You will understand that the principal of the Common School
F'und^ as distinguished froni the "one mill" special annual tax,
is to remain inviolate, but that the latter and the interest on the
former are applicable, and in fact annually applied, to the sup-
port and maintenance of such schqols. The Common School
Fund is almost daily increasing. It now owns about 464,000
acres of land, the proceeds of which when sold will be invested
in bonds.
The counties of this State levied in 1883, for the support of
Common Schools, taxes to the amount of $169,543. Add to
this the $81,611 from State sources, and we have the sum
of $251,154 as Florida's annual provision for the support and
maintenance of Common Schools.
I may remark that, considering the well-known progress of
our State, the amount derivable from the " one mill " tax will
not be presumed to decrease. The assessed value of the prop-
erty in the State was, in 1876, $29,688,000 ; m 1880, $31,157,000 ;
and in 1883, $55,249,000.
III.
In 1883, the Legislature appropriated $1,000 for that year,
and a similar amount for the year 1884, for the purpose of
holding Teachers' Institutes at such times and places as the
Superintendent of Public Instruction should designate.
The same Legislature appropriated $3,000 for the year 1883,
and the same amount for 1884, for the purposes of " Normal
Instruction," or, in the language of the statute, " for the train-
ing of persons in the art of teaching the various branches as



184 PROCEEDINGS OF THE TRUSTEES [OCT.
