66 . BOARD OF AQlllCULTURE. 



bonds and reinvests the funds as capital in his business. A hi^h 

 morality, if not common honest^', would dictate that investors in 

 these bonds should be content with the exemption accorded to 

 them, and not attempt to make them the instruments by which 

 larger amounts of property than they represent may evade taxa- 

 tion. As regards the propriety of exemption in the case of the 

 bonds themselves, it cannot be forgotten that at the time they 

 were authorized, their acceptance by the people involved ques- 

 tions of patriotism, and faith in an imperilled government. 



It may be a source of some satisfaction to taxpaj'ers, to remem- 

 ber that the government securities are largely held in foreign mar- 

 kets, and that five hundred million dollars' worth of these bonds 

 have recently been replaced by securities bearing a lower rate of 

 interest. Exemption extends to the property of the State also. 

 The fallacy of the State's taxing itself is one not likely by any 

 one to be seriously argued. 



The eminent fitness of exemption in case of benevolent and 

 charitable institutions is not a matter of controversy. Literary 

 and scientific institutions have been regarded as equally entitled 

 to this privilege. " A general diffusion of the advantages of 

 education " was deemed so " essential to the preservation of the 

 rights and liberties of the people " that the framers of our State 

 Constitution did not fail to require that provision should be made 

 "for the support and maintenance of public schools," as also for 

 the encouragement and endowment of "all academies, colleges 

 and seminaries of learning within the State." This fostering care 

 of her educational facilities has been extended through her history 

 as a State to the present time ; and no small degree of her pros- 

 perity, her advance in wealth and the comforts of life, the intelli- 

 gence and sterling virtues which characterize her people, can be 

 traced to this cause. 



In 1874, the tax levied for her public schools amounted to 

 $1,387,998,* and whether largo or small this sum be considered, 

 she will not be so far neglectful of her own high interests as not 

 to make liberal provision for the education of her people. It 

 must not be forgotten, that in the main her higher seminaries of 

 learning have been endowed and maintained through private 

 munificence, and that the money thus devoted to public uses is 

 forever "removed from the opportunity of reproducing itself, except 

 in the intelligence, the graces and higher culture of her citizens. 



* la 1876 the aixtouut was nearly as large. 



