assessment roll. This surplus is payable into the General Fund, and will aid to prevent any deficit in that Fund. This tax now produces nearly double the amount of the subsidy.

The Legislature can carry the Funding Act into effect, or can repeal it, and go on with the payment of the debt as heretofore.

The arguments in favor of the funding bill were briefly these: First-An immediate reduction of taxation for this purpose, to the extent of fifteen and three fourths cents. Second-Furnishing to the School Fund for investment, bonds of this State, instead of seeking elsewhere for securities. Third-Facilitating the equalization of assessments by its provisions.

The arguments against it are the difficulty of securing the exchange of the old bonds without advertisement for the prescribed time; the discount on the new bonds, and the desirableness of extinguishing the debt. While not strenuous on the subject, my judgment was in favor of refunding the debt, and thereby diminishing taxation, as well as leaving in the School Fund our own bonds for an investment. The subject is commended to your consideration, and to such disposition as in your wisdom may seem expedient.

The prospect of a State nearly out of debt, with a School Fund of two millions of dollars and upwards, constantly increasing, and a rate of State taxation which, independently of such special taxes as may be necessary for public buildings will not much, if at all, exceed fifty-five cents on each one hundred dollars of valuation under a standard of about one third of the real value for the valuation of the Assessor, is gratifying and ought to stimulate all who control our State legislation to continue in the same course of economy which has been pursued for some years past. It should also be borne in mind, as a further argument in favor of economy, that the State will be compelled to expend during the next ten years a very large amount in public buildings for the proper care of our insane and the custody of adult criminals and juvenile delinquents.

I have heretofore referred to the advantage of light taxation as an attraction to immigration, and need add nothing on this subject. The fault of all governmental machinery in every country and in every age has always been that it is too cumbersome and expensive, and bears with too much weight upon productive industry. It is out of this that all taxation and public expenditure must be ultimately paid.

EQUALIZATION OF ASSESSMENTS.

The law of last session upon the subject of equalizing assessments was passed in haste, and was designed rather as preliminary to a more perfect system. There is an evil and an injustice here, arising from the different standards either ignorantly or wilfully adopted in different counties, which call for remedy. The system will doubtless be improved by your Honorable bodies at this session. I take the liberty, however, of urging great care and caution to avoid sudden and radical changes in valuations which would fall oppressively upon taxpayers, and especially upon

farmers.

The object to be attained is to secure a uniform valuation in the different counties, and one which approaches more nearly the market value of the property.

The report of the Commissioners discloses some gross inequalities, and at least one case of an extensive fraud upon the revenues of the State

by the Supervisors of one of the counties. Your attention is especially invited to the report of the Board, which shows the necessity of a reform in the system.

SECRETARY OF STATE.

The report of the Secretary of State is herewith transmitted. The business of his office has been transacted with system and promptitude, and the purchases of furniture for the Capitol have been marked by judgment and economy.

ATTORNEY GENERAL.

The state of the various civil and criminal causes to which the State is a party will appear from the report of the Attorney General, herewith transmitted.

The suit respecting the title of the State to that portion of the Yosemite Valley occupied by J. M. Hutchings has been decided by our Supreme Court in favor of the State, and has been taken by the defendant to the Supreme Court of the United States by writ of error. There is no doubt that the appellate Court will affirm the judgment of the Supreme Court of this State. I respectfully recommend to your Honorable bodies to take some definite action to preserve the valley as a public reservation, in accordance with the grant to the State. A small appropriation would suffice to make every part of the valley accessible with ease and comfort, and would add much to its natural attractions.

It will doubtless be resorted to every year by thousands of tourists, if they are not repelled by a system of petty impositions, which will result from allowing the valley to be appropriated to private ownership. I renew the recommendation heretofore made that a liberal compensation be made to Mr. Lamon for his improvements, and that the same course be taken with Mr. Hutchings, when final judgment is rendered against him in the ejectment suit now pending.

PURITY OF ELECTIONS.

The Attorney General refers to the paramount importance of preserving the purity of the ballot-box, and adverts in terms of merited censure to the course pursued by Government officers at Vallejo in the recent elections.

The essence of free government consists in the free and voluntary choice of officers by the electors. If this freedom is destroyed, and men are coerced into voting a particular ticket by threat of discharge and fear of starvation, the act of depositing ballots is a mockery and a fraud. When officers marshal fourteen or fifteen hundred laborers to the polls, destroy the secrecy of the ballot by compelling the use of strips of pasteboard five eighths of an inch wide, printed closely in diamond. type, so that alteration is impossible, they aim a blow at the existence of free government, and virtually direct the machinery of Republican institutions to defeat the popular will, upon which they are avowedly based. No partizan or personal considerations should prevent a prompt and effectual remedy for this abuse.

There is another evil which menaces the perpetuity of our institutions, and it is the open practice of bribery at elections. Laws of the most stringent character ought to be enacted to arrest this growing evil. When the time comes that the rank and file of the voters are for sale in

the market, the exchange of republicanism for despotism will be only a question of time, and that a short time. Patriotism under such circumstances would become a theme for jest. It is here, doubtless, that a serious peril lies, and it is aggravated by the power of the great corporations which at the present day seem to be satisfied with nothing short of absolute control of the whole machinery of government. No intelligent man is blind to this peril, and there are not wanting already those who despair of a remedy.

Wise legislation, however, will aid much to correct the evil. It should be made a felony to offer or accept a bribe at an election, and a cause of disfranchisement, and a disqualification for holding any public office. Any officer guilty of this offence should be made liable in a quo warranto at suit of any citizen, and ousted from office if found guilty. This last provision would probably be efficacious.

Corruption at elections is stimulated by the practice of betting money upon the result. This practice is exceedingly pernicious and ought to be declared by statute a misdemeanor and a ground of disfranchisement ipso facto. Laws such as these would go far to afford a remedy in connection with an enactment providing for an uniform ballot on white paper, the passage of which I respectfully recommend.

The report of the Surveyor General is here with laid before you, and contains some interesting statistics.

In my first biennial message this paragraph occurs:

"Our land system seems to be mainly framed to facilitate the acquisition of large bodies of land by capitalists or corporations, either as donations or at nominal prices.'

In the same message the regret was expressed that any portion of the public lands had ever been disposed of except to actual settlers.

Posterity would hardly credit, without conclusive evidence, that at this age, under a republican government, the largest part of the public lands would be granted in fee to railroad corporations without condition as to price and terms of sale. A body of public lands comprising over fifty millions of acres, and embracing nearly the whole of Washington Territory, destined one day to be a great State, has been granted in this manner to one corporation composed of a few capitalists. The public lands belong to the people, and it is not improbable that such legislation as this, if no other remedy avails, will in the future provoke revolutionary resistance on their part, defrauded as they are of their rightful patrimony.

If the lands had been held for settlement, and only the proceeds at Government price donated, no great objection would have been made; but the system tends directly to reduce the people to servitude and erect over them a despotism.

These grants ought to be revoked by Congress, and in lieu of the land the proceeds granted when sales are made to actual settlers. No vested. rights worthy of respect can grow out of such transactions as these, so long, at all events, as the land is not sold by the donees to bona fide purchasers.

In the case of the swamp and overflowed lands a system of reclamation may perhaps render their concentration in large bodies in the first instance necessary; and, indeed, in the case of uplands, where large

tracts have been acquired by purchase, the fault is chargeable to the system, and not to those who avail themselves of it to purchase lands.

Our State laws on this subject deserve a harsher criticism, if possible, than that made two years ago, and I respectfully recommend the repeal of all laws in this State providing for the disposal of public lands, and the enactment of some system, not the parent of land monopoly, and which would furnish those guards against illegitimate speculation that are lacking in the present system. The immediate repeal of all laws in force on this subject, saving rights already vested by entry and purchase, would allow time to frame a system better guarded against abuses; and I also recommend a memorial to Congress in favor of revoking all such grants as that made to the North Pacific Railroad Company, and of substituting for the land itself the proceeds when received from sales to actual settlers.

I have heretofore recommended legislation to prevent the snaring and killing of small birds and singing birds as a measure of great importance to agriculture.

In other countries these birds, which are so useful to the farmer in the destruction of insects, are propagated at great expense; while here we permit the indiscriminate slaughter.

The repeal of the system of "lawful fences" and the enactment of laws making owners of stock responsible for trespass by it will doubtless engage your attention. It is manifestly unjust to compel each farmer who purchases or takes up a quarter section to expend more than the price of his land to protect himself against his neighbor's cattle. Every man ought, in justice, to be required to take care of his own stock or suffer the consequences. The present fence system has been an incubus upon agriculture, which is becoming every year more intolerable.

Upon agriculture, which is the basis of our prosperity, is placed the burden not merely of the cost of fences at first, but of their renewal and repair from year to year.

Public sentiment demands a reform of this injustice, and I doubt not its demand will be heeded by your Honorable bodies.

FISH.

Your attention is also invited to the report of the Fish Commissioners. These gentlemen serve without compensation, and have shown a commendable economy. Their report is one of great interest, and valuable results are anticipated from their labors. The law of last session needs some amendments to make it efficient, and these are suggested by the Commissioners.

An experiment has been made in stocking the upper Sacramento with shad, which promises good results. The Commissioners ask the appointment of a Joint Committee on Coast and River Fisheries," to take charge of this important subject. The publication and distribution of their report cannot fail to be useful, and the legislation recommended will preserve and increase the supply of fish in the bays, lakes, and streams of this State.

COMMON SCHOOLS.

The subject of popular education is justly regarded as of vital importance to the maintenance of democratic institutions.

The people of this country are as unanimous as any people could well be on any subject in favor of an efficient system of common schools,

removed from partizan and sectarian influences, where the whole mass of children can receive instruction at public cost. The improvement and growing efficiency of our own common school system is a subject of just pride and of hope for the future.

Vice and despotism are the offspring of popular ignorance; virtue and liberty of popular education. The report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction gives the following figures of results for two years past: The whole number of children in the State between the ages of five and fifteen years, is reported at one hundred and thirty thousand one hundred and sixteen, of which number one hundred and twenty-seven thousand nine hundred and eight are white; nine hundred and one colored, and one thousand three hundred and seven Indians under the guardianship of white persons; the number under five years of age is sixty-six thousand two hundred and ninety-two; making the total number under fifteen one hundred and ninety-six thousand four hundred and eight, against one hundred and seventy thousand seven hundred and twenty-six, reported two years ago. Four years ago the number under fifteen was one hundred and forty-nine thousand three hundred and six-an increase in four years of forty-seven thousand one hundred and two.

The number in attendance at the public schools during the present year was eighty-three thousand six hundred and twenty-eight; at private schools, fifteen thousand five hundred and twenty-four; attending no schools, thirty thousand nine hundred and sixty-four.

In eighteen hundred and sixty-seven the number in attendance at the public schools was reported at fifty-four thousand seven hundred and twenty-six; upon private schools, fourteen thousand and twentysix; and upon no school, twenty-four thousand four hundred and eleven. These figures furnish food for reflection. It seems, with all the zeal and interest manifested in this cause by the Superintendent, the teachers, and the public, there are six thousand five hundred and fifty-three children more not attending any school than there were four years ago. Such a fact ought to stimulate to redoubled diligence in the extension of our Common School System, so as to gather within its influence all children between five and fifteen not educated at private schools.

The number of schools reported this year is one thousand five hundred and fifty, an increase of four hundred and sixty-seven since eighteen hundred and sixty-seven. The number of teachers this year is two thousand and fifty-two, an increase of six hundred and sixtvthree teachers since cignteen hundred and sixty-seven. The number of new school houses built during the year was one hundred and twentyfive, some of them large and expensive buildings.

The total value of school property is three million three hundred and sixty-two thousand five hundred and eighty dollars and eighteen cents, and the total expenditure for public schools is one million seven hundred and thirteen thousand four hundred and thirty dollars, an increase of one million six hundred and sixteen thousand two hundred and fortyfour dollars and forty-six cents in the value of school property, and of four hundred and twenty-two thousand nine hundred and eighty-five dollars and twenty cents in annual expenditure, since eighteen hundred and sixty-seven.

The exhibit would be a good one but for the large number not in attendance, and in reference to this it may be said that the percentage of increase of attendants is larger than that of non-attendants.

There