864 



VERMONT. 



VIRGINIA. 



The present condition of the educational in- 

 terest in Vermont is shown by the following 

 statistics : The children of school age in the 

 State number 79,238, distributed over 2,349 

 school districts, and attending 2,597 public 

 schools. These schools are maintained by the 

 State, at an annual expense of $446,216. The 

 number of teachers employed in the public 

 schools is 4,359, and the aggregate amount of 

 salaries paid them is $360,320 per annum. The 

 yearly average cost of each school-child to the 

 State is about $5.93. There are 7,123 scholars 

 who attend other than public schools. The 

 State has three normal schools, for the main- 

 tenance of which it contributes about $12,000 

 annually. 



Vermont has nineteen incorporated acad- 

 emies, with 105 teachers and 2,545 scholars. 

 Their income from tuition amounts to $25,692 ; 

 in addition to which they receive $17,000 an- 

 nually from endowment funds. 



There are also nineteen graded schools in the 

 State, with 6,036 scholars, having 129 teachers. 

 Of these graded schools St. Albans High- 

 School takes the lead, having 1,077 scholars, 

 19 teachers, and tuition receipts of $841. Rut- 

 land has 936 scholars, and received $385 tui- 

 tion money. St. Johnsbury has 558 scholars, 

 with $60 for tuition. Bennington shows the 

 number attending her graded schools to be 

 611, and the tuition fund to amount to $446. 



There is also a considerable number of ex- 

 cellent private and parochial schools in the 

 State. 



The Legislature of the State at the last ses- 

 sion, by inadvertency, it is said, repealed that 

 section of the law which provided for the sal- 

 ary and expenses of the State Superintendent 

 of Education for the ensuing two years. On 

 this account, Justus Dartt, reputed to be emi- ' 

 nently qualified for performing the duties of 

 that office, declined the appointment tendered 

 to him by the Governor (Farnham) at the be- 

 ginning of 1881. Subsequently the Governor 

 removed the cause of Mr. Dartt's refusal by 

 himself assuming the obligation for the pay- 

 ment of the Superintendent's salary and ex- 

 penses, in which personal guarantee he was 

 joined by some twenty prominent citizens. 

 Upon this security, Mr. Dartt accepted the ap- 

 pointment. The amount of the Superintend- 

 ent's salary and expenses is about four thou- 

 sand dollars; his duty, among others, being 

 " to visit the various towns in the State and 

 examine into the condition of their schools, 

 with a view to supply their wants; to hold 

 educational meetings in each county ; and to 

 conduct the examinations in the several nor- 

 mal schools." 



The improvement and alterations in the Re- 

 form School Building, for which the Legisla- 

 ture some years ago appropriated $10,000, have 

 been executed and were brought to completion 

 by the close of 1881. The number of inmates 

 in the school, on July 31, 1880, was 122 boys 

 103, girls 19; at the close of the year 1881 it 



was 96 boys 78, girls 18 ; showing a decrease 

 of 26 in the eighteen months intervening. 



The population of the State by counties, in 

 1880 and in 1870, was as follows: 



VIRGINIA. Public interest in the State of 

 Virginia was largely concentrated during the 

 year upon the settlement of the debt. In 

 January, the Supreme Court of the United 

 States rendered a decision in the case of Hart- 

 mann vs. Greenhow, Treasurer of the city of 

 Richmond, passing upon the validity of the 

 funding act of 1871 and subsequent legislation. 

 The act of 1871 provided that the coupons of 

 the bonds to be issued should be "receivable 

 at and after maturity for all taxes, debts, dues, 

 and demands due the State." In 1872 an act 

 Avas passed declaring that thereafter it should 

 " not be lawful for the officers charged with 

 the collection of taxes or other demands of the 

 State," then due or thereafter to become due, 

 " to receive in payment thereof anything else 

 than gold or silver coin, United States Treas- 

 ury notes, or notes of the national banks of 

 the United States." The validity of this act 

 was attacked in the courts, on the ground that 

 it impaired the obligations of a contract with 

 the holders of the bonds, and this view was 

 upheld by both the State and Federal tri- 

 bunals. Then, in 1873, the Legislature passed 

 an act providing that from the interest pay- 

 able out of the Treasury on bonds of the State, 

 whether funded or unfunded, there should be 

 retained a tax equal in amount to fifty cents 

 on the one hundred dollars of their market 

 value on the first day in April of each year, and 

 made it the duty of every officer of the Com- 

 monwealth charged with the collection of taxes 

 to deduct from the matured coupons which 

 might be tendered to him in payment of taxes, 

 or other dues to the State, such tax as was 

 then or might thereafter be imposed on the 

 bonds. The act, in terms, applied to all bonds 

 of the State, whether held by her own citizens 

 or non-residents and citizens of other States 

 or countries. In 1874 the Legislature modi- 

 fied this provision so that the tax on the bonds 

 should not be retained from the interest paid 

 on them when they were the property of non- 

 residents of the Commonwealth. But this 

 exemption was omitted in the act of 1876 pro- 

 viding for the assessment of taxes in the State, 



