COMPTROLLER OF TREASURY. vii

By this it appears that the receipts were $51,057.74,
while the disbursements on. account of the service, and
for money refunded for licenses issued to carry oysters
over the waters of the State and for licenses cut short
by the enactment of a new Oyster Law, amounted to the
sum of $106,600.62.

In the disbursements are also included the cost of the
purchase of oyster shells for the purpose of aiding the
propagation of oysters in the waters of the State, and the
cost of towing the steamer Governor Thomas off Poplar
Island; and after deducting these items of expenditure,
there is left as the ordinary expenses of the service for the
fiscal year the sum of $73,289.86, which sum is $8,239.16
in excess of the ordinary expenses of the service for the
fiscal year 1885. This difference is more than accounted
for in the salaries of the officers and crews of steamers
and vessels belonging to the service.

The pay of officers and crews in 1885 amounted to
$45,748.46, and for the year 1886 it amounted to $54,362.95,
a difference of $8,614.49.

This difference in salaries is attributable to the fact
that two of the steamers for part of the fiscal year 1885
were not in the Service for a considerable part of the
time, one of them not being completed and the other
laid up for a long time receiving repairs and with-
out a crew.

The other expenses, supplies and repairs under the
present management of the Commander of the Oyster
Service have been kept down as low as an efficient ad-
ministration would permit.

Many of the sailing vessels have been in the service
a long time and with each succeeding year their wants
multiply.

In my Report to the Legislature at its last Session I
stated that some legislation was necessary to maintain
the present expensive service.

Whether it should be by the curtailment of the Police
Force in order to decrease expenses, or the passage of a
law whereby the revenues would be increased suffi-