REPORT OP THE COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY. xi

30th, 1899, was $4,289.71 which, added to the receipts during
the fiscal year aggregates $87,349.61, while the disbursements
are shown to be $81,983.87, leaving a balance of $5,365.74 on
September 30th, 1900.

A deficit which has been carried from year to year, as
former reports from this office will show, amounted at the close
of the fiscal year of 1899 to about $35,000. In order to
provide for this deficiency and start the Oyster Navy upon a
new basis, the Legislature of 1900 made a direct appropriation
from the General Treasury under Chapter 59, of $35,000. A
new oyster law was also enacted at the same session, under
Chapter 380, which it is expected will meet the demands of the
Oyster Navy. The law having gone into operation so recently
it is impossible, at present to say whether this expectation will
be fully realized, but there is reason to believe that it will.
The present Jaw embraces details which are new, and which
require some time, for their proper understanding and adjust-
ment, With such remedial legislation as the practical working
of the law will suggest, and especially in the matter of
collecting the oyster tax, we believe the law will be found
satisfactory to those whose interests are immediately concerned.

No industry in the State is ..more important to a large num-
ber of our people than the oyster industry, and it should be
fostered and protected by proper legislation, but its protection
should not at any time become a drain upon the General
Treasury.

ASSETS.

An itemized report of the State's Capital and Credits as of
September 30, 1900, will be fully shown in statement "I." The
$550,000 stock of the Washington Branch of the .Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad Company is still continued in the productive
column, notwithstanding the fact- that dividends on such stock
have not been paid for the past four years. It is proper to
add here that, by virtue of Joint Resolution No. 10 of 1900,
the Attorney General is "authorized and directed forthwith to
take such proceedings as shall be adequate and proper for the