The news & observer., 1905-08-13

phlet.
Use and Results.
The following brief table will show
how this loan fund has been used dur
ing the past two years, and the bene-
fits derived from it:
Total amount of loans to date,
S16O,073 number of counties to which
loans have been made, 10; number of
districts in which buildings have been
secured or greatly improved through
aid of this fund, 436; number of new
school houses built with aid of loan,
3S2 total value of buildings secured
by aid of loan fund, $434,451; num-
ber of districts i'm which new houses
have been built where there were no
houses before, 204; number of dis
tricts in which there were old houses
valued at less than $50 including log
houses, shanties, tenant houses,
Quotations are from applications),
49, number of consolidated districts
aided, IA; number of local tax dis
tricts aided, 60.
All districts except II to which
loans have been made are distinctly
rural or include small towns of less
than five hundred inhabitants.
From the above facts it will be seen
that by lending $160,07S to seventy
nine counties, 436 districts have been
aided in securing public school houses
valued at $421, ,426, thus adding that
amount to the value of the public
school property in those counties. in
other words by lending $160,073 pub
lie school property valued at nearly
three times that amount has been
secured. This would seem to be n
first rate business investment for pub.
lie education.
This loan fund has proved a great
stimulus in Improvement of school
houses, grounds and equipment, and
a great encouragement to consolida-
ton and enlargement of districts, and
to local taxation. Without the aid of
it many districts would probably have
been unable to secure good houses for
years without greatly decreasing the
length of the school term, and some
of these would have been unable to
secure respectable houses without
closing their schools entirely for one
or two years. The better houses and
equipment have been secured at once
and can be paid for on easy terms in
ten annual installments
When the hundred thousand dollars
borrowed by the State is repaid in
1906 this will be available for loans.
In addition the proceeds arising from
future sales of swamp lands belonging
to the State Board of Education will
be available for this purpose AS the
annual installments of the fund are
repaid, together with four per cent.
interest, they will be lent to other
counties and other districts entitled to
loans. These annual installments now
amount to about $4,000, and will of
course annually increase as the fund
increases. North Carolina has, there
fore, a perpetual loan fund for build
ing improving and equipping public
school houses, amounting at present 20
about $4,000 a year Within the
next five years it will probably amount
to about $50 900 a year, and will con-
tinually increase each year by the lc
emulation of the annual interest.
Through the use of such a fund 10
supplement the building fund already
available from the general county and
district funds and from the individual
efforts of public-spirited patrons,
there is no good reason why under
wise administration there shall not be
provided within the next decade or So.
certainly during the present genera
ton, a respectable. comfortable, we'll
equipped public school house in every
district of reasonable size in the State.
This loan fund is wise and practi-
cal plan for helping the counties and
the districts to help themselves to sup
ply within reasonable time such school
houses and equipment The facts
show that the counties have not been
slow to avail themselves of this OPP
pOrtunity. No wiser use could be
made of this money and from no other
use of it could SO great and permanent
benefits have been derived. AS the
years go by it will appear more and