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No. 156.

IN CONVENTION

December 10, 1867.

REPORT

OF THE MAJORITY OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE SALT SPRINGS OF THE STATE.

The Committee on the salt springs of the State deem it important, for a proper understanding of this subject, to submit a brief statement showing the relations which the State sustains to these springs.

The salt springs are the property of the State. By the treaties of 1788 and 1795, the State acquired the title to the lands containing these salines, of the Indians, including a territory of more than one mile in width around the Onondaga lake. Previous to this time, small quantities of salt, of an inferior quality, had been made from brine obtained from shallow excavations in the earth near the margin of the lake.

The first act concerning the salt springs was passed in 1797. It was therein provided that the reservation should be laid out into suitable and convenient lots containing some ten or fifteen acres each, and that leases should be given for the occupancy of these lots for the term of three years, to such persons as had or would erect salt works thereon, of a certain specified capacity, and pay the State a rent or duty of four cents for every bushel of salt made from the [CON. No. 156.]

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brine thus obtained. This act also defined the rights and privileges of manufacturers, and provided for the appointment of a State superintendent to collect the duties and enforce the regulations therein specified.

The quantity of salt manufactured that year was only 25,474 bushels.

The demand for salt continued to increase until it became necessary to sink deeper wells and raise the brine by machinery.

In 1812, the Legislature reduced the duty to three cents per bushel, and appropriated two acres of land for the purpose of making salt by solar evaporation. The total production of that year was 221,011 bushels.

By the act of 1817, the duty on salt was increased to twelve and a half cents per bushel, and the Superintendent was required to report and pay quarterly to the Commissioners of the Canal Fund.

The Constitution of 1821, provided that the duty on salt should not be reduced below twelve and a half cents per bushel, until after the full and complete payment of principal and interest on the money borrowed, or to be borrowed for the construction of the Erie and Champlain canals. This rate of duty continued to be collected and paid over as directed by the act of 1817, and required by the Constitution, until, by an amendment of that instrument in this respect in 1833, the Legislature was authorised to reduce the duty on salt to six cents per bushel, and pay the same to the treasury of the State to the credit of the General Fund.

The increased demand for salt consequent upon opening up the country by the construction of the Erie canal, in conjunction with the annoying difficulties which had long existed among the salt manufacturers in regard to their respective rights to the use of the brine, and the necessity of furnishing a more adequate supply influ enced the Legislature, by act of 1825, to direct the Superintendent to take possession of all the wells, pumps and other machinery then on the reservation for supplying brine, and provide that thereafter the brine should be furnished at the expense of the State. Previous to the last above mentioned date, the wells were sunk by the manufacturers, who were also required to furnish the machinery necessary

for raising and distributing the brine, at their own expense. No private wells were permitted on the reservation from that time. The duties of the State Superintendent, which heretofore had been confined mainly to the inspection of salt and the collection of the revenues, were by this act greatly enlarged. Additional officers were appointed to assist him, in sinking new wells and providing and superintending the machinery necessary to raise and furnish to the manufacturers a full supply of brine, in accordance with the priority of the leases for the lots which they respectively occupied. Under this arrangement, the production of salt was materially increased, as will appear from, the superintendent's reports. In 1828, 1,160,888 bushels were manufactured..

A commendable zeal has ever been manifested on the part of the State to improve the quality as well as to increase the quantity of salt made from these springs. As early as 1822, the State offered and paid a bounty of three cents per bushel for all coarse or solar salt that should be sent to the Hudson River or to Lake Erie, or that should be shipped from Oswego to Canada, and that manufacturers of coarse salt should be allowed a preference in the distribution of the brine. Repeated and expensive chemical experiments for improving the quality and lessening the cost of its production, have been made at the expense of the State.

On the assumption that a sufficient sum of money had been received from the duties on the manufacture of salt, as established by the act of 1817, and incorporated into the Constitution of 1821, to discharge the canal debt of the State, together with the fact that a large reduction in the tariff had been made on foreign salt by the general government, the Legislature was allowed, by an amendment of that instrument in 1833, to reduce the duty on salt; but such reduction should not be below six cents per bushel, which reduction was perfected at the next session of the Legislature.

By a subsequent amendment of the Constitution in 1835, the duties on salt were restored to the General Fund.

By the terms of the amendment of 1835, the Legislature was reinvested with the power to regulate the amount of duty that should be imposed on salt "whenever a sufficient sum of money had been received and invested to discharge the canal debt." That amendment

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