550 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



NEW JERSEY. 



especially requested to vote for and secure 

 the adoption at least of the proposition abol- 

 ishing the property qualification; that abol- 

 ishing the " religious test ; " and that allowing 

 the Legislature to propose amendments. The 

 result of the vote was that, excepting the 

 clause relating to the property qualification, 

 which was adopted by a bare two-thirds ma- 

 jority, as required, the other two propositions 

 failed ; and the rest was rejected by decisive 

 majorities. 



By a provision of the old constitution, the 

 sense of the people as to its revision, through 

 a convention for that purpose, is to be taken 

 once in seven years. The year 1875 was the 

 time for such a vote ; the last one having been 

 taken in 1868, when the people decided not to 

 call a convention. 



The Legislature adjourned sine die on July 

 3d, after an unusually short session of thirty 

 days. During that period a large number of 

 acts were passed, affecting local as well as 

 general interests. 



Among the measures adopted, the most im- 

 portant seems to have been the joint resolu- 

 tion submitting to the people the question of 

 calling a Constitutional Convention. The res- 

 olution was introduced in the House of Rep- 

 resentatives on June 18th, and referred to the 

 Judiciary Committee ; but subsequently, on 

 the same day's sitting, it was, on motion, re- 

 called from that committee, and referred to a 

 special joint committee consisting of thirteen 

 members ten from the Lower House, three 

 from the Senate. The act confines the work 

 of the convention to specified matters, relating 

 chiefly to an improved system of political or- 

 ganization of the State, as follows : 



That the action be limited to abolishing the religious 

 test, providing for future amendments, districting the 

 State for the election of Councilors, Senators, and 

 Representatives, on the basis of population and in 

 the ratio of one Senator to six Representatives ; pro- 

 viding for biennial elections ; changing the time of 

 elections from the second Tuesday of March to the 

 second Tuesday of November ; changing.the time of 

 the meeting of the Legislature from the first Wednes- 

 day of June to the first Wednesday of February. 



The work of the Geological Survey of New 

 Hampshire has been completed and reported 

 upon by the State Geologist, Prof. 0. H. Hitch- 

 cock. The first volume of his report, contain- 

 ing 670 pages, with numerous illustrations of 

 the subjects treated of, was published shortly 

 before the meeting of the Legislature in June, 

 1875. The second and last volume, part of 

 which was then in press, will be issued before 

 the next session. 



The climate of New Hampshire during the 

 year 1874 was as follows : 



Its mean temperature has been very slightly cool- 

 er than the average. 



""", so in 1874 the mercury rose above 90* 



mean temperature was 81i. 

 The mercury fell below zero nineteen times : eight 



days in January, six days in February, one day in 

 March, and four days in December. 



The coldest day was February 2d, when the mer- 

 cury sank as low as 28 below zero ; the mean tem- 

 perature of the day being 3 below. 



Eain has fallen on seventy-five days, to the total 

 amount of 28.09 inches, being 2.39 inches more than 

 the rainfall of 1873, but nearly five inches less than 

 the average annual rainfall during the last nineteen 

 years. 



Snow has fallen on forty-seven days (the same 

 number of days as in 1873), to the total amount of 

 seven feet and one inch, of which quantity thirty- 

 five inches fell in April. 



NEW JERSEY. The Legislature of New 

 Jersey, at its session in 1875, gave its sanc- 

 tion to the amendments of the constitution 

 of the State which were proposed by the 

 Legislature of 1874, and provided for submit- 

 ting them to a vote of the people at a special 

 election, to be held on the 7th of September. 

 These propositions for amendment were twen- 

 ty-eight in number, and were to be voted for 

 on one ticket, those opposed by the voter being 

 canceled. The first was to insert, as paragraph 

 19 of Article I. on " Rights and Privileges," the 

 following: 



19. No county, city, borough, town, township, or 

 village, shall hereafter give any money or property, 

 or loan its money or credit, to or in aid of any indi- 

 vidual, association, or corporation, or become securi- 

 ty for, or be directly or indirectly the owner of, any 

 stock or bonds of any association or corporation. 



The second was to insert the following as 

 paragraph 20 of the same article, the former 

 paragraph 19 being made number 21 : 



20. No donation of land, or appropriation of money, 

 shall be made by the State, or any municipal corpo- 

 ration, to or for the use of any society, association, 

 or corporation, whatever. 



The next proposed change was to strike out 

 the word "white" between "every" and 

 "male," in the first line of Article II. on the 

 "Right of Suffrage," and add the following to 

 section 1 : 



And provided further, that in time of war no elec- 

 tor in the actual military service of the State, or of 

 the United States, in the army or navy thereof, shall 

 be deprived of his vote by reason of his absence 

 from such election district ; and the Legislature shall 

 have power to provide the manner in which, and the 

 time and place at which, such absent electors may 

 vote, and for the return and canvass of their votes 

 in the election districts in which they respectively 

 reside. 



It was also proposed to strike from the 

 second section of this article all after the word 

 "bribery." It now reads: "The Legislature 

 may pass laws to deprive persons of the right 

 of suffrage who shall be convicted of bribery," 

 whereas before it applied only to bribery at 

 elections. The next amendment is to section 1 

 of Article IV., entitled "Legislative," and 

 changes the time of the election from the second 

 Tuesday of October to the "first Tuesday after 

 the first Monday in November." The next 

 affects paragraph 7 of section 4 of Article IV., 

 and changes the compensation of members of 

 the Legislature from $3 per day for the first 



