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sand dollars per annum, which will again raise the amount apportioned to twenty cents per scholar, after making allowance for all the increase in the number of children taught, which is to be expected from the natural growth of the State in population.

Experience in other States has proved, what has been abundantly confirmed by our own, that too large a sum of public money distributed among the common schools has no salutary effect. Beyond a certain point, the voluntary contributions of the inhabitants decline in amount with almost uniform regularity, as the contributions from a public fund increase. In almost every case, in which a town possesses a local fund, the amount paid for teachers' wages, above the public money, is about as much less, compared with other towns having no local fund, as the amount received from that source. The sum now distributed from the Common School fund is as great as is necessary to accomplish every object of such a distribution, and it is not probable that any augmentations of the productive capital from any other source than the sales of the lands now unproductive which are appropriated to the uses of the fund, will be necessary for many years to come. Neither is it probable that any deficiencies of revenue will occur to render necessary a resort to the General fund, as authorized by the Revised Statutes, vol. 1, page 193, sec 17. Should the General fund at any future day be recruited so as to admit of an augmentation of the capital or revenue of the Common School fund, or both, the policy of increasing the sum annually distributed to the common schools, beyond an amount which shall, when taken in connexion with the number of children annually taught in them, exceed the present rate of apportionment, would be in the highest degree questionable.

III. Management of the Common School Fund.

On the 30th September, 1832, there remained in the treasury two thousand seven hundred and fourteen dollars and two cents of the capital of the fund uninvested. The accumulation of moneys belonging to the capital of the fund in the treasury, during the year ending on the 30th September, 1833, by payments of the principal of the loans of 1786, 1792 and 1808, by first payments on sales of the School fund lands, and by payments of the principal of loans of counties, amounts to one hundred and forty thousand nine hundred and eighty-five dollars and fourteen cents, making, with the balance above mentioned, an aggregate of one hundred and forty-three thousand six hundred and ninety-nine dollars and

sixteen cents. The whole of this amount has been invested by a transfer of bonds and mortgages from the General fund, amounting to one hundred and thirty thousand five hundred and forty dollars and eighty cents, by a loan of nine thousand dollars, (four thousand five hundred dollars to Cayuga county, and four thousand five hundred dollars to Niagara county,) and by the purchase of three thousand dollars of the Astor stock, at two thousand nine hundred and eighty-two dollars and sixty-six cents, bearing an interest of five per cent, which, with the sum of one thousand one hundred and seventy-five dollars and seventy cents, the amount of two items refunded, as will be seen by the paper marked D, make the aggregate above stated. The bonds and mortgages transferred from the General fund bear an interest of six per cent, and consist of securities for lands sold in the city of Albany, Black Rock, the Brant Lake tract, Bullwaggy Bay on Lake Champlain, the Cayuga Residence reservation, Chesterfield, the Cowassalon tract, the Crumhorn Mountain tract, Elizabethtown and the Essex tract, Fort Ann, Freemasons' patent, the French Mountain tract, Glenn's purchase, the Hague tract, Hebron, the Iron Ore tract, Grand Island and several islands in the Owego and Seneca rivers, the Jay tract, the Lake George tract, Lewiston Out Lots, Luzerne, Massachusetts Tenth Township, North Tier, Magin's patent, Mallory's Grant, Mile Strips, the Mine reservation, military lots in Aurelius, Brutus, Cato, Cicero, Cincinnatus, Dryden, Fabius, Galen, Hannibal, Hector, Homer, Junius, Locke, Lysander, Marcellus, Milton, Ovid, Pompey, Romulus, Sempronius, Solon, Sterling, Tully and Virgil, and in New-Stockbridge, northeast and southwest parts. The productive capital of the fund consists of six hundred and fifty-one thousand five hundred and ten dollars and eighty cents, in bonds and mortgages for lands sold, at an interest of six per cent, with the exception of a small portion consisting of securities on lands, which were bought in under foreclosure of mortgages for money loaned at seven per cent, and which were resold at the same rate of interest; twenty-four thousand six hundred and fifty dollars of loans to the counties of Broome, Cayuga, Clinton, Erie and Niagara, one thousand five hundred dollars of which is at seven and the residue at six per cent interest; five hundred and seventeen thousand eight hundred and eighty-six dollars and four cents of balances of the loans of 1786, 1792 and 1808, at an average interest of six per cent; three hundred and thirty thousand dollars of canal stock, bearing an interest

of five per cent; and two hundred and thirty thousand dollars of stock in the Merchants' and Manhattan banks in the city of NewYork, on which the annual dividends equal and sometimes exceed six per cent. The items of which these several amounts are composed may be seen by a reference to the paper marked E, hereunto annexed.

The entire investment of capital is believed to be secure, and although the interest is not always punctually paid, there is no reason to apprehend a failure to receive annually a sufficient sum to admit of a distribution of one hundred thousand dollars to the common schools, without again resorting to the General fund to supply the deficiency; a result which, in the exhausted state of the latter, it is greatly desirable to avoid. It will be perceived, by the paper marked F, that no payment has been made from the General fund for that object, since the year 1830, when a deficiency of nineteen thousand nine hundred and fifty-six dollars and fourteen cents, was thus supplied.

IV. Organization of the Common Schools.

In all that relates to the external concerns of the common schools, the formation and alteration of school districts, the distribution of the public money, the imposition and application of taxes for building and repairing school-houses, the collection of rate-bills for the payment of teachers' wages, and the execution of the law generally, the system is, perhaps, susceptible of no improvement. The best evidence that can be given of the fidelity with which the various officers concerned in its administration discharge their respective duties, is the fact, that the commissioners of common schools of all the towns and wards in the State, amounting to eight hundred and twenty, have received the reports of the trustees of sixteen out of every seventeen school districts within their jurisdiction, made in compliance with the requirements of the law, and have themselves reported, through the clerks of fifty-five counties, to the Superintendent. When the reports of the commissioners were received through the clerks of counties, three towns were in arrear, and letters were immediately addressed by the Superintendent to the town clerks, requiring them to call the commissioners together and apprise them of the delinquency; but before these letters had time to reach their destination, the reports were received, having all been delayed by accidental circumstances. Thus, every town and ward in the State may be said to have made its report as re

quired by law, without being reminded of the obligation to do so. A more complete system of accountability could not well be devised; and when we consider the number of towns and wards, (eight hundred and twenty,) and the great number of persons, (nearly forty thousand,) whose official co-operation is essential to its execution, it is matter of surprise, that not a single case of delinquency has occurred. Until the year 1832, the Superintendent was under the necessity of writing to fifteen or twenty towns, after the time for making their reports had expired.

It is to be regretted, that the internal condition of the common schools is not, in all respects, as free from objection. The standard of education is, unquestionably, less elevated than it should be when taken in connexion with the liberal provision made for their support. This is the principal defect of the system, and it is to be traced in a great degree to the want of a sufficient number of welltrained and well qualified teachers.

It has been said that no system of public instruction can be properly administered without competent teachers. Mr. Cousin, the minister of public instruction in France, has asserted that primary instruction is wholly dependent on the seminaries for the education of teachers-that its progress is correspondent to that of these establishments. However true this proposition may be of any country, in which a system of public instruction is of recent origin, it is to be borne in mind that the existence of common schools in this State, in some form or other, from the earliest period of its history, has kept in constant employment a large number of teachers, who have become well-trained by practice. But the number of teachers of this description is altogether inferior to the number of schools; and in what manner they shall be provided and prepared for the business of instruction, so that an adequate supply for the schools may always be obtained, is an inquiry which has often been made, and which has led to much diversity of sentiment. It has been a favorite opinion with many, that seminaries should be created at the public expense for their education, upon the plan of the normal schools of Prussia, France and the German States. But those who have espoused this opinion, have not, perhaps, reflected, that the adoption of a part of the system of public instruction in European States will not be likely to accomplish successful results, unless we adopt also, as essential to it, other parts, to

which the prevailing opinions and the condition of society here may present insuperable objections.

The system of popular instruction in Prussia is essentially compulsory. The teachers are educated at public institutions prepar ed for the purpose: their vocation is chosen for life: they are appointed under the authority of the government, without the agency or consent, direct or indirect, of the inhabitants: their salaries are also fixed by the authority of the government, and a retiring allowance or pension is secured to them when they have become unable to discharge their duties. It is hardly necessary to say, that the leading features of such a system are wholly incompatible with the genius of our institutions. Yet, in order to give effect to the plan which contemplates the education of teachers at the public expense, we must go a step farther, and make the employment of them, when educated, obligatory on the school districts: And even this would be of no avail, if the regulation of their wages were left to the districts; for unless an adequate compensation was provided for them, they would naturally seek more profitable pursuits, and the object of the State in educating them would be wholly defeated. It is well known that the standard of compensation for teachers is very low, and it would hardly be expected that the State should create expensive establishments for their education without adopting such ulterior arrangements as to insure their employment by the school districts. The system must of necessity, therefore, become compulsory at the outset to secure its own execution; the districts must be compelled to employ the teachers and pay them competent wages. It was probably in view of the difficulty of providing for the successful operation of such a system that the plan of establishing seminaries for their education was abandoned by the Legislature after full consideration, and the encouragement of the incorporated academies, by pecuniary aid, as nurseries of teachers for the common schools, was deemed more practicable and promising in its results. Accordingly, the Legislature, by the act of April 13, 1827, added one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to the Literature fund, the revenue of which, amounting to ten thousand dollars, is annually apportioned to the academies, with a view, in the language of the act referred to, "to promote the education of teachers." That the academies, now sixty-five in number, are fully adequate to the object contemplated by the Legislature, hardly admits of doubt. [Assem. No. 9.]

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