FINANCIAL HISTORY OF OREGON. 135 The first report from a Territorial Auditor was that sub- mitted to the House of Representatives on January 6, 1853. Thus the first financial reports were made to the legislature at its fourth regular session. It was full three years after the organization of the Territory before there was the sem- blance of a treasury department in operation. At the close of this period of ten years the sum total of treasury transactions, in which funds received as taxes from the people had been handled, amounted to $85,464.47. Of the national appropriations for library and public buildings, $5,000 for the library and $5,000 for the State House were incorporated in act of August 14, 1848 organizing the Terri- tory; $20,000 additional for both penitentiary and State House were appropriated on June 11, 1850. On June 1, 1853, these appropriations for buildings were still intact. By the close of the territorial period national moneys to the amount of $97,045.74 had been expended for buildings and library. Deplorably meagre was the public utility derived ment, on February 10, 1849, showed "scrip outstanding" to the amount of $5,438.59, and no cash on hand, this may be taken as representing the fiscal condition at the opening of the territorial period. For an account of the dispo- sition of this indebtedness, see Oregon Historical Quarterly, Vol. VII, pp. 372-3. The Territorial Treasurer, in this initial report, naively says: "The under- signed would further report to your honorable body, that he has written to the Hon. W. W. Buck, ex-Treasurer of the Territory, requesting him to send books, moneys, and seal of the Territory, in his possession, to this office. But as yet, no answer has been received, although a sufficient time has elapsed since mak- ing the request. In consequence of this, your Treasurer has neither books or seal in his possession, belonging to the Territory." The Auditor, in his report for the same year, likewise reports that although the law forming the basis of the treasury department had been passed Septem- ber 29, 1849 (more than three years before), and this law had made it the duty of the clerk of the probate court in each county to transmit to the Auditor of Public Accounts certified copies of assessment rolls, upon which to open an account between the Territory and the several counties, and to charge county treasurers with amounts due the Territory, he could find in the archives of his office returns for only three counties for 1850 and for five counties for 1851. He goes on to say that "further information was attempted to be gained, in refer- ence to the present condition of our revenues, from the Auditor's account with the various counties of the Territory ; but, owing to some unaccountable neglect or casualty, no such account could be found among the records. The present Auditor was therefore compelled to institute original inquiries for such informa- tion as he has been able to present." The fiscal hiatus between the period of the Provisional Government and the Territory was complete.
