NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



589 



Their aggregate surplus at the end of the year 

 showed a decrease from that of the previous 

 one, owing to the depreciation in the stocks 

 la-ill by them, as well as to failures and other 

 I'^-ics, caused probably by the long-continued 

 depression in all branches of business. 



The entire amount of deposits in these 

 l>.ink-i is $31,198,064.10, showing an increase 

 of $989,578.45 over the amount presented in 

 the last report. The whole number of depos- 

 itors is 101,091 an increase of 3,253 during 

 the year. The individual depositors in the 

 savings-banks of New Hampshire represent 

 nearly one-third of the whole population of 

 the State. 



The number of children over ten years of 

 age and unable to read, in the whole State, is 

 less than 8,000, or two and one-third per cent, 

 of the population. 



The State Teachers' Institute was abolished 

 a tew years ago by act of the Legislature. 



The Normal School 

 at Plymouth has proved 

 completely successful in 

 accomplishing the pur- 

 pose intended in its es- 

 tablishment. One hun- 

 dred and seventy -two 

 have graduated from it ; 

 over loO of that num- 

 ber are now actually en- 

 gaged in teaching, with 

 beneficial effect upon 

 the schools of the State. 



The Agricultural Col- 

 lege, at Hanover, which 

 also has received con- 

 siderable aid from the 

 State, is quietly pro- 

 gressing in its work, 

 although the number of 

 students in it is less than 

 would seem desirable. 



The Asylum for tlie 

 Insane is under good 

 management, and the 



State expenditures on it have returned a cor- 

 responding equivalent. 



In the Reform School each of the boys has 

 been furnished with an extra suit of clothes, 

 purchased with $1,000 appropriated for that 

 purpose by the Legislature at the preceding 

 session. The condition and management of 

 this school are most satisfactory in every re- 

 spect; and nothing more is the Legislature 

 required to do for the coming year in its be- 

 half than to make the usual appropriation of 

 $6,000 to defray its current expenses. 



The number of convicts detained in the 

 State-prison at the end of May, 1876, was 147 

 that is, nearly twice as many as there were 

 in it four years before. There being no ade- 

 quate cell-accommodation in the penitentiary 

 building, the warden is compelled to make use 

 of the hall and the hospital for sleeping-apart- 

 ments for a large number of the prisoners. 



Commissioners were appointed two yearn 

 ago to consider the question of erecting a new 

 State-prison, and report to the Legislature of 

 1875. They executed their mission, recom- 

 mending the construction of a new peniten- 

 tiary. A bill to provide for the building was 

 accordingly introduced before the General 

 Court of that year ; but, not having been dis- 

 posed of by final action, it was referred to the 

 present session. 



Governor Cheney, in his message this year, 

 bears testimony to the extraordinary and very 

 gratifying progress which the temperance 

 movement has made in New Hampshire dur- 

 ing the twelve months last past, not as a po- 

 litical association, but in regard to the good 

 influence it has exerted on her people of all 

 conditions generally, stating : 



At no time probably in the history of the State 

 has the public conscience been more thoroughly 

 aroused to the great evil of intemperance. In 110 



STATE HOUSE, CONCORD. 



equal period have so many citizens of this State taken 

 upon themselves a solemn pledge to abstain from 

 that which intoxicates. This reform movement has 

 pervaded all classes. The high and the low, the 

 rich and the poor, alike have felt and recognized its 

 power. It has had the sympathy of every religiou? 

 sect, of all political parties, and has engaged the ac- 

 tive efforts of many of their representative men; 

 but has found its readiest and most effective cham- 

 pions in men but recently the victims of drinking- 

 nabits. Nor has it lacked the earnest support of the 

 wome.n of New Hampshire. In manv instances theae 

 combined influences have reached the dealers of in- 

 toxicating drinks, and not a few of them have vol- 

 untarily closed their places of sale. In other in- 

 stances a sentiment has been created which has led 

 to a more complete enforcement of the law. It ia 

 proper that a movement like this, the beneficial re- 

 sults of which are likely to reach far into the future, 

 should receive this official recognition. 



For United States Senator from New Hamp- 

 shire in the place of Mr. Craarin, whose term 

 expires with March 8, 1877, Edward H. Rol- 



