special deputy commissioners of excise, the investigation of all citizens' requests for consent to commence proceedings to revoke and cancel liquor tax certificates, and innumerable other matters arising from time to time, which pertain to the general work of the Department.

There is a disposition on the part of some of those engaged in the traffic, especially in the large centers of population, to commence the traffic before paying the tax, and so delay the payment until they are discovered in their illegal practice, with a view of saving a month or more of the annual cost of their certificates. This practice, while still somewhat prevalent, has been largely abated through the efforts of the agents, by their inspections at the beginning of each excise year, which work consists of causing the immediate arrest of such persons found trafficking without their certificates posted in conformity with the provisions of section 21 of the law, and in prosecuting this work, 2,168 inspections were made during the last fiscal year in the following counties:

Wherever the Department is informed by the complaint of citizens or otherwise that the traffic in liquor is unlawfully carried on at any place in the State, an investigation is thereupon ordered by the Department, conducted by its special agents, for the purpose of ascertaining the facts of the case. This work is by far the most disagreeable, arduous and ofttimes dangerous of any of the duties the special agent is required to perform. It is attended with broken and uncertain hours of sleep; the necessity of drinking liquor of inferior and dangerous quality, as well as work on the Sabbath, thus rendering it impossible for the agent to calculate his days or hours of rest as in other vocations.

The Department has conducted 2,593 investigations of this character in the following counties throughout the State:

The right conferred by the law giving liquor tax certificate holders the opportunity to surrender their certificates on discontinuance of the traffic and receiving rebate for the unexpired portion of the excise year, is a right which some of those surrendering are prone to abuse, by continuing the traffic after surrender. This entails upon the Department the necessity of exerting a surveillance over those so surrendering, lest the revenue be seriously impaired. Hence the premises from which the certificate was surrendered, must be visited by special agents to determine whether the surrender was made in good faith and the traffic discontinued. This work alone has necessitated 3,055 investigations by the agents during the past year in the following counties:

With reference to the work of the agents in connection with section 148 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the following is respectfully submitted:

The Department is constantly in receipt of information to the effect that the local criminal authorities are guilty of neglect in enforcing the provisions of the Liquor Tax Law in their respective communities. These communications come from leading citizens, pastors of churches, societies for the prevention of crime and the promotion of law and order, and from the unfortunate who experience the ill-effects of such violations of the law. The failure to enforce the provisions of the statute in these cases is largely due to the criminal neglect of the local authorities, who for reasons which are generally of a political character, decline to be active in any proceeding which has for its ultimate object the punishment of the liquor dealer. The citizens of the outraged community are reluctant to take the initiative, not particularly on account of the expense which might be incurred in the prosecution of such cases, but conscious of the opposition or indifference of the local criminal authorities, and perhaps because of their own inability to secure that forceful action so indispensable for success, they despair of the utility of whatever they might do, and appeal to the State Department of Excise for help.

In such emergencies, the State Department of Excise has detailed a competent special agent to institute an investigation under section 148 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, in order that those guilty of a violation of the law may be apprehended and punished. Said section reads as follows:

§ 148. Examination of the prosecutor and his witnesses upon the information. When an information is laid before a magistrate, of the commission of a crime, he must examine on oath the