REPORT OF THE COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY. XI

must receive "in payment the bonds and registered debt now owing
by the State equal in amount to the price obtained for the State's
said interest."

In pursuance of the powers above referred to, both under the Con-
stitution and the Acts of the General Assembly, the Maryland Trust
Company tendered to the State on the 27th of April, 1906, the fol-.
lowing State's securities:

Consolidated Loan of 1899................................. $2,148,000

Penitentiary Loan ........................................ 252,000

Insane Asylum Loan ....................................... 1,00000

Aggregating .......................................... $2,500,000

thereby reducing the State Debt $2,500,000, wiping out entirely the
Insane Asylum Loan of $100,000, and $252,000 of the $500,000 of the
Penitentiary Loan and liquidating nearly one-half of the Consoli-
dated Loan of 1899, and saving in interest alone the annual sum of
$76,760. In other words, an inactive stock for the last 10 years has
wiped out $2,500,000 of the State Debt and saved the above sum of
$76,760 in interest per annum.

By cancelling so much of the State Debt as above mentioned and
crediting against that amount the productive stocks of the State,
together with the large holdings to the credit of the Sinking Funds,
$8,742.254.72, leaves the net State Debt only $838,201.41, and this is
based upon the par value of the stocks mentioned therein, when, as
a matter of fact, the premium on the Northern Central Railway
Company annuity of $1,500,000 would more than cancel the entire
State Debt.

Therefore, the Legislature of 1906 reduced the State tax from 23 1/2
cents to 16 cents on each $100, which tax is solely for the benefit of
the Public Schools of this State.

ASSESSMENT AND LEVY OF 1906.

In Statement "K" you will find the assessed value of property for
the State levy of 1906 aggregating $738,762,161, a most gratifying
increase.

This basis of wealth for the next year so far as the State is con-
cerned, is usable only for the Public Schools, and it is a matter
of congratulation that it shows such a healthy increase.