The Jersey City news., 1906-07-09

slhls senool came up 70 the ANTICIPATION
sof BOTH architects and committee.
With this. school as a model. the arch
itects prepared tentative plans. The
architects generously did this work
Notwithstanding the warning that there
was no appropriation to pay them, and
that they would have to rely upon an
appropriation from the legislature. The
work was faithfully performed. and Mes
Sis. Zant. Finger & Borie We're PAID
$500 from an appropriation made by the
legislature in 1906. These plans were
expressly drawn to give the legislature
an intelligent idea of the proposed school.
and to give it the assurance that
proper building could be erected within
the appropriation.
Unfortunately, the legislature of 1905
failed to appropriate the $2T5,O00 left of
the amount fixed by the act of 1903. The
legislature of 1906 made the appropria-
ton after full presentation of the mat
ter by the committee Of this board, this
committee, with Governor Stokes, having
just previously made another visit to the
Normal school at Providence. In the
meantime, however, cost of labor and
materials have increased to such an ex-
tent that for said appropriation it will
be difficult, if not impossible. to erect q
building as satisfactory in all respects as
could have been done a year earlier.
''The appropriation having been made,
the committee proceeded to consider the
selection Of an architect, having no doubt
of its power not only by the act Of 1903,
but also by reason Of an opinion of the
attorney general given to the board a
year ago. in response to an inquiry as to
whether sections and 5 of the act cre-
ating the office of commissioner of char
ity and corrections and defining his pow
ers and duties applied to the State Nor
NAL School. the school for the deaf the
Farnum preparatory school and the
Manual Training and Industrial school
for eolored youths. The opinion was as
follows
"sOn reflection, have concluded that
the most judicious advice to give in re-
gard to the charities commission act is
that it is inappplicable to school build
ings under control of the state board.
The same argument which would put the
state architect in charge of the four in
stitutions you named to me would il
seems to me, also connect him with all
public schools, because, in a greater OF
less degree, they receive some assistance
from the state
under consideration it was deemed pru-
dent. in view of the amendments of 1906
to the act of 1905, creating the office
of commissioner of charities and correc-
tions and defining his duties and powers
again to submit to the attorney general
the question whether said act and its
amendments applied to state buildings
other than those used for charitable and
correctional purposes"
The report gives the recent opinion Of
the attorney general and coneludes:-
"It will be observed from the opinion
that there are grave doubts of the con-
stitutionality of the law referred to and
even if constitutional, still there is the
| question of whether it applies to build
ings of the state other than those used
for charitable and correctional purposes
which would afford this board ample
grounds for review by the courts
| Nevertheless. this board cheerfully ac-
cepts the opinion of the Attorney Gen
eral as final"