Fire Relief Cnmmission

The report oL the fire relief j sion, H. P. Baldwin, chairman, to the governor, gives a general and condensed review of their work. Through the district agencies as originally organized, with the exception of a few changes shown to be necessary as the work developed, relief has been dispensed to the sufferers under the following 1 eral classification: Provisions and groceries; clothing and bedding; medicines and medical aid; seed wheat and grass seed; plows, wagons, harness.and agricultural implements and tools ot au kinds; lumber and shingles, doors,windows, and nails, etc, for houses and barns; furniture, including stoves, bedsteads, chairs, tables, crockery, tin and wooden ware; hay and other f eed for such number of cattle as they were advised to retain; donations and loans in money to aid in re-building saw milis, etc, destroy i; cash distributions by special agents directly to the sufferers on as liberal a scale proportioned to the size and wants of each family as the commission deemed it wise, with the means at its command, to allow. On the progresa and resulta obtained in the distribution of the foregoing means of relief, the commission reports as follows: Provisions and groceries have been liberally supplied sufficient to subsist the sufferors upon an average to nearly the flrst of January, a cash distribution being made in the latter part of November and beginning of December, as a substitute from that date. Cloihing and bedding have been supplicd to the suffereis in abundance. The former, as well as large quantities of the latter, being furnished through the generous contribuí ions of the public in these articles. Many districts were supplied with more clothing of certain kinds than was required, the greatest demand being for warm bedding, ücking, new boots and shoe, and woolen wear for winter use. These the Commission purchased and distributed wherever required. The stocks of elothing now on hand we believe to be sufficient f or the requirements of the sufferers. Seed wheat for fall sowing was f urnished by this commission and other committee te all who were reported as en itled to it, and ready to sow. Through the energy of the committees and their agents in the district, aided by the favorable season a large area was sown in good time with the promise of a favorable result. A quantity of grass seed was also furnished and sown. Plows, wagons, harneas, and other farming implernents, were sent ward in liberal quantities as rapidly as practicable. The distribution of the most expensive of these articles was intrusted to the judgment of the agents, to be loaned or donated, as they rnigat deern advisable, it being impossible to supply all who applied. By the aid, however, of a liberal expenditure for the repair of those only partially destroyed, most of the sufferers are now enabled to prosecute the work on their lands. The work of f uruisking lumber and sliingles to replace, af ter a sort, the houses and barns destroyed, was entered upou immediately af ter the fires, but so large were the quantities required beyond the available stocks within reach, that sonie time was unavoidably consumed before all the sufferers could be f urnished with suflleient for shelter. In order to hasten and iacrease the supply, advances were made to owners of saw-mills destroyed in the district, to be repaid in lumber or sawing for the benefit of the sufferers. At last as places of shelter could be got ready, and doors and windows sent forward to close thern in, the Commission, whohad meanwhile been forwarding stoves as fast as they could be furnished by the manufacturera, purchased and sent forward a me lerate quantity of f urniture, consisting of bedsteads, chairs, tables, tin and wooden ware, and crockery, useful and substantial in kind and character, and although the supply to each family was necessarily limited, the requisitions of the district agents having been filled, it is believed that sufficient has been distributed to supply the necessities of the snfferers, and enable them to resume housekeeping. The committee state the cash recipts, including those of the Detroit relief corumittee, to be $407, 408,44 and the total disbursements, $339,042,40. A statement from Port Ilnron gives the amount received by its committee $192,831,44, of which $175,008,62 has been expended. Upon the basis of the relief which has been already alïorded by the different committees, it is believed that the funds now on hand will be sullicientto subsist the sufferers until April lst. It would have been very gratify ing to have been able to state that the sufferers wouW from that date be able to support themselves, or that the funds so generously donated would prove sufficient to accomplish that end. The following comprise the principal heads under which aid will be requirecl af ter April lst, to supply part of which it is essential that operations should be commenced as early as practicable. Fint. - Provisions f or subsisting teams during seeding time. Second. - Seed for spring sowing. Third. - Money to gay taxes. Fourth. - Subsistence for the people until they can realize from their lands and labors. When the equipment of the Lick observatory on Mount Ilaniilton, California, is completed, the United States will possess the most powerful telescope in existence. Only two years ago the Russian government contracted with A. Clark & Sons of Cambridgeport for the largest telescope of thirty inches aperture, but this will be far eclipsed by the Lick telescope, which is to have an aperture of ÍS6 inches,