DELAWARE. 



959 



Without intending to express any opinion upon 



tin- pi- : : . :' the Legislature in ui<l- 



, construction of those roads, 1 respect fully 

 -t that no further increase of the public debt, 

 itliir purposes, ought to bo authorized by tho 

 .a Assembly. Tho credit of the State ought 

 i j>"i>ordy by any further issue of 

 -liould tho revenues derived from toxa- 

 r otherwise, bo applied to any other pur- 

 poses than tho ordinary expenses of the eovern- 

 .iiid tho reduction of tLo present liabilities of 



I do not know t hat any application will be made to 

 ure, at its present session, for aid in the 

 construction of railroads or other works of internal 

 vement; but from a firm conviction that any 

 i would further connect the State with 

 I improvements would be hazardous to its 

 credit, I deem it an imperative duty to urge the ne- 

 cessity of guarding carefully against any augmenta- 

 tion of the State debt, and the consequent increased 

 measure of taxation which such augmentation would 

 necessarily entail upon the people of the State. 



Whatever local advantages might be anticipated 



from the construction of additional railroads, it is 



- that they would not justify an increase of 



present liabilities, or compensate for the injury 



which would be inflicted by additional taxation ren- 



1 necessary thereby. 



It is to be hoped that a sincere desire to preserve 

 untarnished the. credit of the State, and to protect 

 >ur citizens from further taxation, will prevent the 

 Legislature, at its present session, or hereafter, from 

 authorizing any further issue of State bonds for any 

 purpose whatsoever. 



The whole sura of the assets of the State, 

 including investments appropriated to the 

 school-fund, amounts to $1,123,189. The 

 amount of liabilities over all assets is $100,- 

 811, and over assets not appropriated to the 

 school-fund, $576,950. This latter amount may 

 be regarded as the real debt of the State over 

 available assets. The revenues under existing 

 laws are ample for any present or anticipated 

 demands upon the Treasury. The ordinary ex- 

 penses of the government have been met, the 

 interest on the public debt promptly paid, and 

 the principal of that portion of the debt created 

 by the exigencies of the war reduced $388,000 

 within the last four years. This has been ac- 

 complished from the ordinary receipts of the 

 Treasury, without postponing the payment of 

 any claim against the Treasury. 



The annual receipts into the Treasury from 

 all sources average about $207,872 ; and the 

 expenditures, including $75,000 interest on the 

 public debt, an appropriation of $3,000 to 

 Delaware College, and one-half of the biennial 

 expenses of the Legislature, about $111,025. 

 A large part of the revenue is derived from 

 taxes paid by railroads and other corpora- 

 tions, and from fees for licenses granted by the 

 State. 



Within the past year an important case, in 

 which Delaware, though not nominally, was in 

 reality a party, has been decided in the Su- 

 preme Court of the United States. The case 

 was that of William Minot, Jr., a stockholder 

 in tho Pacific Western & Baltimore Railroad 

 Company, against William J. Clarke, late State 

 Treasurer, and William M. Ochletree, a collector 

 of State taxes under the law of 1869. The bill 



filed in the Circuit Court prayed for an injunc- 

 tion to restrain such officers from proceeding to 

 collect from the railroad company certain taxea 

 imposed by said law upon railroad corporations 

 in this State, upon the assumed ground that 

 the law was unconstitutional and void for 

 various reasons, and among others that it im- 

 l':iiiv<l the obligation of a contract alleged to 

 exist between the State and the company, ex- 

 empting the latter from taxation. 



The decree of the Circuit Court sustained 

 the constitutionality of tho law and the right 

 of the State to tax the corporation, and, upon 

 an appeal from the decree, taken by complain- 

 ant, was affirmed by the Supreme Court. 



It would be difficult to over-estimate the 

 value of this decision to the State. It disposes 

 effectually of the claim on the part of the prin- 

 cipal railroad corporation existing within its 

 limits to exemption from taxation, and, by main- 

 taining the constitutionality of the law referred 

 to, relieves the State from any possible liability 

 for the amount of taxes paid by the company 

 under protest. 



Tho school system of Delaware is substan- 

 tially the one adopted forty-five years ago. 

 The State has no Superintendent of Public In- 

 struction. All questions relating to schools are 

 left in the hands of the inhabitants of the 

 school districts into which the State is divided. 

 They decide whether there shall be a school or 

 not ; a certain amount of school-tax must, 

 however, be raised by each district in order to 

 entitle it to its pro rata share of the school- 

 fund. A superintendent for each county is an- 

 nually appointed by the Governor; the former, 

 however, has exceedingly limited powers, and 

 receives no pay other than traveling expenses. 

 The State law makes no provision for the edu- 

 cation of colored children. Material aid, how- 

 ever, for the instruction of this class is rendered 

 by u The Delaware Association for the Moral 

 Improvement and Education of the Colored 

 People," and the Freedmen's Bureau. In 1873 

 a bill was introduced into the Legislature, pro- 

 viding for a thorough supervision of the schools, 

 for annual reports to the Governor or Legisla- 

 ture, and for giving to the colored population 

 their pro rata share of the school-fund. This, 

 however, failed to become a law. The State 

 school-fund is derived from the income of 

 Delaware's share of the "surplus revenue" 

 distributed by the United States to the several 

 States, together with a portion of the proceeds 

 accruing from certain State fees and licenses. 

 A portion of the fund is apportioned equally 

 among the counties, and the balance according 

 to the white population. 



The peach season of 1874 closed about the 

 1st of October. The net receipts of the crop 

 are estimated at $669,775. The season was 

 very little shorter than usual, it beginning 

 about as early and continuing about as late, 

 but the daily shipments were much below the 

 average of the several preceding years, and 

 the aggregate of the crop waa considerably 



