LOUISIANA. 



As soon as the Legislature was orgnni/.l, 

 rnur K.-llci.'tf Mihmitted LU message, in 

 \\ Inch he said : 



<'tumt bo unaware that throughout a l..r_'r 

 - !' the State a condition of anarch v and vio- 

 IMS more or less prevailed for some time past ; 

 that the laws have been dUngtrded, blood has 

 -!i-il, and the constituted authorities have 

 displaced by force. In the intercut of the 

 iMojilulet me beg of you to take immediate 

 ires to secure the enforcement of that obe- 

 to law without which no civilized community 

 (.an jirospcr. No amount of ruisgovernment, no op- 

 -o taxation, no usurpation of office, if such 

 there be, can satisfactorily explain to the people of 

 I'thrr communities tlu- fact that there is less security 

 t'.ir liiiiiian lite in Louisiana than in almost any other 

 in the Union- that gravecrimes are committed 

 and go unpunished of justice, the criminals often 

 having the sympathy of the community; that assas- 

 sination for political reasons is practised and ap- 

 plauded ; and that, in the whole of Northwest Louis- 

 iana there is scarcely a town where a peaceful, in- 

 dustrious citizen from another State could openly 

 proclaim himself a Republican and be permitted to 

 pursue his avocation without annoyance or moles- 

 tation. 80 long as lawlessness is known to prevail 

 our railroads \vill remain unfinished, and capital 

 and emigration will seek other fields for invest- 

 ment. The great need of Louisiana is peace. 



The Governor reported that the total bonded 

 and floating debt of the State, when the pres- 

 ent administration came into office, exclusive of 

 tlio amount due the fiscal agent (viz., $150,000 

 which has since been paid), was $23,933,407.90. 

 The Auditor's report of December 81, 1872, 

 states that it was increased the first year of 

 this administration by the issue of bonds, au- 

 thorized by acts passed by previous Legisla- 

 . viz., bonds issued to the New Orleans, 

 Mobile & Texas Railroad Company, on a sec- 

 tion of twelve miles of completed railroad, 

 under act No^. 31 of 1870, for $125,000, and 

 bonds issued to the North Louisiana & Texas 

 Railroad Company, under act No. 108 of 1869, 

 for $576,000, making a total of $24,634,407.90. 

 The Governor said, "The issue of the last-named 

 bonds was rendered obligatory upon me by a 

 decision of the Supreme Court of the State." 

 The debt has been decreased as follows : 



REDUCTION OF THE BONDED DEBT. 



]?y the redemption of past-due bond* $00,000 00 



By exchange of $&12.220 new bonds for f 1,- 



403,700 bonds at 60 cents on the dollar. . . . 661,480 CO 



REDUCTION OF THE FLOATING DKBT*. 



By retirement of old outstanding warrants.. 600,000 00 

 By exchange, under the funding bill, of $182,- 

 724.90 old warrants for $109,634.96 of con- 

 solidated bonds 73,089 94 



Total redaction of debt under present 

 administration $1,803,569 94 



The rate of taxation in the city of New Or- 

 leans in 1872, when the present State govern- 

 ment came into office, was : State, including 

 schools, 21 mills; city, 30 mills; total, 51 J 

 mills. The rate of taxation for the present 

 year, as reduced by the measures passed by the 

 last Legislature, is : State, including schools, 

 14 mills ; city, 25 mills ; total, 89 mills, 

 making a reduction of the taxation of the city 

 and State, under this administration, of 12 mills. 



LUNALILO L, KINO. 



503 



As the rate of parish taxation is by law limited 

 t > the rate of State taxation, and the rate 

 of State taxation is now limited by a consti- 

 tutinnal amendment to 14} mills, including 

 schools, it follows that in no parish of the 

 State, ontside of the parish of Orleans, can a 

 heavier tax than 29 mills be levied in any one 

 year. In previous years the State and parish 

 taxes in some parishes of the State reached as 

 high as 70 mills! 



One of the first duties of the Legislature was 

 the election of a United States Senator. The 

 choice fell upon P. B. S. Pinchbeck. On the 

 2d of February General Sheridan left New 

 Orleans. 



LUNALILO I. WILLIAM LTTNALILO, King 

 of the Sandwich or Hawaiian Islands, born in 

 Hawaii, January 31, 1835 ; died at his palace in 

 Honolulu, February 3, 1874. He was the sixth 

 of the Hawaiian sovereigns, and was one of 

 the ancient race of chiefs or kings who ruled 

 the island of Maui before the Kamehameha 

 dynasty was founded. He had received an 

 excellent English education from the Amer- 

 ican missionaries, and had spent some years 

 in the United States. He was of gigantic stat- 

 ure, of dignified presence, and remarkably 

 handsome, but unfortunately had in very early 

 life contracted habits of intemperance, man- 

 ifesting themselves in occasional debauches, 

 rather than in continuous intoxication. Ik- 

 had made many and honest efforts to rid him- 

 self of this degrading habit, but without com- 

 plete success, and his untimely death was caused 

 by a decline originating in a cold, the result 

 of exposure to the night air during a protract- 

 ed debauch hi July, 1878. His predecessor, 

 Kamehameha V., dying childless, there were 

 several candidates for the vacant throne, of 

 whom he was the most popular ; and although 

 the election of a King had never been sub- 

 mitted to a popular vote, and we believe, never 

 previous to this instance, to the vote of the 

 native Legislature, yet Prince Lunalilo, in a 

 well-written appeal to the people of Hawaii, 

 proposed to abide by the vote of the people, 

 which the Legislature should afterward con- 

 firm. Of the 12,000 votes cast he received 

 all but nineteen, which were cast for David 

 Kalakaua (who since his death has been elect- 

 ed his successor), and when the Legislature as- 

 sembled this election was unanimously ratified. 

 His reign lasted not quite thirteen months, but 

 was characterized by wisdom, moderation, and a 

 prudent regard for popular rights. He restored 

 the Constitution of 1854, which had been ar- 

 bitrarily set aside by his predecessor, and ini- 

 tiated several beneficial reforms, among which 

 were the endowment of all native-born citi- 

 zens witli the right of suffrage, and the division 

 of the Legislative Assembly into two branches, 

 one composed of elected representatives, and 

 the other of nobles, or descendants of the old 

 chiefs. This served to popularize the legisla- 

 tive branch of the government, and at the 

 same time to perpetuate the ancient sentiment 



