viii REPORT OF THE COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY
FREE SCHOOL FUND.,

In Statement E will be found in detail the receipts and
disbursements on account of this Fund, while the stock or
investment account will be found , in Statement F-A. The
receipts for the fiscal .year, including the balance of $8,070.30
brought down from the preceding year, were $80,024.49, while
the disbursements distributed to Baltimore City and the various
counties were $71,516.49, leaving a balance at the close of the
fiscal year to the credit of this Fund of $8,508.00.

SINKING FUNDS.

Statements E and F show in detail the several transactions
of these funds. You will notice there is no cash balance carried
down into the next fiscal year to the credit of any of these funds,
so that all moneys received were invested immediately without
loss of interest. The total receipts, including a cash balance
brought down from the preceding year of $100,000, were
$755,000, all of which was invested in the very highest grade of
securities—State of Maryland Bonds—viz :

Consolidated Loan of 1899....................... $155,000.00

Public Buildings Loan ......................... 000,000.00

Total .....................................$755,000.00

Two factors enter into the above result, which must be
carefully borne in mind, for such exhibit is abnormal.

The gross receipts of $755,000, including the cash balance of
$100,000 brought down from the previous year, also included a
stock receipt of $155,000 and a further cash receipt of $2,325,
which represents the stock and cash proceeds of sale of the
State's interest in the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company.

After due notice by public advertisement, the Board of Public
Works called for sealed proposals, to the highest bidder, for all
the State's interest in the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company.
When the bids were opened it was found that Fairfax S.
Landstreet was the highest bidder therefor—$155,000—and his
proposal was accordingly accepted, he tendering on January 17,
1905, to the State, as prescribed by Section 3 of Article 12 of