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Show count of neglect of duty, and it is a fact vorthy of r!ote that diSmiS~alS for cowardice are almost unknown, the Indian policeman being willing to face any danger and, as has been the case several times during the past Fear, to sacrifice life itself in obeying ordersand fa.itlifiilly dis-charging duty. A number hare resigned because of inability to support thelnselves and Families on the meager salary allowod. I can but repeat my former recommendations in reference to providiug a more liberal compensation for the members of the Iudiau police force, deeming it but just thatthe salary paid should bear at least some slight relation to the labor per- . formeil, exposure endured, and risk incurred in the discharge of duties which often bring the police into conflict not only with lawless advent-urers, but with their own people, iu attempts to suppress crime and ,to abolish barbarous feast8 and customs long prevalent arid firmly rooted. For the increase of the salary of the police in the Union agency, Agent Oren makes a special plea. ANNUAL INDIA; CENSUS: Section 9 of the act of July 4,1884, making appropriations for the expenses of the Initiau service, requires that each ageut submit a yearly census of the Indiansat his agency or upon the reservations under his charge. Agents hare, therefore, been duly instructed ns to the re- , qoiremeut of the law and the necessity of complying therewith. The returns,.as far as received at this writing for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1887, show at some agencies a very slight increase in the population, but at the great m+jority the tendency is the other way, and though not rapid, the decrease is steady, showing that the deaths exceed the births by a slight majority. There is no very striking change, however, this year at any agency, nor such as to call for special notice. I am courinced that at nearly all the larger agencies these a~~nual census lists are inaccurate, and, althongh they serve to give a fairly re. liable idea of the Indiau population, they are not so satisfactory as I cohld wish. The agents can hardly be blamed for this, as no special means are provided for taking the census, and I am of the opinion that Congress when framing this law could not have fully comprehendeil the magnitude of the extra labor thereby'imposed on tho ageut and his em-ploy6s at many agencies. When it is cousi(1ered that many reserva-tions cover large tracts of country.; that the Iudiaus. especially those enga,ged iu farming; are often located at great dista,nces, say from 30 to 50 miles in different directions from the agency, and that those who are not farming roam from place to place; that to obtain acorrectknu-meration, giving ages, family relations, etc., they must be seen by some one iutelligeut enough to Lie able to write, and that generally the pres-ence of an interpreter is required ; that often there is no road to the house ortipi: or one almost impassable, and that there is nothiqg toiu- |