us to fear a material diminution in the business of this department.
It is therefore all the more agreeable to the Board to be able to report that this fear has not been realized, and that in most branches of the business an increase has taken place.
Thus the remittances from our resident countrymen to their relatives in their old home, as well as orders on the Society, and orders for payment from our correspondents to emigrants here, exceeded in number by some hundreds those of the preceding year. The transmission of packages was likewise somewhat more extensive. On the other hand the transatlantic passage business has experienced a material diminution, and as, moreover, the commission on railroad tickets has been abolished, our income from these sources is thus much diminished. This is the more to be regretted, as the procuring of passages was proportionately most profitable to us.
In consequence of the appointment, last year, of a second official, it was possible to give the desirable and necessary attention to the Department for Notarial Affairs, and its functions were materially extended.
In the course of the business year a petition was forwarded to the various Ministries of Justice in the German Empire, to issue a rescript to the judicial authorities subordinate to them to the effect that the latter should recognize and assist the German Society in its requests for information and inquiries with regard to reliable legal aid. This application was granted in the most courteous manner, and with special acknowledgment of the efforts of the German Society, by the Ministries of Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, Würtemberg, Baden, and Hesse. The German Society is pleased to take this opportunity of reiterating to the above-mentioned Ministries its warmest thanks for their courtesy.
This favor makes it possible for the Notarial Department to obtain all information required from reliable sources, in the most direct and thorough manner, and at a very small cost. It is easy to perceive what advantages may accrue from this not only to the Society, but particularly to Germans in America, and it is desirable that the latter should make more and more use of
