| --
1840. | 701,331 | 21,202 64[7] | --
1841. | 179,967 | 32,109 32[8] | --
1842. | 179,917 | 24,006 89 | --
1843. | 173,416 | 24,094 87 | --
1844. | 158,193 | 22,932 71 | --
1845. | 170,823 | 28,248 35 | --
1846. | 195,032 | 30,150 27 | --
1847. | 197,475 | 34,511 89 | --
===================================================

===================================================
| | | Per Pupil
| | | in Cents
Year. | Children. | Income. | & Mills.
---------+--------------+---------------+----------
1848. | 210,403 |$33,874 87 | --
1849. | 210,770 | 33,723 20 | --
1850. | 182,003 | 37,370 51[9] | .205
1851. | 192,849 | 41,462 54 | .215
1852. | 198,050 | 44,066 12 | .222
1853. | 199,292 | 46,908 10 | .235
1854. | 202,102 | 48,504 48 | .240
1855. | 210,761 | 46,788 94 | .222
1856. | 221,902 | 44,842 75 | .202
1857. | 220,336 | 46,783 64 | .212
1858. | 222,860 | 46,496 19 | .208
===================================================

It was contemplated by the founders of the school fund that an amount
might safely be distributed among the towns equal to one-third of the
sums raised by taxation, but the state is really furnishing only
one-thirtieth of the annual expenditure. A distribution corresponding to
the original expectation is neither desirable nor possible; but a
substantial addition might be made without in any degree diminishing the
interest of the people, or relieving them from taxation. The income of
the school fund has been three times used as a means of increasing the
appropriations in the towns. It is doubtful whether, without an addition
to the fund, this power can be again applied; and yet there are,
according to the last returns, twenty-two towns that do not raise a sum
for schools equal to $2.50 for each child between the ages of five and
fifteen years; and there are fifty-two towns whose appropriations are
less than three dollars. When the average annual expenditure is over six
dollars, the minimum ought not to be less than three.

It is to be considered that, as population increases, the annual
personal distribution will diminish, and consequently that the bond now
existing between the Legislatu