VERMONT. 



817 



ASSETS. 



Due on tax of 1877 .- $8,731 62 



Cash in Treasury and banks, 186,111 27 



$194,842 89 



Excess of liabilities $5,085 22 



Deducting from the liabilities the amount due 

 Agricultural College fund, and due towns on 

 account of United States surplus fund, not 

 probably to be called for for several years, the 

 liabilities would be 52,908 15 



Leaving a balance of assets of $141,934 74 



from which to pay unexpended appropriations, 



estimated to be paid within ninety days 54,000 00 



Leaving a balance of $87,934 74 



toward the expenses of the current fiscal year, 

 including expenses of a legislative session. 



The State expenditures have steadily in- 

 creased till 1878, although the prices of farm 

 products, of labor, and of most articles that go 

 to make up the cost of living, do not vary ma- 

 terially from what they were in 1860. The 

 difference in the amounts paid by the State for 

 the same kinds of expenditures in the years 1860 

 and 1876 is shown by the following compara- 

 tive table : 



The court expenses in the year 1878 exceed- 

 ed those of 1876 by more than $35,000. 



An act was passed creating a Board of Com- 

 missioners " for a revision of the statutes " ; 

 and a joint resolution for the reduction of 

 court expenses was introduced in the House 

 on the eve of final adjournment, as follows : 

 " That the commissioners to be appointed by 

 the Governor under an act passed at this ses- 

 sion providing for a revision of the statutes be 

 requested to report to the next Legislature 

 what, in their judgment, shall be the best 

 method by which court expenses may be re- 

 duced, and the efficiency of our courts at the 

 same time be preserved." 



The savings banks in Vermont have been 

 steadily increasing in number and extent of 

 operations on a sound basis. The number of 

 these banks at present is 21 ; of their deposit- 

 ors, 32,117; and the amount of all their de- 

 posits, $8,321,726, a decrease of $250,000 dur- 

 ing the year. The expenses of all these banks 

 for the year, including revenue taxes to the 

 United States, were $46,903.12. Their aggre- 

 gate surplus in 1878 is $383,514, showing an 

 increase of more than $27,000 over the preced- 

 ing year. The dividends paid out during the 

 year amounted to about half a million dollars. 

 VOL. xvin. 52 A 



The State Inspector of Finance, in his last an- 

 nual report, bears witness "that during the 

 past two years no failure or temporary suspen- 

 sion has taken place among the savings banks 

 of Vermont; and that for more than twenty- 

 two years no savings bank in Vermont has 

 failed to respond to its depositors when called 

 upon for deposits." 



The education of youth seems to continue 

 in its regular course. The Governor requests 

 the Legislature carefully to consider the report 

 last submitted by the experienced Superin- 

 tendent of Public Instruction, and the various 

 specific recommendations contained in it; sug- 

 gesting that, whatever action the Legislature 

 may take on this important subject, it should 

 give the State policy a character of uniformity 

 and permanency. Besides a number of laws 

 enacted at this session regarding district and 

 county schools, and their officers, one was 

 passed relating to the normal schools, which 

 provides as follows: "The existence of the 

 three normal schools in this State, with all the 

 powers and privileges heretofore granted, is 

 hereby continued until August, 1890. ... No 

 more than two courses of study shall be al- 

 lowed in the normal schools of this State. . . . 

 The two courses of study may include such 

 branches of learning as have been set, or shall 

 be set, by the trustees of any normal school, 

 acting in concurrence with the Superintendent 

 of Education ; but no foreign language, an- 

 cient or modern, shall be a subject of instruc- 

 tion in any normal school. ... It shall be the 

 duty of the State Superintendent to make in- 

 quiry each term of half year, and to determine 

 whether the provisions of sections two and 

 three of this act have been complied with; 

 and, in case of non-compliance on the part of 

 any school, or of its trustees or teachers, he 

 shall withhold the certificate upon which the 

 Auditor of Accounts is authorized to draw his 

 order for the payment of moneys appropriated 

 to such school. . . . An act relating to the 

 normal schools of this State, approved No- 

 vember 28, 1876, is hereby so amended as to 

 allow one entitled to a scholarship to attend 

 the normal school in either Congressional dis- 

 trict ; provided the total number of scholar- 

 ships in the three schools shall in no case ex- 

 ceed the number of towns in the State." 



The State Reform School for boys and girls 

 is under excellent management. The expense 

 for the inmates per capita during the year was 

 $117.29. The labor on the farm of 130 acres 

 belonging to this school is performed by the 

 boys, under the direction of the farmer. They 

 are also employed in seating chairs. 



In the State Penitentiary the number of 

 convicts has more than doubled within the last 

 four years. In 1874 it was 85; in 1876, 119; 

 in 1878, 176. For the confinement of persons 

 guilty of minor offenses, the Legislature of 

 1876 passed an act for the establishment of a 

 workhouse, which has been erected in Rutland 

 County, and was opened in September, 1878. 



