632 



NORTH CAROLINA. 



State, and the amount raised by State taxes 

 for education has never exceeded $500,000. 



A final and satisfactory settlement has been 

 made, and is now being executed, of the ques- 

 tion so long in dispute between the State and 

 the bondholders of the North Carolina Rail- 

 road. The State is the owner of $3,000,000 

 of stock in that road ; private stockholders 

 own $1,000,000. To pay for this stock the 

 State issued her bonds in 1853-'54-'55, to run 

 for thirty years, at 6 per cent, and to secure 

 their payment pledged the dividends accruing 

 on her stock for the payment of the interest, 

 and the stock itself for the payment of the 

 principal. In 1866 $205,000 of these bonds 

 were taken up, leaving outstanding $2,795,- 

 000. The road was leased to the Richmond 

 and Danville Railroad in 1871, for 6 per cent 

 on the capital stock; and soon after a suit, 

 known as the Swasey suit, was commenced in 

 the Federal Court to subject the rental arising 

 from the lease to the payment of the interest 

 on the bonds. A receiver was appointed, who 

 has found the dividends to be sufficient to pay 

 the interest. Under an act of the Legislature 

 of 1879, providing for the adjustment of that 

 part of the State debt incurred in aid of the 

 North Carolina Railroad, three commissioners 

 were appointed to make the settlement. After 

 many delays from various causes, a plan of ad- 

 justment was agreed on, and signed by bond- 

 holders representing $2,000,000, and "by the 

 commissioners, by which the old bonds are to 

 be exchanged for new bonds of equal amount, 

 with interest payable semi-annually at the rate 

 of 6 per cent per annum, the surplus of the 

 dividends on the stock owned by the State, af- 

 ter paying the interest on the new bonds, to be 

 used as a sinking fund for the payment of inter- 

 est on such of the old bonds as have not been 

 presented and proved in the Federal Court, 

 and then for the payment of the interest and 

 principal of the new bonds. Up to December 

 31, 1882, the Treasurer had issued, under this 

 agreement, $1,720,000 new bonds. It is ex- 

 pected that the remaining outstanding old 

 bonds will be exchanged during the next year, 

 and thus a valuable property will be saved to 

 the State, without imposing any additional tax 

 on the people. By this settlement the bond- 

 holders " rebate to the State $240 of interest 

 on each bond delivered for renewal." 



It is feared that an attempt will be made in 

 the Federal courts to enforce the payment of 

 the $22,000,000 " special-tax " bonds, fraudu- 

 lently issued by the "carpet-bag" government 

 in 1868 and 1869, and since repudiated by the 

 laws and Constitution of the State. The hold- 

 ers of these bonds, unable to surmount the 

 constitutional provision that a State can not 

 be sued by a citizen of another State, propose 

 to transfer, or have already transferred, their 

 claim to the State of New York, who may 

 bring suit, it is supposed, in the Supreme 

 Court of the United States, the Legislature of 

 New York having passed a law to that effect. 



STATE INSTITUTIONS. The catalogue of the 

 University of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill, 

 shows 199 students in attendance during this 

 collegiate year, of whom eight were taking 

 a post-graduate course. In addition to the 

 regular courses of study, a u teacher's course " 

 of two years was established during the year, 

 which is designed to fit young men to be- 

 come competent teachers either in public or 

 private schools. It would be very well if 

 other colleges at the South would follow 

 this good example, for nothing not even 

 want of money retards public education in 

 the Southern States so much as the want of 

 properly qualified teachers. The university is 

 growing in numbers and usefulness, and rapidly 

 recovering from the severe shocks it sustained 

 from the war, and the misrule of several years 

 after the war had closed. The institution re- 

 ceived during the past year $12,000 from the 

 State. The completion of the railroad be- 

 tween Chapel Hill and Raleigh, which took 

 place in May, was enthusiastically celebrated 

 by a large concourse of people. Davidson 

 College, under Presbyterian, and Trinity Col- 

 lege, under Methodist, control, though patron- 

 ized by all religious denominations, have been 

 well attended, and have done good work in the 

 higher education of the people. The latter in- 

 stitution sustained a heavy loss in the death, 

 on November 7th, of Dr. Braxton Craven, 

 LL. D., president of the college. The other col- 

 leges, academies, and high-schools through- 

 out the State are all said to be in a prosperous 

 condition. There are 817 churches in the 

 State, of the estimated aggregate value of 

 $789,025. During the year $84,402 have been 

 expended for building and repairing churches. 



THE COMMON SCHOOLS. The school law, 

 passed at the last session of the General As- 

 sembly in 1881, has been found to work ad- 

 mirably. The means requisite to carry it out, 

 so as to fulfill the design of its framers, can not 

 be supplied by the State under the existing 

 Constitution, which limits the authority of the 

 Legislature to levy taxes to $2 on the poll and 

 66f cents on the $100 worth of property. 

 When the expenses of the State and county 

 governments are paid, the sum left to be ap- 

 propriated to the support of the public schools 

 is small, as compared with what is needed, and 

 which the people seem to be ready to contrib- 

 ute. The State Board of Education made ar- 

 rangements early in the year for opening five 

 normal schools for whites, and later for an 

 equal number for colored pupils. These schools 

 have been well attended, and promise to do 

 much good. 



The Institution for the Deaf, Dumb, and 

 Blind, according to the report for the two 

 years ending December 31, 1882, provided 

 during those years for 105 deaf and dumb and 

 91 blind inmates, who have been judiciously 

 instructed in several useful handicrafts, as is 

 shown by the satisfactory operation of the 

 shoe, broom, and mattress shops in the me- 



