iv The committee have endeavored to make the work as complete, in all respects, as possible. The several heads of departments, who possessed a practical knowledge of the operations of the ordinances under which their departments are organized, were requested to suggest such amendments as seemed to them desirable. In response to that request numerous modifications were proposed, some of them highly important; and, after a careful scrutiny by this committee, such of them as were approved were recommended for adoption by the City Government. No substantial alteration has been made without the express sanction of the City Council. The work of preparing the digest of the statutes and revised ordinances was placed in the hands of John P. Healy, City Solicitor, Samuel F. McCleary, City Clerk, and James M. Bugbee, Clerk of Committees, who were considered best qualified for the task from long familiarity with the subject-matter. With the approval of the committee they have made some changes in the arrangement of topics, and in the style of printing, which will be found an improvement on previous editions. The State legislation on the subject of street railways in this city, and the orders of the Board of Aldermen granting locations, had come to occupy so much space - more than two hundred and fifty pages that it was considered best to print all the matters relating to that subject in a separate volume. The City Clerk has accordingly prepared and printed a collection of all the general and special statutes under which the several street railway corporations having locations in Boston are organ V ized and operated, with the orders of the Board of Aldermen thereon. The committee would recommend that, at the beginning of every year hereafter, the statutes relating to the city, the ordinances, and the orders of a permanent character, passed during the previous year, be collected and printed in the same form as the present edition, with indexes in each, extending back to the year 1869, and the pages numbered continuously to facilitate references. JOHN T. BRADLEE, MOSES FAIRBANKS, NEWTON TALBOT, FRANCIS A. OSBORN, GEORGE P. DENNY, FRANCIS W. JACOBS, MELVILLE E. INGALLS, GILES H. RICH, Committee on Ordinances. |