Commonwealth of Massachusetts. OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, BOSTON, Jan. 26, 1895. To the Honorable Senate and the House of Representatives. I have the honor to submit herewith, in accordance with section 2, chapter 262 of the Acts of 1892, the third annual report of the transactions of this office, covering the year ending with the 31st of December, 1894. To the duties previously assigned to this office the Legislature of 1894 added several others, the more important of which are as follows: the compilation and publication in detail of the returns of votes for state officers; the furnishing to registrars of voters of printed slips of the Constitution of the Commonwealth, with rotary boxes for the use of such slips in testing the reading qualifications of applicants for registration; the furnishing of a standard ink for the use of recording officers of the Commonwealth, counties, cities and towns; the distribution and exchange of public documents among members of the General Court; the making of an official copy of the original manuscript of the Constitution; the collation and publication of a new volume of special laws, comprising those of the years 1889 to 1893 inclusive. The office force for the year 1894 was substantially the same as that for the previous year. RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES. The receipts from fees, etc., amounted to $50,678.62, and were from the following sources : These fees were paid into the treasury monthly, and a quarterly report thereof was made to the Governor and Council, as required by law. The expenses for regular salaries were $22,966.33, and for temporary clerks as follows: -a total of $3,454.67 for temporary clerks, and a grand total of $26,421.00. The incidental expenses of the office were $3,608.17. COMMISSIONS. The number of commissions issued was 2,085, of which 239 were without fee. The different classes were as follows: Clerks, municipal, district and police courts, Justices and special justices, municipal, district and police courts, Justices of the peace to issue warrants and take bail, Commissioners to qualify civil officers, Pilots, Medical examiners, Masters in chancery, Judges of probate and insolvency, District attorneys,. Registers of probate and insolvency, Associate justices, superior court, 2 1 1 1 Certificates to the number of 2,965 were issued, of which 303 were without fee. I renew my recommendation of last year, that a law be enacted providing that all commissions shall take effect upon date of oath, unless some other day shall be specified in the commission. The Constitution provides that "any person appointed or commissioned to any judicial, executive, military or other office under the government, shall, before he enters on the discharge of the business of his place or office, take and subscribe" certain oaths. The law allows an appointee three months in which to take the required oaths; but under the present practice a commission takes effect upon its date, and it is nominally in force from such date, although the person holding it may not have been able to act thereunder for three months, an anomalous condition which it seems to me should be corrected as far as possible. CORPORATION DIVISION. The total number of certificates of incorporation issued under general laws to new corporations was 497, classified as follows: Manufacturing and mercantile corporations (under P. S., chap. 106, sect. 21), . 228 Religious, charitable, social, educational, musical, athletic, etc., corporations (under P. S., chap. 115, sect. 4), 171 Fraternal beneficiary corporations (under Acts of 1888, chap. 429, as amended, and Acts of 1894, chap. 367), . Churches (under acts of 1887, chap. 404), Life and casualty insurance corporations (under Acts of 1890, chap. 421),. 6 Mutual insurance companies (under Acts of 1887, chap. 214, and Acts of 1894, chap. 522), . 12 Railroad corporations (under P. S., chap. 112), 2 Street railway corporations (under P. S., chap. 113), 11 Labor organization (under Acts of 1888, chap. 134), 1 Manufacturing corporation reorganized (under P. S., chap. 106, sect. 22), . 1 |