Page:History of Public School Education in Arizona.djvu/72

66 the office of county school superintendent of the county wherein the capital of the Territory was situated and another to abolish the Territorial board of examiners. Fortunately these proposals did not become law.

The actual educational legislation of 1891 may be summarized as follows:

In matters of legislation the assembly was more active than in 1889. Besides a general law authorizing school districts under fixed conditions to issue bonds for building and to liquidate outstanding indebtedness, the law on textbooks was made more rigid and county examiners were forbidden under penalty to give special preparation to any candidates for teachers’ examination; a law to establish kindergartens was framed, and also an act to promote the education of the deaf, dumb, and blind, which was to be made a part of the university.

Things must have been making satisfactory progress, for in 1893 Gov. Murphy addressed the assembly in the following high-sounding, if not boastful, language:

He again recommends that the duties of the Territorial superintendent be “specifically defined” and that his compensation be made such as would enable him to “give exclusive attention to educational matters; otherwise it would be better to abolish the office.”

The legislature at the session of 1893 seemed to take the report of the governor as sufficient and practically let the schools alone. Supplementary agencies created included a Territorial library, to be located in the capitol and governed by a board of curators, with the Territorial secretary as librarian. There was also passed a law looking to a reform school to be located in Coconino County (ch. 81). This law became later the basal act for the northern Territorial normal school at Flagstaff.

There was during the years of Netherton’s administration, 1892–93 and 1893–94, nothing unusual or extraordinary to report. There was a gradual extension of educational activity into the field of libraries, normal schools, and kindergartens. An unfavorable symptom was seen in the increase of school indebtedness, and there was