796 



TEXAS. 



default in the payment of the interest on their 

 indebtedness to the Public Free School Fund. 

 The account of the railroad companies with 

 the Permanent Common-School Fund is com- 

 puted in the Comptroller's report up to May 

 next year, and is as follows : 



The Washington County Railroad has been 

 in default since November 1, 1879. 



EDUCATIONAL. The permanent fund of the 

 public free schools has increased by the sale of 

 its lands from $1,629,000 to $5,361,000 on De- 

 cember 31st, with a probable increase within a 

 short period of upward of $1,000,000 by the 

 sales of the reserved lands. The lands belong- 

 ing to the Permanent Common -School Fund, as 

 estimated by the Commissioner of the Gen- 

 eral Land-Office, amount to 33,000,000 acres. 

 In addition to this, four leagues (17,712 acres) 

 of land are set apart to each county for school 

 purposes, aggregating 4,002,912 acres. The 

 annual interest on purchase-money notes re- 

 ceived for land belonging to the available 

 school fund is $227,390.86. The estimated an- 

 nual amount set apart for the support of the 

 public schools is $491,240, derived from one 

 fourth of the general revenue, all the annual 

 poll-tax levied for school purposes, and all the 

 interest on the Permanent School Fund, includ- 

 ing bonds and other interest-bearing indebted- 

 ness, belonging to the Permanent School Fund. 



The amount apportioned in cash to the sev- 

 eral counties, cities, and towns, for the scho- 

 lastic year was $1,086,273. The free schools 

 have been much improved during the year. 

 The duration of the term of instruction has 

 been increased, and the scholastic population, 

 between the ages of eight and fourteen years, 

 shows an increase of 10 per cent, being, in 

 1882, 295,344. Two normal schools have been 

 established, one for white pupils the Sam 

 Houston Formal Institute at Huntsville, Waller 

 County and one for colored pupils, the Prairie 

 View Normal School, near Hempstead, Walker 

 County. At these schools, one hundred and 

 fifty-five white and forty-three colored students 

 have been trained and educated to become 

 teachers in the public free schools, and their 

 expenses for tuition, board, books, etc., have 

 been defrayed by the State. The Peabody 

 Educational Fund has contributed liberally to 

 both these schools. Normal institutes have 

 been held during the summer, which have been 

 numerously attended by the teachers through- 

 out the State. It is proposed to offer for sale, 



at a long credit, the lands set apart for edu- 

 cational purposes, fixing the minimum price 

 at two dollars per acre~ The failure of the 

 Legislature to adopt the recommendation of 

 Governor Eoberts to raise the minimum price 

 of these lands from fifty cents to at least 

 one dollar per acre, has resulted in a sacri- 

 fice of millions of acres of these school 

 lands. Since the adjournment in May of the 

 special session of the Legislature, which re- 

 fused to pass a bill to protect these lands, up 

 to December 31st, applications have been filed 

 for 6,350,480 acres, at fifty cents per acre. It 

 appears from the report of the General Land 

 Office, made in March, that the public lands, 

 including reservations, are barely sufficient to 

 meet the outstanding land-scrip. An idea may 

 be formed of the lavish way in which these 

 lands have been granted, from the single in- 

 stance of the grants to the Texas and Pacific 

 Railroad Company, amounting to nearly 5,000,- 

 000 acres of land, now selling for from one dol- 

 lar to five dollars per acre, according to location 

 and quality. The commissioner estimates the 

 vacant and unappropriated lands at 15,953,730 

 acres, and the certificates as calling for 22,900,- 

 480 acres, leaving a deficiency of public land 

 of 6,946,750 acres. 



The University of Texas comprises the main 

 college at Austin, the Medical College at Gal- 

 veston, the Agricultural and Mechanical Col- 

 lege at College Station, on the Houston and 

 Texas Central Railroad, in Brazos County, and 

 a branch for colored students, for the estab- 

 lishment of which initial steps have been taken. 

 The munificent endowment of this as yet in- 

 choate institution consists of 1,219,900 acres of 

 the public lands, cash, land notes, and State 

 bonds, amounting to $503,364.30, provided by 

 the Constitution and laws for its maintenance, 

 and the proceeds of the sale of the public lands 

 donated to the Agricultural College by the 

 Federal Congress in 1862, amounting to $209,- 

 000. The first of a number of buildings on a 

 grand scale is now in course of construction, 

 and, it is expected, will be completed by the 

 middle of the summer of 1883, so that the col- 

 lege can be put in operation by September of 

 next year. The corner-stone of the building 

 was laid by the Masonic order with impressive 

 ceremonies, on November 22d, in presence of 

 the Governor, the other prominent officials, 

 and a large concourse of people from all parts 

 of the State. The structure will occupy the 

 center of the plateau set apart for the univer- 

 sity-grounds. The main frontage will be toward 

 the south, with a length from east to west of 

 280 feet, and a depth from south to north of 

 195 feet, exclusive of wide porticoes. The en- 

 tire building will be four full stories in height, 

 providing ample and well-arranged rooms for 

 all the purposes of a college of the first class. 



When inaugurated, the law of its creation 

 requires that male and female students shall 

 be admitted on equal terms, and that no other 

 charge shall be made than an initiation fee, 



