Certificates of incorporation were filed by Roman Catholic churches under Public Statutes, chapter 38, sections 48, 49 and 50, to the number of three.

The number of miscellaneous certificates filed and recorded was 2,633. Of these, 1,838 were certificates of condition (under section 54, chapter 106 of the Public Statutes); 228 were certificates of organization of manufacturing and mercantile corporations (under chapter 106 of the Public Statutes); 171 were certificates of religious, charitable and other organizations (under chapter 115 of the Public Statutes); 203 were certificates of payment of capital in manufacturing and mercantile corporations (under chapter 106 of the Public Statutes); and the remainder were distributed among twenty different classes.

The number of miscellaneous certificates filed and not recorded is 674, of which 640 were certificates of condition of foreign corporations, and the remainder were divided among nine other classes.

There were issued 7 certificates of change of name of corporations.

Returns were received of the dissolution of 22 corporations by the supreme judicial court.

Details of all these statistics appear in the Abstract of Certificates of Corporations, published by this office (Public Document, No. 10).

Under the act relating to the incorporation of clubs, one certificate of incorporation which had been issued to a club was declared void, and of no further effect, upon evidence that the premises of the club were used for illegal purposes. Charters were refused applicants in six cases under said act, and there was one withdrawal by the parties originally making the application for incorporation.

In the amendatory act of 1894 (chapter 542) an inadvertent omission was made of the words "or whenever satisfactory evidence shall appear that the premises occupied by such club or organization are used for the illegal sale of intoxicating liquors, or for illegal gaming." I therefore recommend the restoration of the words quoted.

Limited partnership certificates to the number of 48 were filed and recorded.

The card index to the corporation returns and certificates is completed to the year 1889. The cards are now being arranged alphabetically under their many classifications. This is being done to enable the few remaining years to be finished with all possible despatch.

LABELS, TRADE-MARKS, ETC.

By an act of 1893, chapter 443 (which was amended by chapter 285, Acts of 1894), entitled "An act to protect persons, associations or unions of persons in their labels, trademarks and forms of advertising," the duty was placed upon the secretary of the Commonwealth of receiving, filing and recording such labels, etc., and of issuing certificates of such filing and recording. Under this law labels, trade-marks, etc., were received and certificates of record issued in 67 cases.

MARKS AND DEVICES ON CANS, ETC.

By chapter 440 of the Acts of 1893, entitled "An act to protect the owners of cans, bottles, boxes, siphons and fountains used in the sale of milk, cream, soda water, mineral and aerated waters, ale, beer, ginger ale or other beverages", it is made the duty of the secretary of the Commonwealth to receive and file descriptions of marks, devices, etc.; and under this law 133 such descriptions were received and filed.

REGISTRATION RETURNS.

The returns of births, marriages and deaths from the various cities and towns for the year 1893, which were received in 1894, cover 67,192 births, 22,814 marriages and 49,084 deaths, - a total number of 139,090. This is an increase over the returns received in 1893 of 1,368 births, 307 marriages and 322 deaths. It is apparent from a comparison of the relative increase of returns of births and deaths that many births escape registration and return.

The medical examiners' returns cover 2,221 cases, crease of 11 over the returns received in 1893.

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The returns by the clerks of the courts of the decrees of divorce number 1,350, - an increase of 513 over the last returns. All of these figures are compiled and presented fully in the Fifty-second Registration Report (Public Document No. 1).

Four hundred and thirty-nine certificates of records of births, marriages and deaths were issued during the year 1894, principally for use in State aid and pension claims.

The proposition to transfer the preparation of the Registration Report from this office to that of the State Board of Health, which was made and rejected in 1893, was renewed before the Legislature of 1894, through the report of the State Board of Health. The matter was referred to the joint standing committee on public health. After a full hearing the committee reported, as the same committee had reported to the Legislature of 1893, against the proposed change, and the report was again adopted by the Legislature.

INDEX TO EARLY REGISTRATION RETURNS.

In accordance with a recommendation in the first annual report of this office, the Legislature of 1893, by chapter 31 of its Resolves, authorized the preparation of a card index to the registration returns for the period between the years 1841 and 1880, to supersede the present imperfect and practically useless index. It was estimated that this work would cover about 3,200,000 names, and that it would require about three years for its completion. The number of names was under-estimated by about 300,000, but the work has been pushed with great energy, and is now nearly completed. The excess in the number of names has, of course, resulted in additional cost, amounting to $5,000. There are now about 1,200,000 names contained in the returns for the years 1881 to 1889, inclusive, which are indexed by the old and very imperfect method prevailing down to the beginning of the card index in 1890. A careful examination of these indexes shows them to be so imperfect as to warrant a new index, which will give the Commonwealth a complete and practically perfect card index from the beginning to the present time. I therefore strongly recommend that this be done, and that an appropriation of $10,800 be made therefor.

ARCHIVE DIVISION.

The principal work carried on during the year has been the classification and arrangement of the mass of miscellaneous papers that had laid undisturbed for generations in closets and obscure places through all the changes and growth of the office

from its beginning to the present time, many of them in their original files and packages, practically inaccessible, and a standing reproach to the reputation of the Commonwealth for preserving and caring for its records. These papers were found to range in date from 1700 to 1790, and covered every conceivable subject. Among them were found wills, deeds, court papers, council orders and warrants, original drafts of resolves, rolls of the French and Indian wars, letters of the colony agents at the Court of St. James, bills and accounts of the Board of War and committee of supplies during the revolution, etc. The extent and quantity of material embodied in this collection can be better gathered from the statement that the loose papers as arranged will make forty-three large volumes, averaging 375 pages each, while the bound books of accounts, etc., will make at least five volumes more, making in round numbers fifty volumes to be added to the Massachusetts Archives collection of manuscript documents.

The papers were broken out of the original bundles and files, sorted and examined, classified by subjects, and under each subject head arranged chronologically. They were then divided into volumes of as nearly equal a size as possible, without breaking the group arrangement, and given volume and page numbers, by which they will be hereafter known in the archives collection. The work of the binder is alone necessary to enable them to be placed in the archives collection.

It is now proposed to make a card index to this important addition to the archives (for which an appropriation of $1,200 is asked), and then to extend this index from year to year, throughout the entire archive collection, until the present imperfect catalogue index shall be replaced by a comprehensive and systematic card index.

During the first portion of the year the work of transcribing the records of service from the rolls, etc., found among the miscellaneous collection, for the purpose of embodying them in the record index to the Revolutionary rolls, so that they might be included in the compilation of records of Revolutionary soldiers and sailors, to be published by the State, was carried to completion. In all 43,000 additional record cards were written, reviewed and sorted in with those previously prepared, making a total of 595,000 separate record cards

prepared for the proposed compilation; and this number is increased by the addition of cross-reference cards for variations in names, so that the record index comprises considerably more than 600,000 cards, from which the condensed abstracts of individual military and naval service are to be printed. Simply as an index for use in answering the inquiries that pour in upon the office through the mails for proofs of eligibility to membership in the Society of Sons of the Revolution and the numerous kindred societies lately established throughout the country, as well as those made by personal inquiry for the same object, this record index has proved already to be well worth all it cost, without taking into account the fact that it furnishes the basis of the intended publication, and is to be used as copy for that purpose. Its value and function as an index will continue after the compilation is published, and it will always be retained for that purpose, as the printed work will not give all the separate references by volume and page that go to make up a record.

During the year the first three volumes of the records of the General Court were mended and bound in such a manner as to insure their permanent preservation. This action was timely and necessary, as the volumes were in such a condition that they could not be handled, and it was necessary to lock them up out of sight. Five volumes of muster rolls were also mended on tissue and newly bound in a substantial manner.

It is almost unnecessary to say that the work of the archive division is growing rapidly in magnitude and importance. The newly awakened interest in historical matters, genealogies, etc., has greatly increased the demands upon this division of the office, and the daily number of visitors has grown from an average of four or five to be fifteen to twenty. Proper attention to these visitors, who, of course, cannot be permitted access to the records except with the supervision and assistance of a clerk, occupies much of the time of the force in this division, and largely accounts for the slow rate of progress in the work of rendering the archives more accessible. It may yet be necessary, in the public interest, as well as in the interest of private historical research, to limit temporarily the use of the archives by individuals until the needed work of indexing can be completed.