the increase of our schools, in pupils enrolled, and consequently in expenses incurred has been far greater than the increase of

The annual increase indicates the number to be provided for by the erection of new school buildings. The average increase is nearly three thousand pupils, and the cost of providing accommodations for these may be seen in the following table:

The Polytechnic building purchased in 1868-9 cost $280,000 of the $439,682.

Thus the total amount expended in twelve years for new buildings and lots has amounted to $1,714,629, and the repairs on the same have amounted to $444,935.

By the following table it will be seen that the increase of salaries of teachers for eleven years is $411,246, or at the rate of $37,386 per annum, (the increase in number of pupils being 3000 as already shown.) The increase in salaries of janitors during that period has been $36,360 or $3,305 per annum; that of the officers $14,891, or $1,353 per annum.

The amount received from the city tax, from rents and from the State school fund, may be seen in the following table:

During the year ending August 1, 1876, the entire proceeds of the five mill tax were expended for the reduction of the floating debt and for current expenses. The proceeds of one fifth the same during the past year have been devoted to paying interest on the bonded debt and to paying the principal.

It will be seen by the above table that the amount of taxable property from which taxes were actually collected was largest in 1875, and that there has been no material increase since 1872, in which year it was $152,000,000, the past year it being $159,000,000, an increase of only $7,000,000 in five years. At four mills on the dollar an increase of $7,000,000 taxable property means an increase of $28,000 revenue or only $5,600 per annum. During that period our expenses for salaries of teachers, officers and janitors, the three great items of current expense, have increased from $475,492 to $639,529 per annum, or in the sum of $164,037, an increase of $34,507 per annum. Meanwhile the annual revenue from rents of real estate has fallen off $4,372. The receipts from the State school fund, it is true, have increased nearly $70,000, but will not increase hereafter unless the city of St. Louis should continue to grow at a faster rate than the State of Missouri as a whole.

The provision for an increase of 27,880 pupils in eleven years, as might naturally be expected, has taxed the financial resources of the Board to the utmost. The following table shows the amount of outstanding bills at the close of each fiscal year since 1865, including bonded debt and floating debt:

Floating Debt.
$ 61,305

Total Bills Payable. $ 61,305

46

1868.

200,000

151,922

351,922

In the above table it will be seen that the first loan of our bonded debt was made in 1867. In the scholastic year 1867-8. Before this the The era of rapid

the increase of pupils enrolled was 3169. increase had been about 1500 per annum. increase in numbers was likewise an era of extensive building of school houses. In 1869 the bonded debt was increased by the sum of $250,000 by the purchase of the Polytechnic Building (costing $280,000). On May 1, 1872, $100,000 of this debt was paid, leaving only $150,000 due on the Polytechnic. In September 1872, the loan of $200,000 which had been effected in 1867 was renewed for five years.* In 1874 a new loan was effected of $200,000 ($100,000 in January and $100,000 in February), also for five years. In 1874, before the loan was made, the Board adopted a resolution setting apart the proceeds of all sales of its real estate as a sinking fund. As fast as payment was made on the bills receivable (given the Board for real estate sold), the money was invested in bonds of the State of Missouri bearing six per cent. interest. This item of Missouri bonds amounted in 1874 to $13,020; in 1875 to $37,199; in 1876 to $56,646, at which figure it has since remained.

The following table shows the total of bills receivable at the end of each year; also the balance of cash in the treasury and the total net indebtedness after subtracting from the total of bills payable, given in the above table, the total of bills receivable and the balance in the treasury as given in the following table:

This loan was finally paid in September 1877, from the proceeds of the one mill tax for the sinking fund as I have already described. This leaves a present bonded debt of $350,000.

When the first loan of $200,000 was obtained from Philadelphia in 1867, for the purpose of building school houses, it was received just before the bulk of taxes came in for that year. The board to save interest on a large sum of money, invested nearly the whole of it in bonds of the St. Louis water works, just then thrown upon the market, and afterwards sold these bonds as occasion required. In interest and enhanced value of the bonds the board gained about $20,000 from this investment. These bonds appear in the amount of bills receivable in the above table, $200,716 in 1868, and $112,441 in 1869. While the largest amount of floating debt appears (in one of the above tables) to have reached its greatest amount in 1873, (being then $355,973,) the largest amount of net actual indebtedness was reached (see above table,) in 1874, (being then $605,268, while the total of bills payable reached the sum of $835,140. In 1874 the epoch of large expenditures in school houses ended and the finances of the board began to improve at once. In 1875 the net excess of liabilities is decreased $67,954; in 1876 it is again decreased $199,313; in 1877 it is decreased still further by $174,527. It will be seen that the increase of the tax to five mills the past two years contributed largely to the diminution of our liabilities.