We, the undersigned, a Committee of the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund, appointed by the Chair, pursuant to resolution, to examine the securities held by the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund, do hereby report that we have examined the securities and deeds of property held by the said Commissioners on account of the following Sinking Funds:

1. Sinking Fund of The City of New York.

2. Water Sinking Fund of The City of New York.

3. Sinking Fund for the Redemption of the City Debt No. 1 of The City of New York.

4. Sinking Fund for the Redemption of the City Debt No. 2 of The City of New York.

5. Sinking Fund of the City of Brooklyn.

6. Water Sinking Fund of the City of Brooklyn.

7. Sinking Fund of Long Island City for the Redemption of Revenue Bonds. 8. Sinking Fund for the Payment of the Interest on the City Debt.

-that we have compared the said securities (and certified copies of deeds of property) with the foregoing statements, and that we have found them to agree therewith.

We further report that we have not been furnished with and therefore have been unable to report upon the following bonds and mortgages of the Sinking Fund of the City of Brooklyn:

1. Bonds and mortgages on East Side Park lands said to have been placed in the hands of the Corporation Counsel of the City of Brooklyn prior to January 1, 1898.

2. Bonds and mortgages on East Side Park lands said to have been placed in the hands of the Corporation Counsel on June 22, 1902, for foreclosure.

We hereto annex, however, what purport to be proper statements in regard to them. We recommend that the Corporation Counsel be requested to make a report to the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund, informing them of the present status of the bonds and mortgages which are in his hands for foreclosure.

CHARLES V. FORNES,

President of the Board of Aldermen.

JOHN T. McCALL,

Chairman of the Finance Committee of the Board of Aldermen.

Statement of Bonds and Mortgages on East Side Park Lands Placed in Hands of the Corporation Counsel of the City of Brooklyn Prior to January 1, 1898.

Statement of Bonds and Mortgages on East Side Park Lands Placed in Hands of the Corporation Counsel for Foreclosure June 22, 1902.

The report was accepted and the Secretary directed to request the Corporation Counsel to make a report to the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund, informing them of the present status of the bonds and mortgages which are in his hands for foreclosure, as recommended by the Committee.

The Comptroller presented the following report of the Engineer of the Department of Finance and offered the following resolutions, relative to property at the corner of North Moore and Varick streets, Borough of Manhattan, assigned to the Fire Department and to the Department of Street Cleaning (see Minutes, 1903, pages 980, 1037):

Hon. EDWARD M. GROUT, Comptroller:

February 4, 1904.

SIR-Mr. Alfred M. Downes, Secretary. Fire Department, by direction of the Commissioner, forwards copy of a letter received from P. J. Ryan, contractor for erect

ing a building on the corner of North Moore and Varick streets for the use of Hook and Ladder Company 8. The contractor states: "I find by examining the building there will be only about 17 feet of the old building left on North Moore street by about 40 feet deep. There will be no stairway or doors to get into this upper part after the new building is put up. It will be of no use whatever; therefore, why not take it down at once with the other part? I will do this and clean up all dirt and rubbish and leave the yard level with the sidewalk, and when the new building is completed I will put up a new fence with door to the yard and paint the fence free of charge or any expense to the City. In the meantime it would give me a good place to store some of the building material for the new building."

I would report that, since the portion of the building proposed to be taken down by Contractor P. J. Ryan is upon that portion of the old school site assigned by the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund on October 16, 1903, to the Street Cleaning Department, I have consulted Hon. John McGaw Woodbury, Commissioner Department of Street Cleaning, in relation to the taking down of this portion of the building and making a yard of the site, and he informs me that he approves the suggestion, and advises that the proposition be accepted. The building in West Broadway being ample for offices, etc., while a yard on North Moore street would give the Street Cleaning Department place for storage for small apparatus which is needed in that neighborhood.

Financially the contractor may make a few hundred dollars by taking down the building, instead of closing up the openings and supporting the roof as approved by the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund at meeting of November 18, 1903 (Sinking Fund Minutes, 1903, page 1038), but the benefit to the contractor would be so small, and as the building is not needed for the Department of Street Cleaning and the space could be used as a yard for the Department to better advantage, I would advise that the proposition of P. J. Ryan, the contractor, for erecting a building on the corner of North Moore and Varick streets, for the use of Hook and Ladder Company 8, be accepted, with certain modifications. Therefore I would recommend that the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund rescind the resolution adopted on November 18, 1903, and amend a resolution adopted October 16, 1903, by omitting the following clause:

"With the understanding that the Fire Department in the removal of the building from the premises hereby assigned for their use, construct a wall and support the remaining building located on the North Moore street side,"

-and substitute the following:

With the understanding that the Fire Commissioner, in the removal of the building from the premises hereby assigned for its use, shall tear down the entire portion of the old school building on North Moore and Varick streets, grade yard to level of sidewalk, clean up all dirt and rubbish, and concrete entire yard with 4 inches of concrete on a cinder foundation of 6 inches, and place windows in openings in rear of the building on West Broadway, and put up a new wooden fence 10 feet high, with door to yard, and paint same with two coats of paint.

Respectfully,

EUG. E. McLEAN. Engineer.

Resolved, That the resolution adopted by this Board at meeting held October 16, 1903, and as amended November 18, 1903, assigning to the Fire Department for

the purpose of erecting thereon an apparatus house, on premises located on the southeast corner of North Moore and Varick streets, Borough of Manhattan, being a part of what was formerly known as the old North Moore Street School, be and the same is hereby rescinded.

Resolved, That, pursuant to the provisions of section 205 of the amended Greater New York Charter, the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund hereby assign to the Fire Department for the purpose of erecting thereon an apparatus house, on premises located on southeast corner of North Moore and Varick streets, being a part of what was formerly known as the old North Moore Street School, bounded and described as follows:

"Beginning at a point where the southerly side of North Moore street intersects the easterly side of Varick street; running thence easterly along the southerly side of North Moore street 50 feet 1 inch; thence southerly at right angles to North Moore street 82 feet 8 inches; thence westerly 24 feet 45% inches; thence southerly 3 feet 10 inches; thence again westerly 25 feet 74 inches to the easterly side of Varick street; thence northerly along the easterly side of Varick street 87 feet 2 inches to the point or place of beginning; with the understanding that the Fire Department in the removal of the building from the premises hereby assigned for their use, construct a wall and support the remaining building located on the North Moore street side,"

—with the understanding that the Fire Commissioner in the removal of the building from the premises hereby assigned for its use, shall tear down the entire portion of the old school building on North Moore and Varick streets, grade yard to level of sidewalk, clean up all dirt and rubbish, and concrete entire yard with 4 inches of concrete on a cinder foundation of 6 inches, and place windows in openings in rear of the building on West Broadway, and put up a new wooden fence 10 feet high with door to yard, and paint same with two coats of paint.

Resolved, That, pursuant to the provisions of section 205 of the amended Greater New York Charter, the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund hereby assign to the Department of Street Cleaning all the rest of the building known as the old North Moore Street School, and not assigned to the Fire Department, being 25 feet 1 inch front on North Moore street by 58 feet 10 inches deep, with an L shape running through to West Broadway, and being 25 feet 2 inches front by 76 feet 1 inch in depth; such assignment to continue during the pleasure of the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund.

Which resolutions were severally unanimously adopted.

The following communication was received from the Commissioner of Docks, relative to the operation of a ferry between the Boroughs of Manhattan and Rich

mond, and submitting specifications and form of contract for the construction of five new ferryboats:

NEW YORK, February 4, 1904.

Hon. GEORGE B. MCCLELLAN, Mayor, and Chairman of the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund:

DEAR SIR-Your attention is called to the fact that under date of July 2, 1903, the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund passed certain resolutions directing the preparation of a report in regard to a lease of the Staten Island ferry; and also the preparation by the Dock Commissioner of plans and specifications for submission to the Sinking Fund for the building and equipment of five ferryboats.

The resolutions, not quoted herewith, in brief, practically provide for the operation of the municipal ferry between the boroughs of Manhattan and Richmond, and did, as above stated, also provide for the preparation of a form of lease.

In the report made by the former Commissioner of Docks on November last, and submitted in the early part of December, the former Commissioner of Docks reported as to the various and sundry plans which he had caused to be prepared for the terminals proposed to be built in the Borough of Richmond, namely:

One at St. George for passenger and freight service.

One at Stapleton for freight service principally, but which could be used for passenger service.

One on the northerly end of the island at Port Richmond, also to be designed in the main for freight service with passenger accommodations.

The report, in so far as the ferry between St. George and Whitehall is concerned, included a time schedule of proposed trips which had previously been considered by the Mayor and the members of the Sinking Fund Commission. This schedule provided for sixty-two round trips between Whitehall and St. George, with a running time of twenty minutes, and was so divided that night trips were to be made on a half-hourly basis, and during what might be called the commission hours in the morning and in the evening the schedule was arranged on a fifteen and twenty minute basis.

Since my incumbency in the office of Dock Commissioner I have been in receipt of communications from the Comptroller in which certain contracts made by the former Commissioner of Docks with the architects selected by him for the preparation of plans for the terminals at St. George, Stapleton and Port Richmond were not recognized as contracts and were returned to this Department with the Comptroller's communication stating that he would not register them. The matter therefore of the requisite changes in the St. George terminal and the establishment of new terminal structures at Stapleton and Port Richmond have been taken up anew. In brief, the report of the former Commissioner of Docks provided for an expenditure at St. George estimated at....

At Stapleton the estimated expenditure was (cluding freight terminal and Recreation Pier)......

At Port Richmond the expenditure was estimated at.

.$1,250.000 00

750,000 00 100.000 00

The former Dock Commissioner in the report referred to stated that he approved in its entirety the plans submitted by the architect, John M. Carrere, for the