Real Estate Record

AND    BUILDERS'    GUIDE.





YoL. XII.





NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JULY 26, 1873.





No. 280





ilSPECIAL NOTICE.

Now that Mansard Roofs have been declared extra¬
hazardous, by the Board of Fire Underwriters, on
account of damage from fire, we would advise builders
to try CoL. A. Derkom's processes to make Mansard
Roofs fire-proof. He claims to make any constrnction
fire-proof efl'ectively and economically.





EXEMPT MORTGAGES FROM TAXATION.





Last ■winter, during the session of the Legis¬
lature, an attempt was made to exempt mort¬
gages from taxation. The countiy members,
however, though they did not actually oppose
it, did not favor the idea, simply because they
did not understand the movement. For this
purpose time has been needed, aud the rural
press has since set to work to explain the
advantages to be derived from such an enact¬
ment. Still, the press cannot do everything.
Constituencies, especially in our State, are not
easily moved by their respective organs, and
often they instruct their representatives at
Albany to act in diametrical [opposition to
what has been urged by their "papers." They
therefore must be appealed to directly, and it
is for that purpose that the West Side Asso¬
ciation of this city has set to work to coUec':
funds and educate the masses as to tlie neces¬
sity of an enactment which will do more
toward settling the unoccupied portion of
Manhattan Island than all the other schemes
so often hinted at but never executed. Meet¬
ings will have to be held here and there favor¬
ing the movement, circulars have to be printed
and distributed all over the State; and in
some localities measures will have to be taken
to secure the election to the next Legitelature
of only such men as will favor this all-import¬
ant enact \ent. Tlie Governor, Imowing the
wants of the city, favors it; and so there will
be no difficulty in that direction; but the Gov¬
ernor cannot make laws; he can only execute

^ them. A Legislatm-e favoring the enactment
of a law exempting mortgages from taxation
must be secured, and in order to do this the
West Side property owners should support—
one and all—the movement set on foot by
the West Side Association,   and contribute

W their share toward the perfection of a plan
which for once and always will settle the up¬
per part of the island. Now is the time to do
the effective work. Next winter it may be too
late, and another year will have elapsed before
the work can be actually accomplished. It
should be understood that the West Side As-

^ sociation, which initiated this movement, is
not a political organization.   It is composed

^ of the leading property holders of -the West
Side, belonging to both political parties, and
is exclusively devoted to West Side improve¬
ments, many of which owe their origin entii'ely





to the ideas and active interference of this
public-spirited oi'ganizatiou.





THE V/ATER SUPPLY.





We again approach the subject of water
supply upon the suggestions of Commissioner
Van Nort's repoi-t. There is ample confirma¬
tion of an unusual drotight, concerning wliich
none have disputed. We cannot, for the pres¬
ent, share tlie general appreheusion of the ex¬
haustion of the contents of the storage reser¬
voirs. The present storage capacity of our
resei-voirs is 6,070,000,000 gallons, which will
be increased by the new reservoir to be built
3,700,000,000 gallons more, amounting to a
total of 10,270,000,000 gallons. The increas¬
ing wants of the city will, in not many yeras,
deplete even this source of supply; and each
recurring year compels, through other sources,
a further decrease. The hills of the counties
in which the Croton and its tributaries take
their rise are gradually being denuded of
timber. Each year lays bare a greater ex¬
panse of rough and sterile country which yields
no moisture except that conferred upon it
from heaven, and under the rays of the sun
fail even to retain in coagulation as it should
far into summer months, the ice and snows of
the preceding -winter. The valuable precept
so lately taught by the State Commissioners
of Parks m recommending the preservation
of our Northern forests for the ultimate uses
of the whole Hudson River valley becomes of
greater significance when we direct its princi¬
ple to the lands lying within the control of
our municipality. Our lakes and reservoirs
should be arbored even if their environs be
restored to all the characteristic of a jungle,
leaving such approaches only as will answer
for the purposes of inspection and protection.
The danger of deficient water will approach
more rapidly through the intervention of
nature than the demands of our population,
and when the famine does come we are likely
to b» sadly unprepared, though letting well
enough alone. It is time that tax payers
wearied of the continual drain upon their re¬
sources, but not time for them to potter along
feebly temporizing with the inevitable. That
our reservoirs can be built and mains con¬
structed with due economy and diligence, is as
true as that om- people are apathetic, waking
under the influence of a powerful shock, only
to relapse before they have cleared away the
last vestiges of their municipal shame and
dishonor. There are valuable suggestions in
the report of the Commissioner of Public
Works. We are glad to renew our belief that
the situation is not as desperate as many have
supposed, but we cannot submit to a placid
contemplation of the limited expedients pro¬
posed for our ftiture accommodation.





To-day the dwellers in Harlem and the up¬
per portions of the city are suffering discom¬
forts from a supply of water which does not
pass through our Central Park reservoir, where
it can be filtered, but are obliged to drink a fluid
which, valuable as it may be in extremity, is
unfit for the comforts and desires' of a large
portion of our population.





THE COMMISSIONERS OF ACCOUNTS.





Mayor Havemeyer has, after careful delib¬
eration, selected as Commissioners of Accounts
George Bowland and Lindley J. Howe, who,
with John Wheeler, President of the Depart¬
ment of Taxes and Assessments, are to per¬
form the duties required of such a commission
by the terms of the charter. At a meeting
held for organization, Mr. Wheeler was chosen
to ijreside over the new board. The duties of
these Commissioners—if faitlifully performed
—w^ill disclose an inner history in some of
the departments which it earnestly concerns
our tax payers to know. A careful examina¬
tion of the accounts of the Comptroller and
Chamberlain is to be made every three months
or of tener at discretion, and a report of tlie re¬
sults of this examination is to be published in
the City Recoi'd. The powers of the Commis¬
sioners are made commensurate with then'
duties, and nothing but public,indifference
win suffer, if it does not sanction, any neglect
on the part of the gentlemen named.

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC "WORKS.

Department of Public Works,   ^
Commissioner's Office, Room 19, City Hall, }
New York, July 19,1873.    J
In accordance with sec. 110, chap. 335, laws
of 1873, the Department of Public Works
makes the following report of its transactions
for the week ending this day:—

Public moneys received and deposited with the City
Chamberlain :—

For Croton water rent ......................§108,985.03

For penalties on water rent..................        147.60

For tapping Croton pipes......■.............        132.00

For vault permits............................     1,734.75

For sewer permits...........................        330.00

For sewer pipe sold to contractors...........        253.56

Total..............................'........SH1,582.94

Certificates of the cost of the following im¬
provements were transmitted to the Board of
Assessors: sewer in Frankfort Street, between
Cliff and Jacob streets. Sewer in Tenth Av¬
enue, east side, between Eighteenth and Nine¬
teenth streets. Sewer in Pearl Street, between
Old Slip and a point one hundred and eighty
feet soutli of Old Slip. Sewer in Tenth Av¬
enue, west side, between Twenty-first and
Twenty-second streets. Receiving' basin at
southeast corner Forty-fourth Street and
Broadway. ReceiAring basin at northeast cor¬
ner Forty-third Street and Broadway. Re¬
ceiving basin at northeast comer Eleventh
Street and Thirteenth Avenue.

Croton water has been introdueed,in Seven¬
ty-second Street, between Lexington and Tiiird
ayenues.