Page:1883 Annual Report of the German Society of the City of New York.djvu/30

Rh of the head-money from $2.50 to $1.50 the receipts of the Emigrant Commission were so much diminished, that it was forced to contract a debt of over $200,000.00, dismiss a large number of its officials, particularly Germans, and to make a great reduction in salaries.

1875. . The Emigrant Commission being obliged, for want of funds, to discontinue the Labor Bureau at Castle Garden, the Board of Directors of the German Society, in connection with the Irish Emigrant Society, resolved to maintain this beneficent institution for the benefit of emigrants and others in search of work. To this end, L. P. Reichard, who had been previously employed in this Bureau, was appointed German agent there, and his salary paid by the German Society. (He occupies the position under the same conditions at the present date.)

. The establishment of a German "Legal Aid Society" is recommended.

1876. . Of the excise money, designed by a new law of the Legislature to be distributed among the charitable societies and institutions of this city, the German Society receives $4000 from the Board of Apportionment.

. At the general meeting held this day, the following addition to the by-laws of the Society is adopted:

"If, at a regularly called general meeting, no quorum should appear, the Board of Directors shall be entitled to transact the business which should have been transacted by the general meeting."

. In the suit against the Emigrant Commission, the Supreme Court declares the law of the State in favor of demanding head-money for emigrants unconstitutional.

. The "German Legal Aid Society" gives notice of its organization.

. Burning of the main building at Castle Garden. Although there were nearly a thousand emigrants in Castle Garden that evening, no life was lost. A portion of their baggage, however, was burnt, for which the insurance companies gave a compensation of $9000.

1877. . In consequence of the death of R.