The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-07-16

number of streets. Why should not the re
pair of the pavements be placed in the hands
Of the Police Board together with the business
Of street cleaning? By this policy we nigh
hope to secure good roads as we'll as clear
streets all over the city.
The Department of Docks is one of the mos
interesting in the municipal government Thu
Mayor says truly that the building of wharves
and piers in accordance with the plans of the
department is one of the most important ant
necessary works ever undertaken in this city.
value to the city of the improvements they
contemplate, and no one can honestly dis
credit the statement that they can BIZ
completed without any ultimate cost tc
the city. The Commissioners are prepared
to build bulkhead wall of concrete and
granite all round the city, making a new river
street of two hundred and fifty feet wide on
the North River and two hundred feet wide on
the East River, and erecting commodious and
permanent piers of preserved wood or of con-
crete and granite, five hundred feet long,
eighty to a hundred feet in width, and sup
piled with all the modern contrivances for the
cheap, rapid and easy handling of freight
To-day responsible commercial interests stand
ready to lease these piers on terms that will
pay interest on the full cost of the work and
provide a sinking fund for the re-
dempton of the principal. So the city
would in reality only be called upon
to loan its credit for the work
and probably to pay two or three instalments
Of interest until portion of the piers were
ready for use. When we reflect upon the revo-
luton this magnificent work would occasion
in the business aspect of the city F.; the in
creased valuation of property it would secure );
the impetus it would give to shipping, COM
merce and retail trade the additional employ
ment it would open up to labor, as well as to
capital and when we remember the necessity
of the east side improvement in connection
with the work going on at He'll Gate, it seems
marvellous that the Commissioners should
have been checked and harassed in the prose-
cution of their plans by the doing out grudg-
ingly of the money appropriated by law to
their use. By the act of the Legislature three
million dollars per annum, to be raised by the
issue Of city bonds, was placed at the disposal
of the Dock Department for the prosecution of
its important work. Two million dollars was
appropriated to the department by the Com
missioners of the Sinking Fund in 1871.
Eleven hundred dollars only has been paid to
the Dock Commissioners by the Comptroller in
instruments extending over year. As they
wisely refuse to incur any obligations until the
money to meet them is in their treasury, their
work has been crippled by this unfortunate
and unwise ECONOMY" and feeling of doubt
and Encouragement has been infused into
their undertakings. The subject is of too
much interest and importance, however, to be
at this time.
So many interesting topics are touched upon
in the Mayors message that we can only now
briefly allude to them. The Department of
Public Instruction is doing well; but it has its
troubles, and complains of insufficient appro-
priations for repairs, heating, &C., to the in
jury of the children's health and of the effici-
doing its duty effectively and quietly, and asks
an increase of force in the new portions of the
city about and above the Central Park-a re-
quest in which the Mayor unites. The inter-
esting reports of the Croton Board the De-
partment of Parks, Of the Commissioners of
Charities and Corrections, and Of other bu-
reaus and departments, all present mat
tiers Of interest, and will be read care
fully. The recommendation for the erection
of q new city prison in place of the High
School of Crime''-the present Tombs-will
meet with general endorsement. The Mayors
message is, on the whole, encouraging. It
shows that the city of New York is in a better
condition now than could have been expected
after the recent corruptions, and that it only
needs the spirit, enterprise and wise liberality
which the next election must secure to carry
us forward rapidly to our manifest destiny as
the leading metropolis of the world in beauty,
commerce and wealth.