Legislature.—Senators (40) hold office for four years. Assemblymen (80) for two years. The Legislature meets in biennial sessions. on the first londay of January of even years. and the pay of the members ($8 per day and 10 cents mileage) is limited to sixty days. The Governor may convene extra sessions, lint the power to legislate at these is restricted to the specified subject. The ]louse impeaches, while the Senate acts as a court of impeachment.
gxrcutire.—The Governor. Lieutenant - Gover nor, Secretary of State, Controller, Treasurer, At torney-General, and Surveyor-General are each elected for a term of four years. A two-thirds vote of each House overcomes the Governor's veto. Money appropriation bills may be vetoed in part. In ease of a vacancy in the office of Governor, the Lientenant-Governor takes his place, and in turn is succeeded by the president pro teinpore of the Senate. The Governor grants reprieves, pardons, and commutations of sentence.
Judicial.--The Supreme Court. the members of which are elected for a term of twelve years, consists of a Chief Justice and six associates. and is divided into two departments, which may sit separately or as one court. Each county has a Superior Court, whose members are elected for a term of six years. Inferior courts are estab lished by the Legislature. No judge of Supreme or Superior Court can receive his salary unless be swears that no case in his court submitted ninety days previous remains unattended to.
local Gorernment.—There is a uniform sys tem of county governments, and general laws are enacted for the organization of townships. Laws affecting municipal corporations must be general laws, applying to classes of municipali ties made upon the basis of population. A city containing a population of more than 3500 may frame a charter for its own government, which, after being approved by the electors of the city, is submitted to the Legislature for its approval or rejection is a whole.
Other Constitutional and Statutory Prori sions.—No corporation formed under the laws of the State can employ, directly or indirectly, any Chinese or Mongolian. and contracts for eoolie labor are void. Appropriations to sec tarian schools are prohibited. The legal rate of interest is 7 per cent., hut any rate is allowed by contract. Women may enter upon or pursue any lawful business, vocation, or profession, and the property of married women belongs to them alone.
Sacramento is the capital. The State has eight Representatives in the Lower House of the national Congress.
Finances.—Tbe cash receipts of the State for the fiscal year ending June. 1900, amounted to
811.147,000, the cash payments to $9,549,000, and the balance in the treasury to $5,020,000. The State debt on the same date was $2,460.000, of which amount 82.277.000 was held in trust for the State school and university funds.
Pena/ and Charitable Institutions.—The penal institutions are the prisons at Folsom and San Quentin, the State Reform School at Whittier (which is conducted on the cottage plan. and where fanning and various trades are taught), and the Preston School of Industry at Ione City. The charitable institutions include the insane asylums at Napa. Stockton, Agnew, and Ukiah. all of which are under the control of a State Lunacy Commission; the llome for Feeble-mind ed Children at Glen Ellen; and the Institution for Deaf. Dumb, and Blind at Berkeley. There are also nineteen orphan asylums receiving State aid and inspection.
Militia—According to the United States offi cial Army Register for 1901, the total strength of the State militia is as follows: General offi cers, 4; general stair officers. 44; regimental field and staff officers, 33; company officers, 144; rank and file, 3059; aggregate, 3304. The force is organized into one division of three brigade and seven regiments. There were in 1900 378,000 males of militia age, 212,000 of whom were lia ble for duty.
California ranks among the pro gressive States in its educational policy. The educational system is wide in scope and thor ough in administration, and the length of the school year (165 days) is exceeded in only one or two States west of the Alleglianies. The State has succeeded better than most States in dealing with the rural school problem, but still suffers from an undue multiplication of small rural districts. The compulsory school law is not generally enforced. Of 361,000 children be tween the ages of 5 and 17, in 1900, 266.700 were enrolled in the public schools and 23,300 in private schools. The kindergarten grades en rolled 4400: the primary grades. 170,000; the grammar grades, 82,000; and the 120 high schools, 12,100. Of the teachers of primary and grammar grades, 1100 were males and 6000 fe males. The average of the salaries paid to male teachers is $81 per month, and to females. $65.50, being much higher than the average for the "Western States. The average annual expendi ture for primary and grammar grades per child of school age is about $17. About one-half of this is provided for by State apportionments, about one-third by county apportionments, and the remainder by city or district taxes and other sources.