and weakened, a very large outlay will be necessary to repair the damages, which can only be met by heavy taxation or an increase of the public debt. These evil consequences would far exceed any amount of inconvenience our citizens could experience in having the sewers laid a few feet from the middle of the street. The Board therefore recommend, that in all future contracts for sewers the contractors be prohibited from constructing them on the same line with the water-pipes; and that suitable clauses be inserted in their contracts, requiring the expense of repairing any pipes that may be injured, to be deducted from the amount payable to the contractor; and furthermore, that his contract should should not be deemed to be performed, until he should obtain a certificate from the Water Board that none of the water-pipes had been injured.

The Report of the President of the Board shows the revenue received from water, commencing May 1st, 1843, and ending April 30th, 1844, to be eighty-seven thousand two hundred and eleven dollars twenty-two cents, ($87,211 22,) and from scrap iron, lead dross, &c., two thousand seven hundred and fifty-one dollars ninety-seven cents, ($2,751 97;) making the aggregate receipts of the Department $89,963 19.

The number of Permits granted to 1st May, 1843, was 3053; the number discontinued at that date was 65; leaving for renewal 2988. The number granted to 1st May, 1844, was 6855, for which the full rent per annum will amount to $92,626 31. The table subjoined will show that of these 6855 water-takers, 4932 are by private dwellings, paying $50,479 58; and from other miscellaneous sources, paying $41,811 98.

During the last year the sum of $223,198 76 has been expended, under the direction of the Joint Croton Aqueduct Committee, in completing the pipes throughout the City, in repairing the work already laid, and in the expenses of the department. By the Report of the Comptroller it will appear that, up to the 1st of January last, this amount was taken from the principal of the moneys borrowed for the water loan, and thus forms

part of the water debt. As the work of laying the pipes is now virtually finished, it would seem to be proper hereafter to deduct the expense of repairs, and of any new pipes to be laid to keep pace with the growth of the City, from the current annual revenue, and avoid increasing any further the permanent water debt of the City. The amount of annual repair which the work will require will not probably exceed $20,000, including all salaries and incidental expenses, but excluding the cost of new pipes. As the pipes are now extended north as far as Twentythird-street, and in some instances beyond that line, it is not believed that, for the next two or three years, any great outlay in extending the work will be requisite. It may be fairly calculated that, on an average, from three to five miles of new pipe may be annually required, with hydrants and other necessary appurtenances, the cost of which would probably amount to twenty or thirty thousand dollars per annum. It is seen that the 155 miles of pipe now laid suffice to accommodate the existing population south of Twenty-third-street, amounting to about 310,000 in number, being, in round numbers, one mile of pipe to every 2,000 inhabitants. The same ratio would require five additional miles of pipe for each successive increase of 10,000 inhabitants. It will of course be borne in mind that no considerable increase under this head could become necessary, unless occasioned by a corresponding increase of our population, which very increase would operate to swell the annual revenue out of which the expense of extending the pipe would be defrayed.

For the purpose of furnishing the Common Council with the means of comparison between the distribution of water in New York and Philadelphia, the Board deem it proper to state that the length of pipe laid in the city of Philadelphia, including the suburbs, up to 1st January, 1844, was 1174 miles, the number of water-takers was 26,549, including 3,300 families drawing water from the public hydrant pumps; that the gross revenue for the last year was $153,458, being an increase of $5,133 from the year preceding; and that the daily supply of water varied,

in different seasons, from 3,700,000 to 5,304,000 gallons. When it is thus seen that a supply not exceeding one-fourth the quantity brought into our own city nevertheless suffices for the supply of nearly four times as many water-takers, it will be obvious that the waste of water with us is excessive.

The estimate made in the report of this Board, Dec. 27th, 1842, and known as Document No. 58, Board of Aldermen, at page 556, states that the rents for the full year, commencing May 1, 1843, might probably reach $150,000. The same report further anticipated that the water rents, at the expiration of five or six years, might reach the sum of four or five hundred thousand dollars. It appears, however, that so far as the result has been tested, by actual experience, it has not fully realized their expectations, and it is more than probable that the estimated increase in the revenue will not be entirely realized within the time specified in that report. The variance of the result from the estimates of that report, is attributable mainly to the excessive use of the free hydrants, and to the multiplication of them by their liberal distribution throughout the City, by orders from the Aldermen and Assistants, far beyond the limits proposed or intended when the plan of introducing the Croton river was first projected and submitted to the people for their approval. That limit was, that the free hydrants were to be placed only at the corners of streets or in poor neighborhoods; but under the present system they will be found throughout the City, and in very many places where they ought not to be. It is to be remarked, however, that it recently became the practice of the Common Council to refer petitions for free hydrants to this department. If it is thereby intended that this Board is to be responsible for the exclusive and judicious exercise of the power of selecting the location of these free hydrants, they will cheerfully assume the duty, and, to the best of their ability, will regulate the matter with a due regard as well to the comforts of the poor as the general interests of the city.

But it must be understood that a strict limitation of the

hydrants to the extent originally proposed, and above described, is deemed indispensably necessary, so as to avoid interposing an insurmountable obstacle to the proper increase of the number of water-takers, and the augmentation of the income to arise from its extensive introduction into private houses.

In accounting for the difference between the estimates of revenue and that actually received, it must also be remembered that not only are all the Public Institutions of the City supplied with water free of charge, but that many Establishments, claimed to be exclusively of a charitable character, are supplied at the nominal rent of $10 per annum. It is also to be observed, that constant efforts are being made by water-takers to procure a reduction of the rate, some of which succeed whenever an apparent reason can be assigned to warrant it. Besides, the Common Council has deemed it proper to grant the water as an equivalent for work and materials, (as in the case of Castle Garden,) and to throw it into a bargain as a make-weight, as in the case of the contract for sweeping the streets, thus depriving the water of its income. It is by these and similar methods, as also from the want of an adequate number of officers, enabling this department to exercise a more vigilant inspection over the amount of water used, that the increase in the income of the work has been retarded, and that the aggregate of receipts has failed to fairly represent the sums to which the revenue is really entitled.

The Board would also remark that they expressly predicted the probability of considerable delay in the general introduction of the water, and therefore that they are not surprised or discouraged by the delay which has actually occurred from persevering in the plan of operations as originally commenced, and they entertain the confident expectation that the general revival of trade and industry will speedily enable our householders to take the water and secure its general introduction throughout the City.

The Board are aware that some inequality exists between those citizens who pay the water tax and also pay a water rent, and those who only pay the tax and refuse to take the

water; but it is believed that this inequality is more seeming than real, because the full enjoyment of so great a luxury as pure water in families in unrestricted quantities affords an ample equivalent for the sum charged for its use; and those who choose to dispense with its enjoyment, for the sake of saving a little money, are not to be envied by water-takers.

The preceding facts sufficiently account for the difference between the estimate and the income, and from them it may be also inferred that the water taken for public establishments, and furnished to markets and other places, that granted to charitable institutions at a nominal rent, and that thrown away in the streets, above what was required for the poor, would have yielded an amount of revenue nearly as large as has been received from the portions for which payment has been made according to the rates established. It must also be remarked that if the Sinking Fund or the Treasury is to derive a revenue from the water rents at all adequate to the extinguishment of the debt, a greater degree of rigor in its free distribution throughout the City will be indispensable, and that it must be managed with the same degree of prudence and care which distinguish the operations of successful individuals.

The Board cannot but hesitate in recommending any altera tion of the present system, involving, as it would, points of immense magnitude connected with the whole debt of the City, as exhibited in previous reports made by them, of date respectively 26th September and 27th December, 1842, in which the whole subject was fully canvassed.

The Board would respectfully refer the Common Council to those reports, leaving it to their combined wisdom to make such changes as their experience or judgment may dictate, always bearing in mind that when the subject was passed on by the electors at the ballot-box, authorizing the borrowing of the money necessary to construct the work, the faith of the City was distinctly plighted to those who invested their capital in our Water Stock, that reasonable rents should be collected for the use of the water, and that