Litchfield enquirer., 1879-01-16

repealed which is antagonist1c to fedora statute, and upon a subject where the fedora
 law is clearly the paramount one. l STATE FINANCES
 The treasury balance at the beginning of l the year Was.....................$ 732, 4l4 5; Income for the ,652, ,570 31 Making an aggregate of....,.......S2, 384, 984 64 The expenditures for the same year. in cluding $9, ,000 state bonds redeem ed, ,542, ,612 5: Balance to credit of new year.....$ S42, 372 Il This apparently large balance may be mis- leading in that there is included in it abont $500, 900 of taxes paidin the month of Novem Der, and which will be needed to meet expen l ses for the current six months. The amount of receipts over expenditures is'$109; 954 79 | Only the sum of $9,000 of state indebtedness has been paid
 l The estimated income for the current
 fiscGl year is.....................$15 H. 554 200 co 1 The estimated expenditure is....1 530 S56 0C | The estimate of income over
 expenditure. 1854 % These figures do not include the above bal | ance to credit of new year. The state tax for | the year has been one and ne-half mill on the dollar. With the present demands upon the state treasury do not think this tax should be reduced.
 STATE DEBT. The public debt of the state at the present l time is represented in four classes of bonds as follows -
 January 1, 1863, redeemable Jan
 uary 1, 1883, bearing interest at per cent. S79, OOO January 1. 1864, redeemable Janua-
 ry 1, 1884. at per cent. 3fS, $50 October 1, 1865, redeemable October l. lSS3, at per cent. 74l, 100 My l, 1877, redeemable on option after May 1, 1887, at per cent...1 ,031 900
 Total. ...............................$ $4 9G7, $50 l. The interest on all these bonds is payable sem-annually. Nine thousand dollars of bonds reported in the last annual report of the treasurer as having been called have been paid within the last year.
 The whole debt of the state amounting to nearly five million dollars, as appears by the statement, falls due between the years 1883 and 1887, except there is ;,n option of ten years on the bonds falling due in 1887. With some system ot gradual accumulation for all surplus moneys the state will be able to meet these bonds as fast as they become payable with no increase of taxation. Any plan of an accumulated fund ought to be surrounded with double safeguards, The same eminent authority from which nave elsewhere quoted says that "a sinking fund. though instituted for the payment of old facilitates very much the contracting of new debt. It is a subsidia- ry fund, always at hand, to be mortgaged in aid of any other doubtful fund, upon which money IS proposed to be raised in any exigen cy of the state" We hardly expect any state eXigency in Connecticut But even in our little commonwealth there is always battal- ion Of schemers ready to seize any dollar of accumulation the treasury may have. 1 trust you will be able to devise some plan which will enable the treasury to build up aceumnla- tions and at the same time protect them from the assaults ofclamorous and importunate beg gars.
 STATE PRISON
 The number of convcts in the state prison on the 30th day of November last was 278. The income of the prison for the past year has been $30, ,651 S9 By these figures the defici- ency appears to be $1,417.20. I am unable to reconcile these figures which are given in the report of the directors and warden of the prison with the figures that are given in the comptrolers report. By the report of the latter it appears that there has been paid from the state treasury on account of the state prls- on the sum of $6,2l6.62. The salary of the directors; the appropriation to the Connecticut prison associations the amount pad to the family of Wells Shlpman; and the sum of $150 paid to I. N. Bartranr, are doubtless in- cluded in the comptrollers figures and probab- ly are not included in the expense account kept at the prison. After, making these al- lowances, however, there is still quite a dis crepancy.
 The labor of the prisonersis contracted for better prices than formerly, and it is confident ly hoped that the prison will again become self sustaining.
 At the last general assembly the committee on the state prison was directed by joint res- olution Ito inquire conce ming the manage ment of the state prison" They reported that they had attended to that duty by summonng before them the officers of tbe prison, and oth- CTS, ani that they found that the rules of the prison had not been strictly enforced, that there had been too much lenity. that in some cases there had been partiality to prisoners and that they ''had conclusive evidence proving that through some agency liquor had been furnish ed to the prisoners" They add that they had no evidence before them of any improper use of intoxicating liquors at the prison at the ti ne of their inquiry.
 Rumors have been prevalent that since the adjournment of the legislature, the same or similar irregularities have again occurred. l