202 ' TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



The Board's report to the Society says: 



"We congratulate members that the long struggle we have had with the unpleasant fact of an 

 outstanding indebtedness has come to a conclusion at last, and that the Society is now com- 

 pletely free from debt. This indebtedness has been fully discharged, and the treasury of the 

 Society now contains $171 78. 



The State appropriation for the Society for 1868 and 1869 was $4,000 

 for each year. 



The seventeenth annual meeting of the Society, on the 26th of 

 January, 1870, reelected C. F. Reed President, and E. J. Lewis of 

 Tehama, William Blanding of San Francisco, and W. P. Coleman 

 Directors; and Robert Beck and R. T. Brown were reelected Secretary 

 and Treasurer. This year the Board, in addition to the ordinary pre- 

 miums, offered a gold medal for the most worthy exhibition in each 

 department, the exhibition at the fair being divided into seven 

 departments or groups. The fair was held from September 12th to 

 the 17th, inclusive. An important feature of the fair this year was 

 an exhibition of fruits from the mountain and foothill districts. A 

 comparison of these with the valley fruits was highly creditable to 

 the former. The exhibition was fully up to the last as a whole. The 

 stock department was superior. 



President Reed, referring to the causes that operated against Cali- 

 fornian enterprise, called attention to the sharp competition our 

 industrial productions were encountering with like products from 

 the East: 



What reason or sense is there that enterprise and industry in California should be taxed, for 

 the use of capital, from twelve to eighteen per cent., while the same capital in Europe and the 

 Atlantic States, or any other 23ortion of the world, can command but from three to six per cent., 

 with the same class of security ? 



A. A. Sargent, in the .annual address, discussed the labor question 

 at considerable length: 



Many have seen a solution of the labor question in the employment of Chinese, who fu];nish 

 a fair article of labor, skilled and unskilled, for wages upon which white men cannot subsist. 

 This may be a temporaiy relief to capital, and naay forward enterprise that else would halt 

 indefinitely. But I am not able to concur in the opinion that the immigration of these people 

 in large numbers is desirable. A slower growth of a community, with the elements in it only 

 of Christian civilization, seems to me far preferable to a rapid development by an alien 

 heathen jijojjulation. 



The Board this year bought of the members of the Union Park 

 Association fifty-six of the seventy-two shares in the north half of the 

 Park inclosure, at its original cost, $100 a share, or $5,600. The 

 appropriation from the State was $8,000. Whole receipts for the year, 

 $39,877 14; expenses, $40,028 68; debt, $151 54. 



The eighteenth annual meeting of the Society was held on the 27th 

 of January, 1871. C. F. Reed was re-electecl President; Coleman 

 Younger, of Santa Clara, H. R. Covey, and R. S. Carey were elected 

 Directors — the two latter being re-elected. The Board elected I. N. 

 Hoag Corresponding Secretary of the Society, and Robert Beck Secre- 

 tary of the Board, and re-elected R. T. Brown Treasurer. This year 

 the eastern hall at the Pavilion was built by the Society, with the 

 aid of the county, and added one-half more space on the upper floor 

 of the Pavilion. This space was fully occupied, much of it being used 

 for the display of Japanese goods sent under the auspices of the Jap- 

 anese Government, and Chinese goods exhibited by Dr. D. D. J. 



