The advocate and Topeka tribune., 1893-01-18


The amount OF money of the semi-annua
appOrtionment of the state annual school funC
distributed among the schools of the state fo
1891 was 89.229.4l, which was 53cents per cspit;
| for the February appOrtiOnment, and 81 cent
per capita for the August apportionment
making total of S1.0j per capita.
| The total amount OF money received during
the year 1891 for school purposes was S. 0 299 6S
OF which the sum OF SS,5S8 45O9l was receiVet
| from county treasurers from district schoo
taxes. In 1892 the whole amount received wa
5000 981.H, of which $3,539 9S6.l1 was received
from the treasurers Of the several counties Of thu
state from district school taxes.
CHANGE OF TIME OF ANNUAL SCHOOL MEETINGS
The statute providing for annual meetings il
district schools on the last Thursday of July WaS
perhaps enacted on the theory that it would give
the county clerk OF each county sufficient time
to furnish the several district school clerks the
amount OF taxable property in their respective
districts so that a suitable levy of district school
taxes might thereby be made, but the state
superintendent of public instruction in his re-
port says the annual school meeting should be
held at an earlier date in cities of the third class
He gives as a reason for the change that in these
cities from three to twelve teachers are employed
and it would be better for the schools and the
| teachers if teachers could be employed at an
earlier date than is possible as the law now
stands; and 1t may be further remarked that
were such a change made, cities of the first and
| second class would not be given the first choice
| SS@@N'cA
being elected at an earlier date.
COUNTY NORMAL INSTITUTES.
These institutes, brought into life by the action
of the legislature of 1877. have been so extended
a9 to have an existence in every county of the
state Thew have had such abenefCent influence
mOnwealth as to be permanent part OF what
may be called our symmetrical common school
system so helpful to the great body of the ener-
getic, plain, tOtling people of Kansas. AT the
,loslr
attendance was fourteen in Morton county and
40O in the county of Jewell. The sessions have
been thirty days in length in most of the 106
counties. In 1891 there were 2l0 evening lee
lures, independent of the general work of the
institutes, and in 1892 the corps of instructors
at these Institutes reached the number of 333.
The state superintendent of public instruction
deemed it proper to require county commission
ers to appropriate not less than $50 for each in
stitute of four weeks.
THE PERMANENT SCHOOL FUND.
There are in the treasury of the state certain
fraudulent district school bonds purporting to
have been issued by the authority of school dis
tricts organized In the counties of Comanche,
Norton and Rice, which aggregate $15, 800, and of
which the state can have no possible prospect of
collecting any part of the principal or interest
of the same .lnasmuch as the constitution of
the state expressly declares that the permanent
school fund shall not be diminished, l would
recommend legislation authorizing the state
UubbD
fraudulent bonds, and duly provide for a REIN
bursement of the fund to the amount of these
bonds.
HIGHER EDUCATION.
Aside from the Normal School, the Agricul-
tura College and the University of the State, the
state superintendent in his report presents brief
abstracts of thirty other educational institutions
which include high schools, academies, colleges,
seminaries and universities of different classes.
The State Normal SchoOI.-The reports of the
president and board of regents of this institu-
ton will amply repay ones perusal for the in
teresting and valuable matter they contain. The
legislature will be asked to appropriate for the
fiscal year ending June 30, 1894, the amount of
$4,000 for an additional wing and assembly
room. The pupils from the institution come
from eighty-eight counties of the state, and out
side OF the state from sixteen states and terri
tories.
Mrs Carrie S. Plumb and family have kindly
donated to the school the valuable private
library of selected public documents which the
late United States Senator Preston B. Plumb
had collected during his public life, which gift
embraces nearly 1000 volumes, for the most part
handsomely bound in sheep, but for which the
institution has absolutely no room.
The State Agricultural COllege.-The board of
regents of this institution, in their eighth bien
nial report, declared: "The past two years have
shown more than usual prosperity In the growth
of the institution, as well as in its administra-
tion. Although crowded beyond the capacity of
the buildings for most satisfactory work, the
college in every department has been we'll main
tained and the work of educating the sons and
daughters of farmers and mechanics in line with
prominent industries of the state is so we'll
maintained as to make the Kansas State Agri-
cultural College the largest of such institutions
in the country, or even in the world"
Instructive matte in the report is found under
several headings, and particularly under those
of "Exper, ment Station" and Farmers Insti-
tutes."
President Fairchild, in his report to the board
of regents, says: Fully 20 per cent. of the stu
dents are shown by the records to be from farm
United States this stands among the most repre-
sentative in relation to the farmers interest
throughout the state. No other has 80 large an
attendance and no other has so large propOr-
tion of farmers children. There are pupils
from eighty-two counties of the state. Indus
trial training is making its mark not only upon
the students as they go from the college, but IN
the ingenuity of the state from the influence of