them to, and I respectfully invite you to give them, an earnest and careful consideration.

PENITENTIARY.

The report of the Directors of the Penitentiary embraces the respective reports of the Warden, Chaplain, and Physician, and is transmitted herewith. It is very comprehensive, and furnishes complete information touching the condition of that institution. An examination of the report shows that the daily average number of prisoners confined in the Penitentiary from December 1, 1876, to June 30, 1877, was 415; while the daily average from June 30, 1877, to the close of the fiscal year, June 30, 1878, was 465; and that the number of prisoners confined at the latter date was 500. There have been discharged during the period covered by this report—

Five prisoners have been returned to counties for new trials, eleven transferred to the Asylum for the Insane, six have died, and two escaped, of which one has been recaptured and returned to the prison.

The aggregate earnings of this institution, according to the estimates, embracing a period from July 1, 1879, to June 30, 1881, inclusive, will be $127,400; while the current expenses for the same period are estimated at $203,365, leaving the amount of expenses over earnings, $75,965.

In asking your attention to the several suggestions and

recommendations embraced in this report, I feel it my duty to especially impress upon you the importance of that portion recommending the establishment of a reform school for youthful criminals. This question has been agitated for years. It has been frequently urged, with much force and reason, not only in former reports from this institution, but also in the message of my predecessor. The dictates of humanity, the safety of society, and the welfare of the youth of our State, appeal to you for an earnest and prompt consideration of this question; and I trust that the necessary measures may be adopted without further delay for the organization of such an institution.

PRISON LABOR.

Many complaints have been made that the present policy of employing prisoners in the manufacture of such articles as are produced only by skilled labor, brings the labor of the convict in direct competition with the honest, industrious mechanics of our State.

These complaints are not without foundation. The Penitentiary derives its capital from the State; it pays no taxes, but is a necessary burden. While the mechanic derives his capital from his labor, he pays taxes, is expected to obey the laws, and, in obeying them, is required to contribute his quota toward sustaining a system of convict labor, directly in conflict with the means upon which he depends for a support. Yet duty to the State as well as to the prisoner requires that he should be employed, and that such employment should, as near as possible, be made to defray the expenses incurred by the State on his account.

I therefore suggest the appointment of a committee,

to take into consideration this whole question, relating to the present system of convict labor at this institution, with a view to the adoption, if practicable, of such measures as will in due time obviate this apparent injustice to the mechanics of our State.

ASYLUM FOR THE BLIND.

The report of this institution shows that forty-five pupils were in attendance at the close of the term ending June 7, 1878. The estimates for the current expenses for the fiscal years ending respectively June 30, 1880 and 1881, are $13,513 and $13,903. This is exclusive of the sum of $3,000, which the Trustees and Superintendent allege is required to erect and furnish a hospital building, which the health of the students, as well as the success of the school, demands.

INSTITUTION FOR EDUCATION OF THE DEAF AND DUMB.

This institution seems to be well conducted, and is in an encouraging condition. The whole number of pupils enrolled from November 30, 1876, to June 30, 1878, is one hundred and nine.

The sanitary condition as shown by the report of Dr. C. G. McKinley, the attending physician, is remarkably good-not a death having occurred in the Institution during the past six years. The respective reports of the Trustees and Superintendent are well worthy of a careful perusal.

In addition to the necessary appropriation for current expenses, the sum of $60,000 is asked for, to erect public buildings. The necessity for such an appropriation is very clearly and forcibly presented by the Superintendent in his report, to which I respectfully direct

your attention, and will only add that a personal inspection of the Institution will fully vindicate the Superintendent in his earnest appeals for additional room.

ASYLUMS FOR THE INSANE.

Of the three hundred and sixty inmates under treatment during the biennial period ending June 30, 1878, at the asylum located near Osawatomie, fifty-nine have been discharged, restored; twenty, improved; seventeen, unimproved; three escaped; one was not insane; thirty have died-leaving two hundred and thirty inmates in the Institution at the close of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1878.

I invite your attention to the report of the Trustees and officers of this institution. From this report it will be seen that the most pressing demand of this institution is for more room.

The fact that at the close of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1878, one hundred and sixty-four insane persons were, for want of room, excluded from the State Asylum, coupled with the dictates of humanity, the safety of society, and the welfare of this unfortunate and helpless class of our citizens, makes it an imperative duty to provide the necessary means to increase and utilize the capacity of the asylums to meet this demand.

There have already been appropriated various sums, amounting in the aggregate to $108,999.25, for the purpose of erecting, near the city of Topeka, an additional asylum for the insane. This asylum, as will be seen by the report of the Trustees, is about completed; and it is only necessary, in order that it should be used

for the purposes for which it was erected, that the necessary funds be appropriated to enable the Trustees to furnish this asylum and defray its current expenses.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

The report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction is one of our most valuable and important documents. Of all the reports issued from this department, none has so completely covered all our educational interests, or will be so valuable to the State and its citizens, as the one just published for the school years ending July 31st, 1877, and July 31st, 1878. By this report it will be observed that the total number of school districts in the State is 5,136, being an increase since last report of 271. Number of school houses in the State, 4,520; increase since last report, 363. Value of school property, $4,527,227; increase since last report, $250,136. Whole number of persons between the ages of five and twenty-one years, 266,575; increase since last report, 33,701. Number of teachers employed, 6,359, of which 2,861 are males and 3,498 are females.

No

The permanent school fund, at the close of the fiscal year, June 30th, 1878, amounted to $1,449,223.87. State in the Union, in proportion to the age and population of Kansas, possesses a school fund so large; and it must be remembered that to this sum will be added, from time to time, the receipts from sales of the very large body of school lands yet undisposed of.

Our public schools are the pride of the State, and should, as I have no doubt they will be by you, sacredly guarded and maintained.