The winters are usually long and severe, and the summers cool and fine. The mean annual temperature ranges from about 42° at only moderate elevations in the White mountain region and farther north to 47° at low altitudes in the south-east. The greatest extremes of temperature occur in the deep mountain valleys where it sometimes rises to 102° or above, in summer, and falls to —38° or below in winter; higher up on the mountains it is never so warm and along the sea-coast both extremes are con siderably less. The mean precipitation for the entire State is about 4o inches. The distribution is even throughout the year, but sum mer and autumn are slightly more wet than winter and spring. Among the mountains and in the northern part of the State the annual fall of snow is from 7 to 8 ft., but in the south-east corner it is little more than one-half that amount. The prevailing winds are generally north-west, but in the vicinity of the sea they are south-east during summer.
The population of New Hampshire in 1930 was
an increase for the decade of 22,210 or 5.o%. The population of the State at certain of the decennial censuses was as follows: 141,885 (1790); 183,858 (r800); 269,328 (1830); 326,073 (1860); 376,530
411,588 (1900); 430,572 (1910) ; and 443,083 (192o) ; the percentage of increase was 4.6 from 1900 to 1910 and 2.9 from 1910 to 192o. New Hamp shire, in population, ranks 41st among the States of the Union Of the total in 193o, 17.8% were foreign-born, 18.1% were of for eign-born parentage, 12.6% were of mixed parentage, and 51.5% were of native parentage. Of the total foreign-born population (82,66o), 50,959 or 61.7% were natives of Canada (37,682 French and 13,277 others) ; 5,817 of Ireland; 4,101 of Poland; 3,922 of England; 3,233 of Greece; 1,938 of Italy; and 1,427 of Russia. The density of population in 1930 was 51.5 per square miles. The population of the principal cities at that date was as follows: Manchester, 76,834; Nashua, 31,463; Concord, the capital, 25,228 ; Berlin, 20,018; Portsmouth, 14,495; Keene, 13,794; Dover, 13,573 ; Laconia, 12,471; Rochester, 10,209.
Hampshire was the first of the original States to establish a Government wholly independent of Great Britain. This was designed to be only temporary, but was in operation from Jan. 5, 1776 to June 2, 1784. The constitution provided for a general court consisting of a senate and a house of representatives and made the council a body advisory to the State president ; the 1784 instrument was amended in 1792; with the amendments adopted in that year it is in large measure the Con stitution of to-day. For 6o years there was no change whatever, and only three amendments, those of 1852 *moving the prop erty qualifications of representatives, senators and the governor), were adopted until 1877, when 12 amendments were adopted,— the most important being those providing for biennial (instead of annual) State elections in November (instead of March), and those doing away with the previous requirement that representa tives, senators and the governor "be of the Protestant religion."
Five amendments were ratified in 1889, four in 1902 and four in 1912. The most important of those adopted in 1912 was one pro viding for the election of the governor and members of the council by a plurality instead of a majority vote. New Hampshire is the only State in which amendments to the Constitution may be proposed only by a Constitutional convention, and once in seven years at the general election a popular vote is taken on the neces sity of a revision of the Constitution. By an act approved on April 9, 1909 provision was made for direct nominations of candidates at primaries.
There is a governor's council of five members, one from each councillor district, which has advisory duties and shares with the governor most of his powers. There is no lieutenant-governor. The governor and the councillors are elected for a term of two years. The governor and the council appoint all judicial officers, the attorney-general, auditor, important administrative boards, coroners and certain naval and military officers ; they have power to pardon offences; and they may exercise some control over ex penditure through the Constitutional requirement of the gover nor's warrant for drawing money from the treasury. The governor may veto within five days, besides Sunday, after it has been pre sented to him, any bill or resolution of which he disapproves, and a two-thirds vote of the members of both houses is required to pass over his veto. A senate and a house of representatives, which together constitute the general court, meet at Concord on the first Wednesday in January of every odd-numbered year, and at such other times as the governor may appoint for a special ses sion, principally for the making of laws and for the election of the secretary of State, the State treasurer, and the commissary general. The senate is composed of 24 members, one from each senatorial district. Membership in the house of representatives varies ac cording to a plan adopted in 1931, by which towns having less than 600 inhabitants elect representatives according to a special schedule. There were 418 representatives chosen in 1936 and there will be 427 selected in 1938. Both senators and representatives are elected for a two-year term.