Page:EB1922 - Volume 31.djvu/1155

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
1101


islands) and Bougainville and Buka of the Solomon Islands. The German administrative capital was successively shifted from Friedrich Wilhelmshafen on the mainland of New Guinea to Herbertshöhe (Kokopo) in New Britain and then to Rabaul on Simpson's Harbour (Simpsonshafen) in the same island, where a new town was laid out. On Sept. 11 1914 a force of the Australian naval reserve was landed at Kokopo, and on the following day the British flag was hoisted. The whole territory was subsequently assigned to Australian administration under mandate. In 1919–20 a Royal Commission of the Commonwealth was unable to agree whether the territory should be attached to that of Papua or administered separately. The European pop. of German New Guinea was estimated in 1914 at 300, and 16,800 ac. were cultivated, mostly under coco-nuts, and these are also the chief economic product of the islands. For one year, 1918–9, exports from the territory were valued at £300,766 (copra, £274,318); imports at £280,980. On the mainland the sago palm, rubber, rice, sisal-hemp and coffee have been cultivated, gold has been worked, coal reported in the Nusa valley, and in 1914 a German commission was instructed to investigate for oil. On the islands, rice, rubber and cacao have been cultivated; zinc, copper and gold reported in Bougainville, and phosphates on the Purdy Islands. The seas yield pearl, trepang and turtle.

NEW HAMPSHIRE (see 19.490).—The pop. in 1920 was 443,083; in 1910 430,572; a gain of 12,511, or 2·9% as against 4·6% in the preceding decade. The urban pop. was in 1920 279,761 or 63·1% of the whole as against 59·2%, in 1910. The pop. of the eight cities having more than 10,000 inhabitants was:—

1920

1910

Increase per cent

Manchester

78,384

70,063

1 1 -9

Nashua

27,379

26,005

9-1

Concord

22,167

21,497

3'i

Berlin . Portsmouth

16,104 13,569

11,780 11,269

36-7 20-4

Dover .

13,029

13,247

1-6

Keene .

II.2IO

10,068

11-3

Laconia

10,897

10,183

7-0

Agriculture.—The statistics for farm property, showing the changes from 1910 to 1920, are as follows:—

Number of farms

Value of farm prop- erty

Average acreage all land .

Average acreage improved land

Av. value per ac. (farm property) .

1920 20,523

$118,656,115 126-9 34-2

  • 45-57

1910 27,053

$103,704,196

I2O-I

34'3

Inc.

14-4% 5-6%

Dec. 24-1%

0-1%

$31.91 42-8%

Farms of from 100 to 499 ac. constituted 42·9% of the whole number. Farms of 20 ac. or less had the greatest proportion of land improved, 67·4%; farms of over 1,000 ac. had the least—13·5%. Of all farms 90·6% were operated by owners, 2·7% by managers, and 6·7 % by tenants, these percentages being without substantial change from 1910. Native farmers decreased from 24,347 in 1910 to 20,509 in 1920. Percentage of farms mortgaged in 1910, 25·6; in 1920, 31. Increase in expenditures, so far as reported, was in 1920 34% for labour, 2·7% for fertilizer, and 89·1% for feed. Other statistics are:—

1919

1909

Increase per cent

Dairy products sold .

$ 9,627,286

$ 5,130,057

87-7

All crops

23,509,665

12,112,260

94-1

Cereals.

1,456,628

879,631

65-6

Hay and forage .

13,616,378

7,847,148

73-5

Vegetables .

5,228,489

2,276,176

129-7

Potatoes

2,952,351

1,204,620

Miscellaneous crops . Orchard fruits and

480,804

200,845

139-4

grapes Maple sugar and

2,420,837

730,703

23I-3

syrup

440,250

182,341

141-4

Forests and Highways. The White Mountain National Forest contained, June 30 1920, 433,179 ac. of which 27,860 ac. were in Oxford county, Me., and the remaining 405,319 ac. in Coos, Carroll and Grafton counties, N.H. This forest was in charge of a super- visor with headquarters at Gorham, with headquarters for rangers at Bartlett, Woodstock and Bethlehem. The State Forestry Com- mission was reorganized in 1909. The state reservations are small, widely scattered areas of about 12,000 ac., but including the im- portant and beautiful Crawford Notch. Between 1910 and 1920 the state constructed approximately 1,000 m. of highways at a cost of $6,100,000.

Manufactures. The state in 1914 produced, in value, -8% of the total for the United States. The statistics were as follows :


1914

1909

Establishments Employees Salaries and wages .... Value of products ....

1,736 85,013 $ 46,523,733 182,843,863

1,961 84,191 $40,391,440 164,581,019

The 10 leading industries were, in order of value of products, boots and shoes, cotton goods, paper and pulp, lumber and timber products, woollen and worsted goods, foundry and machine-shop products, ho- siery and knit goods, leather, flour-mill and grist-mill products, tobacco and cigars, ranging from an annual value of over $46,- 000,000 in the case of boots and shoes to nearly $2,500,000 for tobacco and cigars. The values of all these products materially increased in the 5-year period, 1909-14, except those of woollen, hosiery and mill products. The proportion of female wage-earners, and of those under 16, decreased. The period displayed little fluc- tuation in the number of wage-earners employed, 93 % of the maximum being the lowest. Manchester showed the greatest sta- bility of employment; it employed by far the largest number of wage-earners, about 26,000; and Manchester, Nashua and Berlin produced about $86,000,000 of manufactured products, four-ninths of those of the whole state. The figures showed a tendency towards the concentration of manufactures in the larger establishments.

Legislation. Important Acts were those establishing a state Board of Conciliation and Arbitration; employers' liability and workmen's compensation; regulating child labour and hours of labour; provision for medical and surgical devices in factories; safety and health of employees; and for reporting of occupational diseases. The Legislature of 1917 enacted a law prohibiting the manufacture and sale of spirituous liquors. The law took effect May I 1918, superseding local option.

Finances and Taxation. The following figures show the increase in expenditures during the decade :


1920

1910

Revenue .... Payments .... Debt Bonded debt.

$4,344,322.20 5, 198,534-62 3,040,524.17 2,589,500.00

$1,694,636.54 1,662,694.07 1,293,209.33 1,071,070.00

The increase in expenditures was on account of increased cost of maintaining public institutions, and for highways. The increase in the bonded debt was nearly all due to the World War. In 1918 the state issued $500,000 of bonds to assist the Federal Govern- ment in the war; and in 1919 it issued $1,489,000 in order to increase the war service recognition from $30 to $100 for those who served.

The total valuation of property for purposes of taxation in 1920 was $511,456,583, amount of taxes collected $12,736,651, average rate of taxation $2.37 per $100. There were 115,169 persons paying a poll tax of $5 each, and 11,373 war veterans paying $3 each. The valuation of public service corporations wa^ $52,085,125.

Education. Important work was done in 1918 by the state com- mittee on Americanization. In the parochial elementary schools the principle was established that instruction in designated branches and in administration should be exclusively in English ; devotional exercises in any language desired. In the large industrial plants the plan was largely carried out by evening schools for adults. The system of public instruction was reorganized by the Legisla- ture of 1919. In the bill " the work of Americanization in teaching English to non-English-speaking adults, and in furnishing instruc- tion in the privileges, duties and responsibilities of citizenship is hereby declared to be an essential part of public-school educa- tion." The governor and council appoint a State Board of Educa- tion of five citizens who are not technically engaged in education. This Board has the powers formerly resting in the superintendent of public instruction, the trustees of the normal schools, and the State Board of Vocational Education ; it appoints a commissioner of edu- cation and four deputy commissioners. For the progress of Dart- mouth College during this period see DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. The State College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts made rapid progress; the student body increased from 266 in 1910 to 818 in 1920; the teaching staff from 37 to 78; the value of the buildings from $900,000 to $1,720,000; the number of acres in the farm from 380 to 500. During the same period departments of education, forestry, home economics, industrial engineering, and poultry were added, and the laboratory equipment greatly enlarged.

History. The Ninth Constitutional Convention, held in 1912, submitted to the voters 12 amendments, of which four received the necessary two-thirds vote, namely disfranchisement for treason, bribery and deliberate violation of the election laws; the substitution of plurality for majority vote in the election of governor, councillors and senators; extension of the jurisdiction of police courts; the substitution of a basis of population for that of property in the election of councillors. The Tenth Constitu- tional Convention was convened in the summer of 1918, ad-