Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/734

 722 GEORGIA BONDS. WHEN ISSUED. When due. Amounts. 1844 and 1848 1874 $237,000 1878 . . . . .. 1875 100 000 1878 1876 100 000 1878 1877 100,000 1858 and 1873 1878 200,000 1859 and 1873. 1879 800 000 I860 and 1873 1880 800,000 1861 and 1873 1881 200,000 1878 . ... 18S2 100000 1873 1883 100 000 1873 1884 100 000 1873 1885 100 000 1866 and 1873 1886 4 000 000 1870 1890 2 098 000 1872 1892 807,500 Total $8,842,500 The issue of 1870 is gold bonds ; the rest, cur- rency. The total annual interest is $586,460. During the administration of Gov. Bullock, 1868-71, bonds to the amount of $8,360,000 were issued, and the state indorsed bonds of various railroad companies to the amount of $7,923,000. It having been charged that the greater part had been illegally and fraudu- lently issued or indorsed, a committee was appointed by an act of Dec. 9, 1871, to in- vestigate the subject, which sat at Atlanta during March and April, 1872. Of the state bonds $2,280,000 were returned and cancelled, $3,482,000 were declared null and void by the legislature in accordance with the report of the committee, and $2,598,000 were recognized as valid, $2,098,000 of this amount being included in the preceding table. Of the indorsed bonds $240,000 were returned and cancelled, with respect to $4,475,000 all obligation is disclaim- ed, while $194,000 of the Alabama and Chat- tanooga railroad, $464,000 of the South Geor- gia and Florida railroad, and $2,550,000 of the Macon and Brunswick railroad, in all $3,208,- 000, are admitted to be binding upon the state. This amount being added to the aggregate of the table, the total recognized debt at the be- ginning of 1874 becomes $11,550,500. The receipts during 1872, with the balance on hand at the beginning of the year, are shown in the following table : Cash on hand, Jan. 1, 1872 Received from general tax " from rent of Western and Atlantic railroad from sate of bonds from poll tax from school tax from sale of United States land scrip. . from temporary loans from tax on insurance companies from railroad, bank, and express tax. . from restitution money from pay for convict labor from liquor tax from balance from Fourth Nat'nal bank from tax on circuses from dividends on Georgia railroad stock from special reciprocity tax on in- surance from rent of capitol from miscellaneous sources $186,767 01 946,814 75 300,000 00 188,379 65 123,972 48 108,706 20 90,202 17 47,782 50 25,711 93 21,432 14 19,674 21 9.577 26 7,553 48 3,201 25 3,031 80 4,401 10 Total $2,101,340 84 The disbursements were $1,335,207 14, viz. : $692,892 paid on public debt, $295,227 73 on special appropriation, $172,251 92 on legisla- tive pay rolls, $99,403 49 on civil establish- ment, $39,628 72 on contingent fund, $26,977 23 on printing fund, $5,261 32 on educational fund, and $3,564 73 on overpayment of taxes; cash on hand Jan. 1, 1873, $776,133 70, of which $100,000 was set apart to pay coupons maturing on that day, and $108,706 20 be- longed to the special and $184,277 46 to the general school fund. The total receipts in 1873 were $2,406,655 04; total disbursements, $2,250,232 49. The state owns the Western and Atlantic railroad, valued at $7,000,000 ; 10,000 shares of stock in the Atlantic and Gulf railroad company (par value $1,000,000), worth $200,000 ; and 186 shares in the Georgia railroad and banking company, $18,600 ; total, , $7,218,600. It also owns 1,833 shares in the bank of the State of Georgia and 890 shares in the bank of Augusta, but they have no mar- ket value. The Western and Atlantic railroad was leased to a company for 20 years in De- cember, 1870, at the monthly rent of $25,000. The assessed value of property in 1872 was $243,620,466, of which $226,633,263 was tax- able. The taxable property in 1873 amounted to $242,487,382. The rate of taxation was 50 cents per $100 ; 40 cents for general purposes, and 10 cents for school purposes. The institu- tion for the deaf and dumb, at Cave Spring, Floyd co., in 1873 had 5 instructors and 63 pu- pils, of whom 29 were males and 34 females. The academy for the blind, at Macon, had 4 in- structors (2 blind) and 47 pupils. The state lunatic asylum, near Milledgeville, has 10 offi- cers (2 non-resident) ; number of patients, Dec. 1, 1873, 576. The penitentiary is at Milledge- ville. The convicts, 664 in number (93 white and 571 colored), are all leased to a corpora- tion, and employed on public works in differ- ent parts of the state. The state has only one officer, the principal keeper, under pay, and derives a revenue from the lease. Before the civil war no common school system ex- isted in the state, although certain funds had been set apart, and were distributed to the various counties, for the education of indigent children. The constitution of 1868 required the legislature to establish a system of com- mon schools, and to carry this provision into effect an act was passed in 1870, which has been superseded by the general school law of Aug. 23, 1872. This law constitutes the governor, attorney general, secretary of state, comptroller general, and state school com- missioner, the state board of education, which is an advisory body to the commissioner, and hears as a court of last resort appeals from his decisions touching the administration or construction of the school laws. The state commissioner is charged with the administra- tion of the school laws, and is general super- intendent of the public schools ; he apportions the school revenue to the several counties in