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OF

CORNELIUS HEDGES,

Superintendent of Public Instruction,

FOR THE YEAR 1876,

NOLLONELSHI SITOAJ

TOGETHER WITH

MONTANA SCHOOL LAWS

AND FORMS.

HELENA, MONTANA:
"INDEPENDENT" STEAM PRINT.

L

170 B22

MICHIGAN DEPT. OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION

JUN 8 '35

REPORT OF

Superintendent of Public Instruction.

1876-7.

To His Excellency, BENJ. F. POTTS, Governor of Montana:

Though no change was made in the requirements of the school law to conform to the change made in the years in which the Legislature is to meet, it seems most in accordance with the spirit and purpose of our law to present another report of the schools the present year, although one was rendered a year ago. As the County Superintendents report annually, this can be done with no inconvenience, and with as much accuracy and profit at this time as one year hence.

Of the report last year, there was an insufficient number published to enable me to comply with the requirements of law and furnish a copy to each of the local school officers in the Territory. There were at the date of the last report nearly one hundred school districts in the Territory, and as there are four local officers-three trustees and a clerk-to each district, it would require an edition of at least four hundred to supply this single demand. But to supply, in addition, copies to the members of the Legislature, and for exchange with other States and Territories, which very gen

erally supply us with copies of their school reports, it would seem that two hundred additional copies, or six hundred in all, would be none too many to meet the legal and proper demands of the case. Had it been known last year when the report was to have been printed, I should have exerted myself to have the school law in full printed with it, for distribution. Former editions, in every form, have become exhausted, and to the constantly recurring request to furnish such copies from every portion of the Territory I have been compelled to plead utter inability. Besides those special editions published, I have been liberally supplied by the Secretary with copies of the Codified Statutes containing the school law, sufficient to furnish one to each district, and in addition many copies of the Eighth Session laws, which also contained the school law annexed, but all of these supplies have been inadequate to the demand. The law requires that such copies furnished to school officers shall be transmitted to their successors in office, but either from general ignorance of this requirement, or from general inattention or disregard thereof, it is very apparent that this is seldom done. Pamphlet editions are easily and speedily soiled, destroyed, lost or worn out. It would undoubtedly be economy in the end, if no changes in the law are contemplated or probable for some time to come, to publish the law in a more permanent and durable form with board or muslin covers, capable of sustaining more hard usage and protecting the contents from wear and spoliation.

It is a fiction of the law that all persons held to obedience are familiar with laws that they are expected to obey. This is pure fiction in most cases, and even in regard to the school law, which is better and more generally understood than most others, there is still a great deal of ignorance about many of its provisions among those who have had most experience and the best opportunities to become familiar therewith, while the frequent change of officers is all the time bringing in new men without the experience and information of their predecessors. The school law, unlike most of our statutes, depends upon the co-operation of the great body politic for its successful execution and its most beneficial results. Hence the greater necessity that every head of family and voter should be familiar with its various pro

visions, so that the best results may be reached with the least expenditure of money, and the burdens may be most equitably distributed and borne. It would be natural and just to believe, besides, that such a general acquaintance with the law would prevent many of the quarrels that divide and distract some of our districts, and which generally spring from an imperfect knowledge of the law and of their own interests, which leads men for a time to think they can secure their own selfish interests in some easier and cheaper way than through the general welfare. A broader and truer view of the field would soon convince every man that his own interests were bound up with those of others that they must rise or fall together.

We hope these and other reasons that will readily suggest themselves, will be allowed sufficient weight to authorize the printing and general distribution of the school law.

The reports of the County Superintendents, which are required to be rendered in October, were most of them delayed till December, and in one instance-Choteau County -has not been rendered at all. But the fault in almost every case rests with the district officers, who fail to furnish the County Superintendents with district reports, from which those of the County Superintendents are made. So universal is the complaint that it suggests the necessity of some additional sanction to enforce the discharge of this important duty. District officers are very prompt and thorough in taking the census and making return, because they know that the money coming to their district will only be apportioned according to the showing thus made. We feel confident that if the penalty were added, that, unless returns were made within thirty days after the time limited by law, the district, whose officers were in default, should be deprived of all right to share in the apportionment next ensuing, it would ensure a promptness such as could be obtained in no other way.

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I would renew with earnestness my former recommendations to the several District Clerks to keep a record book, in which minutes shall be kept of all official acts of the Board of Trustees, as well as of all apportionments, and every order drawn against the same. With such a record properly kept, all the material needed for any report is

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