The expenditures upon the Central Rail-road, as per certificate of the Chief Engineer, Add to the above sum the amount paid engineers and appraisers, which has been charged against the appropri ́ation, also amount allowed by the Board of Commission $77,636 91 21,654 24 ers and Auditors, &c., Total amount, $99,29 15 Southern Rail-road, chiefly upon the Tecumseh branch, 13,985 35 Balance of appropriation upon some of above works unexpended, 4,029 68 811 13 28 25 300 00 The receipts for the year 1845, exhibits the small increase of $2,395 11, over the receipts of the previous year. The officer in charge of this road sufficiently accounts, we apprehend, for the sum being no larger, as will fully appear on reference to his report to this office, and which is appended hereto. He says "by an exainination, it appears that the receipts for the first eight months of the last fiscal year were not quite one half what they were in the corresponding months of the previous year." This is owing to the fact that there was a great deficiency in the wheat crop, and a corresponding caution in the purchase of merchandize and other articles of traffic which ordinarily enters the country by the way of the rail roads. In making an estimate of the amount likely to be realized from our public works for a given period of time, the principal contingency to take into the account, is that referring to our harvests. When they are abundant, our receipts will be large not only from the actual receipts of its trans 1 portation, but because a large crop gives an impulse to all commercial transactions. The board estimated the receipts of the past year at one hundred thousand dollars, provided the Tecumseh branch was completed before the commencement of the fall business. The branch is still unfinished. Had it have been completed, it would have swollen the aggregate of receipts considerably, although not sufficiently large to have fulfilled our predictions of last year. On the 22d of October, the iron safe in the office of the superintend ent at Monroe, was opened, and $1,540 75 was abstracted therefrom. Soon after the occurrence, two members of the board repaired to Monroe, and made such an examination into this matter as appeared to them necessary. They ascertained that on the night of the rob bery, Mr. Murphy left the office at a late hour at night and returned to it again between 3 and 4 o'clock in the morning; that in the inte. rim the office was entered and the safe opened, and that together with a table drawer, rifled of their money contents. The key of the safe was usually kept in the back part of a table drawer, and it is alleged by Mr. Murphy, that upon the morning of the robbery, it had not been removed from the "peculiar position" in which he kept it. What would seem to confirm this opinion, is the fact that some violence was used in opening the safe, and yet a part of the business must have been done with a key, either the true or a false one. As the integrity and faithfulness of Mr. Murphy is beyond all question, we did not think his removal called for, and he is therefore retained. Diligent scrutiny is being made in certain quarters for the lost money, and some hope is entertained that the thief, at any rate, will be discovered. The highest speed attainable upon Railroads, consistent with safety, is the minimum of modern expectation and requirement. Forty miles an hour and even faster is performed on the T rail with the passenger train, and one half that rate with a train of loaded cars. When we run twenty miles an hour with passengers, and ten miles an hour with freight, we are doing all that can be done with prudence. Sometimes we do more, especially with freight trains; but nothing can justify it. By way of palliation we say that our motive power bears no proportion to the length of the road and the amount of business to be done upon it. To exhibit our deficiency in this respect, by comparison we give the following statement: Utica and Schenectady R. R. 78 miles long, 12 locomotives. Michigan Central R. R. 110 miles long, 7 locomotives. Southern R. R. 68 miles long, 4 locomotives. The whole number of miles run on the Central Railroad the past year, is 138,598. The engine which has exceeded all others, is the Dexter, F.Gauriet, engineer, exceeding the highest number attained in the previous year 1,692 miles. Whole number of miles run by this engine, is 27,282. We take great pleasure in bearing testimony to the neatness and general good order of the machinery in the hands of the engineers upon the Central road. The warehouses and mills at Marshall, the western terminus of the Central Railroad, were emptied some weeks sooner than other portions of the line, in consequence of the great number of cars engaged in the transportation of merchandize and other freight destined for the counties west, and north and south of that place. During the latter part of October and the most of November, the large quantity of iron hauled to Marshall for the extension of the road, also gave to that point additional facilities for the transportation of such kinds of freight as could be properly loaded upon racks. This explanation is given in exculpation of the Board and its agents, whose motives and conduct have not in all cases been duly appreciated, and in some instances have been, as we apprehend, wilfully misrepresented. We respectfully refer the legislature to the reports of Joseph H. Cleveland, Esq., Superintendent of the Southern road, Col. John M. Berrien, Chief Engineer, and D. Shook, Esq., Superintendent Clinton and Kalamazoo Canal, for more ample information in reference to the works more immediately under their control. All which is respectfully submitted. O. C. COMSTOCK, JR., ROB'T P. ELDREDGE, GEORGE REDFIELD, Commissioners of Int. Improvement. Report of Superintendent of the Southern Railroad. To the Honorable the Board of Internal Improvement: The undersigned has the honor to report, that the receipts on the Southern Railroad for the year ending November 29, 1845, were as follows: 15 74 8,391 78 Amount overpaid last year by J. H. Cleveland, Cash paid O. C. Comstock, Jr., Acting Commissioner, 267 05 $62,735 62 It will be seen that the increase of receipts over last year is small, and for the purpose of exhibiting the cause, I have included a statement of the receipts of the corresponding months for the fiscal year ending Nov. 20, 1844. By an examination it appears that the receipts for the first eight months of this year were not quite half what they were for the corresponding months in the year previous. An explanation from me will hardly be needed upon this point, as all who are familiar with our business, know that in the early part of the fiscal year of 1844, we were engaged in carrying off the crop of 1843, while in 1845 we had no old crop on hand to aid us, and the unexampled one of the present year, has produced the greater amount of this year's receipts, and will continue to furnish the road with an abundant business up to, and perhaps including, the month of June next. With this prospect before us, we may confidently look for a very large increase of receipts and of nett proceeds the ensuing year. It is gratifying to be able to state that the road is and has been during the past season, in an excellent state of repair, enabling us to |