RHODE ISLAND. 



697 



his service in the army or navy, his present 

 employment, and past occupation. When la- 

 borers are required, the head of the depart- 

 ment makes requisition upon the commission- 

 ers, and the registration clerk furnishes double 

 the number of names called for, giving the facts 

 furnished by the register in regard to each. 

 When there are a large number of applicants 

 of the same grade, the selection is by lot. 



The Civil-Service Commissioners submitted 

 their first report to the Senate and House of 

 Representatives, Jan. 9, 1885, giving a sketch 

 of the system adopted, together with the regu- 

 lations and classification. At that time no ex- 

 aminations had been held, but several examina- 

 tions have since taken place for clerical posi- 

 tions in the Commonwealth service and in the 

 service of the cities of Boston, New Bedford, 

 and Worcester, and for places in the fire service 

 of Boston and in the police service of New Bed- 

 ford, Worcester, Lowell, Taunton, and Haver- 

 hill. 



The regulations cover about 440 places in 

 the clerical service of the Commonwealth and 

 cities; about 1,604 in the police and prison 

 service of the Commonwealth and cities ; about 

 658 in the fire service of Boston, and an aver- 

 age of about 1,500 in the labor service of Bos- 

 ton. 



The Legislature presented to the Supreme Ju- 

 dicial Court of the State, Feb. 10, 1885, certain 

 questions as to the constitutionality of some of 

 the provisions of the civil-service act and the 

 validity of certain of the civil-service rules. 

 The Court held that the Legislature has the 

 constitutional right to provide for the appoint- 

 ment of a Board of Civil-Service Commission- 

 ers, and to delegate to them the power to make 

 rules not inconsistent with existing laws ; and 

 that the commissioners can make rules applica- 

 ble only to the city of Boston. This opinion was 

 signed by all the members of the court, except 

 Justice Colburn, who was prevented by illness 

 from considering the questions. An elaborate 

 argument in support of these conclusions was 

 prepared and published by a committee of the 

 Boston Civil-Service Reform Association. 



RESORCLY. See DRUGS, NEW. 



RHODE ISLAND. Stite Government. The fol- 

 lowing were the State officers during the year: 

 Governor, Augustus O. Bourn, Republican; 

 Lieutenant-Governor, Oscar J. Rathbun ; Sec- 

 retary of State, Joshua M. Addeman ; Treas- 

 urer, Samuel Clark; Auditor and Insurance 

 Commissioner, Samuel H. Cross ; Railroad 

 Commissioner, Henry Staples, succeeded near 

 the close of the year by Walter R. Stiners; 

 Attorney-General, Samuel P. Colt; Commis- 

 sioner of Public Schools, T. B. Stockwell. 

 Judiciary, Supreme Court: Chief - Justice, 

 Thomas Durfee ; Associate Justices, Pardon 

 E. Tillinghast, Charles Matteson, John H. Sti- 

 ners, and George M. Carpenter. 



Finances. The receipts from all sources from 

 Jan. 1, 1884, to Dec. 31, 1884, were $825,703.- 

 66 ; balance in the treasury Jan. 1, 1884, $365,- 



432.81 ; payments, $822,930.06 ; balance in the 

 treasury Jan. 1, 1885, $368,206.41. The re- 

 ceipts were from the following sources : 



State and other taxes ... $394,238 52 



Liquor licenses 90.7U1 8S 



Courts and jailers 87 568 77 



Shell-fisheries n'720 



State institutions, Cranston 50 091 71 



School fund 12,191 50 



Miscellaneous 2-29,191 28 



Total $325,708 C6 



The payments were for the following: 



Principal and interest of State debt and sinking 



fund $182,860 00 



Salaries 68,89:4 02 



Courts and care and support of offenders and de- 

 pendent persons 282,544 67 



Military 27,128 00 



Educational purposes 109,200 68 



Erection of buildings and purchase of land 45,023 79 



All other expenses 157,285 70 



Total $822,930 06 



The bonds of the State outstanding Dec. 31, 

 1884, aggregated $1,372,000. The amount of 

 the sinking fund Jan. 1, 1885, was $371,257.07. 



Education. The following are the school sta- 

 tistics for 1884 : 



Number of children enumerated, from five to fif- 

 teen years 58,858 



Increase 459 



Number that attended more than twelve weeks.. 43,898 



Increase 2,446 



Number that attended less than twelve weeks . . 2,066 



Decrease 175 



Number that did not attend any school 12,894 



Decrease 1,812 



Number of day-schools 850 



Average length of schools 'J months 4 days 



Number of different pupils enrolled 45,641 



Average number belonging 84,122 



Average attendance 80,747 



Teachers regularly employed 969 



Amount paid teachers ... $431,958 84 



Number of different pupils enrolled in evening- 

 schools 8,614 



Average attendance 1 ,619 



Total receipts $659,585 50 



Current expenditures 530,836 27 



Permanent expenditures 105,705 50 



These figures are practically the first that 

 have been collected since the new compulsory 

 education act went into effect. A comparison 

 of the results here revealed with those of pre- 

 vious years will show that a very decided gain 

 has been made, both in the number enrolled 

 and in the attendance. For the first time since 

 the census was first taken, the increase of at- 

 tendance at school is greater than the increase 

 in the number of children. One marked feat- 

 ure in the results of this increased attendance 

 has been a decrease in the per-capita cost. 



Although the law increasing the annual ap- 

 propriation for public schools to $1 20,000, which 

 was passed in the winter of 1884, does not take 

 effect till 1885, the commissioner's returns show 

 that several of the towns have already respond- 

 ed to this call from the State, and have, in ad- 

 vance of the receipt of the increased allowance, 

 raised their own appropriation. 



The action of the Assembly in placing a 

 thousand dollars at the disposal of the State 

 Board of Education for the purpose of foster- 

 ing and promoting mechanical and industrial 



