BRISTOL, RHODE ISLAND.

The grading, fencing, and paving of the grounds about the custom-house at Bristol has been completed at the estimated cost.

Total amount of appropriation.

Amount available to September 30.

Balance available.

$31,400 00 31, 396 25

3275

BUFFALO, NEW YORK.

No action has been taken during the past year upon the appropriation for enlarging the custom-house and post office at Buffalo, New York. The citizens of Buffalo petitioned Congress that the sum so appropriated might be used for the construction of another building, for which it is sufficient, but Congress having taken no action thereupon, and the present building being apparently ample for the present and prospective use of the government, I have not deemed it advisable to recommend any expenditure. Reference is respectfully made to the report from this office of September 30, 1859, upon the matter.

Nothing has been done in reference to the construction of a building authorized at Ogdensburg, New York, for the accommodation of a post office and court

room.

Parties in interest have made application that the site purchased be abandoned, and a new one more favorable to individual interests be purchased. As the necessity for such a change is not apparent, no action upon the application has been recommended.

Reference is respectfully made to the report of September, 1860, from this bureau upon this work, no change having taken place, and no action had in reference to its construction since the date of that report.

The repairs of the damage by fire to the custom-house building in Baltimore, Maryland, have been satisfactorily completed, and the re-arrangement of the

space devoted to the business of the customs, by which one-half the estimated cost of repairs have been saved, gives entire satisfaction to the occupants and to the public doing business with them. The remainder of the appropriation has been expended in fire-proofing other portions of the building.

WHEELING CUSTOM-HOUSE.

Some necessary repairs in the custom-house at Wheeling, Virginia, together with some desirable alterations in the arrangement of the post office, have been authorized, which will not exceed the available balance of the appropriation, and will be completed this winter.

Total amount of appropriation.....

Amount withdrawn to September 30, 1860..

Balance available....

$118, 711 00 118,535 91

175 09

For the custom-houses at Charleston, South Carolina; Mobile, Alabama; and New Orleans, Louisiana, I am unable to present any specific report. The local superintendents of each of these works joined the rebellion, and made no report of the progress on the buildings. The superintendent at Charleston, Colonel E. B. White, was aiding the rebels at their forts during a period for which he claims pay from the general government, while the superintendents at Mobile and New Orleans, Captain Leadbetter and Major Beauregard, are now prominent in an attack upon the government which has educated and supported them.

GALVESTON, TEXAS.

The new custom-house and post office at Galveston, Texas, was completed (before that State passed an ordinance of secession) by the enterprising and energetic sub-contractors, who transported the entire building in parts from the north, erecting them in place and completing the work in a period of six months, while the original contractors had kept it on hand over four years without getting the first story completed. As soon as the work was completed the local authorities took forcible possession of it, and no further record exists in this bureau.

Total amount of appropriation..
Amount expended to September 30, 1861

Balance carried to surplus fund.....

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

$116,000 00

114,359 82

1,640 18

At the last session of Congress an appropriation of $15,000 was made for discharging the existing liabilities against the new custom-house and post office at St. Louis, and completing some unfinished parts of the building. The liabilities have since been paid, but no definite action has been taken in reference to the unfinished work.

In this connexion I respectfully ask your attention to my report of last year in relation to certain encroachments upon the public property by citizens of St. Louis who owned the adjoining premises. As the building has not been inspected the present season, I do not know the present condition of the encroachment.

Total amount of appropriation.....
Amount expended to September 30, 1861..

Balance available

$376,600 00

63,804 85

12,795 15

DETROIT, MICHIGAN.

The new court-house and post office at Detroit, Michigan, has been completed the past season, and is now occupied by all the federal officers for whose use it

was designed.

This building was built by day's work, upon the contractor's alleged default, and is thoroughly constructed in the most durable manner.

Your attention is respectfully invited to my last annual report upon the new custom-house at Chicago in reference to the approaches of the building, and the necessity for more frontage on Monroe street. The latter, I think, deserves immediate attention to preserve the necessary light and air for one-half the building, and the present is a favorable time for its accomplishment. Total amount of appropriation..

Amount expended to September 30, 1861...

Amount available

CAIRO, ILLINOIS.

$447,733 88

425,177 98

22,555 82

Nothing has been done in reference to the building authorized to be erected at Cairo, Illinois. A site has been gratuitously tendered by the Illinois Railroad Company, but it has never been examined by an officer of this bureau.

Total amount of appropriation..

Amount withdrawn to September 30, 1861.

$50,000 00

Balance available..

50,000 00

DUBUQUE, IOWA.

In my last annual report the belief was expressed that the new custom-house and post office at Dubuque, Iowa, would be ready for occupancy by the close of the then current fiscal year. This belief was founded upon the report of the then local superintendent, who expressed entire confidence in thus completing it within the amount appropriated for the purpose. During the present year that superintendent has been removed and a new one appointed. I regret the necessity of reporting the work still incomplete. The appropriation will be entirely exhausted when the outstanding liabilities are paid, while the roof of the building has not been put on, or its interior finished.

Finding this to be the case on a recent inspection, I directed a temporary roof of wood to be placed upon the building, causing it to be otherwise protected from the elements, and then stopped the work. It is now in the temporary custody of the surveyor of the port, in this unfinished condition, and will so remain until a further appropriation is made by Congress to prosecute the work.

Total amount of appropriation..

Amount expended to September 30, 1861.

Balance available

$138,800 00

137,260 62

1,539 38

MILWAUKIE, WISCONSIN.

The damage occasioned to the new custom-house at Milwaukie by fire, noted in the last report from this office, remains unrepaired, except some small matters of pressing necessity, no appropriation having been made by Congress for the purpose. The original appropriation for the work is withdrawn.

MARINE HOSPITALS.

The

It has been my frequent duty for several years past to call the attention of the Secretary of the Treasury and of Congress to the small necessity that exists for many of the appropriations for marine hospitals. My views upon the subiect have been annually presented, and the impolicy of the appropriations, as well as their injustice to the seamen, earnestly argued. The matter cannot be too often recommended to the attention of Congress. The present method of appropriation is manifestly unjust and cruel to sick and disabled seamen. hard earned pittance of the sailor, from which a monthly tax is collected, forms a common fund, which is exhausted in the costly support of a few organized hospitals, leaving the care of many unfortunates to the chance legislation made to cover the deficiency. Many hospitals receiving this costly support, with an organized corps of physicians, stewards, nurses, &c., are without patients, but are supported from the common fund, although the port to which they belong may not contribute a dollar towards maintaining the establishments. Some hospitals are provided for in malarious localities, where it is positive cruelty to remove a seaman with a broken limb or other injury, to contract and probably die of a miasmatic disease; thus, at a sacrifice of the common fund, and at a cost to the government, exposing him to results perhaps more fatal than would be his entire neglect. I cannot too earnestly call attention to the evils of this improvident and unjust system.

BURLINGTON, VERMONT.

The new marine hospital at Burlington, Vermont, was completed under your predecessor, but has never been furnished or occupied. It is an ornamental and commodious structure, erected upon a site of great natural beauty, but is not a necessity for that district.

The latest returns from this district show no patients under treatment. During the present year sixteen sick or disabled seamen have been relieved by private contract at a cost of $2.50 per week, and an aggregate cost for the year of $307 29. This has been the total cost to the government. The hospital cost nearly $37,000. To furnish it would probably cost $1,500, and to organize it would entail a heavy charge upon the marine hospital fund of about $2,000 more annually. The patients are now well cared for by private contract, more to their comfort and health than is too often the result in some organized hospitals, and while this is the case it would be a manifest absurdity to incur this greatly increased expense. The actual cost of relieving sick and disabled seamen at Burlington for a series of years has been from $250 to $300 per annum, and a reasonable estimate for the future will not exceed $300 to $350.

At a recent inspection of this building I found it entirely neglected by the collector, and in a very disgraceful condition. The work had been fully completed in a substantial and creditable manner, but the outside doors were not locked, not even closed-were swinging with the wind, and had become so swollen and strained that they could not be shut. Being thus open, not only the elements, but idle boys and vicious men had free access to the interior, and

in consequence the windows were broken, walls defaced, and ceilings displaced, with other like injury. The collector's neglect is inexcusable. I directed his deputy (the collector being absent) to cause the windows to be glazed, the doors repaired and locked, and to keep the keys thereafter at the custom-house.

The building is not required for hospital use, and in all human probability never will be. The commerce of the lake, from physical causes, cannot grow to an extent to make it a necessity for a century.

As no power exists to sell the property without the authority of Congress, no present disposal of the premises can be made. They should not, however, be permitted to go to ruin by neglect. I have therefore instructed the collector to make inquiry for some careful and competent person who would occupy the premises and keep them in condition in lieu of rent. His action under this instruction has not yet been reported.

Upon inspecting the marine hospital at Portland, Maine, the present season, I found the general condition of the building to be good, and the premises kept in excellent order by its present officers. The roof of the building was badly constructed, being faulty both in plan and execution. It is very flat, totally unsuited to the climate, and the floor beneath unfinished.

The heavy snows in this locality remain upon the flat surface of the roof, and when wet impose an enormous weight upon it, straining open the joints of the galvanized iron, flattening the corrugation between the struts, and converting the whole surface into numerous dishes, which are cracked and rent by the superincumbent pressure. Through these rents the rain readily finds its way to the uncovered arches of the floor beneath, and from these to the walls and ceilings below, throwing off and displacing the plastering, and interfering with the sanitary usefulness of the hospital.

I was at some loss what course to pursue in reference to this hospital. A true economy would doubtless dictate the non-use of the building. It is a beautiful and imposing structure, admirably located for its purpose, capable of accommodating with ease 150 patients at a time, and could be made to properly care for 200, with economy of room. This fine building, with a full corps of officers, now ministers to the wants of seven (7) patients. They could be well cared for by contract at a tithe of the cost of organization.

But the department was powerless without congressional action to make other disposition of it than that designed by the act of appropriation authorizing its construction. Yet the building should be protected. To remain as I found it, it would soon be ruined. I saw no better way than to construct a new roof. No amount of repair on the present one could remedy its organic defects.

Under your instructions, I have therefore contracted for an entire new roof, to be constructed of narrow boards, tongued and groved, securely nailed and covered with slate, of a pitch not less than one foot in six, to be placed above the present one, its eaves to terminate at the level of the top of the base board of the present blocking course, to allow the snow to slide off, and still have the water drop into the present gutters for interior use; removing the baseboard and lattice work of the blocking course, leaving only its piers and copings. I believe this will be effectual; I think nothing short of it would be.

The contractors are now at work upon the new roof, and expect to have it