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from $3,500 because of a balance on hand at the end of the last

fiscal year.)

For traveling expenses of the employes of the Department while engaged in the discharge of their official duties, $2,500, or so much thereof as may be necessary.

For rent, printing and other expenses of the office, $5,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary.

For postage, and expense of transportation of all letters, official documents or other matter sent by express or freight, including boxes or covering for same, $1,200, or so much thereof as may be necessary.

State and Alien Poor.

For salary of the superintendent, $3,000; for the deputy superintendent in New York city, $1,500; for inspector of State charitable institutions, $2,000; for inspector, $1,200; for inspector, $1,200; for transfer agent Kings County Almshouse, $900; for transfer agent, Monroe County Almshouse, $180; for transfer agent Erie County Almshouse, $900; for clerk and stenographer, $720; for stenographer, $600; for messenger, $300; for traveling expenses of superintendent and inspectors, $3,000; for incidental office expenses, $500; for maintenance, transportation and removal of State, alien, non-resident and Indian poor, $26,300, or so much thereof as may be necessary.

New York Office.

For superintendent, $1,500; one inspector, $1,400; one inspector, $1,200; two inspectors, $900 each; stenographer, $720.

Rochester Office.

For inspector, $1,200, and stenographer, $600.

The Board also wishes to employ an examiner of schools at a salary of $1,800 a year, in order that the inmates, estimated to

number 15,000 annually, of institutions for children under the Board's jurisdiction, not now examined by any independent authority, may be regularly examined. This is desired to insure them a sufficient and suitable education. This important duty is clearly imposed upon the Board by law, but owing to lack of means heretofore it has been unable to give it attention.

CHARITABLE LEGISLATION, 1901.

The existing statutory provisions relative to the public and private charities of the State were but slightly affected by the legislation of 1901, as will appear from the following brief review of this class of general legislation which was enacted into law.

Amendments to the Poor Law.

Two sections were added to chapter 225 of the Laws of 1896, known as the Poor law, constituting chapter 27 of the general laws. The first of these sections relates to the medical care and treatment of indigent persons in counties of the State in which there are not adequate hospital accommodations, or in which no appropriations of money are made for this purpose. The new section is embodied in chapter 103, Laws of 1901, and reads as follows:

"§ 30. In all counties of this State in which there are not adequate hospital accommodations for indigent persons requiring medical or surgical care and treatment, or in which no appropriations of money are made for this specific purpose, it shall be the duty of county superintendents of the poor, upon the certificate of a physician approved by the board of supervisors, or of the overseers of the poor in the several towns of such counties, upon the certificate of a physician approved by the supervisor of the town, as their jurisdiction over the several cases

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may require, to send all such indigent persons requiring medical or surgical care and treatment to the nearest hospital, the incorporation and management of which have been approved by the State Board of Charities, provided transportation to such hospital can be safely accomplished. The charge for the care and treatment of such indigent persons in such hospitals, as herein provided, shall not exceed one dollar per day for each person, which shall be paid by the several counties or towns from which such persons are sent, and provision for which shall be made. in the annual budgets of such counties and towns."

Chapter 664, Laws of 1901, entitled "An act to amend the Poor Law, relative to poor persons owning real or personal property," amends such law by inserting therein a new section to be known as section 57, which reads as follows:

"If it shall at any time be ascertained that any person, who has been assisted by or received support from any town, city or county, has real or personal property, or if any such person shall die, leaving real or personal property, an action may be maintained in any court of competent jurisdiction, by the overseer of the poor of the town or city, or the superintendent of the poor of any county which has furnished or provided such assistance or support, or any part thereof, against such person or his or her estate, to recover such sums of money as may have been expended by their town, city or county in the assistance and support of such person during the period of ten years next preceding such discovery or death."

A provision intended to remove the "dead hand" from charitable bequests is embodied in chapter 291, Laws of 1901, entitled "An act to amend chapter 701 of the Laws of 1893, entitled 'An act to regulate gifts for charitable purposes,'" which reads as follows:

"Section 1. Section two of chapter seven hundred and one of the laws of eighteen hundred and ninety-three is hereby amended so as to read as follows:

"§ 2. The supreme court shall have control over gifts, grants, bequests and devises in all cases provided for by section one of this act and, whenever it shall appear to the court that circumstances have so changed since the execution of an instrument containing a gift, grant, bequest or devise to religious, educational, charitable or benevolent uses as to render impracticable or impossible a literal compliance with the terms of such instrument, the court may, upon the application of the trustee or of the person or corporation having the custody of the property, and upon such notice as the court shall direct, make an order directing that such gift, grant, bequest or devise shall be administered or expended in such manner as in the judgment of the court will most effectually accomplish the general purpose of the instrument, without regard to and free from any specific restriction, limitation or direction contained therein; provided, however, that no such order shall be made until the expiration of at least twenty-five years after the execution of the instru ment or without the consent of the donor or grantor of the property, if he be living. The attorney-general shall represent the beneficiaries in all such cases, and it shall be his duty to enforce such trusts by proper proceedings in the court.

"3. This act shall take effect immediately."

A Children's Court for the City of New York.

In the revised charter for New York city, adopted by the last Legislature, provision is made by section 1399 of the charter for the establishment of a court for children's cases in 'the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. The section reads as follows:

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The board of city magistrates of the first division shall assign a separate part for the hearing and disposition of cases now within the jurisdiction of said magistrates involving the trial or commitment of children, which part may for convenience be called the children's court; and in all such cases the magistrate holding said court shall have all the powers, duties and juris

diction now possessed by the city magistrates within said first division. Said children's court shall be held by the several magistrates in rotation in such manner as may be determined by said board, and shall be open on such days and during such hours as the said board shall in its rules provide. Whenever, under any provision of law, a child under sixteen years of age is taken before a city magistrate in the first division sitting in any court other than the children's court, it shall be the duty of such magistrate to transfer the case to the children's court, if the case falls within the jurisdiction of said court as herein provided, and it shall be the duty of the officer having the child in charge to take such child before that court, and in any such case the magistrate holding said children's court must proceed to hear and dispose of the case in the same manner as if it had been originally brought therein. The board of city magistrates shall appoint a clerk for the children's court and such assistants as may be necessary, whose salaries shall be fixed by the board of aldermen on the recommendation of the board of estimate and apportionment. The said court shall be held, if practicable, in the building in which the offices of the department of public charities for the examination of dependent children are located, or if this shall not be practicable, the court shall be held in some other building as near thereto as practicable, to be selected by the commissioners of the sinking fund. Nothing herein contained shall affect any provisions of law with respect to the temporary commitment by magistrates of children charged with crime or held as witnesses for the trial of any criminal case, or the existing jurisdiction of the court of special sessions."

The friends of this measure believe that the establishment of such a children's court, marks a distinct advance in the disposi tion of children's cases falling within the provisions of the Penal Code. Hitherto such cases have been heard in the various magistrates' courts throughout the city. By the new plan, the children's court will be able to coöperate more promptly and

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