the care and benefits of a home, and to do all things necessary and requisite in the premises. § 8. Admission to home.-Whenever said lands shall have been purchased, buildings erected and said home ready for occupancy, every honorably discharged soldier or sailor who served in the army or navy of the United States during the late rebellion, or who enlisted from the state of New York, or who shall have been a resident of this state for one year preceding the application for admission, and the wives, widows and mothers of any such honorably discharged soldier or sailor, and army nurses who served in said army or navy and whose residence was at the time of the commencement of such service or whose residence shall have been for one year preceding his or her application for admission to said home, within the state of New York, or who shall need the aid or benefit of said home in consequence of physical disability or other cause within the scope of the regulations of the board, shall be entitled to admission to said home, subject to the conditions, limitations and penalties prescribed by the rules and regulations adopted by said board. Provided, however, said soldier or sailor shall be a married man and shall be accompanied or attended by his wife during the time he may be an inmate of said home, but no wife or widow of a soldier or sailor shall be admitted as an inmate of said home unless due and sufficient proof is presented of her marriage to such soldier or sailor prior to the year eighteen hundred and eighty. THOMAS ASYLUM FOR ORPHAN AND DESTITUTE INDIAN CHILDREN, IROQUOIS. AN ACT to authorize the transfer of Indian children from the Thomas Asylum for Orphan and Destitute Indian Children to other asylums, hospitals or institutions for the custody and care of orphan, dependent or sick children, and to provide for their care, support and treatment therein. Chapter 242, Laws of 1896. Section 1. Transfers.-Whenever the number of Indian children in the Thomas Asylum for Orphan and Destitute Indian Children, on the Cattaraugus Reservation, duly admitted thereto, shall be in excess of its proper capacity or the applications for admission of such Indian children to such asylum shall exceed its proper accommodations therefor, or whenever, in the opinion of the trustees of such asylum, the comfort and well-being of any such Indian children therein will likely be promoted by their removal to other asylums, hospitals or institutions for the custody, care and treatment of orphan, dependent or sick children, they may, with the approval of the state board of charities, contract with the managers or other authorities of such asylums, hospitals or institutions as they may deem desirable for the reception, care and treatment of such Indian children, as may, from time to time, be transferred thereto, at a fixed weekly per capita rate not exceeding two dollars, except in the case of sick children requiring hospital treatment and care, when the fixed weekly per capita rate shall not exceed three dollars. The sum of two thousand dollars or so much thereof as may be necessary is hereby appropriated out of any moneys in the state treasury, not otherwise appropriated, for the purpose of this act. NEW YORK STATE INSTITUTION FOR THE BLIND, BATAVIA Chapter 587, Laws of 1865. Section 10. Trustees.-As soon as suitable accommodations shall be provided, the governor shall, by and with the consent of the senate, appoint nine trustees, two from the first judicial district and one from each of the other judicial districts, who shall take charge of said institution. Such trustees shall serve without pay, and shall hold their offices for three years and until others are appointed. § 11. Admissions to asylums.-Application for admission into such institution shall be made to a justice of the supreme court or of the court of common pleas or to a county judge in the county where such applicant shall reside. Such justice or judge shall hear the application and make due inquiry into the pecuniary circumstances of such applicant, or of the parents or guardians thereof, and if it shall be proved to his satisfaction that such person or the parents or guardians of such person are unable to pay for the support thereof, and that such county is entitled to send such person to such institution, he may make his order to that effect, and thereupon such person shall be sent to and admitted into such institution for a term not exceeding seven years. § 12. Preference to soldiers' children.-The persons who shall be entitled to the benefits of this institution shall be admitted in the order of their application for admission, except that the blind children of those who shall have died in the military serv ice of the United States, or from wounds or injuries received therein during the present rebellion, shall in all cases have a preference; except however that each county shall be entitled to admission for its blind population in indigent circumstances in the same proportion which the whole number of its blind population shall bear to the whole blind population of the state, which proportion shall be determined by the trustees; provided however, that for each person sent by any county, such county shall pay the annual sum of fifty dollars towards the support of such person. § 13. Power of trustees.-Said trustees shall, as soon after their appointment as may be, meet and organize by choosing one of their number as president and appointing a secretary. They shall have power to make by-laws and rules and regulations for the transaction of their business, and for the regula tion and management of said institution, which institution shall be wholly under their control; and as soon as may be necessary, they shall appoint some suitable person as superintendent, and such other officers and employes as may be necessary to properly carry on the business of said institution, and fix the compensation thereof. § 14. Records to be kept.-Said trustees shall keep full and complete records of all their proceedings, and also of the business and daily transactions of such institution, in books to be provided for that purpose; and shall annually make report thereof to the legislature, in and during the month of January. OBJECTS AND MANAGEMENT. AN ACT to define the objects of the New York State Institution for the Blind, and to provide for its management. Chapter 744, Laws of 1867. Section 1. Persons entitled to privileges of the institution.All blind persons of suitable age and capacity for instruction, who are legal residents of the State, shall be entitled to the privileges of the New York State Institution for the Blind, without charge, and for such a period of time in each individual case as may be deemed expedient by the board of trustees of said institution; provided, that whenever more persons apply for admission at one time than can be properly accommodated in the institution, the trustees shall so apportion the number received, that each county may be represented in the ratio of its blind population to the total blind population of the state; and provided further, that the children of citizens who died in the United States service, or from wounds received therein during the late rebellion, shall take precedence over all others. § 2. Non-residents.-Blind persons from without the state may be received into the institution upon the payment of an adequate sum, fixed by the trustees for their boarding and instruction; provided that such applicant shall in no case exclude those from the state of New York. § 3. Applications for admission, how made; certificate required.—Applications for admission into the institution shall be made to the board of trustees in such manner as they may direct, but the board shall require such application to be accompanied by a certificate from the county judge or county clerk of the county or the supervisor or town clerk of the town, or the mayor of the city where the applicant resides, setting forth that the applicant is a legal resident of the town, county and state claimed as his or her residence. (As amended by chapter 616 of the Laws of 1872.) § 4. Object of the institution. The primary object of the institution shall be, to furnish to the blind children of the state the best known facilities for acquiring a thorough education, and train them in some useful profession or manual art, by means of which they may be enabled to contribute to their own support after leaving the institution; but it may likewise, through its industrial department, provide such of them with appropriate employment and boarding accommodations as find themselves unable after completing their course of instruction and training, to procure these elsewhere for themselves. It shall, however, be in no sense an asylum for those who are helpless from age, infirmity, or otherwise, or a hospital for the treatment of blindness. § 5. Successors of present board of trustees. Upon the expiration of the term of office of the present board of trustees, the governor shall, by and with the consent of the senate appoint their successors, two of whom shall reside in the county wherein said institution is located, and a majority of whom shall reside within fifty miles of said institution, and at the first meeting of said board, after their appointment as aforesaid, they shall divide themselves by lot into three equal classes, who shall serve for two, four and six years, respectively, from the date of their appointments, and until their successors shall have been appointed, and every alternate year thereafter the governor shall, by and with the consent of the senate, appoint three trustees to fill the places of those whose term of service will have expired, in accordance with the provisions of this section. § 6. Declension.-In case of the declension of any member of said board of trustees to act under his appointment, or of the occurrence of any other casual vacancy in the board, the gov ernor shall forthwith appoint some suitable person to fill such vacancy, and the member so appointed shall serve out the time of his predecessor. |