25,369 72 $1,462 10 And the expenses of the Board and all its departments being There remains a surplus of Which is not, as was suggested by a member of the last Legislature, mere revenue, that would in any event be collected, but the actual result of persevering industry and patient research on the part of the officers of this Bureau. Expenses for 1868. For the year ending September 30, 1868, being the fifth year of the Board of State Charities, the expenses were: 1.-SALARIES. 1. II. B. Wheelwright, General Agent, $3,000 00 2. S. C. Wrightington, First Deputy,. 1,500 00 3. George F. Howard, First Clerk, 4. Merritt Nash, Second Deputy, . 5. Alfred W. Baylies, Second Clerk, 6. Willard D. Tripp, Third Deputy, 7. Daniel S. Luther, Third Clerk, 8. William J. Stetson, Fourth Deputy, 9. Edward Dalton, Fourth Clerk, 10. Fred Moro, First Boatman, 11. Patrick Glynn, Second Boatman, 12. Joseph Huckins, Third Boatman, (to February 1,) 800 00 1,300 00 800 00 1,000 00 500 00 1,000 00 784 95 800 00 GENERAL AGENT'S REPORT. Martin J. Cook, (from September 1,) $50 00 13. George B. Tufts, Fifth Clerk,. 2.-TRAVELLING EXPENSES. 1. H. B. Wheelwright and clerks, 600 00 366 68 $13,301 63 $51 25 Receipts for the year ending September 30, 1868. 1. From Immigrant Head Money, 2. From Cities, Towns and Individuals, 3. From Bastardy Cases, $30,337 00 6,988 58 627 75 $37,953 33 14,611 27 Comparing the expenses with the receipts, we find a net profit to the State of $23,342.06, enough to pay the cost of the Board and its remaining departments, and leave a balance of $13,238.82 in the treasury. Expenses of the Board and its Secretary. An appropriation of $3,200 was granted to this Board for the present financial year. The expenses for the nine months ending September 30 have been $1,531.80, as follows: 885 52 $2,417 32 dental expenses, . The expenses of the quarter ending December 31, The total expenses of the Board for the year The Secretary states his expenses for the past year at $7,685 92 Those of the Board are And of the General Agent Making the total expenditure for the Board and all its departments, for the year ending September 30, 1868,. Deducting this sum from the total receipts, . 2,417 32 14,611 27 $24,714 51 37,953 33 We find a surplus (as stated previously,) of. $13,238 82 GENERAL AGENT'S REPORT. BUSINESS OF THE OFFICE. 1.-Sub-Department of Immigration and Local Business. The gradual revival of commerce after the embargo of the rebellion was removed, and especially the transfer of a portion of the second-class passenger steamers of the Cunard Line to Boston as a stopping place en route to New York, have induced a decided revival of that immigration from Europe which seemed at one time to have left us forever. Under the laws of the Commonwealth, sustained by the formal opinions of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, it is necessary to examine all alien passengers thus arriving for the first time in the State, and to exact for each a suitable bond that the party shall not become a public charge. To enable owners, consignees and captains to escape the burden of a responsibility, running either five or ten years, the General Agent may accept in commutation thereof a voluntary payment of not less than two dollars in each case, proportioned in amount to the mental and physical condition of the passenger. The minimum sum is always accepted unless some manifest or suspected defect requires, for the public protection, a larger payment. The result of these wholesome laws is practically an insurance, which has thus far proved adequate to prevent pecuniary loss to the Treasury from the immigration. In case it should prove insufficient, the General Agent has authority to increase the amount required in commutation. The vital necessity of these protecting statutes and the importance of their prompt and thorough execution would seem to be self-evident. Only by unremitting exertion for eleven years on the part of the officers of the charities, have the public institutions of the State been limited to their present number, and yet they are amply sufficient for the needs of the entire population of New England, of American parentage. By far the greater part of the original outlay and of the annual cost of their maintenance is chargeable to aliens, who, entering the State by land, in spite of all checks and precautions, have become a public burden. If these statutes should be suspended or suffered to become a dead letter, even for a single year, the disastrous consequences would be at once apparent, IMMIGRATION, ETC. in an alarming increase of pauperism, disease, insanity and petty crimes, and in a loud demand for additional accommodations. The great mass of the healthy and most desirable immigrants move westward to aid in developing new States and Territories, with their labor and capital, leaving nearly the entire debris of the immigration upon the Atlantic shores. Any increase of the present burden would be intolerable; and hence the seaboard States must, in self-defence, maintain their existing regulations, and even make them more stringent, if need be, till the difficulty is removed by such national legislation as will equalize the burden among all the States. In this connection, your Agent desires to call the attention of the Board to a serious obstacle to the proper enforcement of the laws, and the collection of penalties and forfeitures for their violation. By the 13th section of the 71st chapter of the General Statutes, the several Superintendents of Alien Passengers can only prosecute "with the advice of the DistrictAttorney for their district." But these officers, burdened with necessary work, are not likely to favor optional suits, especially against wealthy and influential constituents. Hence your Agent is compelled to witness, while powerless to prevent, gross infractions of the law by responsible parties; and the State not only loses its just dues, but is obliged to support defectives surreptitiously landed, perhaps for their life-time. The undersigned is satisfied that the clause alluded to should be stricken from the statute, that the General Agent should be charged with the supervision of all the ports of the State, and should be instructed to prosecute all cases of violation of the law, and that he should be authorized to employ counsel whenever desirable. A little vigorous work in this direction, and a few examples made, will, in a brief time, wonderfully improve the manners and the morals of some captains and consignees, put a stop to many vexations and save no small snm to the Treasury. At the same time the Agent should be formally authorized, as he is not now, to settle cases of accidental and not wilful breaches of the statute, without exacting its full penalty. Strict justice requires this, that cases of undoubted hardship may be dealt with leniently. |