REPORT OF THE STATE BOARD OF EXAMINERS. SACRAMENTO, January 8, 1883. To the Senate and Assembly of the State of California: In accordance with the provisions of Sections 663, 664, and 667, Political Code, the State Board of Examiners present the following claims to your honorable body for legislative action : Claim of ERNEST A. GIRVIN, for services rendered as Stenographer of the Board of Railroad Commissioners. This claim is for services as stated above, and embraced the months of July, 1881, to November, 1882, a period of seventeen months, and amounting to $1,750. This claim was allowed by the Board of Railroad Commissioners, but no appropriation to pay the same was made by the Legislature of 1881. That the work was performed is evident, but this Board could not entertain the claim in the absence of law authorizing its payment. Claim of WM. CONFER and S. L. CONFER. The parties presenting this claim were contractors in erecting an addition to the Insane Asylum at Stockton, under Act of the Legislature, approved April 15, 1880. It is claimed by them that under their contract they were to receive monthly for their services ninety per cent of the value of their work done under the provisions of their contract, the balance on completion of the building. Work was performed to the amount of $6,944, ninety per cent of which amounted to $6,249 60, and on the order of the Board of Directors of said asylum, allowed by the Board of Examiners; the Controller drew his warrant for said sum, which was presented to the State Treasurer for payment, but the General Fund being exhausted the same could not be paid. The claimants depose and say that being compelled to pay their workmen for their labor and for material used in the construction of the building, and failing to obtain from the State the money due on said warrant, were compelled, in order to prosecute their contract, to dispose of their warrant at a discount, losing thereon the sum of $250. They now ask at your hands that this loss be made good, and the terms of their contract be complied Claim of F. D. SoWARD, District Attorney; N. B. FISH, Sheriff; and This claim is for costs incurred in an action to recover property bought by the State under Section 3897, Political Code. Section 3898 authorizes the payment of the expenses incurred in the litigation for the recovery of the property, but as no appropriation has ever been made to carry out the intention of the law, the Board can only transmit the claim to you, that the relief asked for may be granted. Claim of JAMES MACKUBIN. This claim is in form of a petition to the Legislature from the claimant, James Mackubin, of Ellicott City, Howard County, Maryland; and asks for the payment of five coupons of the value of $60 each, of War Loan Bond, No. 62. As the question of the payment of this character of bonds has been the subject of legislative discussion and inquiry for many years; and as the reports of past Boards of Examiners, special investigating committees, and executive messages referring to the same have been presented to preceding Legislatures, the Board, at the request of the claimant, presents this petition for such consideration as you may be pleased to bestow upon it, having no power itself to act thereon. Claim of W. W. SHELDON. This claim, for the sum of $8 60, is for witness fees in the case of the People vs. The Gold Run Ditch and Mining Company, tried in the Superior Court of Sacramento County. The payment thereof is authorized by Section 15,297, Hittell's Codes; but lacking appropriation for its payment, the Board could not pass upon the claim. Claim of THOS. STEPHENSON. This claim of $13 is of the same character and purpose as that of W. W. Sheldon, above related. Claim of D. B. WOOLF. This is a claim to recover the sum of $735 75, for work performed by claimant as Clerk of the Supreme Court. The Legislature of 1878 passed an Act directing the Clerk of the Supreme Court to prepare a general analytical index of all cases filed in said Court from its organization. The work was performed, and claim presented to the last Board of Examiners in the sum of $5,000, as recommended by the Judges of said Court, and within the terms of the Act. to The Board of Examiners, on October 2, 1879, passed upon the claim, and allowed thereon the sum of $4,264 25, giving as reasons for such deduction that the books, including binding and paper, the amount of $735 75, had been paid by the State, when such costs should have been included in the sum allowed in the Act. That sum was therefore deducted. The claimant denies that it was any part of his duty to furnish at his own expense the books on which |