Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1870-10-14

amount sufhcient TO cover the probable
premium on gold when needed. This is
estimated at about $50, 900, assuming the
value Of gold to remain nearly as at
present.
The estimate for the year 1871 should,
therefore, be s659, ,4O6. Inasmuch a. We
have reason to expect that the grand
list of the State will be increased, it is
hoped that the tax required to meet this
estimate will not greatly exceed the tax
Of last year.
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS.
Since your last Annual Session, alter
ations in the Constitution Of the State
have been made, which will require COR
responding notifications of our Statutes.
1t is not necessary that should call
your attention to all the details of the
required legislation, and /, therefore,
specially notice only those which seem
most important.
BY the changs from Annual to Bien-
nial Sessions of the Legislature the ten
ure of Office of all State and Legislature
Officials is necessarily extended to cor
responding period. The support Of the
government must be provided for dur
ing the interval between the sessions.
As appears from his report, the Treas
urer's estimate of expenses for the year
1872, is s415,20O, and it is incumbent
upon you to lay tax upon the list Of
that year sufficient to cover the esti.
mate.
IL wonld also seem that some provis-
ion should be made, for the revision and
correction of the lists of each alternate
year, when the Legislature is not conven-
ed, by the creation of board compe-
tent for that important duty.
Under the existing law the valuation
of real estate recurs every fifth year
1t is obviously necessary that the inter-
val between valuations should consist of
an even number of years, otherwise such
valuations will alternately occur in the
year of legislative suspension.
EDUCATION.
congratulate you upon the manifest
advancement the cause of Popular Ed
ucation is making in our State. There
is growing interest in our Public
Schools, and the truth is generally ac-
knowledged, that the education of peo-
| pie is an indispensable safeguard to the
preservation of free government. For
the general diffusion of education, reli-
ance must be hal, primarily, upon free
Common Schools. 1t is therefore of vi
tai Importance to the welfare Of the
7 State, that the instruction afforded in
these schools should be Of the highest
character attainable. 1t should, howev-
er, be remembered, that a system of edu-
emie and Collegiate methods and OPP
portunities, is incomplete, and must Ian
guish. Where mental culture is broad
est and deepest, there are the fountain
whence flow the best educational inauen-
ces ever drawing up to higher plane
| what is below. In turn the Common
Schools sends up its select material to
the higher institutions, and thus the ex-
tremes of the complete system recipro-
cally elevate and sustain each other.
/ commend to your vigilant care the
interests of all our institutions Of ecuca-
ton.
Experiment in all the States foremost
in the cause Of education, has proved the
great value of the Normal School, in
training teachers for the Common
Schools. Good teachers are indespensa-
BILE, and the Normal Schools the best in
strumentality which can be employed, to
secure the needed supply. / venture to
suggest that the time has come for the
adoption in this State, of more settled
and effectual policy on this subject.
For information relative to the practi-
cal working Of the plan now in operation
itS OOtluus ucICCtS, uuu tuC ACuCuy tuSIo-
for, l refer you to the report Of the
Board of education, and commend the
suggestions therein set forth to your ear
nest consideration. While the plan re-
ferred to has not been without beneficial
results, yet it manifestly fails far short
of our need. The State has not in any
proper sense Normal School. 1t is for
you carefully to consider, whether the
policy, SO cautiously inaugurated. should
not now be firmly established upon such
permanet basis as shall secure the desir.
ed end.
1t is notorious, that no small proper
tion Of the children Of the State do not
attend any school. The recognized du-
ty of the State to furnish the means Of
education to all her children, implies
the power to compel the attendance Of
ALL Ignorance is prolific source Of
every form Of social disorder. The pro-
nrietv of the oxercisa Mt this time Of