also provided that the canal tolls on salt should not be reduced until such debt had been fully paid and discharged. To evade these embarassing requirements, in 1841 an act was passed authorizing a "drawback" on the salt duties, which was denominated a bounty. In 1843, by an amendment, the provisions of the above mentioned act were extended to lead, coal and gypsum, which paid no duties to the treasury. Under this bounty law, there has been paid from the Treasury of the State the sum of $417,101. A bounty was also paid by the State upon the transportation of salt barrels carried upon the canals. In 1846, the Finance Committee of the Senate, in their report recommending a repeal of the act of 1841, giving a bounty on salt, say: "The principle upon which the law in question is founded, is believed to be wholly indefensible. The price of salt to the consumer should be the cost of its manufacture, the duty paid to the State, and the expense of its transportation. Those residing nearest the works have a natural advantage over those who reside more remote. The price of salt should be enhanced in proportion to the distance at which the consumer resides from the place of its manufacture;" and conclude their report by recommending the repeal of the bounty law, and in favor of a duty of two cents a bushel on salt. By the subsequent action of the Legislature on the above mentioned report, the bounty law was repealed, and the duty on salt reduced to one cent per bushel; the immediate effect of which was to reduce the revenue which the State obtained from the manufacture of salt from $230,014.86 in 1846, to $39,513.51 in 1847. The law "concerning the Salt Springs and the manufactnre of salt," in force at the present time, was passed in 1859. It sets out with a recital of the provisions of the present Constitution on that subject, and declares that "there shall be collected and paid upon all salt manufactured in this State a duty of one cent per bushel of fifty-six pounds, which duty shall be paid into the General Fund.” By this act, the possession of all the real estate and personal property belonging to the people of the State, connected with the Salt Works and Salt Springs, together with the "care and superintendence of the Salt Springs and the manufacture and inspection of salt upon the Reservation," are vested in a Superintendent to be appointed by the Governor and Senate, and hold his office for three years. He is authorized to appoint deputies and assistants and establish such rules and regulations as he may deem expedient from time to time. He is also required "to provide such additional wells, pumps, reservoirs, aqueducts and machinery as shall be needful for supplying the manufacturers of salt with brine in the largest quantity and of the best quality," and report to the Comptroller at the end of each fiscal year. The 44th section of this act makes it the duty of the Superintendent to lease for a term of thirty years from June 20th, 1859, the several salt lots on the Reservation, the fee of which is in the State, for the purpose of manufacturing salt, subject only to the regulations prescribed by law, reserving to the State the power of vacating such lease at any time by paying a reasonable value for such manufactories and their necessary appendages. By this act the vexed question in regard to the priority of right to the use of the brine was also settled, by declaring that "no distinction shall be made in the distribution of brine, but all the erections which were in existence on the 15th day of April, 1858, shall be considered equally entitled to a supply of water from the springs ; but in case there shall be an insufficiency of brine to supply all such erections, then the Superintendent shall classify the same in such a manner as to furnish a full supply of water to each of such erections an equal portion of the time. And the Superintendent shall, during the months of July and August, classify favorably to the erections for the manufacture of solar salt; but such classification shall not give said erections a supply for more than an equal portion of the time as above mentioned." The act from which the above extracts are made, is the law now in force on this subject, and is a codification of former statutes, with numerous amendments and additions. The present constitutional provision in regard to the salt springs and the lands connected therewith, may be found in section seven of article seven of the Constitution of 1846, as follows: "The Legislature shall never sell or dispose of the salt springs belonging to this State. The land 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 diminished." By a reference to a report of the Commissioners of the Land Office, Convention document No. 27, it will be seen that the lands reserved for salt purposes had, at the adoption of the present Constitution, been reduced to..... ... 550 acres. Since which, and by the authority contained in the second clause of the section given above, the State has purchased..... 543.12 And reclaimed by lowering the Onondaga lake... 209 Under the same provision the State has sold or exchanged Salt lands now owned by the State.. 1802.12 127.25 1174.87 In reply to an interrogatory of this Convention, in relation to the value of these lands and the salines connected therewith, the Commissioners of the Land Office say: "First. We do not know the present value of the salt lands belonging to the State, and have no means of making an estimate of the approximate value thereof. "Second. We know of no way of determining the value of the salines. The State owns the water and delivers it to various individuals and companies to be made into salt, receiving from these. parties such sums as has been determined by law. This sum, since 1846, has been one cent a bushel of 56 pounds. The value of the salines must then be considered as that sum that the State may justly demand of the manufacturers for the salt water delivered to them." In addition to the above mentioned real estate and the salines therein contained, the State owns over three hundred thousand dollars' worth of other property which is employed, as indicated in the following schedule, in the supplying of brine to the manufacturers of salt: Fifteen salt wells now in use, cost and present value, as near as can be ascertained, $3,000 each... 6 rotary pumps, $250 each.... 1 pump house and machinery at Geddes.... $45,000 1,500 15,000 ...... $30,000 35,000 1 pump house and machinery, 3d ward, Syracuse. 3 high reservoirs, one in 3d ward, one in 1st ward, Syracuse and one at Geddes, $5,000 each... 15,000 8 reservoirs, at Geddes, 1st ward, Syracuse, and at Liverpool, $2,500 each.... 20,000 1 earth reservoir at Syracuse, 3d ward. 20,000 40 miles, as estimated, of log conduits, now worth about 55 (one half of it used as canal Collector's office.) 1 brick office at Liverpool.. 800 1 brick office at Geddes.... 800 1 barrel stand at 1st ward, $350, one at Liverpool, $250.. 1 barrel stand at Geddes.. 600 $50 $311,710 During the last twenty-one years, the State has received a revenue from the salt manufactured at these springs in the way of duty of...... And expended in ordinary expenses, damages and improvements. Leaving a net balance to the State of.. As will appear in detail from the annexed statement: $1,264,133 91 948,922 31 $315,211 60 The Salt Company of Onondaga was organized early in the year 1860, under the general manufacturing laws of this State, for the manufacture and sale of salt, with a cash capital of $160,000, which was subsequently increased by a stock dividend of an equal amount. Arrangements were entered into with the owners of blocks, by which all the fine salt blocks, 316 in number, were leased to this company for the term of ten years, at a yearly rent or interest of twelve and a half per cent upon an estimated average valuation of over $5,500 each. A similar arrangement was effected with the |