Maine shows a smaller number enrolled in schools, but a decidedly better average attendance, an increase of $311,129 in the amount raised for school-purposes, a very large addition to the number of its high schools, more vigor in many instances of local action, and a better adjustment of the parts of the State-system, calculated to promote the advance of all the interests of culture.

New Hampshire presents 222 new or newly-repaired school-houses, 44 new schools, 67 additional graded schools, but a diminished average attendance. Of its 227 towns, 96 either failed to report to the State-superintendent or reported lack of interest. "The remaining 131, comprising three-fourths of theschool-population, present reports interesting and encouraging, containing unmistakable evidences of improvement and progress; teachers are approved; the different branches have never been so well taught; elementary drawing and vocal music have been introduced into many schools. Many of the larger towns are considering the question of establishing town high schools." The efforts to establish a normal school deserve special commendation, as well as those seeking to give greater efficiency to agricultural and scientific instruction.

Vermont, reporting biennially, makes no statement as to public schools for 1873; but the reports from institutions for secondary and superior instruction show improvement. As a rule throughout the New England States, the condition of secondary, scientific, and collegiate instruction appears to be not only fully up to the standard of preceding years, but even in some respects beyond it, the colleges and scientific schools endeavoring to meet the current call for higher culture and the academies and high schools striving to come up to the rising requirements of the colleges.

GREAT LAKE AND NORTHERN MISSISSIPPI STATES.

In all these States, except Ohio, there prevails a nearly uniform school-system, in which county-superintendents, subordinate to a State-superintendent of public instruction, oversee schools graded up from elementary to a respectable secondary training, a State-university crowning the whole with its scientific and classical departments. Illinois has to a certain extent stood apart from the others in this last respect; but the State Industrial University, of great proportions, is putting her substantially in line with them, especially as regards scientific studies. A few statistics will best show the progress of common schools in all these States.

2. That in general each city shall constitute one of such districts and shall appoint and employ at least one superintendent of schools, who shall devote his whole time to the business of his office.

3. That the rest of the State, not included in the cities, be divided into districts containing about two hundred teachers in each.

4. That for suci: district outside the cities, a district-superintendent or commissioner of schools be appointed by the board of education.

5. That the salaries of the district-superintendents and their powers and duties be determined by the board of education, who shall prescribe rules and regulations for their guidance and the character and form of their reports to the board.

6. That the salaries of the district-superintendents be paid out of the income of the school-fund belonging to the respective districts.

7. That the board of education be authorized to provide, through these superintendents or otherwise, at their discretion, for the examination and certification of candidates for the office of teacher in the various grades of public schools in the State, and that the certificates, thus furnished, and the diplomas of the graduates of the several normal schools may be accepted by the various municipal authorities, when they shall so elect, as a full compliance with law in this respect.

8. That for the purpose of furnishing adequate resources for these various measures, meeting the growing demands of our normal schools, including the normal art-school-lengthening the school-terms in the more sparsely populated portions of the State and otherwise improving the facilities of such schools, thus recognizing public instruction as a more immediate care of the State and making possible the adoption, from time to time, of such improved methods and instrumentalities as the growing experience of the State shall suggest-the board renew their recommendation of previous years, that a half-mill-tax be laid upon the property of the Commonwealth and that the proceeds thereof be added to the income of the school-fund.

Ohio, for example, having changed the legal school-age from 5 to 21 to 6 to 21, exhibits probably from this cause and greater accuracy in reports, an apparent falling-off in school-population of 81,566, the enrollment in schools differing, however, by only about 4,000 and the average attendance being about the same in 1873 as in 1872. She raised in 1873, for school-purposes, $7,505,603, against $7,420,338 in 1872, an increase of $285,265, and expended on school-sites and buildings $1,437,655.

Michigan, with about half the population of Ohio, raised, for school-purposes, in 1873 $3,939,528, against $3,563,479 in 1872. Her expenditures for sites and buildings in 1873 were $597,006. The condition of the public schools is reported to have much improved under county-supervision, and graduates from inspected and approved high schools are now received without further examination into the freshman-class of the Stateuniversity, which rejoices in a grand new central building costing $125,000 and in a body of students numbering about 1,200.

Indiana, without giving full statistics for 1873, claims a net increase of school-revenue amounting to $165,581 over 1872, with 465 new school-houses, built at a cost of $872,900. As respects general condition, the superintendent writes: "Almost every department of our school-system indicates progress during the past year. The permanent school-fund has been augmented and more than the usual amount raised by taxation. The school-houses erected have been more substantial and more accordant with architectural taste. The schools have been better attended, graded, and organized. The teachers have been better qualified and better paid. The average length of schools, too, has been increased nearly a month."*

Illinois shows a school-population larger by 27,135 than in 1872, a smaller enrollment in schools, but an average attendance about the same. Her school-revenue, $9,259,441, has been $1,759,319 beyond that of the preceding year. For sites and buildings she has expended $952,075 and for repairs $454,846, making a total of $1,406,921.

Wisconsin has only about half the school-population of Illinois and a smaller proportionate enrollment in schools, perhaps due to the greater breadth of her waste places. Still, for a comparatively new State, without the aid of large and wealthy cities, she has raised for school-purposes $2,628,027 and expended for repair of schoolhouses $307,934. The retiring State-superintendent, Rev. Dr. Fallows, says: "Substantial progress has been made in every department of educational work.”

Minnesota, out of 196,075 children scattered over her great surface, shows the fair proportion of 124,583 enrolled in her free schools, with about 3,358 more in pay-schools. During the year past, 228 new school-houses have been erected, at a cost of $203,311. A city-school, at St. Paul, built in the same year, cost $45,000. The quality and aspect of school-buildings, too, have been improved, and 284 additional winter-schools have been maintained, in spite of the terrible severity of winter-weather in this region. The State has three normal schools and a university now well established, besides two colleges.

Iowa reports $4,519,688 raised to instruct a school-population numbering 491,344, of whom 347,572 are enrolled in public schools and 12,132 in private ones. The sum of $1,163,954 has been expended in this State in the erection of new school-houses and supply of libraries and apparatus. This makes the amount devoted to educational purposes upwards of $3 for each inhabitant and upwards of $10 for each child eurolled in school. The number of school-buildings has been increased by 1,246 in two years past; the value of them, allowing for deteriorations, by $1,391,308; and the value of school-apparatus by $122,337. The average attendance on public schools is 83 per cent. greater than ten years ago, exceeding considerably the increase of school-population and showing that to make schools attract pupils the way is to spend enough on them to make them good.

MISSOURI RIVER STATES.

The system in these States is essentially the same as throughout the Northwest: a * Substantially the same arrangement as in Michigan respecting the admission of high-school-graduates to the university has been made here, but with slighter guards on it.

State-university, waiting to receive the graduates of graded and high schools, with State- and county-superintendents in all cases.

In Missouri, the oldest and greatest of these States, the enrollment in public schools is 389,956, out of 673,493 children of school-age, and the amount raised for the support of schools is $1,790,314. It has, however, six schools for training teachers, one of which is for colored pupils.

Kansas, still comparatively new, has 121,690 in her schools, out of a school-population reaching only 184,957, and has devoted to the education of this number $1,863,098, with $515,071 for school-building and repairs, the increase of school-houses for 1873 being 696 and that of enrollment in them 15,027. There are three State normal schools. Its agricultural college and State-university appear to be both in good condition.

Nebraska, with a school-population of 63,108, has on her school-rolls 37,872 and has raised for school-purposes $798,660. Nebraska has, too, a flourishing normal school at Peru.

STATES ON THE PACIFIC SLOPE.

Nevada still struggles with the difficulties incident to a vast surface and a small and scattered population busy with mining, which tempts many from the schools; she returns 5,675 children of school-age and in her 76 schools 3,478. Her State-university is to be at Elko, provided the citizens there secure it 20 acres and a building to cost not less than $10,000, furnished for the accommodation of 100 pupils.

Educational activity in Oregon has been very greatly stimulated during this the first year of the service of the State-superintendent. The establishment of graded-schoolsystems in the towns has not advanced as rapidly as could be desired; and, although superior instruction is receiving increased attention, the number of young persons prepared to take a full collegiate and professional course of instruction is not so great as might be reasonably expected. This, it is hoped, the general improvement of the educational system and sentiment will speedily remedy.

The schools of the city of Portland and of the county of which it is the seat still hold their position at the head of the system in the State.*

Five colleges, inclusive of the State Agricultural College, report 763 preparatory students and 298 collegiate. The building for the State-university at Eugene is in course of erection.

California, new as she still is, justifies the general sense of her importance by reporting a school-population of 141,610 and a school-enrollment of 107,593, her school-revenue reaching $2,551,799, or about $23.70 for each enrolled child. Clear evidence of popular favor towards her public schools comes in the fact that within eight years 15,294 children have been transferred from private schools to them. And yet ample room remains for great private schools, one reporting 400 pupils, another 300, a third 258, while upwards of 6,000 attend about 80 pay-schools in San Francisco, Twelve denominational colleges show an aggregate of 838 preparatory students and 545 collegiate, while the State-university at Berkely, near Oakland, gives promise of affording high advantages for superior instruction.

THE TERRITORIES.

For the first time reports, more or less complete, have been received from all the Territories. The exhibition is encouraging, evincing desire for educational advantages and efforts to secure them, even where present circumstances are unfavorable. In three of the Territories the influences of pre-existent institutions have somewhat * Of all the reports of the county-superintendents, those of Mr. Eliot, of Portland, are the most valuable. We are under obligation to Hon. S. C. Simpson for special efforts to furnish this Office the latest information in regard to the progress of education in the State. We are also under obligation to Rev. George H. Atkinson, D.D., of Portland, for valuable facts in regard to the progress of education in Oregon and the Territories of Washington and Idaho.

obstructed the introduction of free schools; and in all the Rocky Mountain and westcoast-regions extent of area and scantiness of population have made general education very difficult. But in the former instances, persistent effort has removed many obstacles and in the latter the difficulty has been lessened by the tendency of population to settle around certain centers; so that now a system of free schools forms the rule, instead of the exception, in the Territories.

Excluding Alaska, the returns from which are narrative rather than statistical, the Territories give an aggregate of 69,638 children in the schools and of $838,826 for the instruction of them.

The District of Columbia stands first among the Territories as respects the number enrolled as scholars, 16,770; Utah comes next in this respect, reporting 15,839; while in the amount raised for educational purposes Colorado heads the list, her school-revenue, for a school-enrollment of 7,456, being $257,557, against $220,514 in the District of Columbia.

The most striking progress is presented in New Mexico. It will be remembered that in 1867 the question of the establishment of common schools in the Territory was submitted to a vote of the population, and received 37 ayes and 5,016 noes. The correspondence between the citizens of the Territory and this Office has been full of interest, and the appendix of this report shows the gratifying fact that the Territory is able to report 5,304 scholars in the schools.

CONFIRMATION OF PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS.

These institutions come each year into greater prominence. In many of the States they form the recognized and legal link between the grammar-schools and universities. In many more they are rapidly assuming that work of preparation for university- and college-training which has been wont to be performed by pay-academies. And that in the year past they have been doing noble service in completing, for ordinary business-purposes, the education given in the lower schools, as well as in preparing many students for the colleges, is obvious from the returns received at this Bureau. But in some parts of the Northwest the question of the right of States to carry free education into the high schools has been considerably agitated, and in Illinois and Michigan no little opposition to the exercise of such a right has been displayed.

In Michigan this opposition has based itself mainly on the asserted illegality of high schools, the law in terms appearing to make no provision for any but elementary and university-education. It has hence been argued that, at the point where primary training ends, the university and its branches must take up the work, and that out of its funds only, or out of these with some aid from pay-pupils-not out of the taxes for common schools-should come the means for sustaining secondary education. But as this, with partial local taxation for high schools, had been once tried and found impracticable, and as the funds allowed the university were barely sufficient for its expanding higher work, there was at one time obvious danger that the high-school-link between elementary and superior training might be broken and secondary instruction be relegated to the pay-academies again. The matter was eventually referred to the supreme court of the State; and its decision, recently pronounced, is that high schools form a proper part of the educational system under the law.

In Illinois the opposition to these schools was based upon another ground, the alleged injustice of taxing the whole population for schools whose benefits are enjoyed by comparatively few. To this, one obvious reply was that, if the principle should be adopted of taxing for school-purposes only the ones that availed themselves of school-advantages, the rich, who rarely send children to the common schools, would have to be released from taxation for support of them and the burden of that support be imposed mainly on the classes least able to endure it. Another answer was that, as far as could be ascertained, the amount of public funds required for the support of high schools was not in undue proportion to the taxation of the citizens whose children might be expected to attend these schools. And still a third was that in such a matter the

question of proportion was ungenerous and hard; that all citizens were taxed for general school-purposes; that all had equal privileges as to sending to the schools; that the whole State reaped advantages from a general education; that the keeping of precise accounts of the proportion of these advantages to the contributions towards them was impossible; and that a large and liberal public spirit should lead all heartily and ungrudgingly to aid in sustaining a system which, from its lowest to its highest privileges, was entirely free to every child. Such considerations have sufficiently prevailed to keep in check the opposition to these institutions, and there has been no confinement of the State-provision to the rudimentary and lower schools-no stopping at "the point where, to the poor man, the question of expense obliges him to arrest the further progress of his children." It may be hoped that there will be none.

TABLE II.-SCHOOL-STATISTICS OF CITIES, ETC.

An effort was made to ascertain the extent of the graded-school-system of the cities and more populous towns in the country, the results of which will be found in the table of the appendix. School-officers of 533 localities furnished information in respect to their school-systems. Many of the returns, however, were very incomplete, indicating great imperfection of method as well as inexperience in keeping school-statistics. Of the 533 localities, 320 reported primary-, intermediate-, grammar-, and high-schoolgrades; 76 primary-, grammar-, and high-school-grades; 41 primary-, intermediate-, and grammar-school-grades; 16 primary-, intermediate-, and high-school-grades; 11 primary grade only; 10 primary and intermediate, and 10 primary and grammargrades; 9 primary- and high-school-grades: 4 grammar and high, and 4 high schools only; 1 reported only intermediate schools and 31 did not report any grades.

The following summary of the table shows that of the 533 localities, having a total population of over ten millions, 508 of the same reported a school-population of 2,448,719; 518 reported an aggregate enrollment in the schools of 1,564,663; 260 reported an enrollment of 51,557 pupils under 6 years of age; 427 an enrollment of 51,431 over 16 years; 502 reported 11,558 public schools; 514 reported 24,642 public-schoolteachers; 462 reported 871,201 pupils in average attendance in the public schools. The whole number of public and private schools reported was 13,275, with 27,726 teachers and an average attendance of pupils of 945,793.

Private schools in cities.-It will be noticed that the statistics of private schools in cities are very incomplete. School-officers of 266 of the localities in question reported only 1,717 of these schools, with 168,968 pupils, while the officers of the remaining 267 localities were unable to give either the number of the schools or the approximate number of pupils under private tuition.

There is no law or regulation in any State or city requiring from proprietors of private schools periodical reports of the number and grade of their pupils. Such a law is a desideratum. It is not seen how a legal requirement of this sort could be onerous to the teachers or any invasion of private right. At present it is impossible to deter-, mine what proportion of the youth of school-age in the large cities are under schooltuition. Annual reports from teachers of private schools of the various grades to the State- or local superintendents would supply a great defect in school-reports and throw much light on the necessity or expediency of compulsory laws.