"64 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS [Jan. 18,

source was available to the Treasury, from which said pay-
ments could have been made.

The effect of this decision, if affirmed by the Court of Ap-
peals, would be that by this construction of the law the Comp-
troller would be required on the first day of October to dis-
tribute to the several counties and City of Baltimore the larger
portion of the tax for the whole year, and a long way in ad-
vance of the time when it would be required by the county

boards to meet their quarterly payments to teachers. A fur-
ther effect of the decision, if affirmed, and no amendment be
made to the school laws at the present session, would be to
require the redistribution of the several large sums decided
to have been paid out under an erroneous construction of the
law to the several counties and City of Baltimore on the first
distribution day, which should occur after said affirmance.
To enable the Treasurer to do this, of course the means to
that end would have to be obtained. This would require an
addition to the ratio of levy for public schools for the current
year of at least ten cents in the one hundred dollars of assess-
able property. In addition, all the money directed to be
paid for the present and future years for colored schools must
be raised by a separate levy expressly specified to be for that
purpose. A levy to raise one hundred thousand dollars
would certainly require a still further addition of two cents
to the rate for the current year and for future years. It is
perfectly well known to many members of the present Legis-
lature that the addition of two cents to the school rate in 1874
was for the express purpose of meeting the increased amount
directed to be paid in that year to colored schools, but the de-
cision of the Court is, that under the language employed by
the Legislature in making the appropriations for the free pub-
lic schools, white and colored, the whole amount of the pub-
lic school tax is applicable to the white schools and none to
the colored schools.

In order to remedy these defects in the law, and to place
the construction of it beyond a doubt, an amendment should
be made at the present session. I can see no reason why, as
the law directs four distributions of the school tax to be made
in each year, the said distributions should not be as nearly
equal as possible, nor can I see why the money should be paid
out of the Treasury to the several counties and City of Balti-
more, nine months in advance of the time when it is to be
expended in the payment of teachers' salaries.

The construction put upon the clause in the laws directing

the distribution, has been the same by every Comptroller who
has occupied the office since the organization of the system,