DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, Lansing, December 30, 1874. 10 His Excellency, JOHN J. BAGLEY, Governor of Michigan: SIR, I have the honor to transmit, through you, to the Legislature, in accordance with the provisions of law, the Annual Report of the Department of Public Instruction, and the accompanying documents for the year 1874. I am, sir, very respectfully, Your obedient servant, DANIEL B. BRIGGS, Superintendent of Public Instruction. ANNUAL REPORT. In presenting this report, which must relate, mainly, to the condition and progress of the public schools of the State for the past year, attention is first invited to the following summary of comparative statistics. These figures furnish indisputable evidence of a growing interest in common school education within our borders, and confirm the general belief in the steadily increasing popularity of our public shool system. The preceding comparative summaries exhibit, in a concise form, the present condition of the public schools, and the advance made during the past year in the various departments of public school effort. The figures were collated from the reports of the township inspectors, which reports embrace, mainly, the statistics returned by the district directors. The following tables show, in a condensed form, similar statistics, derived from the same source, for a series of years: |