aminations under the new law and rules. The character of the merit examinations held under the new law and rules has been substantially the same as that of the competitive examinations held under the old law, as I have considered it to be the sense of the Commission and the import of the law that the fitness examination is meant to provide some new and additional tests to cover defects in the old system of examinations, rather than to change or modify the character of the examinations previously held. I have described in detail below some of the new examinations held during the year and also the more important changes in the schemes of examination. The provisions of section 3 of Rule XI for the formation of several eligible lists from the results of a single examination, have been applied in some cases. In particular, the clerkship examination has been made a basis for those of bookkeeper, deputy factory inspector, special excise agent, charities inspector, law clerk and statistician-the additional requirements in each case being suited to the special duties of the position, and special knowledge required for their performance. The character of the applicants is substantially the same as in previous years, and I have added to the tables heretofore published a table showing for each examination the statistics of the candidates as to birthplace, education and previous occupation.

FITNESS EXAMINATIONS.

The provision of the regulations for the duplication of the marks in the merit examination in cases where the appointing officer deems that such examination covered all the essential qualifications of the position, has proved a wise one and has been applied in case of the following eligible lists:

Statistician, Bureau of Labor Statistics;

Junior clerk, Regents Department;

Superintendent, shoe industry, Sing Sing Prison;

Assistant clerk, Sing Sing Prison (appointed by the Comptroller);

Chemist, Department of Agriculture;

Teacher, Thomas Orphan Asylum.

The only fitness examinations so far conducted by the Commission have been those for guards in the three State prisons. In these cases the merit examination had been modified by omitting the oral examination previously required, and I, therefore, deemed it proper to hold a fitness examination, covering the ground previously covered by this test. Such examinations were held at each of the prisons and the candidates examined orally as to their experience, general health, physical qualifications, habits and intelligence. Those candidates whose standing on the merit list was derived from the May and June examinations, in which the oral examination was included, were informed that they need not appear again for the fitness examination in case they consented to have the same mark for fitness as was given them in their oral examination. It is noticeable that a very large proportion of such candidates trusted to the mark previously given, and did not appear a second time, and it may also be remarked that substantially every other candidate on the merit list appeared at one or the other of the prisons for fitness examination, which is in somewhat striking contrast to some reports of fitness examinations held by appointing officers. The total number of candidates entitled to notice for the various fitness examinations conducted by appointing officers up to date has been 1946. Of these only 749 have appeared, or 38 per cent. of those entitled to notice.

PROMOTION EXAMINATIONS.

The provisions of the rules in regard to promotions have been frequently applied by appointing officers, but in only one case has the Commission been called on to hold a promotion examination; that is, an examination in which the applicants were limited to those occupying positions in the next lower grade in the same office as the position to be filled. In several cases the persons already in the service have been promoted upon obtaining a place on the eligible list for a higher position, in advance of persons outside the service who may have obtained a higher rating in the examination. There are many lines of service in which the duties of the lower grade specially tend to fit the incumbent for promotion

to a higher grade, and in cases where the number of employes in the lower grade is considerable, competitive examinations for promotion will often be valuable. They furnish a basis on which appointing officers may freely select employes to be promoted without the charge of favoritism and without being compelled to appoint outsiders who have not the benefit of experience in the particular line of work required. The case in which a promotion examination was held was for law clerk in the Supreme Court, Kings county. Candidates were limited to the attendants in the same court. Eight of these attendants applied, of whom three were found qualified and five not qualified for promotion. The resulting eligible list was certified to the justices having the power of appointment and two of the three successful candidates were promoted. The examination set was exactly the same as would have been given for original appointment as law clerk.

EXAMINING BOARDS.

Pursuant to the direction of the Legislature that the examinations be held in all the cities of the State, I have caused examinations to be held in a large number of different cities and have established a number of new local examining boards for this purpose. We are prepared to hold competitive examinations on short notice in any of the following villages and cities: Albany, Amsterdam, Binghamton, Buffalo, Elmira, Geneva, Hornellsville, Ithaca, Jamestown, Malone, Middletown, New York Olean, Oneonta, Poughkeepsie, Rochester, Syracuse, Troy, Utica and Watertown. I am now planning general examinations to be held in several other cities and villages; among them, Auburn, Dunkirk, Fort Edward, Little Falls, Lockport, Newburgh, Ogdensburg, Oswego, Rome and Schenectady. These examinations will be held during the last of January, 1898. We will thus have covered within a year all the cities of the State except those which are located so near other larger cities as to be practically included with them. Of this class are Cohoes, Corning, Brooklyn, Yonkers, Watervliet and some others. In most cases they have trolley car connection with the larger city in which examinations are regularly held.

There are, I believe, only two exceptions; namely, Gloversville and Hudson, and these can probably be reached in the next general examination.

I think a further effort should be made to have section 3 of the original Civil Service Law amended so that the provisions for employes and examiners under the Commission shall be more nearly adequate to the work now performed. The provisions of the law as it stands have again been found inadequate and productive of much friction and dissatisfaction, besides placing upon the chief examiner a continual burden in the search for new examiners to replace those who have earned the whole compensation allowed by law and are unwilling to do further work until they can receive further pay.

EXAMINATIONS OF THE YEAR 1897.

I shall here note such of the competitive examinations as seem to require special mention. A table appended to the report gives a complete list of the competitive examinations held during the year.

The first large examination of the year was that for court positions in New York city. These included court attendants, janitors, record clerks, law clerks, court stenographers and interpreters. The examinations consumed four days; January 25th, 26th, 27th and 30th. Of these examinations, that for court stenographers is noticeable for the fact that we had in the examination practically all the candidates in New York city or Brooklyn who were competent to do court work, with the exception of those who already held official positions. Another examination held on November 20th for Supreme Court stenographer called forth, as we were informed, all the available material in the city. There were thirty-four candidates, seventeen of whom were found qualified. I have no hesitancy in saying that every one of the qualified persons would, so far as ability and experience goes, make a perfectly competent stenographer in a court of record.

In the January examination for interpreters the candidates were given their option of competing in any one of the following

languages: German, Spanish, Italian, French, Swedish and Hebrew Jargon, and separate eligible lists were made for the different languages. The examination consisted of written translation from printed copy and from dictation, both from the foreign language into English and from English into the foreign language, and also of an oral examination in which the candidates were required to translate matter dictated by the expert examiner from English into the foreign language and vice versa. Mr. Woodbridge of the Brooklyn Court Examining Board conducted a very careful examination of the character and experience of the applicants. A further examination for the position of Supreme Court interpreter in New York city was held December 4, 1897. In this examination candidates were required to qualify in all of the following languages: Italian, German, Hebrew Jargon, French and Spanish. It seemed at first very doubtful whether any candidate with all the qualifications would appear for examination. Of the thirteen candidates who were examined it was found that three had done fair work in all of the required languages and had passed with comparatively high averages. One or two of the others failed only because they lacked entirely one or another of the required languages. I employed for this examination four experts; one for the German and Hebrew Jargon and one for each of the other languages, and took personal charge of the preparations, holding personal consultation with the examiners on several occasions before the examination. A thorough test was given the candidates in the French, Italian and Hebrew Jargon, by having present at the examination a native Frenchman, a native Italian and a Jew who could converse in the Jargon and not in German, and the candidates were required as part of the examination to converse with these persons in the presence of the examiners. In this way it was easy to distinguish the candidates who understood German and not Hebrew Jargon from those competent in both languages, and to test the knowledge of Italian dialects by actual practice.

An examination was held February 2d for the position of station editor and librarian at the Agricultural Experiment Sta