Contingent expenses War Department. Salaries of employés public buildings and grounds, under Chief Engineer... 11 31, 012 28 6,584 41 6,344 88 9,810 00 14,943 43 34, 306 15 305 12 750 00 Repairs to water-pipes and fire-plugs. 11 1, 174 10 Telegraph to connect the Capitol, Departments, and Government Printing War, civil, miscellaneous. Salaries, office of superintendent State, War, and Navy Department building.. Erection of fish-ways at Great Falls..... Monument at Washington's Headquarters, Newburgh, N. Y........ Accounts adjusted. DISBURSEMENTS-Continued. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR-Continued. Public buildings and grounds—Continued. Ventilation. Senate... Senate stable and engine-house. Payment to George W. Cook, improving Capitol grounds Heating apparatus, building for Pension Office. Penitentiary buildings, Territories of Dakota and Montana. Buildings and grounds, Government Hospital for the Insane Additional accomodations, Government Hospital for the Insane Buildings and grounds, Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb Number of accounts. 1218408624 2437 Amount. $190 15 300 00 2,404 88 440, 505 22 15,466 04 43, 275 45 29, 897 29 4,191 21 15, 113 79 5,185 27 3,004 16 418, 333 16 38,559 00 13,323 00 48,487 56 7765 61, 870 13 7394 73, 461 45 17, 444 13 17, 769 00 22,792 28 402, 044 46 10 61, 902 82 18, 352 38 7,920 89 694, 138 26 8, 193, 652 02 137, 046 23 53, 580 75 17,900 95 58,181 59 95,885 21 9,261 13 7,121 67 38,267 80 795 17 1,502 45 4, 658 12 23, 672 51 6, 017 78 1,522 45 22, 070 03 2,571 20 15, 034 37 09, 447 90 2,702 20 2, 567 83 612 75 4,005 20 1,593 56 Judiciary emolument accounts registered and referred 19, 987 8, 591 569 2,643 1,373 Number of powers of attorney for collection of interest on the public debt examined, regis tered, and filed... Requisicions answered It gives me pleasure to especially commend the Hon. E. P. Baldwin, deputy auditor, and Chiefs H. K. Leaver, A. F. McMillan, J. P. Bentley and Thaddeus Sturgis, and Acting Chief J. P. Torbert, the clerks and other employés of the Bureau for faithful, intelligent, and efficient service rendered. Respectfully submitted. Hon. DANIEL MANNING, JAS. Q. CHENOWETH, " REPORT OF THE SECOND AUDITOR OF THE TREASURY. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, SECOND AUDITOR'S OFFICE, SIR: I have the honor to submit the following report of the operations of this office during the fiscal year which ended June 30, 1886, showing the disposition of moneys appropriated for certain branches of the military establishment and the Indian service, the work performed in each division of the office, and the condition of public business at the close of the year. NEW CLASSES OF CLAIMS. Several new classes of claims have been presented during the past fiscal year, chiefly under rulings of the Second Comptroller, by which a limited number of volunteer officers who were promoted from the ranks during the war of 1861-65, and certain classes of enlisted men who served in that war, will receive bounty heretofore denied them upon what is now deemed an erroneous construction of law. The most important class, however, consists of claims of officers and ex-officers of the United States Army for a readjustment of their pay accounts since 1838, in which they shall be credited with whatever time they may have served as cadets at the West Point Military Academy or as enlisted men in the Army. These claims are based upon the acts of July 5, 1838 (5 Stat., 258), July 15, 1870 (16 Stat., 320), February 24, 1881 (21 Stat., 346), and June 30, 1882 (22 Stat., 118), and upon a recent judgment of the Court of Claims in the case of Capt. Malbone F. Watson, United States Army. As the Government has taken an appeal to the Supreme Court, it is not considered proper to comment on this new class of claims further than to say that at least 2,200 officers, or their legal representatives, are interested, and that the cost of readjusting the pay accounts of officers who have served since 1838, on the basis claimed by Captain Watson, would probably be not less than $1,500,000. Up to this date 380 claims have been filed, but no action has been taken thereon. The prosecution of these claims, many of which accrued nearly half a century ago, is a striking illustration of the necessity of a statute of limitations. REHEARINGS. By a rule adopted last November, applications of disbursing officers and claimants for rehearings after their cases have been formally disposed of are required to be made to the Auditor, whose decisions thereon are certified to the Second Comptroller, with the papers, for final action. No record has been kept of the number of these applications, but the work involved is sufficient to occupy the entire time of an experienced clerk, and is rapidly increasing. WORN-OUT MUSTER AND PAY ROLLS. On representations made by this office as to the condition of a large number of muster and pay rolls, an appropriation of $21,000 was pro |