a low physical qualification, and this in the case of a policeman is not, in my judginent, desirable.

In answer to question No. 9, I know of no such violations.

I would state in answer to No. 10, that what work has been done here in civil service reform has been entirely voluntary, as our common council refused to make appropriations to carry out the law.

A mandamus was served to compel such appropriations, and twelve hundred dollars was asked for at the time. To avoid disobeying the mandamus they voted the sum of two hundred and fifty dollars, but appealed from the order granting the mandamus, and the case is now pending in the Court of Appeals undetermined.

In the meantime the sum thus voted has not been paid, and the Civil Service Commission is without funds.

My term of office as mayor will expire January 4, 1886, and of course I can render no assistance after that date, but my successor elect, Hon. Philip Becker, is a staunch republican, and will no doubt render you all the assistance in his power.

Yours very respectfully,

JONATHAN SCOVILLE, Mayor.

REGULATIONS, ETC-STATE ACT, RULES, REGULATIONS, ETC.

ORGANIZATION OF THE NEW YORK CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION. COMMISSIONERS. John Jay, New York; Augustus Schoonmaker, Kingston; Henry A. Richmond, Buffalo.

OFFICERS, ETC. President, John Jay; Chief Examiner, Edgar M. Jenkins; Secretary, Clarence B. Angle; Stenographer, Messenger and Clerk, John C. Birdseye.

General office in Capitol, Albany.

GENERAL BOARD OF EXAMINERS AT ALBANY.-Hiram E. Sickels, Chairman; Charles W. Cole, Willis E. Merriman, Richard G. Milks, John G. Clifford, Secretary.

THE CIVIL SERVICE STATUTES.

An Act to regulate and improve the Civil Service of the State of New York (chap. 354), passed May 4, 1883, as amended by chapter 357, passed May 24, 1884, and chapter 410, passed May, 29, 1884.

SECTION 1. The governor is authorized to appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, three persons, not more than two of whom shall be adherents of the same party, as Civil Service Commissioners, and said three commissioners shall constitute the New York Civil Service Commission. They shall hold no other official place under the State of New York. The governor may remove any commissioner; and any vacancy in the position of commissioner shall be so filled by the governor, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, as to conform to said conditions for the first selection of commissioners. The three commissioners shall each receive a salary of two thousand dollars a year. And each of said commissioners shall be paid his necessary traveling expenses incurred in the discharge of his duty as a commissioner.

§ 2. It shall be the duty of said commission:

FIRST. To aid the governor, as he may request, in preparing suitable rules for carrying this act into effect; and when said rules shall

have been promulgated, it shall be the duty of all officers of the State of New York, in the departments and offices to which any such rules may relate, to aid, in all proper ways, in carrying said rules, and any modification thereof, into effect.

SECOND. And among other things, said rules shall provide and declare, as nearly as the conditions of good administration will warrant, as follows:

1. For open, competitive examinations for testing the fitness of applicants for the public service now classified or to be classified hereunder. Such examinations shall be practical in their character and, so far as may be, shall relate to those matters which will fairly test the relative capacity and fitness of the persons examined to discharge the duties of that service into which they seek to be appointed.

2. All the offices, places and employments so arranged or to be arranged in classes shall be filled by selections from among those graded highest as the results of such competitive examinations.

3. There shall be a period of probation before any absolute appointment or employment aforesaid.

4. Promotions from the lower grades to the higher shall be on the basis of merit and competition.

5. No person in the public service is for that reason under any obligation to contribute to any political fund, or to render any political service, and no person shall be removed or otherwise prejudiced for refusing to do so.

6. No person in said service has any right to use his official authority or influence to coerce the political action of any person or body.

7. There shall be non-competitive examinations when competition may not be found practical.

8. Notice shall be given in writing by the appointing power to said commission of the person selected for appointment or employment from among those who have been examined, of the place of residence of such persons, of the rejection of any such persons after probation, of transfers, resignations, and removals, and of the date thereof, and a record of the same shall be kept by said commission. And any necessary exceptions from said eight fundamental provisions of the rules shall be set forth in connection with such rules, and the reasons therefor shall be stated in the annual reports of the commission.

THIRD. Said commission shall, subject to the rules that may be made by the governor, make regulation for, and have control of such examinations, and, through its members or the examiners, it shall supervise and preserve the records of the same; and said commission shall keep minutes of its own proceedings.

FOURTH. Said commission may make investigations concerning the facts, and may report upon all matters touching the enforcement and effect of said rules and regulations, and concerning the action of any examiner or board of examiners hereinafter provided for, and its own subordinates, and those in the public service, in

respect to the execution of this act; and, in the course of such investigations, each commissioner and their secretary shall have power to administer oaths.

FIFTH. Said commission shall make an annual report to the governor for transmission to the Legislature, showing its own action, the rules and regulations and the exceptions thereto in force, the practical effects thereof, and any suggestion it may approve for the more effectual accomplishment of the purposes of this act.

* §3. Said commission is authorized to employ a chief examiner, a part of whose duty it shall be under its direction to act with the examining boards so far as practicable, whether at Albany or elsewhere, and to secure accuracy, uniformity and justice in all their proceedings, which shall be at all times open to him. The chief examiner shall be entitled to receive a salary at the rate of $3,600 a year, and he shall be paid his necessary traveling expenses incurred in the discharge of his duty. The commission is authorized to employ a secretary, who may be one of its own number, who shall receive a compensation of $1,000 per annum, and who shall also be paid his necessary traveling expenses incurred in the discharge of his duty, and also a person to act as stenographer and copyist, who shall be entitled to receive a compensation of $1,000 a year, or in its discretion may from time to time employ stenographers and copyists at an expense not to exceed in the aggregate the sum of $1,000 a year. The commission may appoint a messenger, to act also as clerk, at a salary not exceeding $900 a year, and may dismiss him at pleasure. The commission may, at Albany, and in any other part of the State where examinations are to take place, designate and select a suitable number of persons in the official service of the State of New York, after consulting the head of the department or office in which such person serves, or, in its discretion, persons not in the official service, to be members of boards of examiners, and may at any time substitute any other person in or out of such service in place of any one so selected. Any person not at the time in the official service of the State, or of any political division. thereof, serving as a member of the board of examiners, shall be entitled to compensation for every day actually and necessarily spent in the discharge of his duty as examiner at the rate of $5 a day; but the aggregate compensation of any such examiner shall not exceed $100 in any year. It shall be the duty of the officers of the State of New York, or of any political division thereof, at any place outside of the city of Albany where examinations are directed by said rules or by said board to be held to allow the reasonable use of the public buildings, and to light and heat the same for holding such examinations, and in all proper ways to facilitate the same.

4. It shall be the duty of the trustees of public buildings, designated by chapter three hundred and forty-nine of the laws of eighteen hundred and eighty-three, to cause suitable and convenient

As amended by section 1 of chapter 357, passed May 24, 1884. + As amended by section 2 of chapter 357, passed May 24, 1884.