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cost of transportation, and of the stationery, which is fur-
nished to the schools free of all charge whatever. To those
who advocate the supplying books free of all cost to the child-
ren it may be said, that we believe the present system is eco-
nomical, because it prevents the wanton destruction of books;
that it teaches the children neatness and care, by placing the
ownership in them; and lastly, that it secures the important
end of enabling the pupil to possess and retain the manuals
with, which he has become familiar to be used as means to
continue his education, or as books of reference after he
shall have left school. The presence of books in every
family is a means of educating the popular mind, and if
there can be no others let them be the Text-Books.

There is one class of our citizens who rnake no objection
to the law, but on the contrary are its most earnest advo-
cates—I mean the teachers! They of all others are the
most capable from their general intelligence, and their po-
sition to judge of its merits and defects. At a meeting of
the " Teachers' Association" of this County, they gave ex-
pression to their estimation of the system, in a series of re-
solutions warmly endorsing all its leading features. I can
safely commit the defense of the law to this body of our
citizens, feeling confident that they who can speak without
the slightest suspicion of partisan or selfish motives, are
able and willing to uphold the new school system, and repel
any attack that may be made upon it. Under it, they secure
a just estimate of their own services, permanence of situa-
tion, punctuality in their pay, sympathy in the labor and an
appreciation of their honorable profession. And under this
stimulus they all declare that they are able to teach with
greater zeal and renewed energy and increased ability.

Having replied to all your enquiries, as fully as is neces-
sasy, or perhaps more at length than I should have done, I
proceed to give an account of the school work in this County
during the past year and up to this date, disregarding
those matters which are set forth satisfactorily in the tabu-
lar reports herewith rendered.

When this Board assumed the charge of the schools, it
found the County already laid off into School Districts, each of
which was supplied with a house, and with a teacher actively
engaged in his duties. There was no record of the bounda-
ries of these districts, and no recorded title to a large majority
of the houses and lands attached. The number of School
Districts was greater and so remains, than would be necessary
but for the peculiar formation of the County. The segrega-
tion of our population into small neighborhoods by the nu-
merous water courses, or estuaries, by which the whole County
is intersected, renders a multiplication of School Districts una-
voidable, if we would place Schools within the reach of every
child. This leads to an evil hereafter to be referred to,