Amount of teachers' fund in hands of district treasurers. 6.5 $0 58 $0 59 $4,064 75 $1,391 88 4, 191 86 19,758 40 988 47 1,433 00 2,462 80 39) 00 3, 779 83 9,438 68 996 48 2,884 53 1, 669 54 157 90 908 00 2,675 00 29, 462 72 3,028 50 1,538 95 3,800 50 148 00 5,355 15 1,281 08 30, 08 11 6,085 93 7,303 75 1,803 52 1,506 80 13, 429 5 425 96 2,329 46 9, 108 48 915 00 982 49 303 25 17,615 77 11, 463 72 400 00 15, 440 55 1,143 48 13, 007 97 2,923 42 11, 317 77 1,240 38 23,843 81 4,843 57 26, 909 12 579 26 49, 652 91 816 00 20,310 53 9,909 50 9, 793 14 13, 911 25 10, 019 97 8,842 56 163 42 3,555 48 257 48 8, 254 33 2,057 09 3,756 46 2,009 24 9, 134 98 9, 418 93 8,201 02 3,085 30 18,755 31 2, 123 23 2,867 21 2, 220 74 52392 5, 144 87 14,148 91 3,866 78 28, 191 48 1,594 03 10,973 08 743 61 4,332 67 142 08 633 00 849 00 20, 292 80 997 08 26, 969 91 10,295 46 25, 603 81 2,898 81 18, 188 47 28, 739 84 4,736 49 10, 136 36 25,319 97 2,450 12 23, 351 50 1,750 50 4,830 00 713 72 41,886 64 8,168 56 35, 495 97 6,926 55 15, 328 35 3,254 86 13, 167 50 1, 145 12 19, 574 23 3,574 92 28,096 53 4,711 03 19, 853 67 3,582 63 1 1 KANSAS. The system of graded schools is adopted in every city and village of the State which employs more than one instructor. Under the general law for incorporated towns and cities, provision is made for the establishment of graded schools without any special charter or delay of any kind. The principal cities and towns of the State either have erected or are now engaged in erecting costly school buildings; and in addition to these, during the past year a greater number of good school-houses has been built in rural communities than in any previous year. The statistics of the last year do not distinguish between colored and white children. The law provides that the educational advantages extended to the colored shall be in all respects equal to those furnished to white children. "It is safe to affirm," says the report, "that more than three-fourths of the public schools of the State are to-day destitute of a standard English dictionary. The maintenance of public schools, and the fact that in these schools teachers and pupils acquire the habit of referring to authoritative standards in pronounciation and definition, are among the most effective means of preserving the purity and precision of the English language. Accordingly, the people, whether in Maine, Kansas, or California, pronounce each word in the same manner, and use it with a like signification. One can hardly estimate the effect which this unity of dialect exerts in strengthening the bonds of citizenship. A portion of the county school funds arising from fines and estrays could not be more advantageously appropriated than to supply this pressing want." District and county uniformity in text books is being gradually attained. The law now requires the "district board to provide text books at the expense of the district, for indigent children." To purchase at the expense of the district all the text books used in the school, is but another step in advance. This plan it is thought would be more economical, since books would be bought at wholesale prices; teachers being responsible for books as for other school furniture, they would not be unnecessarily injured, and parents in removing from one district to another would be saved the expense of buying new books. As there are 1,710 school districts in the State, and the bond annually given by each treasurer requires a revenue stamp of $1, an annual outlay of $1,710 is required, and this is also constantly increasing with the organization of new districts. Two-thirds of this sum might be saved by the plan, adopted in other States, of electing district officers for a term of three years instead of one. Besides giving a more experienced board and greater stability in the management of district affairs, a sum might very soon be saved sufficient to supply each district with an unabridged English dictionary. TEACHERS' INSTITUTES. More institute work has been done in the State during the year than in any previous year. Nearly the whole State has been reached, more or less, by this system of normal instruction. Teachers are required by law to attend the county institutes, and no part of their salary is forfeited by such attendance. It is very important that means should be provided wherewith to increase the efficiency of the institutes annually required to be held in the State. "An institute should be a season of keen, hard, thorough work. To make it such as it ought to be will require three things-brain, experience, and money. The conductor must be a man of tact, to hold the convention to its work; the instructors must be persons of pith and point; and the means provided must be sufficient not only to meet local bills, for halls, printing, &c., but also to pay the traveling expense, and suitably remunerate the very best instructors and lecturers available. The State should make an annual appropriation for this work." SCHOOL FUND. The school fund of the State is accumulating from the proceeds of the sale of school lands, at the rate of over $100,000 annually. The question as to how this fund should be invested is discussed at length in the report, and a safe and economical plan proposed, by which the people of the State may enjoy the benefit of the use of the money: bonds of the State, maturing in fifty or one hundred years, to be issued and sold to the school fund, and with the proceeds of these bonds to redeem other bonds of the State already issued and maturing in a few years; thus relieving the people of the sinking fund tax annually paid for the redemption of bonds maturing on shorter time. "It is, essentially, loaning to the whole people of the State over $1,000,000, for fifty or one hundred years, at 7 per cent. At the end of that time, if thought best, the indebtedness could be again funded, so that future generations, equally with the present, will have the privilege of the use of the money at a reasonable rate of interest. This plan could not be carried out without an amendment to the constitution authorizing it." The constitution of the State provides that "the 500,000 acres of land granted to the |