TENNESSEE. 



TEXAS. 



((instruction of the above roads was $29,251,- 

 250 ; of this amount thero are outstanding $12,- 

 453,000 ; amount of funded bonds now out- 

 standing ami claimed as a part of these secured 

 by a lien, about $2,423,000. Upon this amount 

 there is an accrued interest of 21 per cent. 

 The total amount claimed by the bondholders 

 is between $17,000,000 and $18,000,000. 



Tho basis of taxation and the receipts and 

 expenditures are estimated by the Comptroller 

 as follows : 



BASIS OF PROPERTY OE AD VALOREM TAX. 



Tax aggregate $2-28,212,158 



LM 1 per ceut. 2,017,572 



Net $104,194,574 



PERMANENT PRIVILEGES AND OTHER FIXED REVENUES. 



Circuit Court clerks, Including redemptions 



Other clerks, not including County Court clerks. 



Insurance companies 



Penitentiary 



Express, telegraphs, banks, etc 



Railroads 



Treasurers, agents, delinquents, etc 



$40.000 

 20,000 

 20,000 

 70,000 

 10,000 



100,000 

 86,000 



Total. 



ESTIMATED EXPENDITURES. 



Current expenses $525,000 



Interest on school fund 150,750 



Interest on State debt $12,000,000 @ 4 per cent. 500,000 



Total for one year $1,175,750 



Tie estimates the receipts at different tariffs 

 as follows : At 10 mills on a dollar, $649,194 ; 

 at 15 mills, $761,000; at 20 mills, $883,389; 

 at 2") mills, $995,583; at 30 mills, $1,107,583; 

 at 35 mills, $1,219,680 ; at 40 mills, $1,331,778. 



The bankrupt condition of the finances of 

 Memphis and several other towns and cities 

 led to a number of special acts revoking or 

 modifying the charters of these municipalities. 

 At the request of the city of Memphis, which 

 was laboring under the burden of a debt esti- 

 mated at over one third of the taxable prop- 

 erty, and had been depopulated and impover- 

 ished by the ravages of the yellow fever, the 

 charter was taken away, and the administra- 

 tion assumed by the State government. By a 

 subsequent act the Governor was authorized to 

 appoint commissioners for the settlement of the 

 debts of extinct municipal districts. At the 

 instance of certain holders of the city's securi- 

 ties, an action was brought before Judge Bax- 

 ter, of the United States Court at Memphis, 

 calling for the appointment of a receiver. The 

 Court delivered the opinion that the act of the 

 Legislature repealing the charter was unconsti- 

 tutional and void, as was also the act creating 

 a taxing district. The Judge appointed Mr. 

 Latham receiver, to take charge of the assets 

 of the city, to the exclusion of receiver Meri- 

 wether appointed by the State authorities. 

 Tho Supreme Court of the State afterward de- 

 clared the laws repealing the municipal char- 

 ter and constituting a taxing district valid 

 and within the Constitution Judges Cooper, 

 McFarland, and Deaderick concurring, and 

 Judges Freeman and Turney dissenting. The 



debts of the city of Memphis amounted alto- 

 gether to $4,403,454, including the funded debt, 

 consisting of the compromise bonds for $1, 104,- 

 825 issued in lieu of the old funded debt of 

 $2,209,650, and the unfunded debt amounting 

 to $3,298,629. The nominal assets amounted 

 to $2,205,245, valued by a special committee 

 at $904,878. There were over two million 

 dollars' worth of uncollected taxes due to the 

 city. 



Governor Marks called an extra session of 

 the General Assembly for the purposes of 

 granting Memphis the power to perfect and 

 carry out completer methods of sanitation, of 

 amending the charters of towns and cities 

 so as to enforce sanitary regulations, framing 

 a law for the prevention of the spoliation of 

 graves and traffic in dead bodies, and extend- 

 ing the charter of the Memphis and Paducah 

 Railroad. The Assembly met at the time ap- 

 pointed, the 16th of December, and proceeded 

 to consider the questions proposed to it. 



The apportionment of school-taxes requires 

 $75,375, distributed among the counties in pro- 

 portion to their scholastic population. The 

 total number of scholars in the State is 448,- 

 917. Recent amendments of the school laws 

 extend the school age to twenty-one years, and 

 include the subject of agriculture in the cur- 

 riculum of studies. 



The first enforcement of the law against 

 carrying deadly weapons was made by Judge 

 Thomas D. Eldridge of the Bartlett Circuit, 

 who sentenced a prisoner to a fine and three 

 months' imprisonment for this offense. 



The question of the constitutionality of the 

 new law equalizing and reducing the pay of 

 clerks, by requiring them to pay their fees in 

 excess of a certain amount into the public Trea- 

 sury, was brought before the Supreme Court, 

 but was not decided on its merits in the absence 

 of a real cause of action. 



The yellow fever appeared again in Memphis 

 in July, and continued until cold weather. The 

 city was immediately deserted by all its inhab- 

 itants except a part of the poor and colored 

 population. There was fear at one time that 

 the deserted houses would be sacked, and that 

 an anarchic condition would prevail. Gov- 

 ernor Marks intrusted the duty of preserving 

 order to the resident companies of colored 

 militia. There were several hundred deaths 

 by yellow fever during the season. It was 

 principally to provide for extraordinary sani- 

 tary measures lest the disease should become 

 endemic in this locality that the Governor 

 called the special session of the Legislature. 



TEXAS. The Legislature opened its regular 

 session at Austin on January 14th, when the 

 new Governor, Oran M. Roberts, was formally 

 installed in office, and closed by final a^journ- 

 ment on April 24th. 



A constitutional amendment adopted by the 

 Legislature, exempting from taxation all agri- 

 cultural products while in the farmer's hands, 

 and all necessary supplies for his use, was voted 



