LUKE CHUTE. The dam has been graveled, partly renewed by piles driven below, the aprons repaired, and the cribs filled with stone. This, and the Windsor dam, required, and received, thorough repairs to protect and render them safe. BEVERLY. The dam has been graveled, the lock and gates repaired, and the Canal dredged out. LOWELL. The Canal has been dredged out, and the dam repaired and graveled. DEVOLS. The lower aprons have been rebuilt in part, the dam repaired, and the cribs filled with stone. MARIETTA. The lower aprons and cribs, forming the breast work, were partly re-built, and piles driven for the foundation of the aprons, the cribs filled with stone, and the dam otherwise repaired and graveled. The repairs in this Improvement have been thoroughly done, although the con. tractors could not get their materials ready by as early in the season as they will be enabled to do hereafter. There has been paid on this section, for the year, ending November 15, 1856, by check of Wayne Griswold, Acting Commissioner, on the Auditor of State On contract for superintendence and repairs.. For Engineer's salary and incidental expenses. Total... $24,522 17 1,020 00 1,794 48 60 25 $27,396 90 There has been paid out of the Contingent Fund of the Board, for Total $1,202 92 2,058 49 $3,261 41 35-PUB. DOC. PART I. It will be seen by an examination of the annexed tabular statement that the gross receipts for tolls, water-rents and fines on the Public Works for the year ending November 15, 1856, are.. The receipts for the year ending November, 15, 1855, were.......... Showing a diminution in the receipts for 1856, as compared with those of 1855, of___. $427,813 09 468,831 93 $41,018 84 About six thousand dollars of this diminution in the revenue occurred on the Ohio Canal, five thousand on the Hocking Canal, and thirty thousand on the Miami and Erie Canal, while on both the Muskingum Improvement, and the Walhonding Canal, there is a slight increase. It is confidently believed that the loss in tolls on the Ohio, and Hocking Canals would not have occurred had navigation remained uninterrupted on the Lancaster Side Cut, notwithstanding the failure in the supply of water from the Licking Summit Reservoir. There is no reason to believe that the export of coal from the Hocking Valley would have been less, in any event, than it was last year, had not the work on the Side Cut prevented its shipment, and there is good reason to believe it would have been greater. If this supposition be correct the offices at Logan and Carroll would have made up the deficiency on these two works. This shows that notwithstanding the unfavorable crops of the last two or three years, and the interruption to navigation from want of sufficient supply of water, the business of the eastern portion of our Public Works is increasing, a result due undoubtedly to the gradual augmentation of the business of the country, and more especially to the increase of the coal and iron trade. The diminished income of the Miami and Erie Canal is attributable entirely to the want of a sufficient supply of water on the Loramie Summit, noticed in another part of this report. The facilities for shipment by railroad are now so great that any interruption, of the kind experienced on this work during the past season, results in the immediate withdrawal of freight from the Canal, and its transfer to the rival routes. The aggregate of checks drawn on the canals of the State during the fiscal year ending November 15, 1856, it will be seen, is $401,498 00. This sum, however, does not properly represent the expenditures chargeable to the current repairs for the year, as in it are included large payments for work previously performed, as well as others for repairs of a character not likely to occur again. of these items on the several works is as follows: The amount Deducting this from the gross payments leaves $325,664 44 as the current expenditures for maintaining the Public Works during the year. By the returns made to the Auditor of State, the net receipts on these works, it will be seen, are $388,463 92, showing a surplus of receipts over current expenditures, for the year, of $62,799 48. In regard to the working of the system of making the ordinary repairs on our Public Works by contract, the experience of the past year has scarcely been sufficient to justify an opinion. Indeed, an opinion worthy of full confidence can not be given until the expiration of the time covered by the existing contracts will enable us to see the condition in which the various works shall be re-delivered to the State. It is to be presumed, that during the first years of the term through which the contracts extend, the contractors will put every thing in o the best condition as the most economical method of sustaining the various works, for the time the risk remains with them. Whether this will equally be the case as the termination of the contracts approaches, may well be questioned. So far, the contractors have generally met their engagements with a reasonable degree of promptness. Whenever their direct interest is at stake, due vigilance is usually exercised, but it can not be denied that the experience of the past year shows that the primary interest of the contractors is to avoid the expenditure of money, except where such expenditure will bring an immediate return, secure a tangible advantage to them, or guard against an evident danger. In case where these results are not secured, such as regulating a uniform flow of water, removing obstructions from weirs or gates, cutting and removing grass, and many other small matters of every day occurrence, requiring the immediate and prompt attention of the subordinates in charge, and the neglect of which will not affect the subsequent safety of the canal, or enhance the cost of its repair, there has too often been a want of that attention which, even in these apparently minor matters, is necessary to insure free and unobstructed navigation. The result has been well grounded complaints on the part of bo tmen and occupants of water power. It may be said, these difficulties could be easily prevented by a resort to that provision of the contracts which authorizes the agents of the State to employ persons to perform any labor which has been neglected by the contractors. If the agents of the State were more numerous, this might be done, but so long as one or two persons only are charged with the care and superintendence of from one hundred and fifty to two hundred miles of line, it is totally impossible. Under the old system, there was seldom more than from twenty-five to forty miles of line under the care of one superintendent, and although the want of a direct interest on his part to prevent the expenditure of money in repairs of this kind, was liable to lead to abuses, yet it unquestionably aided to secure a much more prompt attention to them, and in consequence to insure a more uniJ. BLICKENSDERFER, Jr., formly good navigation. Attest: LEONARD WHITNEY, Secretary. A. G. CONOVER, |