thereof any information he may deem necessary in the discharge of his duties. The board may prepare regulations according to which, and provide blanks and forms upon which, such information shall be furnished, in a clear, uniform and prompt manner, for the use of the board. No such officer or inspector shall divulge or communicate to any person without the knowledge and consent of said board any facts or information obtained pursuant to the provisions of this chapter; on proof of such divulgement or communication such officer or inspector may at once be removed from office. The annual reports of each year shall give the results of such inquiries, with the opinion and conclusions of the board relating to the same. Any officer, superintendent or employee of any such institution, society or association who shall unlawfully refuse to admit any member, officer or inspector of the board, for the purpose of visitation and inspection, or who shall refuse or neglect to furnish the information required by the board or any of its members, officers or inspectors, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and subject to a fine of one hundred dollars for each such refusal or neglect. The rights and powers hereby conferred may be enforced by an order of the supreme court after notice and hearing, or by indictment by the grand jury of the county, or both. $ 12. Powers and duties of board on visits and inspections. On such visits, inquiry shall be made to ascertain:

1. Whether all parts of the state are equally benefited by the institutions requiring state aid.

2. The merits of any and all requests on the part of any such institution for state aid, for any purpose, other than the usual expenses thereof; and the amount required to accomplish the object desired.

3. The sources of public moneys received for the benefit of such institution, as to the proper and economical expenditure of such moneys and the condition of the finances generally.

4. Whether the objects of the institution are being accomplished. 5. Whether the laws and the rules and regulations of this board, in relation to it, are fully complied with.

6. Its methods of industrial, educational and moral training, if any, and whether the same are best adapted to the needs of its inmates.

7. The methods of government and discipline of its inmates. 8. The qualifications and general conduct of its officers and employees.

9. The condition of its grounds, buildings and other property. 10. Any other matter connected with or pertaining to its usefulness and good management.

§ 13. Investigations of institutions. The board may direct an investigation, by a committee of one or more of its members, of the affairs and management of any institution, society or association, subject to its supervision, or of the conduct of its officers and employees. The commissioner or commissioners designated to

make such investigations are hereby empowered to issue compulsory process for the attendance of witnesses and the production of papers, to administer oaths, and to examine persons under oath, and to exercise the same powers in respect to such proceeding as belong to referees appointed by the supreme court.

§14. Orders of board directed to institutions. If it shall appear, after such investigation, that inmates of the institution are cruelly, negligently or improperly treated, or inadequate provision is made for their sustenance, clothing, care, supervision or other condition necessary to their comfort and well being, said board may issue an order, in the name of the people, and under its official seal, directed to the proper officers or managers of such institution, requiring them to modify such treatment or apply such remedy, or both, as shall therein be specified; before such order is issued, it must be approved by a justice of the supreme court, after such notice as he may prescribe and an opportunity to be heard, and any person to whom such an order is directed who shall wilfully refuse to obey the same, shall, upon conviction, be adjudged guilty of a misdemeanor.

§ 15. Correction of evils in administration of institutions. The state board of charities shall call the attention of the trustees, directors or managers of any such institution, society or association, subject to its supervision, to any abuses, defects or evils which may be found therein, and such officers shall take proper action thereon, with a view to correcting the same, in accordance with the advice of such board.

§ 16. Duties of the attorney-general and district attorneys. If, in the opinion of the board or any three members thereof, any matter in regard to the management or affairs of any such institution, society or association, or any inmate or person in any way connected therewith, require legal investigation or action of any kind, notice thereof may be given by the board, or any three members thereof, to the attorney-general, and he shall thereupon make inquiry and take such proceedings in the premises as he may deem necessary and proper. It shall be the duty of the attorney-general and of every district attorney when so required, to furnish such legal assistance, counsel or advice as the board may require in the discharge of its duties.

§ 17. State, nonresident and alien poor. A poor person shall not be admitted as an inmate into a state institution for the feebleminded, or epileptics, unless a resident of the state for one year next preceding the application for his admission. The state board of charities, and any of its members or officers, may, at any time, visit and inspect any institution subject to its supervision to ascertain if any inmates supported therein at a state, county or municipal expense are state charges, nonresidents or alien poor; and it may cause to be removed to the state or country from which he came any such nonresident or alien poor found in any such

institution.

§ 19. Reports of state board of charities. The state board of charities shall annually report to the legislature its acts, proceedings and conclusions for the preceding year, with results and recommendations, which report shall include the information obtained in its inquiries and investigations, and from the reports made to it as in this chapter provided, giving a complete and itemized statement of expenditures for state poor, and of such other matters relating to the institutions subject to its visitations as it may deem necessary or proper. The board shall collect and, so far as it shall deem advantageous, embody in its annual reports such information as it may deem proper relating to all institutions subject to the visitation of the board and respecting the best manner of dealing with those who require assistance from the public funds, or who receive aid from private charity, and represent its views as to the best methods of caring for the poor and destitute children who may be distributed through the various institutions of the state, or who may be without instruction or guidance. And all officers of such institutions shall furnish to the state board of charities, on forms provided by said board, such information and statistics as it may require, within thirty days from the expiration of the state fiscal year or other fiscal period as may be designated by said board; and every person who refuses or neglects to do so, in violation of this section, without reasonable excuse, shall be subject to a penalty of one hundred dollars, to be sued for in the name of the people by the attorney-general of the state, upon his receiving written notice from the state board of charities of such refusal. The annual reports of the board may, in its discretion, present the designs and plans and the general estimates for buildings and improvements which it may deem necessary for any state charitable institution, with the opinion of the board respecting any appropriation required as asked in behalf of such institution, other than for maintenance or ordinary purposes. The board may, in its discretion, and shall, when required by the governor, or either house of the legislature, make other and special reports. (Amended by L. 1923, ch. 381.)

§ 20. Institutions for the deaf and dumb and the blind. Institutions for the deaf and dumb and the blind shall be subject to such visitation and inspection by the state board of charities as the constitution provides, but nothing in this article shall be deemed to take from the comptroller of the state any power which he now has to audit and supervise the expenditures made on account of the institutions for deaf-mutes and for the blind.

§ 30. Visits by the state charities' aid association. Any justice of the supreme court, on written application of the state charities' aid association, through its president or other officer designated by its board of managers, may grant to such persons as may be named in such application, orders to enable such persons, or any of them, as visitors of such association to visit, inspect and examine, in behalf of such association, any of the public charitable institutions and state hospitals for the insane owned by the state,

and the county, town and city poor-houses and alms-houses within the state. The persons so appointed to visit, inspect and examine such institutions shall reside in the counties from which such institutions receive their inmates, and such appointments shall be made by a justice of the supreme court of the judicial district in which such visitors reside. Each order shall specify the institution to be visited, inspected and examined and the name of each person by whom such visitation, inspection and examination shall be made, and shall be in force for one year from the date on which it shall have been granted, unless sooner revoked.

§ 31. Duties of officers in charge of institutions; enforcement of orders. All persons in charge of any such institution shall admit each person named in any such order into every part of such institution, and render such person every possible facility to enable him to make in a thorough manner such visits, inspection and examination, which are hereby declared to be for a public purpose, and to be made with a view to public benefit. Obedience to the orders herein authorized shall be enforced in the same manner as obedience is enforced to an order or mandate by a court of record.

§ 32. Annual reports. Such association shall make an annual report to the state board of charities upon matters relating to the institutions subject to the visitation of such board; and to the state commission in lunacy upon matters relating to the institutions subject to the inspection and control of such commission. Such reports shall be made on or before the first day of November for each preceding fiscal year.

Except as

§ 52. Admission to state charitable institutions. may otherwise be specifically provided by law all admissions to the state charitable institutions shall be through commitment from the several counties of the state by the county superintendents of the poor of such counties, or other officer acting in that capacity, and from the city of New York by the commissioner of public charities of such city, or his deputy designated for that purpose. In the admission of such patients or inmates the several counties and the city of New York shall, so far as practicable, be entitled annually to the admission of patients or inmates to the said state charitable institutions in the ratio which the population of such counties and the city of New York, respectively, bears to the population of the state as ascertained by the last official census. (Added by L. 1911, ch. 843.)

§ 70. Expense of clothing state pupils. The supervisors of any county from which state pupils may have been received shall cause to be raised annually, while such pupils remain in the institution, the sum of twenty dollars for each pupil, for the purpose of furnishing suitable clothing, which shall be paid to the treasurer of the institution on or before the first day of April. The superintendent may agree with the parent, guardian or committee of a feeble-minded child, or with any person, for the support, maintenance and clothing of such child at the institution, upon such terms

and conditions as may be prescribed in the by-laws, or approved by the managers. Every parent, guardian, committee, or other person applying for the admission into the institution of a feeble-minded child who is able, or whose parents or guardians are of sufficient ability to provide for his maintenance therein, shall at the time of his admission deliver to the superintendent an undertaking, with one or more sureties, to be approved by the managers, conditioned for the payment to the treasurer of the institution of the amount agreed to be paid for the support, maintenance and clothing of such feeble-minded child, and for the removal of such child from the institution without expense thereto, within twenty days after the service of the notice hereinafter provided. If such child, his parents or guardians are of sufficient ability to pay only a part of the expense of supporting and maintaining him, such undertaking shall be only for his removal from the institution as above mentioned; and the superintendent may take security by note or other written agreement, with or without sureties, as he may deem proper, for such part of such expenses as such child, his parents or guardians are able to pay, subject, however, to the approval of the managers in the manner that shall be prescribed in the by-laws. Notice to remove a pupil shall be in writing, signed by the superintendent and directed to the parents, guardians, committee or other person upon whose request the pupil was received at the institution, at the place of residence mentioned in such request, and deposited in the postoffice at Syracuse with the postage prepaid. If the pupil shall not be removed from the institution within twenty days after service of such notice, according to the conditions of the agreement and undertaking, he may be removed and disposed of by the superintendent as herein provided. in relation to state pupils, and the provisions of this article respecting the payment and recovery of the expenses of the removal and disposition of a state pupil shall be equally applicable to expenses incurred under this section. This section, as amended, shall supersede and control any other provision of this chapter inconsistent herewith in its application to such institution. (Amended by L. 1911, ch. 609.)

III. CRAIG COLONY.

State Charities Law.

(L. 1909, ch. 57.)

$100. Establishment and objects of colony. The colony for epileptics established at Sonyea, Livingston county, is hereby continued, and shall be known as the Craig Colony, in honor of the late Oscar Craig, of Rochester, New York, whose efficient and gratuitous public services in behalf of epileptics and other dependent unfortunates the state desires to commemorate. The objects of such colony shall be to secure the humane, curative, scientific and economical care and treatment of epileptics, exclusive of insane epileptics. (Amended by L. 1920, ch. 39.)