Nothing has been done during the year under the act of the legislature for improving Stony Brook, in conjunction with the town of West Roxbury; but each corporation has kept the present channel in good order, and removed obstructions. A general and permanent improvement of the great sewer must soon be carried out.

LAMP DEPARTMENT.

The importance of this department, extending as it does into every portion of our city, is hardly understood or appreciated, except as incidentally our citizens are deprived of its services from unavoidable causes. Its labors continue Its labors continue at night as well as by day, and the constant and untiring supervision of its superintendent is required at all times to keep it in complete working order. It is eminently one of the growing departments of the city, keeping pace with the addition of new territory, the laying out and building up of new thoroughfares, the constant changes caused by the widening of streets, and the erection of new buildings in the older portions of the city. The ensuing year will be one of great activity, in consequence of the recent annexation of territory, and the rapid building up in the older sections of the city.

The expenditures of this department form an important feature in our appropriations for the year, and it is to be hoped that the same commendable economy in the disbursement of the public moneys may continue to be as marked in the future as in the past.

Your attention is requested to the annual report of this department, to be presented in a few days, in which will be found much that is of value and interest, and more of detail than can be given on this occasion.

FIRE DEPARTMENT.

Our fellow-citizens have every reason to be satisfied with the condition of this department, and of its operations during the past year. The establishment of the fire brigade has been of great importance, and has been productive of very perceptible benefit to the owners of property endangered by fires.

The subject of incendiarism within our rapidly extending city demands our serious consideration. It is well known that of all the alarms which call out our fire department probably not less than twenty per centum are traceable to this cause. The expense to the city of each of these alarms

is considerable in the course of the year; and when in addition to this we consider the much greater loss to individual property holders, the peril to life, and the injury to good morals which this crime, unchecked, necessarily causes, importance of some measure for its prevention becomes apparent.

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It is thought by the underwriters that a competent fire marshal, with proper powers and authority, would add to the efficiency of the department, be a great saving to the community, and add much to the security of property, by having a constant watch upon the causes that so frequently originate the large fires that occur in great cities. I would therefore recommend for your consideration the appointment of such an officer, whose duty it shall be to investigate and ascertain, as far as may be, the cause of each fire, and who shall have authority to take immediate possession of any premises where fire has occurred, and hold them until he can make a proper inquest into the origin of the fire. This officer might, also, be made Inspector of Buildings, with a view to the protection of life and property from destruction in consequence of insecure walls and the defective construction of flues, and should

have authority to arrest the work on any building in process of erection which he might deem unsafe, until the question of its safety could be determined by some prescribed method. I suggest that the legislature may be asked to authorize the appointment of such an officer; and if the power is granted, then, that at an early day, an ordinance creating such an officer, with such powers and limitations as you may deem wise and necessary, be passed. This subject has been several times brought to the attention of the city Council, by the chief engineer of this department, and I renew it now at the earnest solicitation of the principal men who manage the institutions for insurance against fire, doing business in our city.

During the year there have been three hundred and seventy-five fires within the city limits, an excess of eighty-two over the number reported for the previous year, while the loss has been thirty per centum less. There have been only two very extensive fires, one of buildings on Commercial Street, and the other of the flour mill on Commercial Wharf, the damage by which amounted to onethird of the whole loss suffered during the entire year.

The working force of this department consists

of fifteen steam fire-engines, ten horse hose-carriages, and five hook and ladder carriages, with their necessary apparatus, being an increase of one fire-engine and one hook and ladder carriage since the previous year. These are properly manned by the regularly required force. In consequence of the annexation of Dorchester, the department will be considerably enlarged, and the effective force will be thirty-eight companies, which will have the immediate charge of twentyone steam fire-engines, ten horse-hose companies, and seven carriages supplied with hooks and ladders, together with ninety-five horses.

The excellent order, thorough discipline and prevailing harmony of the men, together with the corps spirit which is so remarkably evident in the department, ensure the greatest promptness and efficiency whenever its services is required and called into action. The young men who compose the companies are chiefly mechanics, who are not only experts in their duties as firemen, but industrious, well educated in their trades, and moreover steady and temperate in their habits, and exceedingly careful of their reputation. Many of them are necessarily confined to their company houses a large part of the day, and unquestionably the