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A large portion of the sixth division, extending from the north-eastern end of the High Bridge to near the village of Yonkers, has been properly graded, and the embankment regularly sloped and "seeded down." These necessary steps for the perfect preservation of the side slopes and tops of the embankment had on this division never before been completed.

The ditching throughout the entire line has been finished, and the work is now protected by a thorough system of surface drainage. Many of the smaller culverts, and in several instances, small sections of the retaining and protection walls have undergone repairs, and in some cases new wall has been built. These items, though trifling individually, have helped to make up the aggregate of expenditure.

During the past summer, it was found that the rain water which fell upon the parapet walks of the distributing reservoir, made its way through the flagging, and finally through the external walls of the structure, and also through the interior arches below the parapets. The whole of the flagging and coping was consequently taken up, and relaid throughout in a thick bed of cement, since which the percolation has ceased and the chambers below have been dry.

The last examination of the interior of the aqueduct was made in November. The water was drawn off on the twentieth, and on the three following days the interior was carefully examined from the dam to the Receiving Reservoir. The amount of work required in repair, this year, was as usual, very trifling, being entirely such as results from the otherwise imperceptible settlement of some portions of the work, and consequently such as must diminish with each succeeding year.

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The total amount of expenditure under the head of Aqueduct Repairs and Improvements, is shown in schedule B, amounting to fourteen thousand nine hundred and eighty dollars and sixty-seven cents, leaving unexpended, of the appropriation, nineteen dollars and thirty-three cents, which lapses into the City Treasury.

CROTON WATER-WORKS EXTENSION..

During the past year the line of pipe four feet in diameter, for which a special appropriation was made, has been contracted for, delivered, and is now nearly all in its place. It is laid between the gate chambers, on the north and south sides of Manhattan Valley, and is intended to increase the capacity of the aqueduct, which at that point, as at High Bridge, is limited to the discharge of two pipes, of three feet diameter each. This line of pipe was laid in anticipation of the proposed increase of capacity at the High Bridge, and of course it cannot be made available until such improvement be effected. The casting and prompt delivery of four thousand feet of pipe, four feet interior diameter, is a matter of sufficient importance to demand the introduction here of the names of the contractors who furnished it. The whole contract was taken by Messrs. Chollar, Sage & Dunham, of West Troy, New York, and by them executed faithfully, and as promptly as the nature of the work and the means of transportation would permit. Their contract extended to the delivery of the pipes on the wharf, at Manhattanville, where they were taken in charge by the agents of this Department.

There has also been put down this season, a main pipe, thirty inches in diameter, extending from the gate of the Dis

tributing Reservoir, on Forty-second street, to the Eleventh avenue, and connected with the distributing mains in the Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth and Tenth avenues, and with that in Broadway. This line is intended to make perfect a a direct communication between the distributing mains in that section of the city, and the Receiving Reservoir, and as it can be disconnected from the Distributing Reservoir, it insures that section against any stoppage or diminution of the supply of water, even should temporary circumstances ever render such disconnection necessary. The length of this main is five thousand one hundred and twenty-five feet, and its cost, inclnding stop-cocks and connections, sixty-five thousand dollars.

Again, in its annual report, this Board begs leave earnestly to call the attention of the Common Council to the subject of the new large reservoir. Its importance, and the necessity for obtaining possession, at the earliest possible moment, of the ground for its site, has been so fully set forth, both in our annual reports and in special communications on the subject, that further argument or detailed explanation is useless; but to urge again and again, by all the means in its power, that some active and energetic measures be taken to secure the ground for this important work, is, in the opinion of this Board, a most undoubted and decided duty.

During the last session of the State Legislature, an act was passed in reference to this subject, which it is deemed proper here to reprint in full.

AN ACT

TO FACILITATE THE ACQUISITION OF LANDS FOR A NEW RESERVOIR IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK,

PASSED JUNE 30, 1853, THREE-FIFTHS BEING PRESENT.

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

SECTION 1. The Croton Aqueduct Board, in the city of New York, for and in behalf and in the name of the Mayor, Aldermen and Commonalty of the city of New York, are authorized to acquire title to all such lands, tenements, hereditaments and premises, lying between Eighty-sixth and Ninety-sixth streets and Fifth and Seventh avenues, or as much thereof as they may deem desirable, for the purpose of constructing a new reservoir, (in the city of New York,) under the authority of the Common Council.

§2. The said Board, in the name of the Mayor, Aldermen and Commonalty of the city of New York, may present a petition to the Supreme Court, at any general term thereof, held in the First Judicial District, praying for the appointment of Commissioners of Appraisal; such petition shall be signed and verified by the officers of said Board, or any one of them; shall contain a description of the lands or real estate required for said purpose, and shall set forth that the same are required for the purposes of said reservoir.

§ 3. A notice of the presentation of such petition to the owners, lessees, parties and persons, respectively entitled unto and interested in the lands, tenements, hereditaments

and premises so required, shall be given by advertisement in four of the public newpapers having a large daily circulation in the city of New York, and shall be published daily not less than thirty days; such notice shall specify the time and place, where and when an application will be made for appointment of Commissioners of Appraisal, in pursuance of such petition, and the extent of the land required to be taken.

§ 4. At the time and place mentioned in said notice, unless the said Court shall adjourn said application to a subsequent day, and in that event, at the time of which the same may be adjourned, upon due proof to the satisfaction of the said Court of the publication aforesaid, shall appoint three competent and disinterested persons, residents of the city and county of New York, Commissioners to ascertain and appraise the compensation to be made to the respective owners, lessees, parties and persons, respectively entitled to or interested in the said respective lands, tenements, hereditaments and premises required for the reservoir aforesaid, and shall fix the time and place of the first meeting of such Commissioners.

§ 5. The said Board may, at the time and place of moving for such appointment, propose to the Court the names of three suitable persons, and the owners, lessees, parties and persons, respectively entitled unto or interested in said premises, may likewise propose the names of three suitable persons as Commissioners of Appraisal.

§. 6. The said Commissioners, before they enter upon the performance of the duties of their appointment, shall severally take and subscribe an oath or affirmation, before some

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