REPORT OF THE GOVERNOR OF ARIZONA. EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT OF ARIZONA, Phoenix, Ariz., September 1, 1900. SIR: I have the honor to submit the following report of the affairs, development, and resources of Arizona for the year ended June 30, 1900. In my report for 1899 I published very exhaustive information in regard to the Territory with fully compiled statistics as to its condi tions, historical and current; which report can be used as standard authority for several years. I have therefore not deemed it requisite to cover in detail this year all of the subjects comprehensively treated in my report for 1899. Congress authorized the publication of 4,000 extra copies of the report for 1899, which gave wide circulation to correct information on Territorial affairs. POPULATION. I have been unofficially informed by officers of the Census Bureau that the population of Arizona approximates 100,000 (excluding Indians), possibly a little less. In my judgment the Territory contains fully 105,000 people. The census having been taken in the hot summer months of June and July, when a large number of the inhabitants of southern and central Arizona (the most populous localities) were away from home at the sea coast and places of climatic resort, it is estimated that at least 10 per cent were not enumerated. The last school census recorded 20,800 children of school age, from which it is clearly evident that the Territory has a population of more than 100,000 people. The increase since 1890 has averaged about 5,000 annually, and immigration is largely made up of American citizens from other parts of the Union; the proportion of foreign immigrants annually is very small. TAXABLE PROPERTY. From the following statement of the taxable property of the Territory, which is compiled from the assessment rolls and the report of the Territorial board of equalization for the current year, it will be seen that the assessed valuation of the property in the Territory has increased more than one million and a quarter of dollars during the year, notwithstanding that under the present system a large amount of the taxable property is not returned to the various assessors, and the values of the property assessed are usually very low, which causes a higher rate of taxation than would be necessary were all the taxable 71 |