G. Table showing the total annual transportation of mails, and the total annual cost of transportation for the last ten years-1842 to 1851– both inclusive, also the amount of cost per mile. Statement showing the amount paid for mail transportation, and the net revenue arising from postages in each State, and Territory for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1851. States and Ter- Amount paid. Net revenue. States and Ter- Amount paid. Net revenue. ritories. ritories. REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, November 29, 1851. Sts: For the purpose of enabling you to recommend to Congress, at its approaching session, such measures as you may judge necessary and expedient respecting the various subjects confided to the Department of the Interior, I respectfully submit the following report. The law creating this department was approved the 3d of March, 1849. By its provisions, the Secretary of the Interior is required to exercise supervisory and appellate powers over the acts of the Commissioner of Patents, of the General Land Office, of Indian Affairs, of Pensions, and of Public Buildings; and also over the accounts of marshals, clerks and other officers. of the courts of the United States; over the officers engaged in taking the census, the inspectors and warden of the penitentiary of the District of Columbia, and the subject of lead and other mines of the United States. He is also charged with other duties not specially inentioned in the law, but which, from their peculiar nature, appropriately belong to his office. Among these is the general supervision of the proceedings of the commission instituted, under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, to run and mark the boundary line between the United States and Mexico. Under each of these several heads he has important and responsible functions to perform. He prescribes rules for the general administration of the different bureaus; ees to their faithful execution, and decides, judicially, on all appeals from either of them which may be brought before him. Such is the general outline of the duties of the office. The reports of the heads of the several bureaus will give full and satisfactory information of their respective operations, accompanied by many valuable suggestions of improvements and modifications in the existing laws. It is proper, however, that I should exhibit to you a condensed summary of the condition of the department as a whole, with such remarks of my own as the public interests seem, in my judgment, to demand. This I will now proceed to do; and, for the sake of convenient reference, my statements will be arranged under the different heads above enumerated, and such others as may be necessary. ESTIMATES OF APPROPRIATIONS. The following tabular statement shows the estimates of the department for the fiscal year ending 30th June, 1853, with a parallel column exhibiting those for the year ending 30th June, 1852. This form of presenting the subject is adopted for the purpose of making a comparison of the esti mates of the two years without the trouble of a reference to former reports. Part -17 A reference to the aggregate of the two columns will show that the estimates for the next year are less, by $1,436,695 43, than those for the present fiscal year, although they embrace many items of large amount for new objects not embraced in the estimates for the present year-as, for example, $150,000 for the census, and upwards of $300,000 for surveying the public lands in California. This reduction results from no diminution of the actual expenses of this branch of the public service, but from the fact that the estimates for this year embraced many very large items for deficiencies of the preceding year. A vicious practice has prevailed for some years past, of reducing the estimates at the commencement of the session below the amount actually necessary, with the view of afterwards applying for additional appropriations in what is called a deficiency bill. I took occasion in my last report to express my disapprobation of this practice, and I required the heads of the several bureaus, attached to this department, to make full and fair estimates of all that the public service required. It was accordingly done, and now, instead of deficiencies amounting to near two millions of dollars, it will be found that they are but little over $300,000. It is impossible to foresee what will be the actual expenditures of any given year, because they depend on contingencies beyond the control of the department; but it must be admitted that there has been a reasonable approximation to accuracy, when it is found that, in the disbursement of more than seven millions of dollars, the expenditures exceed the estimate only about $300,000. With these general remarks, I proceed to submit detailed explanations of each class of the estimates, in the order in which they stand. Department proper. Under this head the estimate for the next fiscal year exceeds that for the present, $7,577 50. This results from the fact that at the expiration of the last fiscal year unexpended balances of former appropriations remained, as stated in my last annual report, which brought the estimates of the present year below their legitimate amount, Land service. The estimate for the present fiscal year amounted to That for surveys of the public lands $50,000 00 $336,152 50, - 155,305 00 230,305 00 And the expenditures properly chargeable to the present fiscal year will be shown to be 1,066,457 50 $1,284,916 47 155,305 00 1,129,611 47 The estimate for the next fiscal year amounts to in the present year And the amount chargeable to the next year is Being an excess over the estimate for the present year, of 63,153 97 This is accounted for by the unexpectedly large amount required for the surveys in California. Leaving California out of the question, and the estimates compare thus: Estimate for the present year Deduct the amount therein for surveys in California And it will leave the amount chargeable to the present year $836,152 50 7,000 00 829,152 50 822,036 47 And the amount properly chargeable to the next fiscal year will be Being $7,116 03 less than the amount properly chargeable to the present year. Indian affairs. Under this head the estimates for the next fiscal year amount to $1,098,196 30 less than those for the present fiscal year. For reasons stated in my last annual report, the estimates for the present year were unusually large, but the estimates for the next fiscal year are even below the average of those for the last and present fiscal years. Pensions. Here the estimates for the next fiscal year amount to $1,053,686 31 less than those for the present year. It was stated in my last report, that though the estimates for the present year amounted to $2,624,726 31, there was chargeable to the present year only the sum of $2,260,037 88 To this add $20,733 33, appropriated at the last session, but not embraced in the last estimates, and $20,000 embraced in the present estimates, to meet deficiencies on account of clerk-hire for the present year, rendered necessary by the bounty land law of 28th Sept., 1850 Then deduct the sum which it is now anticipated will remain on the 30th June, 1852, as the unexpended balances of appropriations for paying pensions And the amount now ascertained to be chargeable to the present year is only The estimate for the next fiscal year amounts to year 40,733 33 2,300,771 19 380,500 00 1,920,271 19 $1,566,040 00 380,500 00 Then deduct the amount embraced therein to meet deficiencies in the present year And the amount properly chargeable to the next fiscal year will be found to be 1,946,540 00 20,000 00 1,926.540 00 Only $6,268 $1 more than for the present year, notwithstanding the increase of clerical force rendered indispensably necessary in the execution of the bounty land law of 1850. Census. The estimates of last year embraced nothing under this head, the former appropriations being then thought sufficient to meet all demands. The experience of another year, however, would indicate otherwise, and for this reason the further sum of $150,000 is asked, to complete the work. It is gratifying to find that in estimating for such an extensive service, so near an approximation to the actual cost was attained. United States courts. Here there is an apparent excess over the estimate of last year of $79,306. The appropriation for the last fiscal year fell short of the actual |