584 



NORTH CAROLINA. 



by the large ratio of deaths. The intention of 

 the directors is to make the Penitentiary self- 

 sustaining by employing the convicts, such as 

 must be kept within the walls, at useful trades, 

 for which suitable buildings are needed. The 

 receipts from the hire of convicts on the West- 

 ern North Carolina Railroad have been applied 

 to the completion of the walls and buildings 

 of the Penitentiary. The entire number of 

 convicts on October 30th was 993, which was 

 less than the number in confinement in any of 

 the three years previous. 



For the year 1879 there were reported 271,- 

 000 white persons of school age, and 154 col- 

 ored persons Of the former, 153,000 attended 

 school during the year, and of the latter, 85,- 

 000. The State is divided into 4,000 school 

 districts, about four in each township. There 

 are 2,500 schoolhouses for the white children, 

 and 1,000 for the colored children. There were 

 taught during the year 3, 600 white and nearly 

 2,000 colored schools. The teachers were paid 

 on the average $22 a month, $183,000 having 

 been paid to the teachers of white schools and 

 $110,000 to the teachers of the colored schools 

 during the year. There was received from the 

 poll-tax $156,000, from the property-tax $132,- 

 000, and from other sources about $60,000. 



The inadequacy of the means for the sup- 

 port of public instruction afforded by the 

 present tax laws is dwelt upon in the message 

 of the Governor, who recommends that the 

 school-tax should be trebled, or raised from 

 8^ cents on the $100 of property to 25 cents, 

 and from 25 to 75 cents on the poll. The 

 salary of the Superintendent of Public Instruc- 

 tion is notably deficient, being only $1,500 per 

 annum, with no allowance for his necessary 

 traveling expenses. The Board of Education 

 holds a fund of $91,500, invested in four per 

 cent. United States consols, which, it is recom- 

 mended, should be placed in the new State 

 four per cents, as they can be obtained below 

 par some ten per cent., while the former com- 

 mand a high premium. 



The Governor recommends that the swamp- 

 lands, the title of which is vested in the Board 

 of Education, should be made subject to entry 

 and sale, in the same way as other vacant 

 lands. Some of these lands, if cleared and 

 drained, would be valuable. As it is, they are 

 liable to be pillaged by the public. They have 

 lain idle in the hands of the Board of Educa- 

 tion for half a century. By the change in the 

 law suggested they could be made to add to 

 the taxable property of the State, and to yield 

 a fund to aid the educational at a time when it 

 would be of great service. The two normal 

 schools established by the Legislature of 1876- 

 '77 have been very successful in their work of 

 preparing teachers. 



The university is intended to furnish its 

 benefits gratuitously to as many students of 

 the State as possible. At present one student 

 is received free of tuition from each county. 

 In addition to this the University has been ac- 



customed to receive all indigent students of 

 good character. The Governor recommends 

 that two beneficiary students from each county 

 be received, and that the appropriation be in- 

 creased by $7,500 for this purpose. The State 

 is indebted to the university fund derived from 

 land-scrip donated by the United States in the 

 sum of $125,000, which was invested in special 

 tax-bonds and lost. The State now pays the 

 interest on this amount, for which it is respon- 

 sible. In the normal school department of the 

 university 800 teachers have received instruc- 

 tion. There were in attendance in the uni- 

 versity 166 students at the end of the school 

 year, of whom 89 paid no tuition. Contribu- 

 tions received after the reorganization of the 

 university in 1875, to the amount of about 

 $20,000, were spent in repairs. With the $7,- 

 500 paid by the State under the Land-Scrip Act 

 of 1862, the university has done something 

 toward establishing the industrial and agricul 

 tural department required. For normal teach- 

 ing the State allows $2,000 per annum. 



The policy with regard to immigration adoj 

 ed by the Department of Agriculture is 

 register lands for sale or to let, and through ai 

 agent in Europe to inform intending immi- 

 grants of the opportunities for settlement or 

 employment. The agent in England has al- 

 ready brought many desirable tenants, pur- 

 chasers, and laborers into the State. The regis- 

 try fee for each tract of land, divided into any 

 number of smaller tracts, is one dollar. For 

 every sale effected through the agency of the 

 department, a commission of 2 per cent, of 

 the purchase-money is charged. Every settler 

 is enabled to select his location from all the 

 pieces of land on the register, and receives all 

 the information and advice in making his choic 

 that can be given. The Agricultural Depart 

 ment of North Carolina has been the mode 

 upon which South Carolina and other Stat 

 have framed their laws constituting such a de- 

 partment. Bulletins of the results of experi- 

 ments and tests at the experimental station ai 

 published monthly. 



The Insane Asylum at Raleigh is overcrowd- 

 ed, and 190 or more applicants are waiting for 

 admission. For the extensions which are pi 

 jected $80,000 will be required. The Colored 

 Asylum at Goldsboro has been opened, and 

 contained 91 patients at the close of the year. 



The Supreme Court Judges are overworked 

 since the abolition of the fees for taking an 

 appeal, and it is felt to be necessary either to in- 

 crease the number of Judges or to regulate the 

 appeals so as to diminish the work to be done. 

 The imposition of a tax-fee of ten dollars in 

 civil cases, and five dollars in criminal cases, is 

 advised ; and also the restoration of the twenty 

 dollar attorney's fee. The costs now in a 

 case in the Supreme Court are about nine dol- 

 lars. They are less than they frequently are in 

 the court of a justice of the peace. Fifty dol- 

 lars (twenty for the library, twenty for attor- 

 ney's fee, and ten for other costs) would not be 



