372 



IDAHO. 



IDAHO. Territorial Government. The follow- 

 ing were the Territorial officers during the 

 year: Governor, Edward A. Stevenson; Secre- 

 tary, Edward J. Curtis; Controller and Audi- 

 tor, James L. Onderdonk, succeeded by Jumes 

 H. Wickersham; Treasurer, Joseph PerrauH, 

 succeeded by Charles Himrod ; Attorney-Gen- 

 eral, D. P. B. Pride, succeeded by Richard Z. 

 Johnson ; Superintendent of Public Instruc- 

 tion, James L. Onderdonk, succeeded by Silas 

 W. Moody; Chief-Justice of Supreme Court, 

 James B. Hays; Associate Justices, Norman 

 Buck and Case Broderick. 



Legislative Session. The Legislature in session 

 at the beginning of the year adjourned on 

 February 10, having reached the sixty-day limit. 

 There was a stubborn contest in the lower 

 House over the speakership, forty ballots being 

 necessary for its determination. Among the 

 important measures passed was an act making 

 the Superintendency of Public Instruction a dis- 

 tinct office, it having been previously combined 

 with the controllership. Another act revises 

 and collates the law regulating corporations. 

 The commission appointed by the Legislature 

 of 1885 to revise and compile the General Stat- 

 utes reported at this session, and its work was 

 adopted as the Revised Statutes of the Terri- 

 tory. A resolution was adopted opposing the 

 segregation of Idaho and its annexation to ad- 

 joining States or Territories. Other general 

 acts of the session were as follow : 



Providing for the appointment by the Governor of 

 a board of Capitol trustees, for the custody and main- 

 tenance of the new Capitol building and grounds. 



Amending the law relating to school trustees. 



Authorizing the creation of independent school 

 districts, if the electors of said district vote to estab- 

 lish such, provided the taxable property of such dis- 

 trict amounts to $200,000, and giving the trustees of 

 the district so created enlarged powers over those ex- 

 ercised by ordinary district trustees. 



Empowering the Governor to draw from the Federal 

 Government arms and equipments for the militia to 

 the amount of $11,257.58, that being the sum to which 

 the Territory is entitled from the United States. 



Regulating the practice_ of pharmacy by requiring 

 every pharmacist to obtain a certificate from, or pass 

 an examination before, a county board of pharmacy, 

 providing that the county commissioners of each 

 county shall appoint three reputable pharmacists or 

 physicians to act as such board, and prescribing its 

 duties. 



Requiring every practitioner of medicine or surgery 

 to file with the county recorder a diploma from, some 

 regularly chartered medical school, and making it 

 unlawful for any other persons to practice. 



Designating the last Monday of April as a le^al 

 holiday, to be known as " Arbor-day." 



Revising the law regulating the assessment of taxes. 



Providing that the county commissioners may fix 

 bounties for the destruction of certain wild animals, 

 and empowering them to levy a special bounty -tax of 

 not more than one half of one per cent. 



Authorizing county commissioners to refund coun- 

 ty indebtedness at their discretion. i 

 " Providing that all costs in criminal cases, where the 



defendant is convicted, shall be taxed against him 

 and collected, if he is possessed of property. 



Giving the conductor or other person in charge ot 

 a railroad train, or a station agent, power to arrest with- 

 out warrant any person committing an unlawful act 

 upon any train 'or in any station, and prescribing the 

 punishment for such act. 



To provide for the registration of electors. 



To protect the forests of the Territory from destruc- 

 tion by fire. 



Population. By the census of 1880 the popu- 

 lation of the Territory was 32,610. No enu- 

 meration has since been made, but careful es- 

 timates by county officials, about the middle of 

 the year, show an increase to 97,250, or three 

 times as many as in 1880. The most populous 

 counties were Alturas, with 16,250 people; 

 Bingham, with 10,500; Ada, with 10,000; 

 Nez Perc6, with 9,600 ; and Shoshone, witli 

 8,500. At the close of the year the total 

 population must have exceeded 100,000. There 

 are at least 3.000 Mormons in the Territory 

 who are entitled to vote, being about one 

 seventh of the whole number of voters; but 

 they are practically disfranchised by a law of 

 the Territory compelling every voter to take 

 an oath against polygamy. 



There is great need of more extensive sur- 

 veys of the public lands of the Territory, in 

 order to open them for settlement. Some of 

 the best tracts are closed to immigration. In 

 the Boise district only 2,500,000 acres out of 

 10,000,000 are surveyed ; in the Blackfoot dis- 

 trict Inhere are 3,900,000 acres of surveyed and 

 5,000,000 of unsurveyed land ; in the Hailey 

 district only one third is surveyed land ; in the 

 Coeur d'Alene district only thirteen townships 

 are surveyed, and it is estimated that the popu- 

 lation of this region would be doubled within 

 a year if the land were ready for occupation. 



Finances. The following statement shows 

 the Territorial indebtedness at the 1st of Oc- 

 tober :' 



Bonds, act 1877, due Dec. 1, 1891 $46,715 06 



C'apitol building bonds, due in 1905 80.000 00 



Insane asylum bonds, due from 1892 to 1895 .... 20,000 00 



Warrants outstanding 54,140 43 



Total $200,855 49 



Only the first three items represent the perma- 

 nent debt. The income of the Territory for 

 1887 was made up as follows: Property-tax of 

 81 mills, $70,000; poll-tax, $10,000; from 

 licenses, $7,500 ; from all other sources, $2,200 ; 

 total, $89,700. 



Statistics. The total valuation of taxable 

 property in 1886 was $17,725,122; in 1887, 

 $20,741,192. These figures represent only a 

 fraction of the wealth of the Territory, as the 

 valuation itself is placed very low, and does not 

 include the rich mining properties and their 

 products, on which thefe is no tax. Growing 

 crops are also exempt, and, as assessments are 

 made early in the spring, but little grain, fruit, 



