shall

tution

LAN

69.

such cities, towns, and villages, or of some division thereof, or appointed by such authorities thereof as the Legislature shall designate for that purpose."

The bill is returned thus promptly that it may be amended, if the Legislature see fit, so as to remove the objection.

JOHN T. HOFFMAN.

To the Assembly:

ALBANY, April 27, 1869.

I return, without my signature, a bill entitled "An act to declare John street in the village of Gouverneur a public highway."

The forty-first section of chapter 448 of the Laws of 1868, entitled "An act to incorporate the village of Gouverneur, in the county of St. Lawrence, and to repeal its present charter," provides that the trustees "shall have power to lay out, open, make, straighten, widen, extend, alter, and discontinue any streets, highways, alleys, lanes, side and crosswalks, drains, and sewers in said village, and may lay the same through any lands or inclosure, and take and appropriate the lands necessary for such improvements."

It is manifest that the subject-matter of the bill comes within the existing powers of the local authorities. The bill is, therefore, open to the objections already stated by me to the Assembly in previous messages, to unnecessary special legislation.

JOHN T. HOFFMAN.

To the Assembly :

ALBANY, April 29, 1869.

I return, without my signature, the bill entitled "An act to provide for the construction and maintenance of a bridge over the Tioughnioga river, in the town of Cuyler, Cortlandt county."

The main purpose of this bill (although there is nothing in the title to indicate it) is to charge upon the town of Truxton one half of the expense of building and maintaining the bridge, which is wholly within the town of Cuyler.

There has been for several years a dispute between the two towns in reference to this subject, and in the month of March, 1866, in a proceeding instituted by the commissioners of highways of the town of Truxton, the Supreme Court decided that the town of Truxton was not liable, as an adjoining town, to unite with Cuyler in building the bridge.

I submit that, in view of this decision of the Supreme Court, this bill, against which all the town officers of Truxton remonstrate, should not become a law, and I respectfully ask its reconsideration.

JOHN T. HOFFMAN.

To the Assembly :

ALBANY, April 29, 1869.

I return, without my signature, the bill entitled "An act to authorize the village of Adams to issue bonds for the purpose of aiding in the rebuilding of the Hungerford Collegiate Institute, and to levy a tax for the payment of the same."

The bill authorizes and requires the president of the board of trustees of the village of Adams, if a majority of the taxable in

habitants of said village shall, at a special meeting, give their consent, to issue its corporate bonds to the amount of $15,000.

These bonds are to be delivered to the Hungerford Collegiate Institute as a gift, the payment of the principal and interest of the bonds being required by the bill to be provided for by a general tax upon the property of the village.

A remonstrance, extensively signed, has been forwarded to the Legislature protesting against this (so far as the unwilling among the tax-payers are concerned) compulsory gift to a private institution; the advantages of which, it is said, can be enjoyed only by the few more wealthy of the people, while the tax is levied in equal proportion upon the homes of those who can afford for their children only the education of the common schools.

It is not, in my judgment, a case in which the Legislature should interpose to authorize a tax to be levied upon the property of the people of a town or village.

Whatever may be said as to the propriety of permitting a town or village, upon the consent of a majority of the taxable inhabitants, to issue its bonds and lend its credit in aid of any public improvement, it does not appear to be just that the creation of a debt should be authorized for the purpose contemplated by this bill and a tax levied upon the property of the people, when a large number of them remonstrate against it.

JOHN T. HOFFMAN.

To the Assembly:

ALBANY, April 30, 1869.

I return, without my signature, the bill entitled "An act to amend the act entitled 'An act to amend the several acts incorporating the village of Owego, in the county of Tioga,' passed April 9, 1851."

Section 7 of the bill provides that the village of Owego shall hereafter elect five Supervisors, all of them to be members of the Board of Supervisors of the county, each one exercising the same power as the Supervisor of a town. The village is already entitled, by an amendment to its charter made in 1854, to a Supervisor in addition to the one elected by the town of which it is a part. By the bill now before me the village would elect five, and the town at large one; making six for the town of Owego.

It is well known that Supervisors are not apportioned among the towns of a county with reference to population; but that, as a rule, every town is entitled to one representative in the County Board. It is urged upon me, in favor of this bill, that the town of Owego, including the village, so far exceeds in population the other towns of the county that it ought to have a larger representation in the Board.

Even upon the principle of proportion to population, this bill would give to Owego more than its share. The population of the county of Tioga is, by the census, 28,163; that of the town of Owego 8,865. Owego would, therefore, if population were the basis of representation in Boards of Supervisors, be entitled to about one third of the County Board. This bill gives it six Supervisors, and there are eight other towns, each of which elects one. The entire Board would thus consist of fourteen, out of which number Owego would have six, or nearly one half.

Again: if population is to be regarded as the basis of representation, there are other towns in Tioga county which have equal claims with Owego to relief. Barton and Candor have each a population of over four thousand; the remaining towns ranging in their numbers from one thousand to three thousand.

It is obvious that this bill would fail to give the county a Board representing the people according to numbers. If Owego, with a population of 8,800, be entitled to six Supervisors, then Barton and Candor, with populations of 4,000, have almost equal claims each to three.

If the principle is to be recognized that towns should be represented according to numbers, then it should be made general in its application throughout the county, and not confined to Owego. There is, however, an objection to the bill, independent of these details, which, in my judgment, is insuperable. It is this: The title of the bill does not, as the Constitution requires, indicate its full purpose or object. While, by its title, it purports simply to amend the charter of the village of Owego, the bill would work a material change in the government of the county. In any such change the people of the other towns have an interest; yet the title of this bill has afforded them no notice that its provisions were of any moment to others than the inhabitants of the village of Owego.

JOHN T. HOFFMAN.

ALBANY, May 1, 1869.

To the Assembly :

I return, not approved, the bill entitled "An act relating to the Jordan Academy and free school district No. 4, in the town of Elbridge, in the county of Onondaga."