Besides the revenues derived by the Federal Government from business and trade licenses of all kinds in incorporated towns and outside of incorporated towns, taxes are levied on fisheries products, as follows: Canned salmon, 4 cents per case; pickled salmon, 10 cents per barrel; salt salmon in bulk, 5 cents per hundredweight; fish oil, 10 cents per barrel; fertilizer, 20 cents per ton.

The Alaska fund should now be covered into the treasury of the Territory for expenditure under the direction of the legislature, as since the passage of the act the Territory has provided complete school and road-building organizations and has created a board for the relief of indigents. The fund is now merely supplemental to Territorial appropriations, and further complicates the various operations. A law to this effect should be passed.

TERRITORIAL FINANCES.

The Territory has its own fiscal system, controlled by laws enacted by the Territorial legislature, which is entirely separate and apart from the revenues derived by the Federal Government from business and trade licenses and which are covered into and disbursed from the Alaska fund in the Federal Treasury. The Territorial revenue act, passed by the legislature, session of 1917, imposes the following license taxes:

Attorneys at law, doctors, and dentists, $10 per annum; automobiles operating for hire, $5 per annum; bakeries doing a business in excess of $500 per annum, $15 per annum; electric light and power plants, one-half of 1 per cent of the gross receipts in excess of $2,500 and one-half of 1 per cent of the net profits from supplies sold; employment agencies operating for hire, $500 per annum; salmon canneries, 43 cents per case on kings, reds, or sockeyes, 21 cents per case on medium reds, 2 cents per case on all others; salteries, 2 cents per 100 pounds on all fish salted or mild cured, except herring; fish traps, fixed er floating, $100 per annum, so-called dummy traps included; coldstorage plants, a graded tax from $10 to $500 per annum, according to the amount of annual business done; fish-oil works, using herring in whole or in part in the manufacture of fish oil, $2 per barrel; fertilizer and fish-meal plants, using herring in whole or in part, $2 per ton; laundries a graded tax, from $25 to $75 per annum, according to amount of business done; meat markets a graded tax, from $25 to $500 per annum according to amount of business done; mining, 1 per cent of the net income in excess of $5,000; ships and shipping vessels registered in Alaska, not paying a tax or license elsewhere, doing business for hire or engaged in the freight and transportation business, $1 per ton on the net tonnage, customs, house measurements; telephone companies, one-half of 1 per cent of gross receipts in excess of $1.500; water works, one-half of 1 per cent of gross receipts in excess of $2,500; public messengers, $25 per annum.

The Territorial legislature, session of 1919, made some changes, principally in the fisheries schedules of the 1917 act. Becoming effective January 1, 1919, rates of taxation on canned salmon were raised 1 cent per case on all grades. In addition to the per-case tax, a tax of 1 per cent of net annual income was imposed upon salmon canneries. Tax of 2 cents per case was imposed upon canned clams and herring; the tax on mild-cured salmon was raised to 5 cents per 140923°- -INT 1919-VOL 2-31

100 pounds on white and 10 cents per 100 pounds on red salmon. The tax on codfish was raised to 10 cents per 100 pounds, and a tax of $1 per barrel was imposed upon the production of whale oil. A poll-tax law, levying a tax of $5 on all men between the ages of 21 and 50, was passed for school purposes.

Taxes collected and other revenues accruing to the Territory are covered into and disbursed from the Territorial treasury, the fiscal year of the Territory corresponding to the calendar year. The condition of the Territorial treasury for the fiscal year ended December 31, 1918, was as follows: Balance on hand January 1, 1918, $682,493.11; total receipts from all sources, $475.450.55; total disbursements under appropriations made by the Territorial legislature, $624,100.85; balance of cash on hand December 31, 1918, $533,842.81.

TERRITORIAL BANKS.

At the close of the fiscal year covered by this report there were 15 Territorial banks and 3 national banks in the Territory, a loss of 1 during the year. No new banks were established during the year and there were no failures, the loss being occasioned by one of the Territorial banks at Nome voluntarily liquidating its affairs.

The Territorial banking board, composed of the governor, the secretary, and the treasurer of the Territory, continued its supervision over Territorial banking institutions. All such were examined during the year and made reports of conditions and published statements under call as required by law. Territorial banks are located at Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, Douglas, Juneau, Skagway, Cordova (2), Valdez, Seward, Anchorage (2), Fairbanks, Iditarod, and Nome. National banks are located at Junean, Seward, and Fairbanks.

Outside of the sections benefited by the activity in the fisheries industries depressed business conditions continued to prevail during the year. The high prices of all commodities and labor, combined with scarcity of the latter, proved most discouraging to all commercial development in the Territory. Deposits in the several Territorial banks at call of April 30, 1919, aggregated $6,047,543.74, as compared with $5,974,728.82 under corresponding call of May 8 of the year previous. The gain shown, though small, is none the less gratifying, as under prevailing conditions a loss might well have been expected. Under the call of April 30, 1919, the combined capital of all Territorial banks aggregated $745,000, as compared with aggregate of $650,000 for the year previous. Aggregate surplus and undivided profits amounted to $322.575, as compared with $249,914.36 of the year previous.

CORPORATIONS.

On July 1, 1918, there were 258 domestic and 469 foreign corporations transacting business within the Territory, a total of 727. During the fiscal year 1919 there were 17 new corporations formed and 18 foreign corporations registered. There were 33 domestic and 31 foreign corporations dissolved, making a total number of 698 still transacting business, a net loss for the year of 29.

INCORPORATED TOWNS.

There are at present 17 incorporated towns in Alaska, listed as such with the secretary of the Territory, but the town organization of Chena has ceased to exist, practically all the inhabitants having moved away, and no action has been taken for the last three years to conduct a municipality.

Reports received from 14 of these towns show a total assessed valuation of $14,195,025. The rates of taxation on the assessed valuations range from 1 to 2 per cent, the average being 1.5 per cent.

The public schools of Alaska are administered under both Federal and Territorial laws. The Federal law, known as the Nelson law, provides for schools outside of incorporated towns or incorporated school districts and receives for their maintenance 25 per cent of the Alaska fund. The Territorial laws provide for schools in incorporated towns or districts, one-fourth of the cost of maintenance being borne by the town or district by taxation of real and personal property and three-fourths by the Territory. Territorial laws provide for the establishment of night schools and carry an appropriation for the support of the same. Four communities took advantage of the provisions of the law during the year.

The people of Alaska are much interested in the cause of education generally and vitally concerned with the success and efficiency of the schools locally. As a whole, the schools are well organized with efficient and earnest instructors, in spite of the fact that Alaska, in common with the majority of the States, has suffered somewhat as a result of the scarcity of teachers. Seventy per cent of the teachers of Alaska are normal or college graduates. There are in all 35 teachers in the high schools of the Territory; 7 are normal graduates and 28 are college graduates, of which number 19 have in addition had advance study. The average teaching experience of Alaska teachers is seven and one-tenth years, exclusive of the school year for which the report is made.

The schools have been ardent supporters of all war activities during the year, as in the past. Junior Red Cross organizations, the purchase of war-savings stamps and Liberty bonds, the adoption of war orphans and the making of clothes for them, the organization of foodconservation clubs, the cultivation of war gardens, etc., have been the media through which children have given concrete expression to their loyalty to the National Government. Instruction in the real causes underlying the Great War, together with its important events, and in Americanism and patriotism have been prominent in the work of the year. Books, circulars, and pamphlets, secured from the various national patriotic organizations, were read and studied. Patriotic periods devoted to patriotic programs, addresses, "community" singing, and similar expressions of loyalty have been observed in all the schools. In many of the schools the boys and girls gave four-minute talks on patriotic subjects not only at their assemblies but also at the local theaters. Every effort has been made to create an understanding of the principles for which our country stands and of the duties and responsibilities of American citizenship.

SCHOOLS IN INCORPORATED TOWNS AND INCORPORATED DISTRICTS.

There are 13 schools in incorporated towns and 2 in incorporated school districts, supported in part by Territorial appropriation. The averages for the 15 schools, as shown by the table of statistics, is as follows: Average number of teachers, 5.8, with average yearly salary of $1,279.93 per teacher; average enrollment, 130.33; average daily attendance, 100.31; average cost of maintenance, exclusive of teachers' salaries, $3.970.53. The average cost per pupil was $87.42, as compared with $80.14 for the previous year.

Statistics of white schools for the school year 1918–19.

Statistics of white and mixed schools outside of incorporated towns for the school year 1918-19.

SCHOOLS OUTSIDE OF INCORPORATED TOWNS.

For the year 1918-19 schools were maintained in 47 districts outside of incorporated towns and incorporated school districts. The 47 schools employed 60 teachers and had an enrollment of 1,209, as compared with 1,180 the previous year. The average number of pupils per school was 25.7, as compared with 25.6 the previous year. A total of $109,650.61 was expended for maintenance, at an average cost of $2,332.99 per school, as compared with $2,174.93 for the previous year. The average cost per pupil was $90.69, as compared with $84.79 for the previous year.

PLACES OF BIRTH OF ALASKA SCHOOL CHILDREN.

Much misinformation as to the nationality of the Alaska school children still finds a place in the popular mind. A brief consideration of the following report, based upon the responses of 47 schools,