Arrivkd at tvds point, it will be ( ptional wit!i t'le company to extend tlieir improvements to Ontario; and the Seneca Lakes • or not, but as in the present state of Wood Creek, the j.roduce of the Country beyond cannot be brouglit into the iMohawl:,and consequently the company deprived of the advantage of tlie toll (hereon; It therefore appeal's to 3'<iur committee indis[)ensible that the Wood Creek, in all its extent, should be iinpnAed, by

1096 INLAND LOCK-NAVIGATION.

removing the timber wliicli obstructs its navigation ; probably tlie expence will not exceed £1,000.

The aggregate of the estimates to complete the navigation from Schenectady to Wood Creek is ^£39,500.

The committee conceive it necessary before they proceed to state to the board what works, in the opinion of the committee, ought to claim the first attention of tlie company, to make some remarks which they believe not irrelati^'e to the subject. -- An opinion is entertained by some, that since the company is permitted by the act of incorporation, to divide a clear 15 per cent. on all their expenditures, the liigher the expence, the greater will be the profit to the stock-liolders ; and that, therefore, the improvements should be made in the completest manner, that is, on the most expensive scale : -- This appears plausible in theory, but may and will probably be found fallacious on actual experiment, and injurious to the interest and reputation of the company -- Injurious to its interests, if the tolls, after deducting the current expences, should not amount to such an interest, as money can from time to time be improved at, and as the legal interest only of the sum above stated, wliicli supposes a complete improvement in all its parts (without estimating the expence of clearing Wood Creek) amounts annually to £2765.