4. TABLE,

Exhibiting the Census of the Children of the State, the number of Schools and Teachers, and Apportionment of the School Fund for the years 1856

and 1857.

Totals....... 313 367 4174 86 30,019] 35,722 18,592 17,230 8,352 9,717 83,104 86 58,520 88

No returns from Fresno, Klamath, San Luis Obispo; estimated number of children in these counties, five hundred. Total number in the State, thirtysix thousand two hundred and twenty-two.

In the year 1853 there were 53 schools and 56 teachers:

"From this it will be seen the number of schools has increased, in four years, from fifty-three to three hundred and sixty-seven-nearly seven-fold. The number of teachers, from fifty to four hundred and eighty-six-nearly ten-fold. The number of children reported by census, from eleven thousand two hundred and forty-two to thirty-six thousand two hundred and twenty-two-more than three-fold; whilst the semi-annual contribution from the

State has dwindled from $53,511 11, to $28,342 16-or nearly one-half; and the average paid each teacher, from $955 to $58 32-that is to say, to less than one-sixteenth of the average under the first apportionment."

Amount of semi-annual apportionment, June, 1858, is $23,366 10; number of children where schools have been maintained, thirty-two thousand nine hundred and ten; average, seventy-one cents each. Apportionment, Dec. 1857, average, eighty-eight cents.

The office of the United States Surveyor-General* was organized July 1, 1851, under Samuel D. King, who was succeeded by John C. Hays, in July, 1853. James W. Mandeville, the present Surveyor-General, entered upon the duties of his office, Sept. 9, 1857.

The following statement will exhibit the operations of this office up to April 1, 1858. The number of miles of surveys, the lines of which have been actually run and measured, is as follows:

Base and Meridian Lines.

Standard Lines..

Township Exterior Lines.

Meander and Traverse Lines.

Sectional Lines...

Total.....

Miles.

1,077

3,372

.16,293

2,190

.58,737

.81,669

Plats of these lines, together with the field-notes of the same, have been made out, and copies of which have been sent to the General Land Office at Washington, viz: Plats of standard and township exterior lines, one hundred and eighty-five-(185); plats of whole and fractional township subdivisions, one thousand, three hundred and twenty-one-(1,321).

The number of contracts that have been let to deputy surveyors, is one hundred and forty-nine.

There has also been forwarded to the different land districts, copies of the township subdivisional plats, as follows: To Marysville, one hundred and twenty-six―(126); to San Francisco, three hundred and thirty-four-(334); to Los Angeles, four hundred and sixty-two-(462).

The number of acres surveyed and ready to be offered for sale, is twentythree million, five hundred thousand-(23,500,000); the average cost of their survey, including all office expenses, being five cents per acre. The total area of the State, including lakes, bays, and precipitous mountains, is carefully estimated at ninety-nine millions, four hundred and sixty-three thousand, six hundred and eighty-(99,463,680) acres. A large portion of the best lands is covered by private grants, the actual number of acres of which can not be approximated with any degree of accuracy, as many of the claims are not finally acted upon.

* For List of Clerks, see p. 55.

The following tabular statement will exhibit the whole number of claims filed before the Board of U. S. Land Commissioners, and their estimated area in the aggregate; together with the number of grants finally confirmed and surveyed; the number in process of survey, and the number pending and undetermined, together with their aggregate area.

It may be added, in this connection, that an additional number of private grants have been finally confirmed, the official evidence of which confirmation has not yet been filed in this office.

Grants of Ranchos, etc., claimed before Land Commission.
Grants finally confirmed and surveyed..

Grants finally confirmed and in process of survey.

The number of patents received and delivered to the owners is twenty-one. The old Spanish and Mexican archives, belonging to California, are placed in the Surveyor-General's office for safe keeping and for reference; also, the documents and papers belonging to the office of the late Board of Land Commissioners.

A large collection of the old Spanish and Mexican archives has been recently obtained from Sacramento, Benicia, San José, Monterey, San Diego and other localities; all of which, together with those previously on file in this office, have been classified, arranged and substantially bound. The number of these volumes will probably reach four or five hundred.

An accurate index of contents will be prepared and attached to each volume, to facilitate reference thereto. The work of the complete classification and preservation in bound volumes, of these archives, was projected and is progressing to completion, under the direction of the U. S. Law Agent, Hon. Edwin M. Stanton.

STATE LANDS.

Of the total area of the State, one-eighteenth, or the sixteenth and thirtysixth sections, have been granted by the United States to the State for school purposes. The Surveyor-General of the State, in his report for 1858, estimates these lands as follows:

Off the 500,000 acres of School Lands, there have been sold 237,440, leaving a balance of 262,560 acres yet unsold.

STATE LAND OFFICE.

For the purpose of ascertaining, protecting and managing the title and claim of the State to any lands within its limits, derived by grants from the United States, or in any other manner, the Legislature of the State, by Act of April 10, 1858, established at Sacramento an office, to be known and designated as the State Land Office. The Surveyor-General of the State to be ex officio the chief officer thereof, and to be known as the Register of the State Land Office,

SWAMP AND OVERFLOWED LANDS.

The Act of the Legislature of April 21, 1858, authorizes the sale and reclamation of the swamp and overflowed lands,* in quantities not to exceed three hundred and twenty acres to each purchaser, at one dollar per acre, the proceeds from the sales thereof to be paid into the State Treasury and appropriated for the reclamation of said lands, as the Legislature of the State may hereafter direct.

SCHOOL AND SEMINARY LANDS.

To provide for the sale and location of the school and seminary lands donated by Congress to this State, the Legislature, by Act of April 23, 1858, authorized the Governor of the State to appoint a Locating Agent for each of the United States land districts of this State, whose duty it shall be to locate the unsold portion of said lands. These lands to be disposed of in tracts, not to exceed three hundred and twenty acres to each purchaser, at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. The proceeds from the sales thereof to be invested in the Civil Bonds of the State, which shall be deposited with the State Treasurer as the property of the School and Seminary Fund of the State. The Act of the Legislature of April 26, 1858, provides for the sale of the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections of land donated to the State for school purposes, or such land as may be selected in lieu thereof, at public auction under the direction of the sheriff of the county in which said lands offered for sale are situated, at a price not less than two dollars per acre. No sale to be made unless a majority of the householders in the district where the land is situated petition therefor. Public notice of the sale to be made, and the parcels thereof are not to exceed one hundred and sixty, or be less than forty acres. All moneys arising from the sales of lands under the provisions of this Act, shall be set apart as a permanent School Fund, and the interest thereof only appropriated to the support and maintenance of common schools in the township to which the land belonged.

*Lands within the limits of any incorporated city, or town, and certain other described tracts, are exempted from the provisions of this Act.-See Abstract of Law 235, Part V.

+ For List of Agents, see p. 89.

VII.-INDIAN DEPARTMENT OF CALIFORNIA. *

The amount appropriated by the Department of Indian Affairs for the support and maintenance of the Indians of this State, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1855, $236,000; for the year ending June 30, 1856, $358,000; for the year ending June 30, 1857, $300,000, and year ending June 30, 1858, $210,000. Total expenditures, four years, $1,104,000.

1. INDIAN POPULATION.

The Superintendent of Indian Affairs for California, Hon. T. J. Henley, in his Report for 1856, to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, estimates the number of Indians, within the jurisdiction of his superintendency, at sixtyfive thousand, of which over eleven thousand are collected on the different reservations. The Superintendent in his Report for 1856, says:

"In regard to the system of colonizing and subsisting Indians on reservations, I have only to say that it has so far succeeded entirely beyond my expectations, and is, in my judgment, the only system that can be of any real benefit to the Indians. It enables the Government to withdraw them from the contaminating influences of an unrestrained intercourse with the whites, and gives an opportunity to provide for them just such, and no more, assistance than their wants from time to time may actually require.

Indians should be treated as wards, and the Government should act as their guardian, judging for them at all times of their real wants, and providing for them accordingly. This has been the policy pursued in the California superintendency, and I have, so far, found no difficulty in its application.

In conducting the affairs of this superintendency, I have rejected entirely the idea of making treaties with the Indians, or recognizing in any way the rights which they claim to the soil.

The Indians in every portion of the State have already been made acquainted with the policy proposed by the Government in regard to them, and are everywhere highly pleased with it, except in locations where malicious or interested white persons have, by false representations, prejudiced them against it. A few persons of this class in the various localities, have been the cause of most of the Indian difficulties which have occurred in this State. The Indians are generally peaceable and well disposed towards their white neighbors; and in almost all cases where they have been guilty of aggression, it has been to avenge some outrage committed upon them by the class of persons in question.

In closing this Report, however, it is proper to remark, and I do it with great pleasure, that the mass of the white settlers of this State have uniformly treated the Indians with the greatest possible kindness, giving them protection and advice, and frequently contributing of their scanty means to relieve their pressing wants and save them from actual starvation. This was not an unusual circumstance, but has been of daily occurrence, from 1849 to the present day; and there are even now hundreds, and I doubt not thousands of Indians, scattered remnants of tribes, whose existence depends materially upon the good advice and charity of our citizens. The general course of conduct of the people of California toward the Indians, has been such as to merit the approbation of all good men, as well as the thanks of the Indian Department.

The outrages upon the Indians, which have been, I regret to say, of frequent occurrence, have emanated from a few lawless and desperate men, for *For List of Officers and Clerks, see p. 56. + Number at the present time, eighteen thousand.