitution, or to obliterate any county lines.

SECTION 6. This act shall take effect immediately.