MAINE. 



MANITOBA. 



469 



fixed by the Legislature, a tax of one and a 

 half per cent, is imposed upon the corporate 

 franchise of railroad companies, one per cent. 

 on deposits in savings-banks, and two per cent, 

 on the premiums collected by foreign insurance 

 companies, after deducting the amount paid 

 for losses, sums repaid for return premiums, 

 legal reserve on life-policies, and unused bal- 

 ances on notes taken for premiums on open 

 policies. 



Much difficulty has been experienced in col- 

 lecting the tax on railroads, some of the com- 

 panies resisting on the ground that such an 

 assessment impairs the obligation of the con- 

 tract contained in their charters. A tempo- 

 rary injunction has been granted in behalf of 

 the Maine Central Railroad, and the right of 

 the State to impose this tax is to be decided 

 by the Supreme Court. 



Several additions have been made to lines 

 of railroad within the State during the year. 

 The Aroostook River Railroad Company has 

 .completed and opened for traffic three miles 

 of its road, from Fort Fairfield to the State 

 line, where it connects with the New Bruns- 

 wick Railroad. The Somerset Railroad has 

 finished an extension of five miles, from Madi- 

 son to North Anson. The Portland & Ogdens- 

 burg Railroad has perfected a through connec- 

 tion to the West. 



There are sixty-four savings-banks in the 

 State, five of which have been established dur- 

 ing the year. The amount of deposits for the 

 year ending November 30th was $32,083,314.- 

 28, an increase of $1,021,350.55. 



The important items of the school statistics, 

 compared with those of 1874, are as follows: 



The College of Agriculture and Mechanic 

 Arts had 115 students at the end of the year. 



The number of inmates of the State Reform 

 School was 142. The cost of its support was 



$24,803.40, of which $18,000 was derived by 

 legislative appropriation. The boys are em- 

 ployed on the farm belonging to the institu- 

 tion, and in making bricks, chairs, and shoes. 

 The Industrial School for Girls was opened at 

 Hallowell on the 20th of January, and 32 girls 

 have been admitted, two of whom have been 

 placed out in homes. 



The Insane Hospital contained 403 patients 

 at the close of the year, which was 53 more 

 than the building was calculated to accommo- 

 date. The expenditures of the institution for 

 the year amounted to $91,414.81. The need 

 of additional accommodations is severely felt, 

 and a commissioner was appointed early in the 

 year to consider the question of building a new 

 hospital. 



The Fish Commissioners have distributed 

 700,000 young salmon during the year in the 

 waters of the State, the larger part being of 

 the Penobscot variety, hatched at Bucksport. 

 Something has also been done in stocking 

 ponds with black bass and blue-back trout. 

 Three new fish ways have been constructed at 

 Modomac, one at Presumpscot, two at Saca- 

 rappa, one at Windham, and three at Surry. 

 The fish-breeding works at Bucksport produced 

 about 2,000,000 salmon-eggs, an average of 

 8,400 for each female fish. In the opinion of 

 the commissioners "the fish of the Penobscot 

 or Kennebec is worth more than all the lum- 

 ber on either of these rivers." 



MANITOBA was formed out of the Hudson 

 Bay Territory, and comprises what was for- 

 merly known as the Red River Settlement. It 

 is situated between latitudes 49 and 50 BO' 

 north, and longitudes 96 and 99 west, and is 

 bounded south by Minnesota and Dakota, and 

 on all other sides by the Northwest Territo- 

 ries, and is 135 miles long east and west by 

 104 miles in breadth, forming nearly a paral- 

 lelogram ; area, 14,340 square miles. It is di- 

 vided into four counties, Lisgar, Marquette, 

 Provencher, and Selkirk, which are subdivided 

 into parishes. The capital and chief town is 

 Winnipeg, on the north bank of the Assiniboin 

 River, at its confluence with the Red, which 

 has about 7,000 inhabitants, and contains with- 

 in its limits Fort Garry, the American head- 

 quarters of the Hudson Bay Company. The 

 population of the province in 1871 was 11,963, 

 of whom 5,757 were French half-breeds, 4,083 

 English half-breeds, 1,565 whites, and 558 In- 

 dians ; in 1874, about 20,000. The half-breeds 

 include all having any intermixture of Indian 

 blood, and are the descendants of Indian moth- 

 ers and French-Canadian, English, or Scotch 

 fathers, the Scotch element predominating 

 over the English. The distinction of French 

 and English in the census is based rather upon 

 language than lineage. The half-breeds are a 

 handsome race, large, strong, and well made ; 

 they are generally swarthy, but many exhibit 

 no sign of Indian extraction. Intrepid and in- 

 defatigable travelers, they manifest the Indian 

 instinct in the ability to find their way through 



