agement largely free from the semi-mechanical administration which a central board of control, having many institutions and diverse interests to care for, is able to give to each.

Besides helping to keep the institutions out of the undesirable routine liable to follow the administration of a central board of paid officials, it keeps their management in closer touch with the people.

This is not simply a commercial question. These institutions deal with men, women and children, and are the embodiment of the loftiest philanthropic sentiment of the State. Their work should not be carried on in a mechanical way. Philanthropic service and business ability combined in the management of these institutions should produce the best results. Competent boards of managers can always be obtained, and their powers can be properly regulated by the Legislature.

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS FOR LEGISLATION.

The Board desires to renew the following recommendations for legislation contained in its report to the Legislature of 1901:

1. That all the special appropriations for the State institutions within the jurisdiction of the Board be included in one bill, with such provisions as will insure in every instance the most careful and economical expenditure of the moneys appropriated, in exact accordance with the intentions of the Legislature.

2. That the present site of the State Industrial School in the city of Rochester be sold, and a less costly site purchased in the country, to which the School can be removed.

3. That the House of Refuge on Randall's Island be also removed to the country, and that the girls' department of the institution be discontinued, the older girls being sent to the new

reformatory at Bedford, and the younger to the New York Juvenile Asylum and the New York Catholic Protectory, or like institutions. Also, that this institution be placed under the rules of the State Civil Service Commission.

To which is added this year the recommendation that this be organized as a State institution as soon as practicable.

4. That legislation be enacted to prevent the continuance of the fourteen liquor saloons at the gates of the New York State Soldiers and Sailors' Home, at Bath, which are supported by the patronage of members of the Home, and are regarded as a source of demoralization to its discipline.

To these recommendations the Board this year adds the following:

5. That authority be conferred whereby it may cause the transfer of inmates of State institutions under the Board's jurisdiction, particularly for the feeble-minded and the epileptic, to those wherein such inmates may be most appropriately cared for or dealt with.

APPROPRIATIONS MADE IN 1901, AND RECOMMENDED FOR 1902.

The following table shows the amounts appropriated for maintenance and for extraordinary expenses, respectively, by the Legislature of 1901 to the various State institutions subject to the Board's visitation and inspection, the amounts recommended by the Board for appropriations to such institutions by the Legislature of 1902, and the pages of this report wherein the condition and needs of the institutions are specifically set forth. These recommendations were agreed upon at a series of conferences between representatives of the State Comptroller, the State

Architect and this Board, after careful inquiries had been made with relation to the needs of the various institutions.

The National government pays $100 a year towards the support of each member of the Home, thereby refunding to the State a large amount of the maintenance appropriation. During the last fiscal year this amounted to the sum of $158,080.25.

410 45
$13,970 02
#3 89

17 51
$49,495 36

+ Average for fourteen institutions.