appointed by the mayor for a term of four years, and shall, unless sooner removed, hold office until his successor shall be appointed and has duly qualified. He shall be ex-officio a member and the chairman of the municipal statistical commission.

Municipal statistical commission; how constituted.

$131. The municipal statistical commission shall consist of not less than three, nor more than six members, exclusive of the chief of the bureau of municipal statistics. Such members shall be appointed by the mayor, and shall be residents of the city. They shall be appointed with special reference to their qualifications to give expert advice upon statistical subjects. Their term of office shall be six years; but the members of the commission first appointed shall by lot divide themselves into three classes, so that one-third shall retire at the end of two years, one-third at the end of four years, and one-third at the end of six years. The successors to such original commissioners shall be appointed for the term of six years.

Meetings of commission; quorum.

132. The municipal statistical commission shall meet at such. times as may be convenient, but at least once in each month. A majority of the commission shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business.

Place of meeting.

§ 133. It shall be the duty of the board of estimate and apportionment to provide suitable offices, furniture and appliances for the use of the bureau of municipal statistics.

Compensation of chief of bureau and his assistants, and of the commission.

134. The chief of the bureau of municipal statistics shall receive an annual salary of three thousand five hundred dollars. He shall appoint his assistants, and shall fix their salaries with the approval of the board of estimate and apportionment. The members of the municipal statistical commission shall receive no compensation.

Powers and duties of the commission.

$135. The municipal statistical commission shall make such rules and by-laws as may be necessary for the regulation of the bureau of municipal statistics not in conflict with this act, or with

any law of this state or of the United States, and shall direct the general work of the bureau of municipal statistics. The commission shall devise and carry out plans for the collection and publication by the bureau of municipal statistics of such statistical data relating to The City of New York as it may deem advisable to publish. The head of each department of the city shall, upon a request from the commission made through the mayor, and approved by him, transmit to the chief of the bureau of municipal statistics for use by the commission, upon such blanks as may be provided, or in such other manner as may be deemed convenient by the commission, such statistical data relating to the work of such department as the commission may call for.

Powers and duties of chief of bureau.

136. The chief of the bureau of municipal statistics shall have charge of the execution of the plans outlined by the statistical commission, and shall, under the direction of the commission, attend to the collection, tabulation and publication of reports directed to be published by the commission.

Publication of statistics.

$137. The bureau of municipal statistics shall publish annually, with the approval of the board of estimate and apportionment, a volume to be known as the "Municipal Statistics of the City of New York for the year ." In this volume the statistical commission shall publish, in so far as it may deem advisable, the results attending the work of the various departments of the city. government for the preceding calendar year, and such other statistical information and facts relating to The City of New York or its inhabitants as it may deem of general public interest. Such publication shall contain statistics relating to births, marriages, deaths; to the sanitary condition of the city; to the supervision of the water supply, parks, streets, pavements, sewers, and buildings of the city; to the occurrence of fires; to the administration of charities and corrections; to the administration of the police department; to the judiciary and its various departments and branches; to crime; to the business and proceedings of the criminal courts and officers of the city; to the operation of the license laws; to the children attending school and to the public schools, to the work of the department of education, and to the population of the city of school age; to franchises granted to corporations, and whether they shall have been put in use or not;

to municipal revenues and expenditures; to the administration of the various city departments having charge of the expenditure of city moneys; to the administration of the tax department, and to the wealth and indebtedness of the city; and also a general state ment of the legislative enactments relating to the government of The City of New York.

Limitation of expense of maintaining the bureau of municipal statistics. 138. The expenses of such publications, and all other expenses of the bureau of municipal statistics, shall be included in the annual budget. The total expense of maintaining the bureau of municipal statistics, including salaries, shall not exceed in any one year the sum of ten thousand dollars, unless otherwise provided by the board of estimate and apportionment and the municipal assembly.

CHAPTER VI.

DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE.

Title 1. THE COMPTROLLER.

2. THE BONDS AND OBLIGATIONS OF THE CITY.

3. THE CHAMBERLAIN.

4. THE SINKING FUNDS.

5. APPROPRIATIONS AND THE BOARD OF ESTIMATE AND

APPORTIONMENT.

6. LEVYING TAXES.

TITLE 1.

THE COMPTROLLER.

SEC. 149. General duties; settlement of claims: assent to certain contracts required; election; salary.

150. To appoint deputy comptroller.

151. Bureaus of the finance department.

152. Appointment and bond of receiver of taxes and collector of assessments and arrears.

153. Renewal of bond.

154. Accounts of receiver and collector and their deputies to be examined. 155. Receiver of taxes and collector of assessments and arrears; where to keep offices.

156. Receiver of taxes and collector of assessments and arrears may appoint deputies.

157. Where taxes, assessments and arrears are due and payable. 158. Bond of receiver and collector to be filed.

159. Assessment-lists to be filed.

160. Comptroller to appoint clerks and assistants.

161. Publication of financial statement.

162. Application of certain moneys.

163. Dedication of certain lands for markets.

General duties; settlement of claims; assent to certain contracts required; election; salary.

$149. The finance department shall have control of the fiscal concerns of the corporation. All accounts rendered to or kept in the other departments shall be subject to the inspection and revision of the officers of this department. It shall prescribe

the forms of keeping and rendering all city accounts, and, except as herein otherwise provided, the manner in which all salaries shall be drawn, and the mode by which all creditors, officers and employes of the corporation shall be paid. All payments by or on behalf of the corporation, except as otherwise specially provided, shall be made through the proper disbursing officer of the department of finance, on vouchers to be filed in said department, by means of warrants drawn on the chamberlain by the comptroller, and countersigned by the mayor. The comptroller may require any person presenting for settlement an account or claim for any cause whatever, against the corporation, to be sworn before him touching such account or claim, and when so sworn, to answer orally as to any facts relative to the justness of such account or claim. Wilful false swearing before him is perjury, and punishable as such. He shall settle and adjust all claims in favor of or against the corporation, and all accounts in which the corporation is concerned as debtor or creditor; but in adjusting and settling such claims, he shall, as far as practicable, be governed by the rules of law and principles of equity which prevail in courts of justice. The power hereby given to settle and adjust such claims shall not be construed to give such settlement and adjustment the binding effect of a judgment or decree, nor to authorize the comptroller to dispute the amount of any salary established by or under the authority of any officer or department authorized to establish the same, nor to question the due performance of his duties by such officer, except when necessary to prevent fraud. The comptroller shall not reduce the rate of interest upon any taxes or assessments below the amount fixed by law. No contract hereafter made, the expense of the execution of which is not by law or ordinance, in whole or in part, to be paid by assessments upon the property benefited, shall be binding or of any force, unless the comptroller shall indorse thereon his certificate that there remains unexpended and unapplied, as herein provided, a balance of the appropriation or fund applicable thereto, sufficient to pay the estimated expense of executing such contract, as certified by the officer making the But this provision shall not apply to work done, or supplies furnished, not involving the expenditure of more than one thousand dollars, unless the same is required by law to be done by contract at public letting. It shall be the duty of the comptroller to make such indorsement upon every such contract so presented to him, if there remains unapplied and unexpended

same.