MISSISSIPPI. 



561 



will leave a balance in the Treasury on Janu- 

 ary 1, 1884, of $160,770.18. 



To the above computation of cash in the 

 Treasury January, 1884, should be added the 

 taxes on 1,000,000 acres of land sold by the 

 State, which will henceforth be subject to tax- 

 ation. It should also be noted that the sum 

 necessary to pay bonds maturing in 1883, 

 amounting to $100,000, is included in the item 

 of " appropriations." The entire bonded debt 

 of the State is $518,150, with funds in the 

 Treasury to pay it off at par, but the holders 

 refuse to sell them except at such a high pre- 

 mium as the State officials are unwilling to 

 pay. 



A recent statement by Governor Lowry to 

 this effect, in answer to a question as to the 

 bonded debt of Mississippi, has been widely 

 and severely criticised. It is charged that his 

 statement that the debt only amounts to $518,- 

 150, and could be canceled at once if the 

 holders would sell their bonds at a reasonable 

 premium, "is at variance with the facts as 

 understood by others," alluding, doubtless, to 

 the Planters' Bank and Union Bank bonds, 

 payment of which is prohibited by an amend- 

 ment to the Constitution, adopted and sub- 

 mitted by a Republican Legislature, and sub- 

 sequently ingrafted on the Constitution by a 

 Democratic Legislature. The amendment is 

 as follows : 



Nor shall the State assume, redeem, secure, or pay 

 any indebtedness, or pretended indebtedness, claimed 

 to be due by the State of Mississippi to any person, 

 association, or corporation whatsoever, claiming the 

 same as owners, holders, or assignees of any bond, or 

 bonds, now generally known as Union Bank bonds, 

 or Planters' Bank bonds. 



The Governor was asked for information as 

 to the recognized debt of the State, and, an- 

 swering in his official capacity, could not be 

 fairly expected to include a claim which is 

 expressly barred by the Constitution he has 

 sworn to support, however opinions may differ 

 as to the propriety of the amendment, which 

 places the Planters' Bank bonds on the same 

 footing as the Union Bank bonds. 



The rate of taxation, low as it is, compared 

 with that of other States, might be much re- 

 duced were the assessments of property for tax- 

 ation equal and uniform throughout the State, 

 as the Constitution and the law require. But 

 when assessors are lax or derelict in their duty, 

 and tax-payers undervalue the property, the 

 honest tax-payer has good reason to complain 

 of the undue burden imposed upon him. The 

 State holds for sale at $6 per acre, about 34,000 

 acres of what are known as the Chickasaw 

 School lands ; and 22,000 acres of internal im- 

 provement lands at fifty cents per acre. With- 

 in the past two years 1,300,000 acres of levee, 

 swamp, and overflowed lands have been sold 

 to parties mostly outside of the State, by the 

 Board of Levee Commissioners, under a decree 

 of the Court of Chancery. The proceeds of 

 these sales, as they become available, will add 

 VOL. xxii. 36 A 



considerably to the public revenues. The 

 Auditor of Public Accounts has on his books 

 upward of 1,000,000 acres of land forfeited for 

 non-payment of taxes which are offered for 

 sale at a very low price. The United States 

 holds for sale or for homestead about 3,500,- 

 000 acres in the State, situated mostly in the 

 long - leaf pine - region, extending from the 

 Vicksburg and Meridian Railroad to the Gulf 

 of Mexico. These lands are heavily timbered, 

 and might be converted into admirable sheep- 

 walks. The Government price is only $1.25 

 per acre. The estimated number of feet (board 

 measure) of pine-timber now standing in the 

 State reaches, within a small fraction, 25,000,- 

 000,000. 



EDUCATION. The cause of public education 

 has been promoted by wise and liberal legisla- 

 tion, and the prospect is more promising than 

 it has ever been. The distributive common- 

 school fund has been increased from $200,000 

 to $300,000, and the limit upon levying taxes 

 for school purposes which hitherto existed 

 "not to exceed three mills" has been re- 

 moved, so that the county supervisors of edu- 

 cation may now in their discretion levy a 

 greater tax, which, with other taxes, shall not 

 exceed the aggregate fixed by law. In coun- 

 ties where a sufficient number of educable In- 

 dians are found to reside, schools for their ex- 

 clusive use are authorized to be kept open for 

 the same time as the other public schools. 

 Until January 1, 1886, the basis of distribution 

 of the common-school funds of the State shall 

 be forty per cent of the total population of 

 each county, as shown by the report of the 

 State census of 1880. Several thousand dollars 

 in the Treasury to the credit of the two and 

 three per cent funds are to be applied to com- 

 mon-school purposes, to be used by supervisors 

 in the construction of good houses where 

 needed, and in the repair of those already 

 built. Liberal appropriations were made to 

 the Agricultural and Mechanical College at 

 Starkville, for the erection of new buildings, 

 purchase of land, stock, implements and appa- 

 ratus, also to the University of Mississippi at 

 Oxford, and to the educational institutions of 

 the colored people the Alcorn University, the 

 Normal School at Holly Springs, and the Tou- 

 galoo University. The representatives of the 

 State in the Federal Congress were requested 

 and instructed by the Legislature to present a 

 memorial to Congress asking aid in maintain- 

 ing and improving the free-school system, as 

 the danger and obligation connected with illit- 

 eracy are not merely local in their character. 

 Among the other judicious acts of the Legisla- 

 ture in reference to education, that prohibiting 

 the sale or giving away of intoxicating liquors 

 within five miles 'of the University of Missis- 

 sippi deserves special mention. In addition to 

 the 5,200 common schools in the State, where 

 upward of 425,000 children, white and black, 

 are regularly taught, there are 969 private 

 schools, and for the higher education of both 



