472 



MAINE. 



Indians. In accordance with the appeal from 

 the Passamaquoddy Indians, mentioned in the 

 " Annual Cyclopaedia " for 1892, page 430, the 

 Legislature of Massachusetts passed a resolution 

 requesting the Governor to communicate on the 

 subject of the treaty obligations with the Gov- 

 ernor of Maine. In reply to Gov. Russell's letter, 

 Gov. Cleaves said, in part : 



For a series of years the Passamaquoddy Indians, so > 

 called, have claimed certain rights in the State of 

 Maine not conceded to them by treaty or legislative 

 authority. Our Supreme Court, in the case of State vs. 

 Peter Newell, 84 Mo., 463, has held that the Indians 

 resident within this State are not " Indian tribes" 

 within the treaty-making powers of the Federal Gov- 

 ernment, nor are they in political life or territory the 

 successors of any of the various " Eastern tribes of 

 Indians " with whom treaties were made by the Crown 

 or the colonies, in colonial times, hence they can not 

 effectually claim any privileges or exemption under 

 such treaties. 



The report of the Penobscot Indians gives the 

 total number as 386. The schools have met with 

 fairly good success. On Indian Island there have 

 been two terms with an average attendance of 

 about 45. Twenty-five families have been en- 

 rolled this year, and have been quite successful 

 in farming. 



The Aroostook Region. This great region 

 is being opened to communication by the Bangor 

 and Aroostook Railroad, which reached Houlton 

 in December. The county of Aroostook has an 

 area only a few hundred miles smaller than that 

 of Massachusetts. It has about 50,000 inhab- 

 itants, a population considerably larger than it 

 had a decade ago. In spite of the fact that until 

 the beginning of the Bangor and Aroostook road 

 the county had but 29 miles of railroad within 

 its limits, and had to send most of its products 

 into the United States via New Brunswick, it yet 

 shipped almost two million bushels of potatoes 

 every season, besides immense quantities of lum- 

 ber, bark, etc. The Bangor and Aroostook is the 

 longest railroad ever projected under one man- 

 agement in New England. 



Revision of Laws. The following were ap- 

 pointed commissioners to revise the laws relat- 

 ing to private and special legislation : Leroy T. 

 Carleton, Franklin A. Wilson, Sewall C. Strout. 

 It is believed that, by the enactment of judicious 

 general laws, future legislatures may be relieved 

 of a very large portion of the private legislation 

 that has heretofore occupied the time of legisla- 

 tive bodies. The commission is required to re- 

 port at the opening of the next Legislature, with 

 draughts of laws covering the subject-matter. 



Legislative Session. The sixty-sixth legis- 

 lative session began Jan. 4, and ended March 29. 

 When the Governor signed the last bill he had 

 given his signature to 485 acts and 106 resolves. 



Hon. Eugene Hale was re-elected United States 

 Senator. 



Legislation was enacted affecting many im- 

 portant interests, including payment of taxes, 

 insurance and railroad companies, savings banks, 

 courts, education, manner of voting, and corpora- 

 tions. 



The drift of legislation pertaining to taxation 

 seems to have been in the direction of securing 

 for the State an increased revenue from its cor- 

 porations. A tax of one fourth of 1 per cent. 

 a year is imposed upon the monthly dues paid in 



by shareholders in the loan and building asso- 

 ciations. A new feature in the tax system is the 

 act for taxation of collateral inheritances. The 

 amount is 2 per cent, of the value, above $500. 

 The section regarding taxation of railroads is so 

 amended, by reducing the amount of average 

 gross receipts per mile that serve as the basis for 

 the graduated tax rate under the old law, that a 

 considerable increase of revenue will be secured. 

 A tax of 2^ per cent, is assessed upon the value 

 of telephone lines. Express companies are re- 

 quired to pay to the State a tax of 1 per cent, 

 on gross receipts. 



An unusual number of insurance measures 

 came before this Legislature. By a new law, all 

 contracts of fire insurance shall cover actual loss 

 or damage not exceeding the amount insured. 

 Coinsurance contracts shall state the value of 

 property insured. No company, under penalty 

 of losing its license, not organized in Maine, but 

 doing business here, shall remove any suit or ac- 

 tion from Maine courts to United States circuit 

 or district courts, or enter into any compact to 

 govern or control insurance rates. 



The savings-bank bill provoked a vigorous con- 

 test. It is designed to promote investment in 

 home securities by placing a discriminating tax 

 upon investments in other States. The savings 

 banks fought the measure vigorously, but popu- 

 lar sentiment was too strong for them and carried 

 the day. A new law very carefully prescribes the 

 character of investments that may be legally 

 made by savings banks of the S.tate. 



Amendments were made to the Australian sys- 

 tem of voting, such as have been shown in the 

 trial of the law to be necessary. 



Some changes are made in the laws governing 

 courts. 



The most important of the enactments relative 

 to educational matters is that which abolishes 

 school districts and provides for a more efficient 

 system of supervision. The purpose of this law 

 is to secure the more equitable distribution of 

 school advantages. The age of pupils allowed 

 to attend the public schools of the State is fixed 

 between five and twenty-one years. Provision 

 has also been made for free education of deaf, 

 dumb, and blind children at the American Asy- 

 lum at Hartford, Conn., the Portland School for 

 the Deaf at Portland, Me., and the Perkins In- 

 stitute, at South Boston, Mass. 



In reference to insurance, it was enacted that 

 no foreign surety company, unless it has a paid- 

 up, well-invested capital of $250,000, shall em- 

 ploy an agent within the State. 



A great number of measures important to 

 farmers came before the Legislature. The laws 

 of 1889 relating to the extirpation of contagious 

 diseases among cattle are amended so as to apply 

 to horses and sheep as well, and not generally 

 "to other live stock," as the law read before. 

 One hundred dollars for an animal with pedigree 

 recorded, and $50 for an animal without record- 

 able pedigree, is now the limit of appraisal by the 

 cattle commissioners of condemned animals. The 

 laws against cruelty to animals are made more 

 stringent than before. A fine of not more than 

 $100 is imposed for docking horses. An act was 

 passed compelling the licensing of all dogs over 

 four months old in all cities, towns, and planta- 

 tions of the State. Dogs without license or col- 



