IN ASSEMBLY, February 1, 1831. REPORT Of the select Committee on the Memorial of the President, Directors and First Company of the Great Western Turnpike Road. The select committee, to whom was referred the petition of the President, Directors and First Company of the great western turnpike road, RESPECTFULLY REPORTS : That the petitioners represent that they have been erroneously assessed in the first ward of the city of Albany, to pay a tax of $776.24 on their capital stock, and pray for the passage of a law directing the collector of the said ward, to omit the collection of the tax so assessed, and to return the amount thereof as a debt due against the said ward. It has been satisfactorily shown to your committee, that the nett annual income of the road of the said company, during the last year, does not exceed five per centum of their capital stock, paid in or secured to be paid in. The said company were therefore, by the 12th section of the 4th title of the first part of the Revised Statutes, exempted from taxation during the last year. But it is required by the 13th section of the same title, of the Revised Statutes, that to be relieved from taxation under such circumstances, the president, directors, or some two officers of the company, shall make affidavit stating the capital stock paid in and secured to be paid in, together with the income and profits, and the total expenditures, during the preceding year, of such [A. No. 120.] 7 ; company, and that such affidavit shall be delivered to the assessors of the town, at the time of making their assessments. It also is made the duty of every such corporation, by the 2d and 3d sections of the same title of the Revised Statutes, to deliver to the Comptroller, on or before the first day of July, in each year, a statement, certified under the oath of some proper officer of the corporation, specifying the real estate owned by such company, the amount of the capital stock actually paid in or secured to be paid in, and the place in which the financial business of such company is transacted. Your committee have been furnished with full and satisfactory evidence, that the certified statement and also the affidavit required by the Revised Statutes, were duly prepared by the proper officers of the said company, and herewith present to the House, duplicate originals thereof, with an affidavit of the treasurer of the said company. Your committee further report, that the principal office at which the financial concerns of the said company has been transacted, is now and has for many years immediately preceding the first day of July last, been situated in the first ward of the city of Albany, and that by the mistake or inadvertence of the treasurer of the said company, (upon whom devolved the duty of making the said returns required by law for the last year,) the affidavit required by the 13th section of the said title was delivered by him to the Comptroller of the state, instead of the assessors of the first ward of the city of Albany; and by the same mistake or inadvertence of the said treasurer, the certificate required by the 2d and 3d sections of the same title, was delivered by him to the assessors of the said ward instead of the Comptroller of the state. Your committee are therefore of the opinion that the petitioners are entitled to legislative relief from the effects of the error, in the said assessment, and have directed their chairman to recommend the same to the House, and to ask leave to introduce a bill in accordance with the prayer of the petitioners. Respectfully submitted, PETER GANSEVOORT, Chairman. IN ASSEMBLY, February 3, 1831. COMMUNICATION From Henry Seymour, one of the Canal Commis SIR sioners. Albany, Feb. 2, 1831. To the Hon. the Speaker of the Assembly. Having noticed in the memorial of Lyman A. Spalding, denials and contradictions of several material statements made by the Canal Commissioners in relation to the use of the surplus water at Lockport, and communicated to the Legislature in their last annual report, the undersigned respectfully requests the Honorable the Assembly to authorise the committee to whom the said memorial has been referred, to send for persons and papers, and to examine witnesses under oath, to the end that all the facts and circumstances relating to this matter may be established by competent and legal evidence; and that the mis-statements of the memorialist, which have been made under the solemnity of an extra-judicial oath, may be corrected by his own testimony, given under legal responsibility, as well as by the testimony of others, and by the exhibition of documentary evidence. I have the honor to be, with great respect, HENRY SEYMOUR, Canal Commissioner. |