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 The aqueduct commissioners, the trustees of the College of the City of New York, and the trustees of Bellevue and allied hospitals, however, are removable only for cause and after a hearing. The mayor’s veto of a franchise passed by the board of aldermen is final; his veto of an ordinance or resolution of the board which involves the expenditure of money, the creation of a debt or the laying of an assessment can be overcome only by a three-fourths vote; and his veto of any other measure of the board can be overcome only by a two-thirds vote. Special city legislation passed by the state legislature is referred to the mayor for his acceptance; if he does not accept it, it may be repassed by both branches of the legislature but must then be marked, when referred to the governor, “passed without the acceptance of the city.”

History.—The discovery of New York Bay and the Hudson river by Verrazano in 1524 was followed only by occasional visits of trading or exploring vessels until the arrival of Henry Hudson in 1609. Beginning with 1610, Dutch merchants despatched several vessels to engage in the fur trade with the Indians, and in 1614 a ship commander, Adriaen Block, having lost his vessel, built the “Onrust” or “Restless” on the shore of Upper New York Bay. About the same time a few huts were built at the south end of Manhattan Island. When New Netherland had been erected (1623) into a province of the West India Company (see ), that body chose the south end of Manhattan Island for a trans-Atlantic shipping station and for the seat of government. In 1626 Peter Minuit, the director-general of the province, bought the entire island from the Indians for goods valued at 60 guilders (about $24) and at what was then its southern extremity began the erection of Fort Amsterdam; and at the close of the year the settlement, New Amsterdam, comprised thirty bark-covered dwellings. For several years it was maintained wholly in the interest of the Company, and to none of the inhabitants, all of whom were its agents or employees, were given any political rights, title to land or right to European trade on his own account. The company divided a large portion of the island into six farms of its own, and when by its Charter of Privileges and Exemption