there shall be established and connected with the Territorial library an historical department, the object of which shall be to collect, preserve, and publish the natural and political history of the Territory. For this purpose the librarian shall procure, as far as possible, all writings, histories, letters, lectures, essays, maps, charts, and books relating to said Territory and its history, and carefully preserve the same. In like manner he shall procure specimens of geology, mineralogy, and botany found or produced within the Territory.
The librarian was to collect also all newspapers, pamphlets, books, and magazines published in the Territory and to print from time to time selections from his manuscript papers. An assistant librarian might be appointed to superintend this division, but after the university was established it was to be transferred to the historical department of the university.
After passing the Howell code the legislature turned its attention to the consideration of the question of the establishment of a public educational system. This was decided against:[1]
The joint committee on education report that after a mature consideration they have decided that it would be premature to establish or to attempt any regular system of common or district schools. At present the Territory is too sparsely settled, and the necessary officers for such an establishment would be more costly than the education of the children would warrant.
The committee did provide, however, that a gift of $250 be paid to the person “in pastoral charge” of the mission school at San Xavier del Bac, “for purchase of books of instruction, stationery, and furniture.” The pupils in this school were Mexicans and Papago Indians; it was characterized as the first school opened in American Arizona, and the grant was without limitations, but grants of similar amounts to Prescott, LaPaz, and Mohave were declared to be “for benefit of a public school”; and it was further provided that “said appropriations shall be void and of no effect unless said towns by taxation, appropriation, or individual enterprise, furnish an equal sum for the aid of such school.”
It was reported that there had been three primary schools in Tucson “during part of last year,” and to this town was given $500 with the general requirement that the town raise a similar amount and an additional proviso that “the English language forms a part of the instruction of such school.”
The public moneys appropriated were to be placed in the hands of the board of county commissioners, to be paid over by them when the schools had complied with the terms of the act. County and judicial district treasurers were also required to pay over to the county commissioners for the benefit of the public schools “all moneys in their hands that may have accrued from town licenses, and not otherwise appropriated.”
- ↑ See report of joint committee in Jours. First Legislative Assembly, 1864, pp. 176–77.
