REPORT

OF

THE GOVERNOR OF WASHINGTON TERRITORY.

OLYMPIA, October 19, 1888.

SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith the annual report from this office for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1888.

The work has been one of considerable difficulty this year because every line of information for it has had to be obtained, either through the efforts of public-spirited citizens, without remuneration, or at my own personal expense. Every effort has been put forth, however, and I feel assured that whatever short-comings may appear are not due to neglect.

I was obliged to take the full time allowed in your letter of July 14, 1888, for the reason that information came in so late that most of the statistical articles had to be prepared within a few days of closing the report. A few heads, including the important one "Commerce"have had to be dismissed with a mere mention because of the non-arrival of material for them, and others appear incomplete for the same

reason.

As the principal practical use to which the reports of Territorial governors are put is for the information of the people at large, I have included herein several articles that, strictly speaking, should have no place in an official document. These matters are expected to increase popular interest in the pamphlet, and are justified by precedent, in the case of this Territory at least.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
EUGENE SEMPLE,

The SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR,

Governor.

Washington, D. C.

POPULATION.

There was no census of this Territory taken for 1888, the law only requiring an enumeration of the inhabitants every two years.

With a view of obtaining data upon which to base an estimate of the increase since the census of 1887, I directed a letter to each of the county assessors requesting a statement of the approximate increase of population in their jurisdictions.

The replies that have been received enable me to judge that the increase has kept pace with previous years. These estimates are for the period ending September 30, 1888, and include two immigration seasons, as the census marked 1887 was taken in the first months of that year and represented the population of 1886. Allowing only the same num

ber of increase per year as the average for the past six years, the population at the end of September 1888, was 167,982, as shown in the following table:

Comparative population of the Territory from 1878 to 1888.

In speaking of the census of 1887, which was taken in the spring of that year and represented the population of the Territory in 1886, I made the following argument in my annual report of last year:

Twenty-seven counties show an increase ranging from 72 to 2,695 and six a decrease from 2 to 508. The increase in the Territory is only 16,377, against 34,784 for the similar period immediately preceding. I am satisfied that this diminution of increase is not actual, but is due to the lax methods of taking the Territorial census. This would seem to be proven on the face of the returns, since Clarke, King, and Yakima Counties show a decrease, when it is known that each of them has received large accessions of immigrants and suffered no loss. The decrease in King County is put down at 208, and the increase in Pierce County at the trifling figure of 429, when it is a matter of notoriety throughout the Union that the cities of Seattle and Tacoma, situated in these counties, have experienced the greatest prosperity and largely increased in size during the last two years. To all appearances they have both kept pace with the county in which the thriving city of Spokane Falls is situated, which shows an increase of 2,424. Yakima County, which shows a decrease of 508, joins and is similarly_circumstanced with, the county Kittitass, which shows an increase of 2,695. Both are on the same plateau, have the same climate, and are equally served by the recently completed Cascade Branch of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Both have thriving towns that received a new impetus from the near approach of direct communication with Puget Sound, and both are known to have been benefited by immigration in nearly equal degrees; yet the marked discrepancy noted above occurs in their census returns for the period under consideration.

Stevens County has not sent in a return and her population is put down the same as in 1885. The recently developed mining districts of Salmon River are in this county, and one or two considerable towns, for the traffic of which several stage lines, leaving the railroad at different points, actively compete, exist now where there was nothing but a wilderness in 1885. From all these circumstances I believe that the actual increase in population during the past two years can be set down at not less than the same number as for the previous period, and that the population of the Territory at the date of taking the census was 162,076, instead of the figure stated.

The correctness of the above statements has not been questioned from any source and I am convinced that they are correct. I believe, therefore, that my moderate estimate of the increase for the period ending September 30, 1888, should be added to my estimate of the population in 1886, which would make the present population of Washington Territory 186,393.

TAXABLE PROPERTY.

Under this head I am able to make a showing which appears to me to be both full and satisfactory. The table below, prepared for me by F. I. Blodgett, Esq., Territorial treasurer, shows the taxable property of the Territory to have increased from $18,922,922 in 1878 to $84,621,182 in 1888, a gain of $65,698,260 in ten years. There can never be any doubt about the conservatism of a statement of values taken from an assessment roll. Whatever else an average American citizen may neg lect, he never forgets to beat down the assessor. This statement of values may therefore be put down as the minimum.

I presume that a considerable portion of the increase in values for

1888 is due to the presence on the assesment rolls, for the first time, of property belonging to railway corporations.

Table showing assessed value of all property in Washington Territory, by counties, from

1878 to 1888.

Showing the number of acres of land assessed, the total amounts and assessed value of all property returned by the several counties in kind, and total for the years 1886, 1887, and 1888.

Counties.

Showing the number of acres of land assessed, etc.-Continued.

Totals received by telegraph, and the particulars omitted; accordingly, the columns of particu lars have not been added.

The condition of Territorial fiscal affairs is shown in a letter to this office from Frank I. Blodgett, esq., Territorial treasurer, from which I make the annexed extracts:

The financial condition of the Territory may be said to be most healthy and prosperons, and there are few States and Territories of the Union that can outrank us in this particular. Up to the year 1885 the treasury held a heavy surplus after paying all its current expenses, but the increasing tide of population throughout the Territory made it necessary for the legislature which assembled at the close of that year to rebuild and otherwise increase the capacity of the already inadequate public buildings of the Territory. Consequently appropriations were granted for the erection of a new penitentiary and a new hospital for the insane, and the succeeding legislature further increased the appropriation for a needed addition to the penitentiary, and also for a new school for defective youth, and another hospital for the insane in eastern Washington. No expense has been spared to make them complete in every detail, and they are monuments to posterity of the liberal-minded men who ⚫ caused their erection and the honesty of the men who superintended their construction. The drain upon the treasury which these as well as other necessary expenditures have caused, outside the Territory's current expenses, has been promptly met thus far by the Territorial revenue, and at the close of the last fiscal year, September 30, 1888, the Territory is found to be but a few months in arrears with the taxes for the year now due and payable to meet these obligations.

The last legislature made large appropriations for public works, but the rapid increase in population and development of the Territory is enhancing the revenue to such an extent as to provide ample means to meet all demands and leave no huge indebtedness for posterity to pay, A glance at the appended table will show the rapid