xxxiv REPORT OF THE
I have requested the Attorney General to take such
steps as will enforce payment of the interest due on
the mortgages of the Susquehanna and Tide Water Canal
Companies, but it is feared, that no recovery can be had in
time to avail the Treasury during the present, or perhaps
the next fiscal year.
The restoration of the law in regard to licenses to
agents of Foreign Insurance Companies as it stood pre-
vious to 1876, and the enactment of a law restoring
the taxation of mortgage debts either as it existed
previous to the Act of 1867, Chapter 341, or as it existed pre-
vious to the passage of the Act of 1870, Chapter 394, would
go far towards supplying the deficiency, and would render
the increase in the rate of State levy, which would be requisite,
comparatively small.
Much may be done by the General Assembly also, to cur-
tail expenditures, by economy in expenses and by limiting
the appropriations in aid of societies and corporations, to those
of unquestioned merit and usefulness.
In view of the embarrassed condition of the business affairs
of the people, by reason of the failure of commerce, and the
general lack of profit in all practical operations, I cannot too
strongly urge upon the Legislature the exercise of the strict-
est economy in the expenditure of the public money.
NEW TOBACCO WAREHOUSES.
The new Tobacco Warehouses, the erection of which was
by the Act of 1876, Chapter 316, committed to the Governor,
Comptroller, Treasurer, Attorney General and Supervisor of
Warehouses, on the site of the tobacco warehouses destroyed
by fire in 1875, have been completed, and are now employed
for the storage and inspection of tobacco. The building is.
divided by a thick wall, so as to be used for two separate
houses. The capacity of each of the houses is large, and the
building substantial and safe. The total cost of the two
houses was $56,229.78, which is considerably less than the
amount appropriated.
By the Act of 1876, Chapter 333, the Comptroller was di-
rected "to audit and settle the claims of the late clerks of to-
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