Miscellaneous receipts were mainly from fees, interest on investments, and land sales.1 The bulk of the fee revenues came to the general land office for work done by it in connection with the administration of the public lands. The fees collected by the other departments of the state government were insignificant. There were no corporation charter fees imposed before 1879, but in that year fees of $100 for railroad, telegraph, and street railway charters, $25 for charters of other business corporations, and $5 for charters for other than business corporations were fixed and made payable to the secretary of state.2

The amount derived from interest on investments was a growing one. The interest from investments which, constituted a net addition to the state's revenue was derived from the railroad bonds held by the school fund and the United States bonds and land notes held by the school, university, and asylum funds. The Constitution of 1876 limited the investment of the special funds to United States and Texas bonds. The former were to be invested in only when State of Texas bonds were not obtainable, whereas under the Constitution of 1869 only United States bonds could be invested in.1 The refunding operations of the national government during this period made state bonds more desirable than Federal bonds, their interest being higher and their premium being lower.

1 The proceeds of land sales by permanent funds, such as the permanent school fund, are not included among receipts along with taxes, fees, interest and the like, but are separately stated. Such permanent funds are of the nature of capital accounts, their receipts from lands being subject only to investment and reinvestment in bonds, the interest alone on such investments being applicable to current expenditures. There was no division of the university fund into an available and a permanent fund which makes it necessary to include its receipts from lands among other revenues of an active character.

2 Laws of 1879, p. 12.

1 Art. 8, secs. 4, 9, and 11.