NEVADA. 



591 



brought up by the Catholics and Evangelical 

 religionists, and, during the discussions, the 

 Liberals showed a less uncompromising dispo- 

 sition than heretofore. 



NEVADA. The Governor of Nevada dur- 

 ing the year was John H. Kinkead. His term 

 expired on January 1, 1883, and he was suc- 

 ceeded by Jewett W. Adams, elected on the 

 Democratic ticket. 



The affairs of the State have been without 

 any important change ; its growth in popula- 

 tion has been slow, and its prosperity in min- 

 ing diminished. 



The Nevada Asylum for the Insane has been 

 constructed and furnished, at the compara- 

 tively small cost of $63,000, and put in actual 

 operation this year. 



The law case pending before the Supreme 

 Court in 1881, upon the payment of $1,279.79, 

 claimed by the Nevada Orphan Asylum in 

 Virginia City as its due portion of the money 

 appropriated by the previous Legislature for 

 distribution among all the orphan asylums in 

 the State which are conducted in a non-secta- 

 rian manner, has been decided adversely to the 

 said institution, upon the ground that it is sec- 

 tarian. This asylum was founded nearly twenty 

 year.-? ago, and, with the school attached to it, 

 is under the management of the Sisters of 

 Charity, who are Catholics. The Court held, 

 as a certain principle, that " not who are in- 

 structed, but what is taught, must determine 

 the question of sectarianism." 



The public debt of Nevada is $336,587.50, 

 and the State has $331,127.03 in coin on hand. 

 The receipts for the years 1881 and 1882 

 amounted to $302,435.74 and $303,445.94 re- 

 spectively ; the expenditures, to $346,117.01 

 and $286,842.66, leaving for the two years in 

 the Treasury a cash balance of $27,868.99. 

 For the collection of her revenue the State 

 now pays the collector at the rate of 14 per 

 cent. 



The aggregate valuations of assessable prop- 

 erty in the State, for the year 1882, amounted 

 to $29,109,889.86, which sum included the net 

 proceeds of mines. 



The depreciation of property has not been 

 general throughout the State. Its value has 

 decreased in eight of the fourteen counties, 

 namely, Douglas, Eureka, Humholdt, Lyon, 

 Nye, Ormsby, Storey, and White Pine, to the 

 collective amount of $2,071,980.45, of which 

 sum $1,286,607.29 belongs to Storey County 

 alone, the depreciation of this county's prop- 

 erty having been the greatest in the whole 

 State, and in less than a twelvemonth. In 

 1881 it was valued at $5,212,823.39 ; in 1882, 

 at $3,926,216.10. In the remaining six coun- 

 ties Churchill, Elboo, Esmeralda, Lander, 

 Lincoln, and Washoe assessable property has, 

 on the contrary, increased in value for 1882 to 

 an aggregate amount of $1,074,77.15 over 1881, 

 the depreciation for the whole State amounting 

 to $997,903.30. 



With reference to the net proceeds of mines, 



the decrease for 1882 was principally in the 

 counties of Esmeralda, Eureka, and Lander, 

 to a total amount of $801,817.11, making an 

 aggregate decrease of assessable valuations in 

 the State of $1,799,720.41, as compared with 

 those for 1881. 



The assets of the State School fund amount 

 to $622,008.85, of which sum $576,610.50 are 

 invested in undoubted securities. The Gov- 

 ernor predicts the time to be near at hand 

 when the tax-payers will be entirely free from 

 the necessity of contributing any part of their 

 money for the support of the common schools. 



The whole number of children of school 

 age, from six to eighteen years, throughout 

 the State, at the close of 1882, was 10,483. 

 The money apportionment made for them by 

 the Superintendent of Public Instruction, in 

 his semi-annual report for the first half of 

 1883, amounts to a total of $30,354.40, or at 

 the rate of little less than six dollars a year 

 for each child. Storey County has by far the 

 largest number of children of school age 

 3,152 ; Ormsby and Eureka coming nearest to 

 it, with 1,182 and 1,014 respectively. Churchill 

 County has the smallest number of such chil- 

 dren, 96. 



The State University fund amounts to $56,- 

 630, invested in undoubted securities, as the 

 School Fund. The expense of keeping this 

 university open the Governor thinks to exceed 

 by much the benefits resulting from it. 



The public institutions are under praise- 

 worthy management in every respect, and re- 

 alize the objects for which they were intended. 



The number of the insane persons in Ne- 

 vada, brought from the asylum at Stockton on 

 July 1, 1882, and lodged in the asylum erected 

 for them at Eeno, was 148. The Legislature 

 of 1879 had appropriated for their care and 

 treatment at Stockton during the years 1881 

 and 1882 the sum of $100,000. the unemployed 

 balance of which, amounting to $15,682.50, 

 has now been expended in bringing them over 

 from Stockton, and in supporting the institu- 

 tion. 



In the State Penitentiary the number of con- 

 victs on January 1, 1881, was 138, increased 

 soon after to 162, and then, in the course of 

 two years, gradually diminished, their number 

 on December 31, 1882, being 113. Two of them 

 are women. Four escapes from the State-Pris- 

 on have occurred during 1881-'82, but all of 

 the fugitives have been recaptured. The cost 

 to the State for feeding, clothing, and guard- 

 ing each prisoner during the two biennial terms 

 of 1879-'80 and 1881-'82, has been 72'35 and 

 66'96 cents per diem, respectively. Of the 

 four items making up this cost, as set down by 

 the warden in his last report, the highest is 

 that of " salaries, arms, and ammunition 57*78 

 and 32-02 cents " ; nearest to it comes that of 

 "commissary stores 27'85 and 27'73 cents," 

 respectively. At the session of 1879, the Ne- 

 vada Legislature appropriated $100,000 for 

 the current expenses of the State-Prison, and 



