012 



OREGON. 



in 1890. For these expenses also the State 

 claims indemnity from the General Govern- 

 ment. There is a bonded debt due the Willa- 

 mette Falls Canal and Lock Company out of the 

 proceeds of the sales of United States lands, 

 five per cent, of which go to this fund, and from 

 the sale of 500,000 acres donated by the Fed- 

 eral Government for internal improvements. 

 This debt amounted to $200,000, and the in- 

 terest at the close of 1878 to $160,000, since 

 which time $8,500 of the interest has been 

 paid. The State holds notes for $40,000 for 

 lands sold; and 260,000 acres yet remain to 

 be sold. Besides the bonded indebtedness there 

 were at the close of 1880 $133,604 of outstand- 

 ing warrants. They are payable out of specific 

 funds, mainly from the swamp - land fund. 

 These and the lock bonds are not a general 

 indebtedness of the State, but the latter merely 

 administers upon certain property and funds 

 for their payment. 



The value of taxable property as assessed in 

 1879 vvas $46,422,817. The valuation is prob- 

 ably less than half the actual value of all prop- 

 erty in the State. The amount of indebtedness 

 returned in 1879 to offset assessments aggre- 

 gated the surprising sum of $19,690,878, over 

 $7,000,000 more than the total assessment of 

 notes, accounts, and shares of stock. The Gov- 

 ernor recommends that the law allowing the 

 deduction of debts from assessments be repealed 

 or changed, so as to prevent fraud. He coun- 

 sels also the taxation of the capital of foreign 

 corporations employed in business in the State, 

 and the imposition of a license-tax for conduct- 

 ing business through agents and solicitors from 

 without the State. He thinks also that the 

 law allowing interest upon State or county 

 warrants, presented and not paid, ought to be 

 changed. 



A special tax has been levied for the estab- 

 lishment of an insane asylum. Heretofore the 

 insane and the imbecile have been cared for 

 under a special contract. They have increased 

 to over 290 in number, and the expense to 

 over $75,000 a year. The Governor thinks 

 that the expense of sending insane persons to 

 the asylum should be borne by the counties, 

 and that the feeble-minded should not be re- 

 ceived at all, but should be cared for by the 

 local authorities. The schools for the blind 

 and the deaf and dumb, which were conducted 

 by the Board of Education, were discontinued 

 in 1879, because the trouble and the cost were 

 greater than the benefits afforded. The latter 

 school was reopened in that year under a special 

 arrangement. The Legislature has provided for 

 the reorganization of these institutions under 

 the supervision of a separate commission. 



At the request of the Governor the General 

 Land-Office has sent an agent, R. V. Ankeny, 

 to Oregon to select, in cooperation with an 

 agent of the State, the lands which have been 

 granted to the State by the swamp-land act, 

 the State authorities having forwarded to 

 Washington a claim for 106,826 acres of such 



lands, which they had caused to be surveyed. 

 Other grants to the State were as follows: For 

 the use of the State University, seventy-two 

 sections ; for public buildings, ten sections ; the 

 salt springs, twelve in number, with six sections 

 of land adjoining; 90,000 acres for a college 

 for instruction in agriculture and the mechanic 

 arts; and 500,000 acres for internal improve- 

 ment purposes. The State University grant 

 has been almost all selected, and of the lands 

 17,000 acres remain unsold. It has yielded a 

 fund amounting at present to about $40,000, 

 with accrued interest, making it about $60,000, 

 invested in numerous private loans. The fund 

 has been seriously impaired by the default of 

 interest, and it is recommended that it be re- 

 invested in State bonds; or, if this is imprac- 

 ticable, that the back interest be made by law 

 to bear interest. The grant for the purpose 

 of constructing public buildings has all been 

 located and sold. The salt-spring grant has 

 lapsed, by reason of a proviso that the lands 

 should be selected within a year after the ad- 

 mission of the State. The Agricultural College 

 grant has been selected, and 23,000 acres sold, 

 the proceeds amounting to $50,000. The in- 

 ternal improvement grant has been spoken of 

 above. The La Grande Land-Office, which 

 has had charge of them heretofore, the Gover- 

 nor recommends should be abolished. 



A claim of the Willamette Valley and Cas- 

 cade Mountain Military Wagon-Road Company 

 for land, alleged to have been earned by the 

 construction of a military road, was investi- 

 gated by a special land agent. The document- 

 ary evidence presented in support of the claim, 

 although apparently conclusive and bearing the 

 seal of the State's officers, was discovered to 

 have been fabricated and the claim fraudulent. 

 The road was alleged to have been built from 

 Albany, through the mountains, to the eastern 

 boundary of the State. The company did some 

 work at the western end, and then obtained 

 the enactment of a law granting lands to the 

 State of Oregon for the construction of such a 

 road. The road was made for 150 miles of the 

 distance ; and then, fearing the lapse of the 

 grant, the company simply made a wagon-track 

 to the Idaho line, 350 miles long, without 

 bridging or grading, and then claimed patents 

 on 440,000 acres, having already patented 100,- 

 000 acres upon the basis of fictitious representa- 

 tions. 



In the annual report of the Portland Board 

 of Trade it is stated that, while formerly nine 

 tenths of the immigrants to the Pacific coast 

 over the Pacific Railroads settled in California, 

 now nearly one half of such immigrants make 

 their way to Oregon and Washington Terri- 

 tory, together with other settlers from California 

 itself. Notwithstanding the short wheat-crop 

 in the Willamette Valley in 1879, money was 

 more plentiful. Interest rates are lowering, 

 and capital seeking borrowers. About $3,000,- 

 000 was invested in new buildings in Portland 

 in 1880. The exports of wheat for the year 



