person authorized by law to administer oaths, faithfully to perform the trusts and duties required of them by this act; which oath or affirmation shall be filed in the office of the Clerk of the city and County of New York, and any one of them may summon witnesses before them in the manner hereinafter provided, may administer oaths to witnesses; and they, or any one of them, in the absence of the others, may adjourn the proceedings from time to time, in their discretion. It shall be their duty to view the premises affected by such proceedings, if they shall deem such view necessary; and they shall hear the proof and allegations of any owner, lessee, party or person entitled to or interested in the said lands, tenements, hereditaments and premises, as to the extent of such interest.

§ 7. It shall be the duty of the said Commissioners to proceed with all reasonable diligence to estimate in favor of the several owners, lessees, parties or persons interested in the lands to be taken, a just and equitable compensation for his, her or their land comprised therein, and to report to the said Court, without unnecessary delay, at a general term thereof, the amount of such compensation to be paid to the respective owners, lessees, parties and persons aforesaid, respectively. The said Commissioners shall set forth in said report the names of the respective owners, lessees, parties or persons entitled thereto, or interested in the said lands, tenements, hereditaments and premises mentioned in the said report, and each and every parcel thereof, so far forth as the same shall have been ascertained by them, and an apt and sufficient designation or description of the respective lots or parcels of land, and other tenements and premises that may be required for the purpose afore

said. But in the place and stead of such description the said Commissioners may, if they deem it practicable and advisable, refer to a map or maps, to be annexed to their report, showing the exact location and boundaries of each lot or parcel comprised within the land to be taken, as aforesaid, and the names of the owners or persons interested therein, respectively; but in all and each and every case and cases, when the owners and parties interested in their respective estates and interests are unknown or not fully known to the said Commissioners, it shall be sufficient for them to set forth and state, in their general terms, the respective sums to be allowed and paid to the owners and proprietors thereof generally, without specifying the names or estates or interests of such owners, proprietors or parties interested, or any or either of them.

§ 8. On the report being completed by the said Commissioners, or a majority of them, notice of the presentation thereof, and of a motion for the confirmation of said report, shall be given to the owners, lessees, persons and parties interested in the lands, tenements, hereditaments and premises affected thereby, by advertisement in four of the public newspapers in the city of New York, having a large daily circulation, and shall be published daily not less than sixty days; such notice shall specify the time when and where an application will be made for confirmation of said report, and the time and place specified in said notice, unless the said Court, at such general term, shall adjourn said motion to a subsequent day, and in that event, at the time to which the same may be adjourned; the Court, after hearing any matter which may be alleged against the same, shall, by rule or order, confirm the said

report, in whole or in part, or refer the same or some part thereof, to the same Commissioners for revisal or correction, or to new Commissioners, to reconsider the subject matter thereof, or any part thereof; and the said Commissioners, to whom said report, or any part thereof, shall be so referred, shall return the same report, or such part thereof as shall be so referred to them, corrected and revised, or a new report shall be made by them in the premises, to the said Court, without unnecessary delay, and the same, on being so returned, shall be confirmed by the said Court, or again referred by the said Court, in manner aforesaid, as right and justice shall require; and so, from time to time, until a report shall be made or returned in the premises, which the said Court shall confirm; and such report, when so confirmed by the said Court, shall be final and conclusive, as well upon the said Mayor, Aldermen and Commonalty of the city of New York, as upon all the owners, lessees, persons and parties interested in, and entitled unto the lands, tenements, hereditaments and premises mentioned in the said report, and also upon all other persons whomsoever, and upon the confirmation of said report, the said the Mayor, Aldermen and Commonalty of the city of New York shall become and be seized, in fee, of all the lands, tenements, hereditaments and appurtenances in the said report mentioned, that shall or may be so required for the purpose of the new reservoir aforesaid. In trust, nevertheless, that the same be appropriated as and for a reservoir of the Croton Aqueduct; and thereupon the said Mayor, Aldermen and Commonalty, and the Croton Aqueduct Board, or any person or persons acting under their authority, may immediately, or at any time or times thereafter, take possession of the same, or any part or parts

thereof, without any suit or proceedings at law for that purpose.

§ 9. Sections one hundred and eighty-two, one hundred and eighty-three, one hundred and eighty-four, one hundred and eighty-seven and one hundred and eighty-eight of the act entitled an act to reduce several laws relating particularly to the city of New York, into one act, passed April ninth, eighteen hundred and thirteen, shall apply to this act, in the same manner and to the same effect as if the same were enacted herein.

§ 10. The Commissioners appointed under this act shall receive, each, the sum of not more than four dollars, (besides all reasonable expenses for maps, surveys, plans and clerk hire,) for each day they shall respectively be actually employed in the duties of their appointment; the same to be paid by the Mayor, Aldermen and Commonalty of the city of New York.

§ 11. This act shall take effect immediately.

STATE OF NEW YORK,

Secretary's office.

I have compared the preceding

with an original law on file in this office, and do certify that the same is a correct transcript therefrom, and of the whole of said original.

[L. S.]

Given under my hand and seal of office, at

the said city of Albany, the ninth day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.

HENRY S. RANDALL,

Secretary of State.

So far as is known to this Board, whatever be the causes, no efficient action, or at least no perceptible progress has yet been made under this law.

In connection with this subject, the Board would call the attention of the Common Council to the necessity of some action upon one or other of the plans proposed for increasing the capacity of the aqueduct at the High Bridge. For, although in view of the rapid increase in the value of real estate, it would undoubtedly save a large sum to the city to acquire at once the right of ownership to the site selected for the new reservoir, its actual construction would be useless until the means of rendering it available were perfected by the proposed improvement at the High Bridge. Both of these works are urgently demanded, and should be energetically prosecuted.

The amount of expenditure under the head of Croton Water Works Extension, is shown in schedule C; it is one hundred and forty-seven thousand and seventy-one dollars and forty-three cents. The unexpended balance, lapsing into the City Treasury is seventy-two thousand one hundred and ninety-one dollars and eighty-three cents.

The general condition of the aqueduct, throughout the whole line, gives this year, as heretofore, the most satisfactory evidence of the perfectly durable character of the work. A freshet, greater than any we have experienced since the 8th of January, 1841, occurred during the 13th and 14th of November last, doing some slight damage, at various points on the line, but not affecting the permanent portions of the structure. Some of the wood work of the