UNSATISFACTORY LAWS 
The Academy of Law (Academia de direito ) was not 
satisfactory and did not answer the purpose for which it 
was established. 
The Lyceum, with its 105 pupils, gave fair results, 
barring the tolerance in examinations, which, however, 
did not reach a criminal point (sic). It possessed no 
building of its own, and was badly housed in a private 
dwelling. 
Public instruction was admittedly defective all over 
the province. The teachers were almost as ignorant and 
illiterate as the people who went to learn, and perhaps 
more so; while the Escola Normal (Normal School) for 
women was almost altogether unattended. The public 
works were uncared for; there was not a single new 
work of art begun in the State. Nor could the State 
boast of a single road or trail or bridge in fair condition. 
The laws on the possession of land would one day lead 
to immense difficulties and confusion. The greater part 
of the land now occupied was in the hands of people who 
had no legal right whatever to it. 
The existing laws on mining were equally unsatis¬ 
factory, and the Presidente rightly remarked that 
“without facilities and guarantees, capitalists will never 
venture upon so risky and problematic an enterprise as 
mining in a State so distant and so difficult of access/’ 
He also exhorted the people to re-establish steam naviga¬ 
tion on the Araguaya River, such as existed in the days 
of the Empire. 
I was told that a launch had actually been purchased 
in the United States, but was either waiting at Para for 
want of an engineer or else had again been sold, owing 
to the impossibility — due to lack of money — of its being 
transported in sections over the rapids above Concep^ao. 
The question of boundaries with neighbouring States 
was an amusing one. According to some rule for which 
no one can account, the Government of Goyaz claimed 
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