Washington Standard January 1, 1862
1. Number of Children:
From the most reliable information at our command, we find that the number of children over the age of four and under twenty-one years is 2,141.
2. Number of School-Houses:
We have about fifty-three school-houses in the Territory, and some of them are not worth so much as the name of a school-house. The probable cost of these buildings will not amount to the sum of twenty-six thousand five hundred dollars.
As the country is yet new, and we have just begun to build our school-houses, we would suggest to the directors of school districts, that when you build school-houses, do it well – make them large and comfortable. You may not have to stop in them, but your little ones do. “The thing that is worth doing at all is worth doing well.” Let us prove this in every school-house we build – let each one be an ornament to the district and to the Territory.
3. Cost of Instruction:
From the very best information I have at hand, there is paid out annually about $9,638.22 for instruction out of public school fund.
4. School Registers:
The law requires me to furnish county superintendents with forms for the district trustees and teachers, for keeping their accounts and registers. These forms are to be delivered by the several county superintendents to all the districts throughout their representative counties. This is an important provision, and in fact the only way we can arrive at all the important items of our common school system.
This duty I was unable to perform from want of means to purchase such forms. I hope your honorable body will relieve this office from that embarrassment in the future.