718 



TEXAS. 



mences at Lavaca and is intended to extend to 

 San Antonio. A road is projected to cross 

 the Trinity Eiver near Houston and extend 

 through Eastern Texas, a rich and productive 

 country, under the name of the Houston and 

 Great Northern Railroad. The Houston Tap 

 and Brazoria Railway Company being in- 

 debted to the Common-School Fund of the 

 State, an act was passed requiring the Gov- 

 ernor to sell the road at public auction, at 

 Austin, to the highest bidder, or to bid it in for 

 the benefit of the State if it should bring less 

 than $100,000 in gold. 



The Southern Pacific Railroad, which has 

 been chartered by Congress, was granted aid 

 by the Legislature to the amount of $16,000 

 per mile. The length of the principal railroads 

 in operation in Texas is as follows : 



Miles. 



Galveston, Houston, and Henderson 60 



Buffalo Bayou, Brazos, and Colorado 83 



Houston and Texas Central 1"0 



Washington County 25 



Texas and New Orleans 108 



Houston Tap and Brazoria 50 



Southern Pacific (in Texas) 30 



San Antonio and Mexican Gulf. 30 



Total constructed 506 



Texas and New Orleans 108 



Total in operation 398 



The finances of the State are considered to 

 be in good condition. The amount of cash on 

 hand on the 3d of September, 1867, when the 

 provisional government was inaugurated, was 

 $20,232.26. The receipts from that date to 

 the 16th of April, 1870, were $1,384,15)0.80, 

 and the expenditures $1,024,891.31. The 

 amount of cash in the Treasury, April 16, 1870, 

 including balance of convention fund, but ex- 

 clusive of school and other special funds, was 

 $416,709.19. The State debt is represented as 

 not exceeding $360,000, the principal items of 

 which are the sum due for military services 

 previous to the war, and the amount of money 

 and* supplies furnished the penitentiary since 

 the war. The Auditorial Board, created by the 

 provisional act of November 9, 1866, reported 

 the total debt, principal and interest, on the 

 1st of December, 1867, at $332,436.17. De- 

 ducting the sum of $78,466.51 audited and un- 

 audited non-interest notes, which are declared 

 void by the constitution, there remains $243,- 

 969.66 as the total debt on the 1st of Decem- 

 ber, 1867, which, with interest added to date 

 and the amount audited, about $60,000, due 

 from the penitentiary, represents the total in- 

 debtedness of the State. The exact amount is 

 not given, but it does not exceed $360,000. 

 In this statement of indebtedness the bonds 

 issued to the Common School and University 

 Funds, under the provisional act of November 

 12, 1866, amounting to $216,541.08, and inter- 

 est, are not included. The total value of prop- 

 erty liable to taxation is estimated at $250,- 

 000,000, although, owing to the irregularity 

 and insufficiency with which the assessment 

 has been conducted since the war, the last 



assessment shows a taxable valuation of only 

 $149,665,386. 



The public-school system of the State has 

 not been put into operation, owing to the fail- 

 ure of the Legislature to make the necessary 

 appropriation. The number of school-children 

 in the State is reported at 160,000, of whom at 

 least 100,000 enjoy no school advantages. 

 The permanent school fund, exclusive of poll 

 and property taxes subject to appropriation, 

 amounts now to upward of $2,575,000, most 

 of which is already realized, or will be within 

 a short period. In addition to this permanent 

 school fund, the State holds in trust the usual 

 appropriation of every sixteenth and thirty- 

 sixth section of public lands. For the year 

 1871 it is anticipated that $500,000 can be ap- 

 propriated to public schools, without resorting 

 to direct taxation. 



After the organization of the State police 

 force in July, to the end of the year, 978 arrests 

 were made 109 of persons charged with mur- 

 der, 130 charged with assault with intent to kill, 

 and 394 with other felonies. Official reports 

 of criminals evading justice, received from 108 

 counties, show a total of 2,790 persons charged 

 with crime in those counties, and evading 

 arrest 29 counties have not reported. Among 

 those persons charged with crime, 702 were 

 charged with murder, and in some cases two 

 or more, even seven murdefs being charged to 

 a single individual; 413 charged with assault 

 with intent to kill, and 1,137 charged with 

 other felonies. The most determined efforts 

 were made by the Governor and the Legis- 

 lature for the suppression of this lawlessness ; 

 and to this end the militia and State police 

 were organized ; a law was passed prohibiting 

 citizens from carrying deadly weapons, and 

 steps were taken toward an extensive increase 

 in the number of jails. The stringent meas- 

 ures of the administration seem to have been 

 productive of good. 



The people of Texas are beginning to give 

 more attention to the subject of internal man- 

 ufactures and industry. In presenting this 

 subject to the Legislature, the Governor said : 



You will, without doubt, esteem it within your 

 powers and duty to encourage, in every reasonable 

 way, with a due regard to economy, the growth of 

 every species of manufacture and industry. Much 

 can generally be done in this way, without the ex- 

 penditures of the public money, or the grant of ex- 

 clusive or exceptional privileges, by the passage of 

 general laws affording; adequate protection to prop- 

 erty. Manufactures, I believe, can be stimulated 

 by relief from taxation for a short term of years, and 

 the State's income not unfavorably affected thereby. 

 And our broad and treeless prairies invite the ex- 

 periment here of State encouragement to the planting 

 of trees, which seems to have succeeded well in 

 States similarly conditioned. Among the most im- 

 portant interests in our State, and one to which this 

 necessity for protection more especially applies, is to 

 that of stock-raising. It is estimated that Texas can 

 supply, at this time, a million beeves for consumption 

 beyond the State, besides other stock. 



The following is the Federal census of Texas 

 for the years 1860 and 1870 : 



