The assumed average of 33 cents to each pupil, or $24 to each separate neighborhood, has no application to the districts or parts of districts within the State.

The minority bill provides that a school shall be kept in each district seven months to entitle to public monies; this change it is believed will furnish substantial relief to some weak districts; those of more ability will not be restricted by this section, and probably but few districts in the State will reduce the terms of their schools in consequence of this provision. If it should be found to operate unfavorably, it can easily be corrected.

The bill of the minority also provides that the first apportionment under this act may be made to any district in the State which was entitled to an apportionment in 1849.

Under the operation of the "free school" law, a very large number of districts in the State which were in prosperous condition previous to 1849 have become prostrated, and in many instances nearly disorganized, and without some provision favorable to their recovery and reorganization, the most unfortunate embarrassment would continue for some time to come. This provision of the bill is proposed to remove existing obstacles to a participation in the public funds in such cases, and it is believed will produce the desired result.

The fourth section of the bill provides for the apportionment and division of the remaining three fourths among the districts of the State upon the basis of population, requiring that a school shall be kept for a period of seven months to entitle to a participation.

The fifth section provides that any balance required for the payment of teacher's wages beyond the amount apportioned from public moneys shall be raised by rate bill upon those sending to school, excepting all persons not having pecuniary ability, and paying the amount of such exemption from the public moneys.

To this section, the majority of the committee did not assent, and the bill introduced by the majority proposes to raise this balance by a "poll tax of equal amount, upon all persons having the right to vote at district meetings."

The minority do not question the motives of the majority in prefering the "poll tax" to a rate bill, but they cannot bring themselves to believe that any good reason can be assigned for adopting a system of taxation unknown to our laws in the present age, except the levy of one day's "service upon the highway" upon every male inhabitant of the State over the age of 21 years.

The exception referred to is not a tax payable in money, but a demand of labor-service, and the argument in favor of demanding this service, though doubtful in character is not good when it is proposed to substitute a capitation tax in money.

The framers of this highway poll tax law doubtless supposed that every poor man had it in his power to render labor to the State as an equivalent for his enjoyment of the privilege of the highway; they did not act upon the presumption that he had money or could pay a tax in money to the honor of our State there is no money tax upon man imposed by any general law, taxes are levied upon property.

The highway poll service and the militia service alone rest upon the head, the former is of doubtful utility and is not now uniformly enforced, indeed it is believed that this highway poll service is seldom received from persons having no taxable property.

It is not denied that the country has a right to demand of every "able bodied" man such military service as the public safety shall require, but the claim to levy a money tax that exempts neither indigence nor age, which enters the humble home of the poor man and levies its demand upon his last bed, is denied―denied in the name of civilization and humanity!! Such a statute would disgrace barbarian countries. For what purpose is it demanded? To sustain common schools!! to make common schools nominally free!!

The effect of such a statute would be to demand and extort from the hard earnings of every poor householder in the State a tax equal in amount to the tax levied upon the householder who possesses his thousands or millions of hoarded treasure.

The majority claim that the sum would be small, that it would average but about 67 cents; but they have omitted to state that in some cases it might amount to several dollars.

To illustrate the unequal effect of such a statute, let us suppose a case of a class of which there would be numerous examples: Take a farming community where a district should be composed of eight wealthy farmers, with an average of three children each, and five poor laborers living in cottages belonging to the farmers, and barely earning a subsistence for themselves and families, in the employment of their landlords; in such a case you will have 39 children to educate. Let a school be kept in such a district 8 months, at a cost of $16 per month, the aggregate would be $128; deduct from this $68, the amount of public moneys which such a district would receive, and there remains $65 to be supplied by "poll tax" upon persons entitled to vote at district meetings." The number of persons liable to this tax n such ia district is 13, and the poll tax amounts to $5 upon each voter. Your five poor men, without an acre of their own, without any property belonging to them subject to ordinary taxation, are called upon to pay five dollars each. There is no clause to exempt the indigent-no provision in favor of the poor-and the only cow must be sacrificed, or the last bed sold, to answer the demand of this merciless, inexorable law, even though the poor laborer should have no children to be benefited by the school. His landlord, with one or two hundred acres of land, pays five dollars also, his poll tax, and by some mystery of logic not understood by us, this school is called free.

The annexed bill is submitted by the minority as a substitute for the bill reported by the majority.

SILAS M. BURROUGHS,

BENJ. G. FERRIS.

AN ACT

To provide for the support of common schools

The People of the State of New-York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

Section 1. There shall hereafter be raised by tax in each and every year, upon the real and personal estate within this State, the sum of eight hundred thousand dollars, which shall be levied, assessed and collected in the mode prescribed by chapter thirteen, part first of the Revised Statutes, relating to the assessment and collection of taxes, and when collected, shall be paid over to the respective county treasurers, subject to the order of the State Superintendent of common schools.

§ 2. The State Superintendent of common schools shall ascertain the portion of said sum of eight hundred thousand dollars to be assessed and collected in each of the several counties of this State, by dividing the said sum among the several counties, according to the valuation of real and personal estate therein, as it shall appear by the assessment of the next year preceding the one in which said sum is to be raised, and shall certify to the clerk of each county, before the tenth day of July in each year, the amount to be raised by tax in such county; and it shall be the duty of the several county clerks of this State, to deliver to the board of supervisors of their respective counties, a copy of such certificate on the first day of their annual session, and the board of supervisors of each county shall assess such amount upon the real and personal estate of such county, in the manner provided by law for the assessment and collection of taxes.

§3. The State Superintendent of common schools shall, on or before the first day of Jannary in every year, apportion and divide or cause to be apportioned and divided, one-fourth of the sum so raised by general tax, and one-fourth of all other monies appropriated to the support of common schools, among the several school districts,

parts of districts, and separate neighborhoods in this State, from which reports shall have been received in accordance with law, in the following manner, viz: To each separate neighborhood there shall be apportioned and paid a sum of money equal to thirty-three cents for each child in such neighborhood, between the ages of four and twenty-one; but the sum so to be apportioned and paid to any such neighborhood, shall in no case exceed the sum of twenty-four dollars, and the remainder of such one-fourth shall be apportioned and divided equally among the several districts; and the State Supe. rintendent of common schools shall, by proper regulations and instructions to be prescribed by him, provide for the payments of such moneys to the trustees of such neighborhoods and school districts.

§ 4. It shall be the duty of the State Superintendent of common schools, on or before the first day of January in every year, to apportion and divide the remaining three-fourths of the said amount of eight hundred thousand dollars, together with the remaining three fourths of all other moneys appropriated by the State for the support of common schools, among the several counties, cities, and towns of the State, in the mode now prescribed by law for the division and apportionment of the income of the common school fund; and the share of the several towns and wards so apportioned and divided, shall be paid over, on and after the first Tuesday of February, in each year, to the several town superintendents of common schools, and ward or city officers, entitled by law to receive the same, and shall be apportioned by them among the several school districts and parts of districts in their several towns and wards, according to the number of children between the ages of four and twenty-one years, residing in said districts and parts of districts, as the same shall have appeared from the last annual report of the trustees; but no moneys shall be apportioned and paid to any district or part of a district, unless it shall appear from the last annual report of the trustees that a school has been kept therein for at least seven months during the year, ending with the date of such report, by a duly qualified teacher, unless by special permission of the State Superintendent of common schools: excepting also that the first apportionment of money under this act may be made to all school districts, which were entitled to an apportionment of public money in the year 1849.