The Text

The existing surrogates’ courts are continued, and the surrogates now in office shall hold their offices until the expiration of their respective present terms. Their successors shall be chosen by the electors of their respective counties, and their terms of office shall be six years, except in the counties of New York, Kings, Bronx, Queens and Richmond, where they shall hereafter be elected for terms of fourteen years. The legislature may provide for the election of a surrogate in addition to the present surrogate or surrogate in any county having a population of more than one million. Surrogates and surrogates’ courts shall have the jurisdiction, legal and equitable, and powers now established by law and such additional jurisdiction and powers as may be conferred by the legislature. The county judge shall be surrogate of his county except where a separate surrogate has been or shall be elected. In any county having a population exceeding forty thousand wherein there is now no separate surrogate, the legislature may provide for the election of a separate surrogate, whose term of office shall be six years. When a separate surrogate shall be elected, his compensation shall be established by law, and shall be payable out of the county treasury.
The legislature may provide that the duties of county judge and surrogate in any county be discharged by the same person without, however, abridging the term of any county judge or surrogate then in office. For the relief of surrogates’ courts, the legislature may confer upon the supreme court in any county having a population exceeding four hundred thousand, the powers and jurisdiction of surrogates. The surrogate of the county of Richmond may temporarily hold a surrogate’s court of any other county within the city of New York when requested by the surrogate or surrogates of such county, or may he assigned temporarily by the appellate division of the second department to hold a term of the supreme court in Richmond, Kings, or Queens county.