On the 30th September, 1874, the total funded debt was $30,199,456.40, classified as follows:

The actual reduction of the State debt during the fiscal year ending September 30th, 1874, by cancellation of matured stocks, and by the purchase of $4,902,500 of Bounty Loan 7's of 1877, for the Bounty Debt Sinking Fund, is $6,024,950.

In addition to the $4,902,500 of Bounty Stock, purchased for the Bounty Debt Sinking Fund, during the last fiscal year, and canceled, there have been investments for that sinking fund, since the date of the last report to the present time, in State securities and Government Registered Bonds to the amount of $4,381,500, at a cost of $4,972,091.35; add $327,283.88 premium and $3,210 commissions on Bounty Loan Stock purchased and canceled, and $1,421,584, interest on Bounty debt, makes a total of $11,626,667.23 paid on account of this Sinking Fund since the date of last report to the present time. The securities, now held in trust for this sinking fund, amount, at their par value, to $6,802,944.09 which could be disposed of, at the present market rates, at an average premium of over twelve per cent.

VOL. VI.-46.

The following statement shows the amount of the State debt on the 30th September, 1874, after deducting the unapplied balances of the sinking funds at that date:

* Deducting interest accrued to October 1, 1874, payable January 1, 1875.

The State debt on the 30th September, 1873, after deducting the unapplied balances of

the sinking funds, amounted to. ... ... .. .. .. $21,191,379.34 On the 30th September, 1874, to.

17,491,809.32

$3,699,570.02

TAXES.

The State tax levy for the current year amounted to 74 mills. The total amount of the tax will be $15,727,482.08, about $900,000 in excess of the amount levied during the preceding fiscal year.

OTHER DEPARTMENTS OF THE STATE.

Summary statements in respect to the Banks, Savings Banks, Trust, Loan and Indemnity Companies, Insurance Companies, Quarantine, the Emigration Commission, Common Schools, Colleges and Academies, the State Library and Museum, the National Guard, the soldiers of the war of 1812, the war claims against the United States, the Salt Springs and the State Prisons, are appended. The full reports of the public officers and boards, charged with the special care of these subjects, will be transmitted as soon

as their preparation is completed. Your attention is invited to them, and especially to the report of the Comptroller, which will be submitted at the opening of the session.

STATE CENSUS.

The Constitution provides that an enumeration of the inhabitants of the State shall be taken, under the direction of the Legislature, in the year 1855, and at the end of every ten years thereafter."

Chapters 64 and 181 of the Laws of 1855, and Chapter 34 of the Laws of 1865, which remain in full force, prescribe the manner of taking the enumeration.

These acts require the Secretary of State to prepare uniform blank returns and abstracts, for the purpose of taking the enumeration and obtaining statistical information as to population and social statistics, the resources and interests of the State, individual and associated industry, agriculture, the mechanic arts, commerce and manufactures, education, and other information of great value to the statistician and all classes of citizens, and will probably require little or no modification.

It will be necessary for the Legislature to make an appropriation to enable the Secretary of State to carry into effect the provisions of the Constitution and statutes above referred to. A sum equal to the amount appropriated in 1865 for that purpose, by chapter 598 of the laws of that year, will probably be sufficient.

The Secretary of State has taken preliminary steps toward taking the enumeration, and looks to the Legislature for an early appropriation to enable him to go forward with the work.1

b Const. 1846, art. 3, § 4.

1 Chapter 40, passed March 4, appropriated $40,000 for the expense of taking the census, and required the enumeration to begin on the first day of June instead of on the first Monday as prescribed by the census act of 1855. The Constitution of 1894, article 3, section 4, requires the enumeration to be taken during the months of May and June.

PAUPERISM.

The annual report of the State Board of Charities will be laid before the Legislature, and I commend it to your attention. It will contain the results of a special examination in respect to the condition of children in the poorhouses, and the subjects of out door relief and alien paupers. The laws relating to pauperism need revision and amendment. The growth of the State in wealth and population has brought with it more complex relations between capital and labor, which should be carefully studied, in order that legislation may be adapted to their requirements. I suggest whether it is not advisable that a commission be appointed to investigate and report upon the management and relief of the poor, and to propose such legislation as will tend to relieve the industry of the State from the evils which result from poor laws, vicious or inadequate in conception, or defective in execution.2

CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION.

The celebration of the centennial anniversary of American Independence will occur in the year 1876. Under the auspices of the general government an international exhibition of arts, manufactures and natural products will be held in the city of Philadelphia. Provision has already been made for the appointment of a board of five commissioners to represent this State, who are to serve without

2 Chapter 173, passed April 24, 1875, prohibited the commitment to a county poor house of any child over three and under sixteen years of age, as vagrant, truant or disorderly, nor could such a child be sent as a pauper to any poor house, unless such child be an unteachable idiot, an epileptic or paralytic, or be otherwise defective, diseased or deformed so as to render it unfit for family care. Such children not so exempted were to be sent to a charitable institution. The prohibition was to take effect on the first of January, 1876, and on or before that day such children already committed to poor houses were to be removed therefrom, and either placed in families or committed to a charitable institution, and so far as practicable to an institution under the control of persons of the same religious faith as the parents of the child.

compensation. I recommend a moderate appropriation of money, which will be required to defray the necessary expenses of the commission, and enable this State to take such part in the exhibition as will testify our sense of the greatness of the event commemorated, and is suitable to the dignity of our commonwealth."

CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS.

The adoption of the recent amendments to the Constitution renders necessary some important legislation in order to carry them into full effect. The changes made in Article 2 require corresponding changes in the election laws, with respect to challenges and the oaths thereupon, and the enactment at the present session of a law "excluding from the right of suffrage all persons convicted of bribery or of any infamous crime."4

The amendment of section 4 of article 8 of the Constitution requires the enactment of a "general law conforming all charters of savings banks, or institutions for savings, to a uniformity of powers, rights and liabilities." "

The addition of Article 15 necessitates the passage of an act prescribing the punishment for the offence of bribery

3 By chapter 525, approved June 7, the commission composed of five members which was authorized by concurrent resolution adopted in 1874 (see 1874, note 14, ante, p. 656) was superseded by a "State Centennial Board," to be composed of seven members appointed by the Governor, who were to be associated with the National Centennial Commission, and were especially required to "adopt measures to promote, perfect and forward a complete representation of the arts, manufactures and other productions of this State, to be displayed in said International Exhibition." The act appropriated $25,000 for the expenses of the Board.

4 Chapter 138, passed April 22, prescribed the form of oath to be administered to persons challenged at elections, and made it a misdemeanor for a person convicted of bribery or other infamous crime to vote without having been pardoned and restored to citizenship.

5 Chapter 371, passed May 17, was intended "to conform the charters of all savings banks or institutions for savings to a uniformity of powers, rights and liabilities, and to provide for the organization of savings banks, for their supervision and for the administration of their affairs."