The New Orleans Democrat. (New Orleans, La.) 1875-1876, 1876-03-11
An Eighty Thousand Dollar Steal
How Returning Board Tom Anderson
Expended $67, 200 for the Beuf
and Crocodile Navigation
Company.
Internal Improvements In Louisiana.
Report Of the select Committee Of tn,
House to Investigate the Affairs Of
the B9uf and Crocodile
Navigation Company.
statement of Thomas ID. Miller, Of the
Firm of Burbrldge L. Co,

Mr.. Luckett, from the select com
mittee appointed to investigate the af
fairs OF the Bayou BGuf and Crocodile
Navigation Company, beg leave to sub
init the following report:
Rooms Com. ON INVESTIGATION OF BAYous
BEUF AND CROCODILE NAVIGATION Co.
New Orleans. March 2, 1876.
To the Hon, Speaker and members of thu
House OF Representatives:
Gentlemen-YCurc committee. appoint.
ed by a resolution of this House under
date January 18, 1876, to investigate the
transactions and the conditions Of the
B9uf and Crocodile Navigation Compa
ny, beg leave to report as follows:
Act No. LAG of 1869, approved January
3, 1870, authorized the State to issue
bonds to the extent Of $4,000, made
payable twenty years from the Sd oil
January, 1870, bearing interest at the
rate Of per cent per annum.
Said bonds were issued in favor of the
B9uf and Crocodile Navigation Com
pany, and this company had the power
to sell or pledge the said bonds in such
quantities as might be deemed neces-
sary to raise funds for the completion
of the work necessary to render naviga-
BILE the said B9uf and Crocodile bayous.
Your committee has ascertained the
fact that the State has issued the $50, 600
In bonds, and that they were negotiated
In New York by Thomas d. Miller, sold
at the rate Of eighty-flve cents on the
dollar, and that the whole amount was
paid over to Thomas G. Anderson upon
his own check.
Your committee, in its endeavor to
ascertain what had been done with
this large amount Of money, from the
evidence adduced, has discovered the
startling fact that the best and most lib
eral estimates do not figure the entire
work performed, up to the present date.
at more than eight thousand five hun
dred ($85OO) dollars. Yet, from the
statement hereto appended and made q
3. CAN'T, the Superintendent Of said
B9uf and Crocodile Navigation Com
pany, places the total amount Of ex-
penditures, up to the 1st of January,
1876, at $73,560. Now, to explain these
large expenditures, statement is
placed before your committee, and,
strange to say, not q single voucher has
been produced to substantiate the cor
rectness of said statement. With
but few exceptions no names are men,
toned as to the parties to whom the
several payments were made, and the
dates Of said payments are entirely ig-
nored in the statement furnished your
committee.
TO particuiarize, would be to file the
entire account Of the Superintendent.
which is made a part OF this report.
Every item of which, except the first, is
exorbitant and extravagant, and many
Of them insulting to the intelligence Of
the Legislature, called upon to examine
the official conduct of public servants,
entrusted with the expenditure OF pub
lie money.
The large item of twenty thousand
($2O, ,OOO dollars for timber and trans
portation, like the small one of three
hundred $4,000 dollars for pump to
empty the locks, when no locks were
ever made, is unaccompanied by a
with all the labor at hand, fur
nished with fatboats. Six thousand
($6OOO dollars worth OF timber is swept
away by freshet without log being
saved, and the watchman rewarded for
the disaster by the pay ment Of 1926.
A careful examination OF the superin-
tendent's statement will clearly show
that the figures furnished are beyond
all reason, and your committee is forced
TO the conclusion that these so called
expenses constitute one I'll the most de-
liberate frauds perpetrated in this State.
r. L. LUCKETT, Chairman.
w. H. Pipes,
Grn Kruuv