the state debt called the general fund debt, including the debt for loans of the state credit to railroad companies, which have failed to pay the interest thereon, and also the contingent debt on state stocks loaned to incorporated companies which have hitherto paid the interest thereon, whenever, and as far as any part thereof may become a charge on the treasury or general fund until the same shall be wholly paid; and the principal and income of the said last-mentioned sinking fund shall be sacredly applied to the purpose aforesaid; and if the payment of any part of the moneys to the said sinking fund shall at any time be deferred, by reason of the priority recognized in the first section of this article, the sum so deferred, with quarterly interest thereon at the then current rate, shall be paid to the last-mentioned sinking fund as soon as it can be done consistently with the just rights of the creditors holding said canal debt.
§ 3. [Canal revenues.]—After paying the said expenses of superintendence and repairs of the canals, and the sums appropriated by the first and second sections of this article, there shall be paid out of the surplus revenues of the canals to the treasury of the state, on or before the thirtieth day of September in each year, for the use and benefit of the general fund, such sum, not exceeding two hundred thousand dollars, as may be required to defray the necessary expenses of the state; and the remainder of the revenues of the said canals shall, in each fiscal year, be applied in such manner as the legislature shall direct to the completion of the Erie canal enlargement and the Genesee Valley and Black River canals, until the said canals shall be completed.
If at any time after the period of eight years from the adoption of this Constitution, the revenues of the state, unappropriated by this article, shall not be sufficient to defray the necessary expenses of the government, without continuing or laying a direct tax, the legislature may, at its discretion, supply the deficiency in whole or in part from the surplus revenues of the canals, after complying with the provisions of the first two sections of this article for paying the interest and extinguishing the principal of the canal and general fund debt; hut the sum thus appropriated from the surplus revenues of the canals shall not exceed annually three hundred and fifty thousand dollars, including the sum of two hundred thousand dollars provided for by this section for the expenses of the government, until the general fund debt shall be extinguished, or until the Erie canal enlargement and Genessee Valley and Black River canals shall be completed, and after that debt shall be paid, or the said canals shall be completed, then the sum of six hundred and seventy-two thousand five hundred dollars, or so much thereof as shall be necessary, may be annually appropriated to defray the expenses of the government.
§ 4. [Enforcement of state claims against corporations.]— The claims of the state against any incorporated company to pay the interest and redeem the principal of the stock of the state, loaned or advanced to such company, shall be fairly enforced, and not released or compromised; and the moneys arising from such claims shall be set apart and applied as part of the sinking fund provided in the second section of this article. But the time limited for the fulfillment of any condition of any release or compromise heretofore made or provided for may be extended by law.
§ 5. [Appropriations for deficiency in canal revenues.]—lf the sinking funds, or either of them, provided in this article, shall prove insufficient to enable the state, on the credit of such fund, to procure the means to satisfy the claims of the creditors of the state, as they become payable, the legislature shall, by
