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districts which have complied with the statute, so as to participate in the public money, has increased 338 in the same time.

There are, in the districts from which reports have been received, 497,503 children over 5 and under 16 years of age; and in the common schools of the same districts, 499,424 scholars have been taught during the year preceding the first of January, 1830; the general average of instruction having been about eight months.

The number of children over 5 and under 16, excluding NewYork and Albany from the estimate, has increased 24,194, since the last annual report; and the number of children taught in the common schools of the State, has increased 19,383 in the same time.*

There are seven counties in the state, namely-Oneida, Onondaga, Otsego, Jefferson, Cayuga, Genesee and Monroe, in each of which more than fifteen thousand scholars are reported as having been instructed during the year. The first of these counties, Oneida, has returned 20,265 between 5 and 16, and 19,731 children taught. Including the foregoing, there are twenty-four counties in the state, in each of which more than ten thousand children have been taught during the year embraced in the returns.

There are one hundred and fifteen towns, in each of which more than one thousand scholars are instructed; several towns report more than fifteen hundred, and a few large towns make returns of more than two thousand scholars taught annually.

There are eighty towns in which twenty or more school districts are organized in each; several of the towns have more than thirty districts. The general average of the number of districts including all the towns, is 11 for each town in the state. The average number of scholars instructed in the districts from which returns have been received, is a fraction more than fifty-seven for each school.— This estimate, as well as that relating to the number of children instructed, is based upon the whole number of scholars on the rolls of the schools, without reference to the time which each scholar has attended; and it is not to be understood that each one of the 499,424 scholars returned, has had 8 months of instruction during the

*The census of children residing in the districts, includes all of the age of 16, instead of 15, as heretofore: in consequence of this, the census of the children more nearly equals the whole number taught than in former years. Excluding the cities of New-York and Albany entirely from the estimate, and it leaves 492,451 children between 5 and 16, and 491,368 children taught; showing an excess of the children between 5 and 16 over those taught, of 1,083.

year; but that this is the aggregate number of scholars on the rolls of the schools, and receiving more or less instruction, and that 8,630 schools have been kept open for the reception of scholars an average period of 8 out of the 12 months.

The first returns under the present school system were made in 1816. There were reported in that year 2,631 schools, in which 140,106 children were instructed. The increase of the number of schools returned has been 5,999 in fifteen years, and the increase of the number of scholars instructed, has been 359,318 in the same period. The number of children returned in 1816, between 5 and 15, was 176,449; the increase since that time has been 321,054.The school act was revised, and new forms were adopted, in 1819: so that in 1821 the system was in fair operation; and since that period the average annual increase of the children between 5 and 15 has been about 17,300 and the average increase of the number of scholars instructed has been about 20,000 each year, for the last eleven years. The paper marked C, exhibits a comparative view of the returns from 1816 to the present time.

II. Estimates and Expenditures of the School Monies. During the year preceding the first of July, 1830, the public money received by the commissioners of the towns, and apportioned to the districts which had made returns, amounted to $238,651.36 cents of this sum $100,000 were paid from the state treasury; $124,556.04 cents were raised by tax upon the several towns, and $14,095.32 cents were derived from local funds possessed by certain towns.

The boards of supervisors are required to assess upon each town a sum equal to the amount apportioned to the town from the state treasury, as its share of the public money; and this assessment is made without a vote of the town. In addition to this, the inhabitants have authority to vote a tax upon the town, equal to the amount apportioned from the school fund of the state. In the towns where such a resolution is passed, the board of supervisors are authorised and required to assess upon that town double the amount of the ap portionment from the state treasury; which sum, when collected, goes into the hands of the school commissioners, and together with the money received from the state treasury, constitutes the public school money for that town.

The public money paid to the common schools during the past year exceeds, by $23,811.22 cents, the amount paid the preceding

year. Of this increase fourteen thousand dollars were raised by tax in New-York, in pursuance of an act passed in 1829, requiring the corporation to collect a sum equal to one-eightieth of one per cent of the value of the real and personal property in the city, to be applied exclusively to the purposes of common schools. The towns have raised about 6,000 dollars by vote, in addition to the sum required to entitle them to the school money paid from the treasury. The amount returned, as having been paid in the districts for teachers' wages, over and above the public money, exceeds by $49,758.76 cents, the sum paid for the same object the previous year. About the same number of towns omitted to make returns in each year.

The productive capital of the school fund has been increased $20,000 during the past year, by sales of lands belonging to the fund.

There is now in the treasury, belonging to the capital of the common school fund, $83,463.85 cents, which by the present statute is to be invested in any of the stocks of the state, at the market price of the same.

The productive capital of the school fund now amounts to $1,696,743.66 cents. The revenue actually received into the treasury on account of this fund, for the past year, has been $100,678.60 cents. This is the first year in which the revenue of the fund has produced the sum required for the annual distribution. The receipts of the coming year, are estimated by the Comptroller at $101,350.The statement marked D, contains the items of which the school fund consists, and the estimate of revenue upon each item.

The constitution which was adopted in 1821 contains the following provision :-"The proceeds of all lands belonging to this state, except such parts thereof as may be reserved or appropriated to public uses, or ceded to the United States, which shall hereafter be sold or disposed of, together with the fund denominated the common school fund, shall be and remain a perpetual fund, the interest of which shall be inviolably appropriated and applied to the support of common schools throughout this state." The construction given to this provision in the constitution by the Commissioners of the Land-Office is, that it embraces all lands which were unappropriated at the time the constitution took effect. It will be seen by a report made to the Senate in 1829, by the Commissioners of the Land-Office (Senate Journals of 1829, appendix F.) that the school fund

lands amounted to 869,178 acres. More than 850,000 acres out of the 869,000, lie in the fourth Senate district, and in the great wilderness which is surrounded by the settlements in Montgomery, Warren, Essex, Clinton, Franklin, St. Lawrence and Herkimer counties. The increase of the productive capital of the fund, from the sales of these lands, will not be as great in amount, or as rapid, as seems to be demanded by the great increase of the children who are in need of common school instruction.

There is a local school fund derived from lots reserved by the state for gospel and school purposes in several of the towns in the counties of Broome, Cayuga, Chenango, Cortland, Madison, Onondaga, Seneca, St. Lawrence and Tompkins. Ninety-six towns are reported as having participated in this or other local funds, the total amount of which, for the past year, was $14,095.32 cents. The funds derived from the gospel and school lots are safely vested, and the interest only is apportioned annually to the common schools. Some of the towns receive an annual interest from this source, of $500, and others as high as $1,000. The paper marked E, shows the towns which have shared in the benefits of these reserved lots.

III. The Management of the Common School Fund.

The productive capital of the common school fund consists of 407,000 dollars of five per cent canal stock; of bonds and mortgages for lands sold, 242,613 dollars, bearing an interest of six per cent of the loans of 1786, 1792 and 1808, amounting in all to 703,692 dollars, at an average interest of about six per cent of bank stock 230,000 dollars, on which the dividends have heretofore been six per cent loans from the capital to the counties of Broome, Clinton, Erie, Chautauque and Cattaraugus, 18,800 dollars, at an interest of six per cent. These sums are safely and profitably invested, and with the exception of the interest on the individual bonds for school fund lands sold, the revenues arising upon these items may be counted upon with reasonable certainty.

Applications have heretofore been made, and others will probably be presented at the present session, for the loan of portions of the school fund to various counties. Such loans, at six per cent, are at least as profitable and as safe as any investments which can be made at this time; provided, the county be held responsible for the payment of the interest annually, and for making up all losses in the principal.

The loans of 1786 and 1792 were made on the responsibility of the counties, and the loan-officers are appointed by the boards of supervisors of the several counties. For the loan of 1808 the counties are not responsible for deficiencies, and the commissioners of this loan are appointed by the Governor and Senate.

In the revision of the statutes on the subject of these loans, the "Loan-Officers", who have charge of the loans of 1786 and 1792, are so blended with the "Commissioners of Loans", who have charge of the loans of 1808, as to raise a question whether the losses upon the loans of 1786 and 1792 shall be borne by the counties or by the school fund. The law in relation to the loan of 1792 provides, that "if any deficiency has happened, by borrowers not having right to the lands mortgaged, or by the selling thereof at a less price than what is before mentioned, or otherwise-then the said supervisors, or a majority of them, with the concurrence of one or more of the county judges, shall cause all such deficiencies to be assessed and levied in the county, as other county charges, so that the whole of such deficiencies be paid to the said loan-officers by the first Tuesday of May then next following." Under this provision several of the counties have been heavily taxed to make up for deficiencies in the fund. The county of Dutchess in one case paid 7,000 dollars; and the great security of these loans was the liability to which the counties were subjected; and it never could have been the intention of the Legislature to surrender this security in regard to them.

It will be in vain that the constitution has thrown its protection around the school fund, and has declared that it "shall be and remain a perpetual fund," if the security on which it rests is to be given up in regard to investments which remain unchanged.

It is a matter of justice to the school fund that sec. 46, page 374 of the 1st Revised Statutes, should be so modified as to remove any question about the liability of the counties to make good all deficiencies in the loans of 1786 and 1792; or in other words, to allow the security in regard to all the loans to remain upon the same footing as heretofore.

The school fund has 180,000 dollars in the stock of the Merchants' Bank in the city of New-York. The charter of that bank expires in 1832, and an application has already been made for its renewal. If, from any cause, the charter should not be renewed, it

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