No. 1.

1844.

ANNUAL REPORT of the State Treasurer.

STAT, TREASURER, OFFICE, }

Detroit, December 1st, 1843.

To the Legislature of the State of Michigan:

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In obedience to the requirements of law, I have the honor herewith to submit an abstract of the receipts and expenditures from the State Treasury, for the fiscal year ending on the 30th ult.

Schedule A exhibits a summary of the receipts and expenditures to or from the several funds, with which accounts are kept on the books of this office. The balance of cash on hand at the commencement of the fiscal year, as per last report, being $70,522,29, and the excess of receipts over expenditures being $15,267,26, leaves a ballance on hand at the end of the fiscal year just closed, amounting to $85,789,55.

Amongst the expenditures are included $44,518 for treasury notes destroyed, which would have been increased $15,000 or more, had not about that amount of those received as proceeds of the Central railroad, been hypothecated by direction of the Board of Internal Improvement, as collateral security for certain payments on account of railroad iron purchased for the extension of the Southern and Central railroads. A large portion of the other treasury notes on hand will undoubtedly never be required to be reissued, but are not destroyed, as holders of outstanding warrants on the general fund may at any moment demand, and under the act authorizing their issue, are entitled to receive these notes in payment of their warrants. Of the $258,120 of treasury notes issued under the act of April, 1841, this leaves outstanding, and in the treasury, the sum of $120,000, which, but for the causes above alluded to, might have been reduced to $70,

000 or $80,000. As forming part of the expenditures, is also included the reduction of the delinquent tax bonds issued to counties from over $109,000 to about $37,000, and the redemption of $4,000 of the delinquent tax stock, since the sales of land for taxes in October.

Schedule B gives the aggregate debit and credit transactions of each fund, for the further details of which the legislature are respectfully referred to the report of the Auditor General, in whose office auxiliary books are kept, as required by law, showing the condition of each specific appropriation, the several sources of revenue, and items of expenditure under appropriate heads.

The ledger balances to the debit and credit of the several funds or accounts, at the close of the fiscal year, are given in the subjoined statement marked C.

The accounts heretofore kept on the books of this office, with "State Bonds," as never being of any service in that form, and as leading at present to an erroneous exhibit of our state indebtedness, has been closed; and in lieu thereof, there has been prepared and is herewith submitted, marked D, a statement of our indebtedness on account of the five million loan, (including the two hundred thousand dollars for the Ypsilanti and Tecumseh, and Allegan and Marshall railroad companies, negotiated in connection therewith,) up to and including July 1st, 1845, to which time provision was made by an act of last winter, apparently satisfactory to all our bona-fide bond holders, for the payment of interest since the failure of the United States Bank, on the bonds issued for that loan, for which the state had received consideration, by the issue of bonds receivable after July 1, 1845, for public state lands, and redeemable after 1850; and appended thereto is a schedule of our other outstanding state stocks.

Of the bonds issuable under the above act, amounting in all to the sum of $367,832,40, there have been issued and registered in this office, No's. 1 to 319, inclusive, generally of $1,000 each, except for such fractions as the amount of each parcel of coupons surren

dered, and the interest thereon, required, making an amount equal to $316,648,80; and the coupons for a portion of the balance have been forwarded and are awaiting the preparation of the bonds. Of the original $1,387,000 of five million loan bonds, sold by the Morris Canal company, as Agent of the state, to bona-fide purchasers, and specified by their numbers in the first section of the above mentioned act of last winter, $3,000 are held by the U. S. War Department, in trust for certain Indian tribes; and the interest for 1842, and part of that for 1843, has been paid upon them, and will undoubtedly continue to be met from time to time, so that bonds for the coupons upon them will not be called for. And the U. States Bank, in addition to the $3,813,000 of five million loan bonds delivered under the agreement for the purchase of the balance of the loan, hold also $42,000 of the above $1,387,000 paid for prior to that negotiation, which are all hypothecated by the bank with various houses in Europe, according to a schedule of the numbers and amounts given in a communication to the Executive in December last, and submitted to the last legislature:-and it is therefore uncertain whether new bonds for those $42,000, or for the amount of the other bonds paid for and held by that bank, may be called for, but whether they are or not, is immaterial as to the amount of the real or acknowledged indebtedness of the state.

The interest for January and July last on the $31,000 Delinquent Tax Stock originally issued, has been paid; and as previously stated, $4,000 of the principal has been redeemed from the proceeds of the tax sales in October.

The interest on the $36,000 of general fund "stock, held by individuals, which fell due in May and Nov. last, has also been paid :—on the balance of this stock, amounting to $64,000, which is held by the U. S. War Department, the interest for 1843, and a portion of that for Nov. 1842, remains unpaid.

Warrants have been issued under an act of last winter, making the interest on the penitentiary stock payable out of the general fund,

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for the interest due in 1842 and 1843, on the first $20,000 of that stock; but there having been nothing for the time being but the treasury notes of 1841 to the credit of the general fund, wherewith to meet said warrants, they remain unpaid amongst the outstanding warrants on that fund.

The interest on the University stock, for the past fiscal year, has been paid under a law of last winter, directly for the state treasury, out of monies received to the credit of the University Interest fund, as it had been indirectly for the previous year, by instructions from the Board of Regents of the University. Although the income of the University fund is found ample for that purpose, and can always be relied upon to meet the interest on the loan of $100,000 to the University, yet it is to be regretted that this absorbs so large a portion of the otherwise available means of that important institution.

The only state stocks, for which no provision has been made or means appear at present to exist for the payment of interest, are those issued in behalf of the Detroit and Pontiac, and Palmyra and Jacksonburg railroad companies. Liens upon the roads constructed by or belonging to said companies, and other collateral securities, were given to secure those loans, and provision made for the sale of the roads and franchises of each of said companies, in case of their failure to meet the payment of the principal or interest of their respective loans, when due; but by an act of Feb. 11, 1842, the former company were granted the privilege of four years, and the latter, two years, from the passage of the act to pay up their indebtedness on account of those loans; and as required by the same act, the collateral securities of the former company have been surrendered;the conditions on which this was to be done, appearing to have been complied with. The interest since July 1841, on the Detroit and Pontiac Railroad Stock, and since May 1841, on the Palmyra and Jacksonburg stock, remains unpaid either by the companies or the state, except on $8,000 of the former held by the Treasurer of the

United States for the Smithsonian fund, the interest on which for January and July 1842, and January 1843, has been paid by the state. Appended to this report, marked E. is a table showing the aggregate amounts of warrants against the several funds outstanding on the 30th ult.

All of which is respectfully submitted,

JOHN J. ADAM,

State Treasurer.