686 



NORTH CAROLINA. 



A tramp is defined to be any person going 

 about from place to place begging and asking 

 or subsisting on charity, and such shall be pun- 

 ished by imprisonment in the county prison 

 not more than six months ; but any person who 

 shall furnish satisfactory evidence of good char- 

 acter shall be discharged without cost. Any 

 act of begging or vagrancy by any person, un- 

 less such are well-known objects of charity, 

 shall be evidence that the person committing 

 the same is a tramp within the meaning of the 

 act. The blind and minors under fourteen years 

 are exempted from the provisions of the law. 



The act to raise revenue reduced the poll- 

 tax from 89 to 72 cents. The tax on real and 

 personal property, moneys, credits, investments 

 in bonds, stocks, joint-stock companies, or oth- 

 erwise, was reduced from 29f to 24 cents, to 

 be applied as follows : 12 instead of 14f cents 

 to the general fund ; 6 in place of 9 cents to 

 the Insane and Deaf and Dumb and Blind Asy- 

 lums ; 6 cents as heretofore to the Penitentiary. 

 The tax on billiard-saloons is $20 on each table, 

 but hereafter every place where liquor is sold 

 is considered a billiard-saloon. Retail liquor- 

 dealers are to pay a monthly license-tax of $5 

 instead of $3 as before ; and retailers of malt 

 liquors only $3, instead of $1.60, as before. 

 " Any grocer, druggist, dealer, or other person 

 who shall sell spiritous or malt liquors, wines, 

 or cordials, in any quantity, if the same or any 

 portion thereof shall at any time be drunk 

 upon the premises where such liquors, wines, 

 or cordials are sold, shall be considered to be 

 a retail dealer within the meaning of the act." 

 Every person or company running sleeping- 

 cars upon any railroad in the State is to pay 

 $50 yearly for every car so run, and shall make 

 returns and pay to the State Treasurer. Penal- 

 ty for non-compliance, $2,000. Tobacco-ware- 

 housemen, instead of a license-tax of $50, are 

 to pay $15 and 1 per cent, on gross amount 

 of their commissions on all sales of tobacco 

 in excess of 300,000 pounds. Any merchant, 

 dealer, or agent selling sewing-machines shall 

 pay a tax of $10 in each county, but the pay- 

 ment of a license-tax of $200 to the State Trea- 

 surer will enable any person, company, or 

 manufacturer of sewing-machines to peddle 

 them in any county, employing any number of 

 agents, free of county or municipal tax. A 

 peddlers' license-tax of $10 is hereafter good 

 for a year instead of six months. Itinerant 

 lightning-rod men are to pay $50 instead of 

 $10 for each county. Drummers are to pay 

 $100 annually instead of $50. The liquor- 

 dealers' drummers are to pay $200. Marriage 

 licenses are reduced from $1 to 50 cents. 



Children of colored parents born at any time 

 before the first day of January, 1868, of per- 

 sons living together as man and wife, are legiti- 

 mate children of such parents or either one of 

 them, with all the rights of heirs at law and 

 next of kin, with respect to the estate or es- 

 tates of any such parents, or either one of them. 



Another act provides that the clerk of a 



court of record in any other State may act as a 

 commissioner of affidavits and deeds, exercising 

 the same powers as heretofore granted to reg- 

 ularly appointed commissioners for the State. 



The debt of the State, as reported to the 

 Legislature by the State Treasurer, was as fol- 

 lows: 



1. Bonds issued before the war, known as 



"old" bonds $8,871,400 00 



Interest due on same 6,007,680 60 



Total $18,878,960 60 



2. Bonds issued since the war by authority of 



acts before the war. $1,774,000 00 



Interest due on same 1,015,890 00 



Total $2,789,890 00 



8. Bonds issued since the war, by authority of 

 ordinances of Convention, and acts of the 

 General Assembly, passed since the war. $2.012,045 00 

 Interest due on same 1,160,778 86 



Total $8,172,81886 



4. Bonds issued under funding nets of March 

 10. 1866, and August 20, 1868 : 



Funding act of 1868 $2,281,000 



Interest due on same 1,310,262 



8,541,262 00 



Funding act of 1862 $1,657,600 



Interest due on same 990,987 



2,648,587 00 



Total $6,189,849 00 



6. Bonds issued during the war, by authority 

 of acts passed before the war, for internal 

 improvement purposes, to which are add- 

 ed $216,000 issued for Chatham Eailroad 

 under ordinance of Convention of Janu- 

 ary 80, 1862 914,000 00 



Interest due on same 674,690 00 



Total $1,588,690 00 



Total principal of debt, exclusive of special tax 



bonds $16,960,04500 



Total amount of interest due 10,160,182 85 



Total amount of principal and interest $27,120,22786 



The principal of the " old " or ante-war debt, 

 as shown in the foregoing classification, is $8,- 

 371,400. Of this amount, $2,794,000 were is- 

 sued for the construction of the North Caro- 

 lina Railroad. Deducting this amount, there 

 remains as principal $5,577,400. The interest 

 on this class, which is reported at $5,007,580.- 

 50, is subject to a deduction of the amount 

 paid by the receiver of the dividends from the 

 North Carolina Railroad Company. 



On March 4th the Legislature passed an 

 act "to compromise, commute, and settle the 

 State debt." On the bonds issued before the 

 war (except for the North Carolina Railroad) 

 it proposed to pay 40 per cent, of the princi- 

 pal. The principal of this old debt, less the 

 North Carolina Railroad bonds ($2,794,000), 

 is $5,577,400. These bonds were given for: 



Fayette and "Western Plankroad $50,600 



Gaston and Weldon Eailroad 25,000 



Fayette and Center Plankroad 45.000 



Fayette and Warsaw Plankroad 10,000 



TarKiver 15,000 



Insane Asylum 70,000 



A. andN. C. Eailroad 1,851,500 



A. and C. Canal 824,000 



Western Eailroad 8S6.000 



Western N. C. Eailroad 1,186,000 



W. C. and E. Eailroad 1,012,000 



" Certain purposes" 1,009,400 



C., F. and D. E. Navigation Company 148,000 



Total * 5 ,677,400 



Amount payable at 40 per cent 



