7T8 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. (NORTH CAROLINA.) 



December it is learned that the value of real es- 

 tate was fixed in 1901 for taxation at $175,366,- 

 240, and of personal property at $108,075,569, giv- 

 ing a total of $283,441,809. On this the tax at 21 

 cents on the $100 was $595,227.79. 



Other valuations were: Railroad companies, 

 $42,448,799; telephone companies, $355,357.22; 

 steamboats, canals, ferries, $220,471.63; street-rail- 

 ways, $756,360; electric-light and gas companies, 

 $93,623.46; telegraph companies, $904,200; sleep- 

 ing-car companies, $181,720; express companies, 

 $189,573.69; water companies, $84,429; corporate 

 excess, $5,837,442 ; building and loan stock, $560,- 

 521; bank stock, $6,147,703; total, including the 

 above, $341,222,009, and the total tax, $716,566.21. 

 The pension tax amounted to $136,488.80; and the 

 tax on 267,687 polls to $32,122.44. Income and li- 

 cense and other taxes brought the total for the 

 State to $1,169,024.53. The school taxes, payable 

 to county treasuries, amounted to $1,139,219.03; 

 the county taxes, to $1,593,254.45; municipal taxes 

 were $1,149.902.68; total of all taxes, $5,05 1,400.69. 



The State debt amounts to $6,527,770. The 

 bonded debts of the counties amount to $1,195,- 

 817, and their floating debts to $321,222; the bond- 

 ed debt of the towns was $4,091,659, and current 

 liabilities, $274,818.51. 



Education. The number of illiterates in the 

 State, by the last census, was 386,251. In the per- 

 centage of children from ten to fourteen able to 

 read and write, the State stands forty-third in the 

 list, with 78.25 per cent. 



An educational conference was held at Raleigh 

 in April for the purpose of devising means for 

 improving the public schools and awakening 

 greater interest in education throughout the State. 

 The superintendent named as the 3 greatest needs, 

 improvement of the schoolhouses ; consolidation 

 of school districts; increase of the public-school 

 fund by local taxation. About 57 per cent, of the 

 school districts in North Carolina have a school 

 population of fewer than 65 children, the mini- 

 mum number prescribed by law. The work of 

 consolidation of districts has been begun; in De- 

 cember the number had been reduced from 8,115 

 to 7,853. It was decided at the conference to 

 hold educational rallies in all sections of the State, 

 to have at these rallies inspiring educational ad- 

 dresses, and to have in attendance, in addition to 

 the general public and all friends of education, 

 the county superintendents of the 15 or 20 sur- 

 rounding counties, and to conduct an institute 

 and conference of these superintendents. 



A comparison of the number of teachers at the 

 beginning and at the end of the last decade shows 

 that there was a movement toward the employ- 

 ment of more women as teachers in proportion to 

 the number of men. In 1890 there were 2,659 

 white male teachers and 1,883 white female teach- 

 ers. Of colored teachers there were male 1,513, 

 and female 1,010. In 1900 there were only 2,428 

 white male teachers and 2,591 white female teach- 

 ers. The colored male teachers numbered 1,131 

 and the colored female teachers 1,276. The aver- 

 age monthly salary was given as $26.18 for men 

 and $23.14 for women. The receipts of the school 

 fund for the year ending June 30, 1902, were 

 $1,311,301, and the disbursements $1,276,036. 



The State Normal and Industrial College, at 

 Greensboro, graduated a class of 34 in May. The 

 receipts from Oct. 1, 1900, to Sept. 15, 1902, were 

 $174,015.02, and the disbursements $173,983.88. 



The Board of Examiners of State Institutions 

 found the conditions at the Normal Schools for 

 Colored Teachers, at Plymouth, Goldsboro, and 

 Franklinlon very unsatisfactory, and censured the 

 directors for neglect. Similar criticisms were 



made upon the Colored Agricultural and Mechan- 

 ical College. The examiners said: 



" We next note that since the exclusion of girls 

 the number of boys enrolled as students has some- 

 what increased, until now it is said to be as many 

 as 95. We have tried to learn the actual average 

 attendance, but have not been able to do so be- 

 cause no books have been kept. We have heard 

 reports that it was as low as 40 and as high as 50." 



The Executive Committee of the college praises 

 its work, saying : " We believe that the college 

 is offering the kind of education best suited to the 

 colored people, and is doing a great work for them 

 and for the State. It is not true that no books 

 are kept at the college from which the attendance 

 can be learned. There are now [November, 1902J 

 in actual attendance 114 students and an enrol- 

 ment of 121, which is growing almost daily. 

 Every room in the college, including those for- 

 merly' occupied by the girls, is full, none having 

 less than 2, and some as many as 5 boys." 



The regular appropriations are as follow: 

 United States appropriation, $8,250; North Caro- 

 lina appropriation, $7,500. In addition to this, 

 the last Legislature appropriated $5,000 for two 

 years to help pay for the farm and help pay debts. 



There were 369 students at the Agricultural Col- 

 lege, at Raleigh, in May, and 450 in November. 

 The Legislature appropriated $20,000 for a textile 

 building. The oldest student was sixty-nine years 

 of age, the youngest fifteen. Nearly $4,000 \\as 

 earned by students in the year; the largest 

 amount was $161.95, and the smallest 15 cents, the 

 average being $16.95. 



The State University had an enrolment in 

 1901-'02 of 565, the largest in its history. It has 

 been decided to establish in Raleigh a college of 

 medicine in connection with the university. 



The Joseph K. Brick Agricultural, Industrial, 

 and Normal School, to which Mrs. Julia Brick, of 

 Brooklyn, N. Y., has given $500,000, is on a farm 

 between Whitakers and Enfield, near the Atlantic 

 Coast Line. The Brick school is located in the 

 heart of the largest negro population in the State. 

 This is the only large sum of money given for ne- 

 gro education of late years that has come to any 

 institution except those at Hampton and Tus- 

 kegee. 



There are published in the State 293 newspapers. 

 Only 28 are dailies; 180 are weeklies; 20 semi- 

 weeklies; and 44 monthlies. In politics 142 are 

 Democratic, and 17 Republican; many of the 

 weeklies are religious, and some are technical. 



Charities and Corrections. A school for 

 white deaf children is located at Morganton, and 

 one for the colored at Raleigh. In the school at 

 Morganton are 221 pupils. The number taught 

 by the oral method is steadily increasing. The 

 yearly per capita is $174.67. 



The board finds that while there are about 900 

 insane persons in the eastern district, there are 

 only 404 patients in the Raleigh asylum. The 

 others are either in the jails, in the county honn-. 

 or in charge of their relatives. The cost of main 

 tenance per capita is $15.13 a month. 



The number of white blind children in the Ra- 

 leigh institution is 160; of colored deaf and dumb 

 and blind, 173. The annual per capita is $175. is. 



There must be in the western district about 

 1,548 insane persons. But there are only 782 in 

 the Morganton hospital. There are on file 400 

 applications for admission, not one of which has 

 been granted for lack of room. The annual cost 

 per capita is $151.40. 



The hospital for insane negroes, at Goldsboro, 

 has 470 patients. The cost per capita is $9.16 a 

 month. 



