The two warrants above men cancelled, as it should have been. tioned amounted to $4,591 01, for which the internal improvement warrant account should then have been charged, and the two warrants also marked on the list of outstanding warrants as cancelled. This not having been done, left the amount of warrants reported as outstanding to be that much in excess of the true amount; or the dif ference between $9,136 70 charged as paid when it should not have been so, and $4,591 01 not charged, when it should have been so, being $4,545 69, constitutes the amount too little heretofore reported as outstanding in internal improvement fund warrants. Lists of this class of outstanding warrants drawn, off since the above errors were corrected on our books, agree with the amount of that item of our State indebtedness, as given by the books, into $10 69. This error may have arisen, as one which occurred during the present fiscal year did, from checking a wrong number, or rather the wrong one of two duplicate numbers, there having been issued in March, 1842, duplicate numbers of all internal improvement fund warrants from 3819 to 3900. As the account, which might have to be gone over to correct the above error, covers over two hundred and seventy pages of our Ledgers, and as the existing discrepancy between our books and the lists of apparently outstanding warrants has been reduced to so small a sum, I have not felt justified in taking up the time of those in the office qualified to make or aid in making the examination, away from more important and at least more pressing duties, especially as it may become more easily detected hereaf ter, as the amount of outstanding warrants is diminished. I would merely add in conclusion, and in connection with this subject, that lists of the outstanding land warrants of both series have been made out, and, when footed, have been found to agree precisely with our books. EXPENSES CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. Amongst the expenditures from the general fund, during the last fiscal year, there is included $31,463 05 on account of the convention to revise the constitution, exclusive of interest on some of the warrants until the State Treasurer had means to pay them. And there is also still due, on account of pay of members and officers, about $700 more, and about $1,200, or upwards, for printing de bates, from page 500, and for binding, besides about $1,800, or more, for printing-paper and postages, for convention, and not charged to its expenses and included above. When these items are added, it will make the whole expense of the convention about $35,000, exclusive of the amounts due for publishing the constitution in the several newspapers, and the election notices and some other incidental expenses attending its session. Although it is admitted that the above amount will soon be saved by the reduced expenditures under the operations of the new constitution, yet it has been asked why a large amount of this expense could not have been saved? Why, as the proposed constitution would have to be submitted to the people for ratification at any rate, a draft could not have been equally well made out by a much smaller body, and one whose expenses would have been comparatively trifling? To this it may be answered, that the old constitution required the convention to consist of a number of members not less than that of both branches of the legislature, as apportioned at the time when such convention might be called. As the new constitution, however, contains no such requirement, it will be in the power of our successors, or their legislative representatives, whenever another constitutional convention may be ordered, to make it consist of such number of delegates as the experience of this or other States may then seem to render most advisable. TAX FOR INTEREST ON STATE DEBT, Apportioned September 30, 1850. Under Act No. 73, 1843. Interest due July, 1851, and Jan., 1852, on $180,000 full-paid five million loan bonds, Exchange and commission on above, Under Act No. 173, 1848. Interest due Jan. and July, 1850, on Detroit and Pon tiac R. R. bonds, Exchange and commission on above, Interest due July, 1849, on $30,750 I. I. warrant bonds, issued Sept. 13,-Dec. 31, 1849, $10,800 00 135 00 6,000 00 7500 922 50 Interest due January, 1850, on $198,850 then out standing, Interest due January, 1850, on $200 redeemed, with Jan., 1850, coupon off, Interest due July, 1849, and January, 1850, on $24, 5,985 50 6. 00 800 issued Jan. 1,-June 30, 1850, 1,488 00 Interest due July, 1850, on $216,150, then outstanding, 6,493 50 Interest due July, 1849, and Jan. and July, 1850, on $10,650 00 issued July 1,-Sept. 30, 1850, 949 50 Under Act No. 230, 1848. Interest due July, 1850, and January, 1851, on $15,725 66 adjusted bonds, issued after apportionment of interest tax in 1849, Interest due July, '51, and Jan., '52, on $103,259 74, issued and outstanding Sept. 30, 1850, Exchange and commission on last two items, Total, being one mill and thirty-nine hundredths on the valuation of 1849, 943 54 6,195 58 89 24 245 53 $40,308 89 The complicated and varying provisions of the above acts, as to interest on different portions of our State debt, will be superseded hereafter under the new constitution, which requires the interest on our whole debt to be ascertained and provided for in the general annual State tax of each year. SPECIFIC STATE TAXES. A statement in detail of the specific taxes paid into the State treasury, during the fiscal year just closed, is appended, marked A. a.; and in table C. is given an estimate of the anticipated income from that source for the ensuing two years. It will be perceived that a very large increase in the revenue derivable from this source, takes place in 1852, mostly from the increased tax then payable by the two principal railroad companies. Amongst the receipts of the past year, from the Detroit and Pontiac R. R. Co., is included not only the payment due for 1850, but also the tax and interest due from said company for the three preceding years, a suit for the collection of which was pending at the date of the last annual report from this office. Of the forty-eight mining companies chartered during the last three years, only fourteen, as yet, have paid any specific tax. Some, if not most or all, of the others have no doubt organized since the time specified for making reports last year, and may be expected, during the current fiscal year, to contribute to the revenue derivable from this source, most of which, under the new constitution, is to be hereafter divided between the State and the counties where the several companies are located. Besides the discrepancies in the charters of these companies, mentioned in the report of the committee of the constitutional convention, (Conv. Doc. No. 7,) and which it would be very desirable that the legislature should remedy, so far as may now be practicable, there is also a difference in the time when the tax from part of those chartered in 1850 falls due, from the time when the others are required to make their payments; and one company, the Jackson Mining Co., by an act of 1849, is entirely exempted from the payment of any specific tax. What the reason of this exemption was, does not appear from the act itself, nor from any legislative document, so far as I am aware. Such discrepancies and distinctions will hereafter be avoided, under the provisions of the new constitution, which requires all such corporations to be organized under general and uniform laws. REPORTS SUPREME COURT, &c. The amount hitherto expended from the State Treasury for the publication of Chancery and Supreme Court Reports, appears by the books of this office, to be as follows: As the several reporters are entitled to the profits of the publication of their respective volumes, in addition to their salaries for the time during which they are employed, it would seem that the proceeds of the first sales of each volume published, should be paid back to the State Treasury, until the cost of publication of each was refunded, less perhaps a pro rata proportion of the cost, for the number of volumes furnished to the State Library. The only money yet received by the State, however, on account of such sales, is that paid last month by S. T. Douglass, Esq., late Reporter, on account of sales of part of the edition of the two volumes Supreme Court Reports published while he held the office. There was paid on account of sales of 191 copies of Vol. I, $589 82, and on account of sales of 70 copies of Vol. II, the sum of $208 68; or in all, the sum of $798 50. This was accounted for by receiving back into the Treasury $500 due to Mr. Douglass on salary as reporter from Oct. 2, 1848, to Sept. 30, 1849, and the balance in money. Before his resignation, Mr. Douglass had served several months as reporter, beyond the time for which he was allowed salary, as above, but did not claim any allowance beyond Oct. 1, 1849. His successor become qualified, and commenced drawing salary from July 1, 1850. Deducting from the cost of Vol. I Supreme Court Reports, onefifth of the expense, for the 200 volumes deposited in the State Library, there would remain to be reimbursed to the State, the sum of $991 69, of which there has been paid, as above, $589 82, leaving a balance still due the State out of the proceeds of the sales of said volume, of $401 87. Making a like deduction from the cost of Vol. II, would leave due the State on account of cost of said volume, $444 62, of which there has been accounted for, the sum of $208 68, leaving still due $235 94 from sales of said volume, since account was rendered. It is understood that Harrington's Chancery Reports, by some arrangement with Mr. H. before his death, or with his administrators, are in charge of H. N. Walker, Esq., who succeeded Mr. H. as State Reporter. A letter was addressed to Mr. W. from this office, relative to the situation of his own volume of Chancery Reports, but at too late a day to receive any account before the close of the last fiscal year; but an account has been promised, as soon as returns from the book-sellers who have had them for sale, can be obtained. |