KANSAS. 



427 



srease its bonded debt beyond ten per cent, of 

 its taxable property; and authorizing the 

 State School Commissioners to purchase 

 $50,000 of the University bonds of the city of 

 Lawrence, were adopted. The question of the 

 joint education of white and colored children 

 was warmly discussed, but finally defeated. 



A new apportionment of the Legislature 

 was agreed upon, on the basis of thirty-three 

 Senators and ninety Representatives. Under 

 this Leaven worth County will have the largest 

 representation, three Senators and seven Rep- 

 resentatives ; Douglas County the next, two 

 Senators and four Representatives ; and Atchi- 

 son County will have two Senators and three 

 Representatives. Under the new census the 

 State will be entitled to but two Representa- 

 tives in the national House of Representa- 

 tives, instead of three, as was expected. The 

 two districts will be known as the North 

 and South Kansas Congressional Districts, and 

 will be separated by an imaginary line follow- 

 ing, with slight variation, the Kansas River. 



The progress of education during the past 

 year has been as rapid as the material develop- 

 ment of the State, but it has by no means yet 

 reached the whole people. Though the sta- 

 tistics of 1871 show a large increase in the 

 number of public schools and the average 

 daily attendance, over those of the preceding 

 year, nearly two-thirds of the number of chil- 

 dren, within the school age, residing in the 

 State, still receive no instruction whatever. 

 Compulsory education is strenuously advocated 

 by the State Superintendent of Public Schools, 

 and is indorsed by the Governor. The follow- 

 ing summary of education statistics for the 

 year is compiled from the Superintendent's 

 report : 



Number of school-districts 2,647 



Increase for the year 579 



Total number of persons of school age 142,358 



Increase for the year 33,114 



Whole number of persons enrolled in public 



schools 89,777 



Increase for the year. 26,559 



Average daily attendance in public school.. . 52,891 



Increase for the year 13,490 



Amount paid for teachers' wages $449,273 05 



Increase for the year 130,676 74 



Amount received on semi-annual dividend of 



State school money 182,377 20 



Increase for the year 42,419 83 



Amount raised by district tax for the support 



of public schools. 534,261 69 



Increase for the year 16,937 84 



Total amount derived from various sources 



for public schools 1,074,946 09 



Increase for the year 275,627 58 



The annual reports of the Chancellor of the 

 State University and the President of the 

 vState Agricultural College are satisfactory ex- 

 hibits of the growth of those institutions dur- 

 ing the year. The average number of students 

 in the former was 300, and in the latter 293. 

 A new university building was completed dur- 

 ing the year. In pursuance of an act approved 

 March 2, 1871, the Regents of the Agricultural 

 College have invested most of the permanent 

 interest fund in school-district bonds, thereby 

 doubling the income of the institution from 



that source, and. at the same time, aiding in 

 the development of the common-school system 

 of the State. The college now has a farm of 

 415 acres, 315 of which are under cultivation. 

 The reports of the Principals and Boards of 

 Visitors of the State Normal Schools at Leav- 

 enworth and Emporia show that these insti- 

 tutions are in a flourishing condition and doing 

 highly important service to the State, in pre- 

 paring a large number of young men and 

 women for the vocation of teaching. The 

 principal want at Leaven worth is said to be 

 more adequate compensation for the members 

 of the faculty ; and at Emporia the great need 

 is more room. 



Early in September the great enterprise 

 known as the Pleasant Hill Railroad, projected 

 in the winter of 1865-'66, was completed. 

 This runs from Lawrence to Pleasant Hill, Mo., 

 a distance of sixty-one miles. It is the joint 

 work of a Kansas company chartered in 1868, 

 as the St. Louis, Lawrence & Denver Railroad 

 Company, and a Missouri company, incorpo- 

 rated in July, 1870, as the Pleasant Hill & 

 Lawrence Branch of the Pacific Railroad. The 

 two lines were consolidated in November, 

 1870, as the St. Louis, Lawrence & Denver 

 Railroad, under the laws of Missouri and Kan- 

 sas. The Kansas branch of the company re- 

 ceived the following subsidies : From the city 

 of Lawrence, $260,000 in bonds ; Douglas Coun- 

 ty, $125,000; Eudora Township, $15,000; John- 

 son County, $100,000; Lexington Township, 

 in Johnson County, $5,000; Olathe, $25,000. 

 The Missouri branch received from Cass County 

 $100,000; Pleasant Hill, $15,000. The road 

 has been built almost entirely by means of 

 these subsidies, amounting to $645,000. The 

 total cost of its construction has been $1,745,- 

 000, or, more properly, the contractors have 

 received all the bonds voted and $1,000,000 of 

 thirty-year first-mortgage bonds, and $100,000 

 of second-mortgage bonds, making the above- 

 mentioned sum. Before its completion the 

 line was leased to the Missouri Pacific Railroad 

 Company for a period of thirty years, the 

 lessees agreeing to pay during that time 53 

 per cent, of the gross earnings of the road ; 

 and further stipulating that it shall never cost 

 over thirty^per cent, more for the transporta- 

 tion of freight to Lawrence than to Kansas 

 City. The great advantage of the road is, that 

 it gives Lawrence a competing line to St. Louis, 

 shorter than any other by sixteen miles. 



The continuation of the Leavenworth, Law- 

 rence & Galveston Railroad a link in the 

 great chain of railroads from the suspension 

 bridge, at Niagara, to the Indian Territory, and 

 ultimately to Galveston Bay from Thayer, a 

 new town 110 miles south of Lawrence, to the 

 southern boundary of the State, near or within 

 the valleys of the Verdigris and Caney, was 

 completed in the summer. The road is com- 

 peting for the Texas cattle-trade, and it has 

 been especially equipped with this end in 

 view. The Independence branch of the same 



