NEBKASKA. 



531 



care and preservation of the military records, 

 the correspondence on military affairs, the 

 care of the ordinance, arms, and ammunition, 

 helonging to the State, make it necessary that 

 the office of Adjutant-General be created and 

 provided with a suitable salary." 



.He seems also to hint at the utility, of crea- 

 ting the office of Attorney-General, when he 

 says that he has employed counsel in behalf of 

 the State, whose bill for fees will be laid 

 before the Legislature, and asks them to set 

 apart for the future a sufficient sum as " impor- 

 tant questions, which can be settled only by 

 litigation, and in which the State has impor- 

 tant interests, have been suffered to lie, be- 

 cause there was no appropriation to defray the 

 expenses attending their adjudication." 



Concerning the education of youth and 

 public instruction in general, though there 

 are schools and school-houses in Nebraska, she 

 seems not to have given the subject that at- 

 tention and care which it deserves. Accord- 

 ing to the Governor's statement, the differ- 

 ent portions of the State "complain of the 

 inefficiency and injustice of our school laws." 

 And while he does not sanction, but rather 

 condemns, such complaints as untrue in most 

 cases, yet he calls on the Legislature, say- 

 ing: "These complaints are so numerous that 

 the feeling prevails that we have no estab- 

 lished public school system, nor even settled 

 policy of public instruction. It is therefore 

 devolved upon you to give to the State a 

 school system that shall be in its operation 

 equitable and efficient, complete in all its parts, 

 and as a whole harmonious." 



He also requests them to consider and decide 

 upon the expediency of establishing a school- 

 building fund, to be distributed among the 

 districts which have occasion for a school- 

 house, and apportioning it in equal sums, "not 

 to exceed two-thirds or three-fourths of the 

 minimum cost of buildings of lowest grade, to 

 be fixed by him." 



Governor Butler anticipates that a general 

 fund, besides securing "in every district a 

 school-house creditable to the Qtate," would 

 also remove the injustice done to the inhab- 

 itants of precincts lately formed out of por- 

 tions of larger ones, as they, after having 

 borne their share of the burden for erecting 

 the school-houses in the old precincts under 

 the system of precinct taxation, would be 

 compelled to build the schools of their new 

 precincts unaided. 



As to the State Normal School at Peru, for 

 the completion of whose building the last Gen- 

 eral Assembly appropriated at the May session 

 three thousand dollars, the Governor states 

 that the sum has been expended for that pur- 

 pose, and that " the institution is now in suc- 

 cessful operation." Eeferring to the sugges- 

 tions made by the Board of Education in their 

 report to the State Auditor, he urges on the 

 Legislature the necessity of making "full pro- 

 vision for the successful management and 



efficiency of this branch of the State educa- 

 tional system." 



After stating that " the grounds on which 

 the old State-house stands were given by the 

 citizens of Omaha to be used by the Territory 

 for the erection thereon of the capitol," now 

 that the seat of government has been trans- 

 ferred to Lincoln, the Governor says : " I rec- 

 ommend that they be granted to the city of 

 Omaha, to be used for a high-school, on the 

 condition that, when they shall no longer be 

 used for that purpose, they shall revert to the 

 State." 



He requests the Assemby to take effective 

 measures to secure school reports with full 

 and accurate statistics, giving a definite idea 

 of the condition of the schools, as well as of 

 the efficiency of the system; such information 

 being indispensable both to legislate upon and 

 superintend the schools in an efficient manner. 



He finally recommends the creation of 

 local and general superintendents of the 

 schools as independent offices. He represents 

 them to be a want long and generally felt, and 

 suggests that to the General Superintendent's 

 office an ample salary should be attached, " suf- 

 ficient to secure the constant services of our 

 best men." 



The Governor asks an appropriation for- the 

 State Library, chiefly to enlarge its law branch, 

 by purchasing the best recent works on ele- 

 mentary law, and above all to complete the 

 sets of its Law Keports, as some volumes which 

 belong to them respectively were accidentally 

 lost in the transportation. 



He strongly urges an effectual provision for 

 securing the publication of the Law Keports of 

 Nebraska ; representing that such publication 

 is both honorable to the State by enabling her 

 to send her own reports to other States who 

 furnish her with theirs, and advantageous to 

 the administration of justice within her limits, 

 especially in the inferior courts. These -are 

 frequently in doubt, and hesitate to pronounce 

 on cases before them, " from the difficulty of 

 ascertaining what are the decisions made in 

 superior courts." 



In regard to works of charity toward the 

 unfortunate among her people, Nebraska has 

 made provision for the deaf and dumb, the 

 blind, and the insane, by causing the latter to 

 be taken care of, and the former educated in 

 well-known institutions abroad, at her charge. 



The insane are sent to the Iowa Hospital 

 at Mount Pleasant for their treatment, eleven 

 new subjects having been sent thither within 

 the last two years, in addition to those who 

 then were there. The average yearly ex- 

 pense at the hospital is $280, the aggregate 

 amounting at present to $5,350. To this must 

 be added the expense of conveyance, reckoned 

 at about one hundred dollars for each subject. 

 On these grounds the Governor intimates " that 

 the time has nearly arrived when economical 

 considerations alone will require that these un- 

 fortunate people shall find an asylum under the 



