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COMMUNICATION
SECRETARY BOARD OF PUBLIC WORKS.
RKLATIYE TO
um TO JAMES RIVER & KANAWHA CO.
18.53-4.
Doc. No. 54.
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COMMUNICATION.
OFFICE BOARD OF PUBLIC WORKS,
Richmond, 9th Februar7 1854.
O. iL CmrrCHFlELD, Esq., Speaker
Of the Hotue of Delegate» of Va.
Sir,
I have been directed by the Board of public works to transmit to the
general assembly, through you, the following communicatibn :
Oil the 2d of March 1853, the general assembly passed an act authorizing and requiring
the Board of public works "to loan to the James river and Kanawha company the sum of
six hundred and forty thousand dollars, to be advanced to the said company in sums of fifty
thousand dollars, monthly, commencing on the first day of March eighteen hundred and
fifty three, and to be expended in the extension of the said company's water line from
Buchanan to some point at or near Covington or Clifton Forge." The same act provides
" that the sum of dxty thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, herein
above appropriated, shail be set apart and applied exclusively for the purpose of com¬
pleting the connection of said canal with tide water."
In obedience to the law aforesaid, the Board of public works have, from time to time,
been paying the duly authenticated drafts of the James river and Kanawha company for
the monthly installments of the loan, as they respectively fell due and were demanded.
After the payment of the seventh installment, making a total payment of $ 350,000, the
Board, hearing that there had been a misapplication of the funds thus paid, by resolution
adopted on the 4th of January last, requested the president of that company to inform
them what amount of money had been expended on the company's work above the town of
Buchanan. On the, next day, that gentleman returned an answ er stating that, prior to that
date, there had been expended on the line of the improvement between Buchanan and
Covington $ 148,699 33, and on the improvement between Covington and Greenbrier
912,491 80, making a total expenditure above the town of Buchanan, of $ 161,191 13.
By this statement, it will be seen that, of the 9 350,000 paid to the company on account
of the aforesaid loan, after deducting the $ 60,000 appropriated for the completion of the
tide water connetiion, and the amount expended above Buchanan, there was an unexpended
balance in the treasury of the company on the 5th January last, of 9 128,808 87.
On the 7th instant, a draft of said company for 9 50,000, the eighth installment of the
loan aforesaid, was presented to the Board for payment Before taking final action in re¬
ference to it, they had an interview with the president of the company in regard to the
manner in which the previous installments had been appropriated, and ascertained that
about 9 135,000 of those funds had been applied to the payment of the semi-aimual interest
due upon the guaranteed bonds of the company, and for other purposes, which amount, he
expected, would be returned out of the revenues of the company in the course of the next
year. They further understood that the amount called for by the present draft was abso¬
lutely needed to pay for work done upon the improvement above Buchanan. They, there-
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Doc. No. 54.
fore, adopted a resolution directing the payment of the draft, at the same time " protesting
against the manner in which a portion of the payments heretofore made by them on account
of the said loan has been applied, and with the distinct promise, on the part of the presi¬
dent of the said company, that all future payments on account of said loan shall be faith¬
fully appropriated to the execution of the particular portion of the work for which it wag
intended, as designated by the act of March 2d, 1853."
The right and duty of the board to withhold the payment of money they are required to
pay by acts of assembly to companies iu which the state is a stockholder, or the payment of
loans authorized to be made to such companies, when they are satisfied that the moneys
thus paid, or called for, have not been, or will not be, applied to the purposes for which
they were specifically appropriated being doubted, they have thought it proper to make this
communication to the general assembly, and submit the whole matter to be disposed of as
the wisdom of that body may determine.
Very respectfully.
Your ob't servant.
W. E. DEINKAED,
Sec'y Board of Public Workt.