SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of South Carolina, now met and sitting in General Assembly, and by the authority of the same, The State Superintendent of Education, elected at the election held on the 14th, 15th and 16th days of April, 1868, shall continue in office for the term of four years. Before entering upon the duties of his office he shall give a bond in the sum of five thousand dollars, to the acceptance of the Governor of the State, conditioned that he will truly account for, and apply all moneys or other property which may come into his hands in his official capacity, for the benefit of common schools; and that he will faithfully perform the duties enjoined upon him according to law. He shall receive as compensation for his services the sum of two thousand five hundred dollars per annum, payable as the salaries of all other State officers are paid. He shall also receive his actual cost of transportation when traveling upon public business.

SEC. 2. The State Superintendent of Education shall open an office, to be provided at the seat of Government, in which the books and papers of his department shall be kept, and in which he shall give attendance when not absent on public business. All the records, books and papers of his department shall be kept with accuracy and system, and shall be open at all times to the inspection of the Governor of the State, or of such other persons as the Governor may delegate to perform that duty.

SEC. 3. Immediately after this Act becomes a law, it shall be the duty of the State Superintendent of Education, to provide, through the School Commissioner of each County, for the enumeration of all the unmarried youth of the State, between the ages of five and eighteen years, classifying them as colored and white, male and female, and he shall report the same through the Governor of the State to the General Assembly at its next regular session.

SEC. 4. The School Commissioner of each County shall, as soon as this Act becomes a law, proceed, under the direction of the State Superintendent of Education, to make an enumeration of the youth of his County as provided for in Section third of this Act; and if before said enumeration is completed his County shall have been divided into townships by Act of the General Assembly, it shall be his duty to state in his report to the State Superintendent of Education the school population of each township, as well as the total number of youth in his County.

SEC. 5. The School Commissioner for Charleston County shall, in making his return to the State Superintendent of Education, give the school population of each ward in the city of Charleston.

SEC. 6. The School Commissioner for each County shall report to the State Superintendent of Education the number of public schools existing in his County, the number of pupils attending such schools, classified as colored and white, male and female. He will also state by whom said schools are supported, the number of school houses, their condition, and by whom they are owned. The County School Commissioner shall make this report at the same time he makes his return to the State Superintendent of Education of the enumeration required in Section fourth of this Act. It shall be the duty of the State Superintendent of Education to consolidate the reports received from the County School Commissioners, and to forward them to the General Assembly at its next regular session.

SEC. 7. The School Commissioner of each County shall receive as compensation for his services a per diem of four dollars for each day actually and necessarily employed in the performance of the duties prescribed in this Act, together with his necessary cost of transportation: Provided, That no account of any County School Commissioner for services rendered shall be paid until said Commissioner shall have certified, underoath or affirmation, that said account is just, and that it was incurred in the actual performance of his duties as School Commissioner.

SEC. 8. The Governor of the State is hereby authorized to employ such assistance as may be needed in the several Counties in making the aforesaid enumeration: Provided, That no person so employed shall receive more than two and one-half dollars per day for his services: And proeided, further, That no account of any person so employed shall be paid unless its correctness is certified, under oath or affirmation, by the School Commissioner of the County in which such person is employed.

SEC. 9. The State Superintendent of Education and the County School Commissioners shall, in addition to the duties prescribed in this Act, perform such other duties as may hereafter be prescribed by law.

In the Senate House, the fifteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.

L. BOOZER, President of the Senate.
FRANKLIN J. MOSES, Jr., Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Approved: Robert K. Scott, Governor