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It is acknowledged by all, that the jail of said county is no longer safe for the confinement of prisoners, and cannot be made so by any ordinary repairs.

That the present court-house, which includes the jail, was erected in the year 1803, and soon after the first survey of the Holland Purchase, and while the county was unimproved and thinly populated, and that all of the principal roads then laid out by the Holland company, and such as have since been established in the vicinity of the present site, concentrate at that point, and render the approach to it from every quarter, convenient for every necessary purpose.

That there is no other point in the county where so much business concentrates; nor could the location of the county buildings, at any other place contemplated by the petitioners, accommodate so well the business transacted in the county.

That with the exception of a part of one town in the south-west corner of the county, which projects six miles beyond its general southern boundary, and another on the east side projecting about three miles, Genesee county is nearly an oblong square, of thirtysix by twenty-six miles. The present jail is upon the great mail route from Albany, both by Canandaigua and Rochester, to Buffalo, and almost exactly upon a medium meridian between the east and west bounds.

The canal, and consequently the points of deposit for all the surplus productions of the county, and the inlets for all the merchandize brought into it, are still north of its northern bounds. When this is considered, and that the Holland land company's principal office, and the Genesee bank are in Batavia village, it must be seen that the public convenience cannot require the seat to be removed further south, any more than that the seats of the North River counties should be removed back to their geographical centres, where no natural, artificial or business advantages exist.

The prominent places spoken of and most strenuously insisted on by those who desire the removal of the county buildings, are one of them within ten miles of the west line of the county, while it is sixteen from the east; another within less than nine miles of the west line, and more than seventeen from the east, while another competing place is within seven miles of the east line, and consequently more than nineteen from the west. Two of these places are not more than seven and an half or eight miles from the

present site, and the third and western-most one not more than eleven miles, and almost inacessible by a direct route to a part of the county, on account of steep and high ridges of land which inter

vene.

These are the only places to which it is proposed to remove the county buildings, so far as your committee have any knowledge.

It would, in the opinion of your committee, work great injustice to the citizens of the village and neighborhood of Batavia, to remove the county buildings, by renducing its importance as a business place, and consequently depressing the value of real estate, which has been purchased by the citizens at an advanced price, with direct reference to the advantages which arise from its contiguity to the present county buildings; all of which advantages, by a removal, would be transferred to the citizens resident at and contiguous to the new site, without any equivalent being given, and without any claim to their possession, except such as are founded in interest.

That the northern part of the county is rich in agricultural products, while the southern is much better adapted to grazing puri poses, and hence the northern part is capable of sustaining, and will always sustain, a greater amount of population than the south

ern.

But there is another view of the subject which your committee feel it their duty to take as connected with the proposition to remove the county buildings.

On referring to the maps of the counties of Genesee, Allegany and Cattaraugus, it is observable that there is a large tract of country comprising the extremities of those counties, which can be better accommodated by being formed into a new county, than by remaining as at present.

The only question which remains to be settled, is, whether it is most expedient to erect a county now, or at some future time. Petitions are now before the Legislature for this object, and as your committee believe, not less than four distinct applications of this nature have, or are about to be made. If any of the several proposed applications should be granted, it will leave the present site of the county buildings as nearly central as may be.

Your committee are therefore fully persuaded that to interfere at this time to remove the present site, while these multiplied applications are depending, and perhaps likely to prevail, would be injudicious.

There is still another consideration connected with this subject, of no trifling importance.

The site upon which the county buildings are situated, consisting of the present court-house, which might be rendered commodious by erecting a new jail, a stone fire-proof clerk's office, and including an acre and a half or two acres of land in the heart of the village of Batavia, which was conveyed to the county by the Holland company upon the express condition that it should be occupied for the sole purpose of the county seat.

The ground and buildings will consequently revert to the company if a removal should be made, and thereby a loss would be sustained by the county, probably of six or eight thousand dollars, which together with the expense of erecting new buildings, and purchasing another site, would be onerous in the extreme upon the inhabitants.

Your committee think proper to state, that the supervisors of the county, who are to be regarded as the representatives of the people in relation to all questions of this sort, have not in their resolution, which is herein inserted, expressed any desire, or intimated any opinion, that the county buildings should be removed, nor that any inconvenience exists on account of their present location.

Your committee ask leave to introduce a bill providing for the erection of a jail at Genesee, at the present site, and upon the lands belonging to the county.

IN ASSEMBLY,

January 22, 1831.

ANNUAL REPORT

Of Jacob Lockman, an Inspector of Lumber, for the city and county of New-York.

To the Honourable the Legislature of the State of New-York.

The following is the return of lumber inspected and measured, from the first of January, 1830, to the first of January, 1831, according to the Revised Statutes of the state of New-York.

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