as The decrease in the "whole number of teachers" compared with the previous year, and the increase in the last five years of nearly two thousand in the number employed for twenty-eight weeks or more," furnish evidence of greater steadiness in the employment of teachers, and of a growing tendency to make teaching a profession. The following statement shows by whom the teachers employed in the schools were licensed : The average annual salary for each teacher, calculated from the foregoing statements, was: The amount paid for teachers' wages was about two million dollars more than in 1866, which is an advance of nearly fifty per cent upon the gross amount, and of twenty-eight per cent upon the average annual salaries of the increased number of teachers. The following is a summary of the statistical reports for the year ending September 30, 1870. For a detailed statement by counties, see table No. 4, in the appendix. PUBLIC MONEYS. The following table shows the receipts and payments on account of the Common School Fund, during the Amount appropriated from U. S. Deposit Fund... 165,000 00 The increase and diminution of the Fund during the year, and the manner in which its capital has been invested from 1805 to the present time, are stated in tables Nos. 6 and 7, in the appendix. FREE SCHOOL FUND. The following table shows the receipts and payments on account of this Fund, during the last fiscal year: Receipts. Balance on hand, October 1, 1869 Avails of State tax received during the year... Paid by New York county on account of interest $3,982 83 2,325,150 96 300,541 22 13,708 30 140 39 $2,643,523 70 Payments. Regular apportionment to cities and counties... $2,202,413 91 In my report of last year, I explained the necessity for making the loan of $300,000, in anticipation of taxes from the county of New York, payment of which is mentioned in the foregoing table. During the last fiscal year, all of the counties paid into the treasury the several amounts, due on account of school tax, without unusual delay, and it was unnecessary to effect any further loans. The avails of the State tax of one and one-fourth mills, for the current year, will be $2,458,751.48. The appropriations from the fund for the year are; for dividends to common schools, $2,325.000, and for the support of normal schools, $142,000. In the annual report of the Comptroller, transmitted to the Legislature early in the present year, he suggests that the State tax for the support of schools be reduced to one and one-eighth mills upon the dollar, basing his recommendation upon the ground that such a rate, upon the present valuation, would produce a greater revenue than was obtained by the tax of one and one-fourth mills, when that rate was first ordered, in 1867. With all due respect for the opinion of that officer, I cannot concur in his views upon this question, for reasons which I proceed to state. The The law provides for a system of free schools. money to support them must be raised chiefly by taxation. During the last fiscal year, the aggregate taxation for that purpose amounted to more than nine millions of dollars, of which less than two and a half millions was raised by a general State tax. The large balance was derived entirely from local taxes levied upon property in cities and school districts. It is evident that the cost of maintaining our schools will not be less in the future than it has been in the past. Indeed, the statistics published from year to year show that school expenditures have been steadily increasing. The people are building comfortable school houses, and are supplying them with appropriate furniture and apparatus. They |