increased until there are now in the State, exclusive of those which have been appointed on the application of banks, 12,524 persons holding commissions as notaries pub

lic. These, with the commissioners of deeds appointed in the several cities, and the other officers authorized by law to perform substantially the same duties, are undoubtedly more than sufficient, if properly selected and located, to answer all the needs of the public.

Officers who may administer oaths are too numerous, and oaths themselves are too lightly regarded.

Applicants for the office of notary public often seek the appointment merely to hold an office which they suppose they may have for the asking, and they frequently have neither the intelligence nor character to make them useful in the performance of their duties. Cases have lately occurred in the courts where guilty parties have escaped the penalty of perjury because a notary could not testify to the administration of a legal oath; and fraudulent transfers of property are aided by the ignorance or venality of these officers.

The Executive Department is overrun with the business incident to the appointment of notaries public and issuing their commissions; they are often recommended by members of the Legislature on purely personal or partisan grounds, and usually the Governor must be personally ignorant of their character or qualifications.

I should be glad to approve a bill reducing the number of these officers, and providing for their appointment by some local authority.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

VETO, SENATE BILL No. 134, TO AMEND THE ACT AUTHORIZING GAS-LIGHT COMPANIES TO USE · ELECTRICITY.

STATE OF NEW YORK.

EXECUTIVE CHAMBER,

ALBANY, April 2, 1883.

To the Senate:

Senate bill No. 134, entitled "An act to amend chapter 512 of the laws of 1879, entitled 'An act to authorize gaslight companies to use electricity instead of gas for the lighting of streets, public places and public and private buildings in cities, villages and towns within this State,' as amended by chapter 73 of the laws of 1882," is herewith returned without approval.

The amendment first proposed by this bill, provides that corporations formed for the purpose of manufacturing and using electricity for producing light, heat or power, shall not be confined in their operations to the county in which their certificate shall be filed.

It is evident that this contemplates the manufacture or generation of electricity, not only for lighting purposes, but for heat or power, and the transmission of the same by means of conductors to distant points.

This bill further authorizes said corporations to lay, erect and construct the necessary conductors and fixtures for transmitting and supplying electricity, over or under any public road, street or highway, or waters of the State, with the consent of certain local authorities. It also provides for the laying and construction of such conductors and fixtures, by such corporations, under or over private lands, subject to the rights of the owner to full compensation, which, if

it cannot be agreed upon by the owner and said corporation, shall be fixed by commissioners to be appointed by the County Court.

The transmission of electricity by means of wires stretched upon poles, has up to this time been confined to telegraphic and lighting purposes. And this has been regarded as dangerous and objectionable, at least, so far as these wires and poles run within the cities of the State.

On the 23d day of March, 1882, the Senate passed a resolution authorizing its committee on cities to investigate whether or not the laying of telegraph and electric light wires under ground was practicable.

The committee, after taking evidence on the subject, submitted a report, in which they speak of the wires and poles used by telegraph and electric light companies, in the following terms:

"Your committee believe that the testimony submitted herewith, conclusively shows that the time has arrived when it is the plain duty of the Legislature to arrest the growth and secure the removal from our streets of these structures, which, without exaggeration, may be termed public and private nuisances."

A bill is now pending in the Legislature based upon this report, providing that all telegraphic, telephonic and electric light wires and cables in incorporated cities having a population of five hundred thousand or upwards, shall, after the passage of this bill, be laid under the surface of the streets, and for the removal of existing wires and the poles sustaining the same.

The report and the bill above referred to, contemplate only the ordinary wires and poles used for telegraphic, telephonic and electric light purposes.

But the bill under consideration permits not only such

wires to be placed above the surface and in the streets, but also conductors and fixtures for transmitting such currents of electricity as may be necessary to produce heat or power. . We have no hint in the bill what these conductors and fixtures may be, but it is entirely evident that they cannot be less dangerous and objectionable than the wires and poles now in use and characterized by the Senate committee as nuisances.

I am convinced that the safety and convenience of the people demand that the conductors and fixtures of the corporations mentioned in this bill should not be permitted upon or over the public streets.

easement

Another fatal objection to this bill is found in the provision allowing the corporations therein named to enter upon private property, and erect and maintain their structures thereon, without the consent of the owner. It seems to me that this is taking private property, or an therein, with very little pretext that it is for a public use. If a private corporation can, under authority of law, construct its appliances and structures upon the lands of the citizen without his consent, not only for the purpose of furnishing light, but in an experimental attempt to transmit heat and power, the rights of the people may well be regarded as in danger from an undue license to corporate aggrandizement.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN LIBRARIES

VETO, ASSEMBLY BILL, NOT PRINTED, TO EXTEND THE TIME FOR COLLECTION OF TAXES IN RICHMOND COUNTY.

STATE OF NEW YORK.

EXECUTIVE ChamberR,

ALBANY, April 2, 1883.

To the Assembly:

Assembly bill, not printed, entitled "An act to authorize the extension of the time for the collection of taxes in the county of Richmond," is herewith returned without approval. This bill is rendered unnecessary by chapter 147 of the laws of 1883, which provides for an extension of time for the collection of taxes in any of the towns of the State. GROVER CLEVELAND.

VETO, ASSEMBLY BILL No. 291, RELATING TO HOSPITAL AND OTHER ELEEMOSYNARY FUNDS.

STATE OF NEW YORK.

EXECUTIVE CHAMBER,

ALBANY, April 5, 1883.

To the Assembly:

Assembly bill No. 291, entitled "An act for the benefit of hospital and other eleemosynary funds," is herewith returned without approval.

For about fifty years the law of the State has limited and restricted the purposes for which trusts might be created, the time for which property might be withdrawn from alienation, and the accumulation of property held in trust. Time has, I think, vindicated the wisdom of such