TWELFTH BIENNIAL REPORT OF THE AUDITOR OF STATE AND REGISTER OF STATE LAND-OFFICE. FOR THE FISCAL YEARS ENDING JUNE 30, 1899, AND JUNE 30, 1900. TOPEKA: W. Y. MORGAN, STATE PRINTER. 1900. TWELFTH BIENNIAL REPORT. OFFICE OF THE AUDITOR OF STATE, TOPEKA, KAN., November 1, 1900. Lo his Excellency W. E. Stanley, Governor of Kansas: SIR-I have the honor herewith to submit for your consideration the report of the transactions of this department for the biennial period ending June 30, 1900, the same being the Twelfth Biennial Report of the Auditor of State. By statutory authority, the auditor of state is invited and permitted to give advice to the legislature touching all matters for the betterment of the management of the public revenue, as set forth in section 47, chapter 2, General Statutes of 1897. This report is made up in as brief a manner as is consistent with an intelligent compilation of the numerous tables and schedules, and contains a complete financial showing of the affairs of the state. for the period covered. You will observe that the amounts drawn on contingent funds are itemized, showing to whom and for what purpose they were drawn, as is specially required in the section of statute cited above. I have given considerable time and thought to the statute covering our plan of controlling the penal and benevolent institutions of the state, and am thoroughly convinced that a radical change in our methods would not only result beneficially to the economical conduct of the institutions, but the state would secure better service in every particular. : At present the control of the institutions above mentioned consists of Three directors of the penitentiary, with an appropriation of $2100 per annum for salary and expenses; a board of three members of the state soldiers' home, with an appropriation of $1800 per annum for per diem and actual expenses; five trustees of the state charitable institutions, with an appropriation of $8500 per annum for salary and expenses; and a board of three managers of the state industrial reformatory, with an appropriation of $2000 per annum for per diem and expenses; making a total appropriation for all of $14,400. Under present laws, the control of these various institutions is vested in fourteen men, with compensation entirely inadequate for them to give but the smallest possible part of their time to the business of the boards of which they are members. While there can be no adverse criticism |