service of the Commissioners of Appeals, not exceeding two years.*

ARTICLE VII.

SECTION 1. After paying the expenses of collection, superintendence and ordinary repairs, there shall be appropriated and set apart in each fiscal year out of the revenues of the State Canals, in each year, commencing on the first day of June, one thousand eight hundred and forty-six, the sum of one million and three hundred thousand dollars until the first day of June, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, and from that time the sum of one million and seven hundred thousand dollars in each fiscal year, as a sinking fund to pay the interest and redeem the principal of that part of the State debt called the Canal debt, as it existed at the time first aforesaid, and including three hundred thousand dollars then to be borrowed, until the same shall be wholly paid; and the principal and income of the said sinking fund shall be sacredly applied to that purpose.

SEC. 2. After complying with the provisions of the first section of this article, there shall be appropriated and set apart out of the surplus revenues of the State Canals, in each fiscal year, commencing on the first day of June, one thousand eight hundred and forty-six, the sum of three hundred and fifty thousand dollars, until the time when a sufficient sum shall have been appropriated and set apart, under the said first section, to pay the interest and extinguish the entire principal of the Canal debt; and after that period, then the sum of one million and five hundred thousand dollars in each fiscal year, as a sinking fund, to pay the interest and redeem the principal of that part of the State debt called the General Fund Debt, including the debt for

*Term of service of Commissioners of Appeals extended to July 1, 1875, by chap. 3, Laws of 1873.

loans of the State credit to railroad companies which have failed to pay the interest thereon, and also the contingent debt on State stocks loaned to incorporated companies which have hitherto paid the interest thereon, whenever and as far as any part thereof may become a charge on the Treasury or General Fund, until the same shall be wholly paid; and the principal and income of the said last-mentioned sinking fund shall be sacredly applied to the purpose aforesaid; and if the payment of any part of the moneys to the said sinking fund shall at any time be deferred, by reason of the priority recognized in the first section of this article, the sum so deferred, with quarterly interest thereon, at the then current rate, shall be paid to the last-mentioned sinking fund, as soon as it can be done consistently with the just rights of the creditors holding said Canal Debt.

SEC. 3.* After paying the said expenses of collection, superintendence and repairs of the Canals, and the sums appropriated by the first and second sections of this article, there shall be appropriated and set apart in each fiscal year, out of the surplus revenues of the Canals, as a sinking fund, a sum sufficient to pay the interest as it falls due, and extinguish the principal within eighteen years of any loan made under this section, and if the said sinking fund shall not be sufficient to redeem any part of the principal at the stipulated times of payment, or to pay any part of the interest of such loans as stipulated, the means to satisfy any such deficiency shall be procured on the credit of the said sinking fund. After complying with the foregoing provisions, there shall be paid annually out of the said revenues into the Treasury of the State two hundred thousand dollars, to defray the neces

*Section 3, as amended by vote of the people, February 15, 1854, and November 3, 1874.

sary expenses of government. The remainder shall, in each fiscal year, be applied to meet appropria tions for the enlargement and completion of the Canals mentioned in this section, until the said Canals shall be completed. In each fiscal year thereafter the remainder shall be disposed of in such manner as the Legislature may direct, but shall at no time be anticipated or pledged for more than one year in advance. The Legislature shall annually, during the next four years, appropriate to the enlargement of the Erie, the Oswego, the Cayuga and Seneca canals, and to the completion of the Black River and Genesee Valley canals, and for the enlargement of the locks of the Champlain canal, whenever, from dilapidation or decay it shall be necessary to rebuild them, a sum not exceeding two millions two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The remainder of the revenues of the Canals for the current fiscal year in which such appropriation is made, shall be applied to meet such appropriation; and if the same shall be deemed insufficient, the Legislature shall at the same session provide for the deficiency by loan. The Legislature shall also borrow

one million and five hundred thousand dollars to refund to the holders of the Canal revenue certificates issued under the provisions of chapter four hundred and ighty-five of the Laws of the year one thousand eight undred and fifty-one, the amount received into the Treasury thereon. But no interest to accrue after July first, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, shall be paid on such certificates. The provisions of section twelve of this article requiring every law for borrowing money to be submitted to the people, shall not apply to the loans authorized by this section. No part of the revenues of the Canals or of the funds bor. rowed under this section, shall be paid or applied

upon or in consequence of any alleged contract made under chapter four hundred and eighty-five of the Laws of the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, except to pay for work done or materials furnished prior to the first day of June, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two. The rates of toll on persons and property transported on the Canals shall not be reduced below those for the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, except by the Canal Board, with the concurrence of the Legislature. All contracts for work or materials on any Canal shall be made with the person who shall offer to do or provide the same at the lowest price, with adequate security for their performance.

*No extra compensation shall be made to any contractor, but if, from any unforeseen cause, the terms of any contract shall prove to be unjust and oppressive, the Canal Board may, upon the application of the contractor, cancel such contract.

SEC. 4. The claims of the State against any incorpo rated company to pay the interest and redeem the prin cipal of the stock of the State loaned or advanced to such company, shall be fairly enforced, and not released or compromised; and the moneys arising from such claim shall be set apart, and applied as part of the sinking fund provided in the second section of this article. But the time limited for the fulfillment of any condition of any release or compromise heretofore made or provided for, may be extended by law.

SEC. 5. If the sinking funds, or either of them provided in this article, shall prove insufficient to enable the State, on the credit of such fund, to procure the means, to satisfy the claims of the creditors of the State as they become payable, the Legislature shall, by equitable taxes, so increase the revenues of the said funds

*Last paragraph added, by vote of the people, Nov. 3, 1874

as to make them, respectively, sufficient perfectly to preserve the public faith. Every contribution or advance to the canals, or their debt, from any source, other than their direct revenues, shall, with quarterly interest, at the rates then current, be repaid into the Treasury, for the use of the State, out of the Canal revenues as soon as it can be done consistently with the just rights of the creditors holding the said Canal debt.

* SEC. 6. The Legislature shall not sell, lease or otherwise dispose of the Erie canal, the Oswego canal, the Champlain canal or the Cayuga and Seneca canal; but they shall remain the property of the State, and under its management forever. Hereafter the expenditures for collections, superintendence, ordinary and extraordinary repairs on the canals named in this section, shall not exceed, in any year, their gross receipts for the previous year. All funds that may be derived from any lease, sale or other disposition of any canal, shall be applied in payment of the debt for which the canal revenues are pledged.

SEC. 7. The Legislature shall never sell or dispose of the Salt Springs, belonging to this State. The lands contiguous thereto and which may be necessary and convenient for the use of the Salt Springs, may be sold by authority of law and under the direction of the Commissioners of the Land Office, for the purpose of investing the moneys arising therefrom in other lands alike convenient; but by such sale and purchase the aggregate quantity of these lands shall not be dimin ished.

SEC. 8. No moneys shall ever be paid out of the Treasury of this State, or any of its funds, or any of the funds under its management, except in pursuance of an appropriation by law; nor unless such payment

As amended, by vote of the people, Nov. 3, 1874.