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A. The director must exercise his own judgment as to the sufficiency of the bond. He cannot be coerced in the matter. This does not imply that he should be unreasonable.

Q. Can a town clerk apportion school money to a district that had five months schooling during the year immediately preceding?

A. Money can be apportioned legally only to districts that maintained school five months during the last preceeding "school year," ending August 31.

Q. Can tax-payers legally "work out" their tax towards building a school-house?

A. The collector is not obliged to receive anything but money in payment of taxes, but an arrangement can be made by which work done, at a stipulated price, may be credited in payment of taxes.

Q. Has the State Superintendent power to levy a tax to build a school-house, (where the voters cannot agree) if solicited to do so, by vote of the district.

A. He has no such power. His advice can be taken, and the district may pledge itself to abide by the same, if it chooses; but it is better for a district to come to agreement within itself.

Q. Our district which has over 250 inhabitants voted $5,000 to tax to build a school house, but the town board would not consent to the same. Can I, as district return the tax with others to be put in the assessment roll?

A. The tax is of course illegal without the consent of the townboard, if more than $1,000 (Sec. 19, subsection twelfth.) But you need not decline to return the tax, as a tax voted. The town clerk will bẹ aware that the tax is illegal, if the consent of the board is witheld, and the tax-payers will be at liberty to resist its collection, if assessed.

Q. Can a district vote that the wages to be paid the teachers, shall not exceed a certain sum per month, and would this preclude the board from making a contract for a larger sum?

A. No; the district cannot vote the amount of wages to be paid; and if the gross amount raised up to the 3d Monday in November is

fficient to enable the board to maintain school five months, it is the duty of the board to levy and assess an additional tax for the purpose; and they are not precluded from making a contract for a larger expenditure for wages than the tax voted by the district would enable them to meet.

Q. If a vote to change the annual meeting of a district to the last Monday in August is not filed with the town clerk, till within two weeks of that time, will the meeting be legal?

A. The meeting would be legal; but to cut off all cavil and com3-[VOL. II.-No. 9.]

plaint, the clerk should take especial pains to give notice of the meeting.

Q. If a treasurer appointed by a district board fails to file his bond within the ten days, will the board appoint again or does the appointment devolve on the town clerk?

A. The board will appoint again; the vacancy created by failing to file the bond is the same as if the person had been elected treasurer. Q. Is a call for a special meeting legal, if one of the five signers is a woman, who signs in place of her husband, he being a legal voter, but absent?

A. It is not legal; the call must be signed by "five legal voters." A wife cannot exercise the political franchises of a husband in his absence. She might sign his name, if she had been so directed.

Q. Can a district adjourn its annual meeting from time to time, and thus deprive some of the voters from participating in the election of officers?

A. A district meeting has the general power to adjourn. It ought not to do it for the purpose mentioned.

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Q. If a director refuse to sign an order to pay the wages of a teacher legally hired and entitled to the same, what is the remedy? A. He may be proceeded against by Mandamus, or the county judge might consider it such a “wilful neglect of duty" as to require his removal from office. (See Section 124, School Code.)

Query Box.

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS.

30. Will the series of fractions used in the Phyllotaxy apply any where else in Nature?

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The series of fractions,,, 3, 13, 21, 14, used in Phyllotaxy or Leaf Arrangement around the stem, seems also to apply to the times of the revolutions of the planets around the sun. Neptune being the most distant, revolves in 60,126 days; Uránus in 30,686 days or in about one-half of the time of Neptune. Saturn in 10,759 days or one-third of the time of Uranus; Jupiter in 4,332 days or two-fifths of the time of Saturn, and so on. Mercury, the nearest, revolves in 88 days, or amout of the time that Venus requires.-C. LAU, Mequon, Wis.

33.-"The President shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers." Art. II. Cons. U. S. What does this mean?

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The President" receives an Ambassador or other Foreign Minister, when he accepts his credentials. No nation can be compelled to send or to receive Ambassadors. It is an act of international courtesy only, and not of law. And, therefore should our government quarrel with that of Spain, for instance, the sign of the open rupture would be the recall of the Ambassador on both sides. It would be like individuals refusing to speak to each other. It might not be war, but it would be a national quarrel, as in the case now between the Pope and the German Empire. So also if an Ambassador is personally offensive to the court to which he is accredited, it can demand his recall, as our Government did recently in the case of Catacazy, the Russian Ambassador. It is not sufficient therefore that an

Ambassador should be sent to this country by a foreign nation. He must be "received" by the President, at a formal visit, before he becomes the accredited Am bassador of his sovereign to this country. That reception means that the two na tions are on friendly terms, and that the Ambassador is not personally offensive to the American people or the President. The President is entrusted with this power because he is the highest officer of the nation. He therefore (with the Senate in appointing Ambassadors and making treaties), represents us in all our relations with foreign powers.-A. O. WRIGHT.

42.-What number is that whose square root is 100 more than its cube root?

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See the Wisconsin Constitution, Article II, for a correct boundary of Wisconsin. -A. O. WRIGHT.

51.-Can a Member of Congress vote by proxy?

A Member of Congress cannot vote by proxy. If he wishes to be absent and yet have his vote count on any measure, he can "pair off" with some one on the other side, who will be excused from voting on that question by the courtesy of the House. That is the only way in which a Member of Congress or of any State Legislature can be absent and yet have his vote count. Voting by proxy is unknown in the United States in any political body, but is common in corporations, such as railroad and insurance companies.-A. Ó.¡WRIGHT.

53.-What is understood by the "Law of Nations?"

The Law of Nations consists of a series of customs and usages which have grown up in the intercourse of christian nations with one another, and which are still in process of growth. Some of these are, embodied in treaties between nations. Others rest only on tacit understanding. There being no tribunal for nations, there is no force to compel the observance of these usages, except a moral force, and therefore they are sometimes violated with impunity by powerful nations, though not often now. These usages, which have thus the effect of law, have been collected and commented on by able writers, the chief of whom are Grotius, Puffendorf, Vattel, and our own countryman, Wheaton. The best popular treatise in the English language is by Dr. Woolsey, late President of Yale College.-A. O. WRIGHT.

61. "What is the rate of growth of Coral reefs?"

According to Prof. Dana, (Manual of Geology, page 591,) the average upward

yearly increase of the whole reef, would not exceed one-eigth of an inch.-C., Mazomanie.

63.-" Are coral formations the secretion of animals, or are they the animals themselves?"

The substance of coral formations is secreted by the coral animal in much the same manner as bone is secreted by higher animals. Coral formations are the aggregated skeletons of the animals.-V. U., Eagle.

Second Answer.-The coral is secreted by the coral animals the same as other animals secrete their bones. The coral is formed inside and not outside of the animal which has no control over the secretion, and further, the coral is never seen until after the death of the animal.

The material (carbonate of lime), for the preservation of coral, is derived from the sea water or food of the animal.-Mazomanie.

64. "Is the Coral an insect?"

Coral is the scretion of animals belong to the classes of Acalephs and Polyps of the sub-kingdom of Radiates; while the class of insects belongs to the sub-kingdom of Articulates; therefore in no sense can the coral secreting animal be called an insect.-C., Mazomanie.

Second Answer. The Coral is not an insect. Corals belong to the Radiate devision of the animal kinkdom, and to the class of Polyps, and are as much below insects in the scale of being as insects are below man.-V. U., Eagle.

72.—When and where was the art of printing invented?

Printing was invented in 1440, at Metz, in Germany.

74.-Does the best authority inform us that the sponge belongs to the animal or vegetable kingdom?

Agassiz has in the past, if not a present, believed that the sponge was a vegetable, but I think the weight of authority is that the sponge belongs to the animal kingdom.-C., Mazomanie.

Second answer.-Prof. Dana and other eminent American naturalists consider the sponge a member of the animal kingdom.-V. U., Eagle.

76.-When, where and by whom was gold first discovered in the United States? We read in "Willson's History" that gold was first discovered in California in the latter part of February, 1848, on the "American Fork" of the Sacramento about fifty miles above New Helvetia, or Sutter's Fort, by a mechanic, employed in cutting a mill-race. [Gold was discoved at an early period in Georgia.]

81.-What are the names of the persons who are and have been members of the cabinet under the present administration:

Secretary of State, Hamilton Fish, New York. Secretary of the Treasury, George S. Boutwell, Mass. Secretary of War, W. W. Belknap, Iowa. Secretary of the Navy, G. M. Robeson, N. J. Secrtary of the Interior, Columbus Delano, Ohio. Attorney General, G. H. Williams, Oregon. Postmaster General, J. A. J. Cresswell, Md.

Former members of President Grant's cabinet were:-Secretary of State, E. B. Washburne, appointed Minister to France. Secretary of the Treasury, A. S. Stewart, was appointed but did not retain the office. Secretary of War, J. Rawlins, died. Secretary of the Navy, Borie, resigned. Secretary of the Interior, J. D. Cox, resigned. Attorney General, E. R. Hoar, A. T. Ackerman, resigned.-V. U. Eagle.

NEW QUESTIONS.

90. Will some one give an explanation of the 16th example, page 84, in Robinson's Progressive Practical Arithmetic.

91. Is it lawful for a town clerk to swear a school district clerk as to the truth and correctness of his annual school report? J. G. TOWLE. 92. Which state produces the most lead?

Run.

Which the most iron? H. C., Rocky

93. What is the best method of teaching the alphabet? Ib.

94. What are the different branches required by law for first and second grade certificates? (See School Code, pp. 114, 115.)

95. Can the postage on the Journal, or any other periodical be paid with the subscription price, at the publishing office? (Not on the Journal.)

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A REQUEST.-In answer to Question No. 15, (see April and June numbers of JOURNAL,) Old Maid" says, that "Every enlightened person ought," etc., with which we quite agree, but there is a point about which there is a good deal of obscurity, and one in which probably no one but Old Maid can enlighten" us, and that is, what does she mean? Her remarks are not applicable to the question at all. Will Old Maid please explain for our enlightenment?"-C. A. THOMPSON, Kilbourn City.

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SCRAPS.

CONTRIBUTED BY PEN."

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Stitch, Stitch, Stitch.-A cute arithmetician says that a moderately fashionable dress has 66,240 stitches to boast of. Not so bad, considering the "lightning express" speed of our sewing machines.

Mucilage.-Mucilage made of gum arabic is apt to turn sour and become mouldy after a while. The simplest mode of preventing this and to increase its stickiness, is to add a good sized lump of white sugar and then to keep it well covered.

Americans in Europe.-It has been estimated that about 40,000 Americans visit Europe annually, and their expenditure amounts to 120 millions of dollars on the average. These figures speak well for American education and liberality. Bibles in Old England.-During the reign of Edward I. a of 37 pounds, while a laborer could earn but 3 pence per day. in order to procure a copy of Holy Writ, would have to work for out ever spending a penny for other purposes.

Bible cost the sum Thus, a poor man, fifteen years with

English Students.-From time to time the papers indulge in little pleasantries, concerning the proficiency of our pupils in various branches of learning. The London Times convinces us that England has its prodigies as well. In an English military academy the pupils supposed Mayence to be situated on the Po, and the Prussians to have crossed the " Arabian mountains (whatever that may be), in their march to Bohemia.

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Hints to Teachers.-If you wish your pupils to preserve their pencil drawings clean, and to keep them from rubbing off, which soon spoils the appearance of the nicest even, have the drawing when finished and cleaned of any stains that may appear in consequence of handling them, drawn through sweet skim milk and then tacked to a clean board or hung up to dry. This mode imparts no tinge to white paper as gum arabic does, and does not wrinkle it as varnish is apt to do, besides making the drawing indelible enough for all purposes.

Rubbers.-Dirty rubbers are worse than none, they spoil the drawing and ruin the paper. Do not cut off the soiled edges of your rubber-that is a useless waste-but wash it well with a piece of coarse flannel, soap and water. Whenever the rubber gets slightly soiled, clean it by rubbing it firmly on a piece of coarse, clean paper, which, however, must be blank. Coarse drawing or blotting paper is best. But for very fine, delicate drawings, no rubber should be used, but the crumbs of bread, which must be sufficiently moist, not to injure the paper. Bread will work on any style of drawing-lead-pencil, crayon and charcoal.

Pious (?) Inventions.--Reymer's Chronology, a learned and exhaustive work, furnishes the following interesting data concerning Romish inventions: Holy Water was invented in 120; Penance in 157; Monastic Orders in 338; Holy Mass in 394; Extreme Unction in 550; Purgatory in 593; the Worship of St. Mary and the Saints in 715; the Kissing of the Pontiff's Foot in 809; the Canonization of the Saints in 993; the Christening of Bells in 1000; Celibacy of the Priests in 1015; Indulgences in 1119; the Dispensations in 1200; Adoration of the Holy Wafer in 1200; the Inquisition in 1204; Auricular Confession in 1215, and Infallability in 1870! How to keep Lead Pencils Sharp.-Most pupils whittle away their lead pencils in trying to obtain a point sufficiently fine. After cutting away the wood so as to expose the lead about 1% of an inch, take rather a coarse drawing paper, or any other kind sufficiently firm, or sand paper of the finest kind, and sharpen the lead on it in the same manner you sharpen your slate pencil on a brick. Take care to hold the lead pencil as horizontal as possible, and to turn it frequently so as to prevent sharp edges in the lead. Whenever the point gets dull repeat the process. This simple method does away with three annoying features of drawing, viz., dirty hands, waste of pencils, and the necessity of very sharp pen-knives. Ten cents worth of fine sandpaper will save 25 cents worth of lead pencils.

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