preceding census, together with an amount not exceeding 10 per cent for probable loss and expenses of disbursing." This gross sum is apportioned among the several parishes, cities, and towns in the same proportion as other county taxes.

The district assessment consists of a poll tax levied at the per capita rate of $1 on every male person (except clergymen) between the ages of 21 and 60 years.

The balance of the sum to be raised by the district is assessed on real and personal property.

The law provides for the establishment of superior or high schools and for county grammar schools. These receive aid from the provincial treasury if they reach a certain standard of efficiency. The grant in each case is proportioned to the amount of local support which the school receives.

SYSTEM OF NOVA SCOTIA.

Nova Scotia maintains a system of free nonsectarian public schools, under the general charge of the executive council, which forms for this special interest a council of public instruction. The chief officer of the system is a superintendent, who is appointed by the governor in council. The council has power (1) to direct (in all cases not specifically provided for by statute) the expenditure of such sums of money as are appropriated by the legislature for educational purposes, such expendi ture to be made on the requisition or certificate of the superintendent of education.

(2) To appoint a principal of the normal and model schools, and also such assistant teachers as may be found necessary, and to fix the salaries of the same.

(3) To make regulations for the conduct of the normal school and to prescribe the conditions of admission and graduation of students.

(4) To divide the province into inspectorates and to appoint an inspector for each upon the recommendation of the superintendent of education, and to regulate all the conditions as to teachers' licenses, length of school session, form of school registers, text books, and courses. of study as may be necessary to securing uniform standards of efficiency in the schools of the province.

The council also has power "to make regulations for constructing, locating, and controlling county academies, and to authorize the payment of provincial grants to the same." It may aid in the establishment and support of school libraries and provide for the training of teachers in agricultural sciences and foster the teaching of these subjects in the elementary schools.

Local control.-The province is divided into school commissioners' districts, in charge each of a board of commissioners appointed by the council, subject to the provisions of the town's incorporation act of 1895.

Each school section shall have a board of three trustees elected by the majority of the qualified voters of the section.

The powers and duties imposed upon the trustees are discharged by the appointed commissioners in incorporated towns.

The city of Halifax forms one school section in charge of twelve commissioners, of whom six are appointed by the governor. These trustees or commissioners have immediate charge of the schools in their respective sections. They employ teachers, who must, however, be licensed, except that where necessary an unlicensed candidate may be appointed as assistant teacher.

Mode of support.-The fixed sum of $182,500 for each school year is paid semiannually, or as the council of public instruction may prescribe, to legally qualified teachers employed in the common schools in accordance with law, to be divided between such teachers in conjoined proportion to the number of days the respective schools are taught and the scale of the respective grades.

This distribution is made semiannually through the inspectors, or otherwise as the council may direct. In every county (except that in which the city of Halifax is situate) the clerk of the municipality is required to add to the sum annually voted for general municipal purposes at the regular meeting of the council a sum sufficient, after deducting costs of collection and probable loss, to yield an amount equal to 30 cents for every inhabitant of the municipality, and the sum so added shall form, or be a portion of, the municipal rates. Any sum further needed is determined by those who pay a property tax (ratepayers). Ordained ministers, widows, and unmarried women are exempt from sectional assessment on property to the amount of $500.

THE SCHOOL SYSTEM OF MANITOBA.

Historical survey.-Prior to the passage of the law of 1890 Manitoba maintained separate schools for Roman Catholic and for Protestant children.

The law of 1890 established a uniform system of nonsectarian schools and prohibited the use of public funds for denominational schools. The bitter contest to which this law gave rise, the appeal to the Dominion government, and subsequently to the English privy council, the remedial order issued by the Dominion government and the refusal of the Manitoba people to submit to this dictation are set forth in the Commissioner's Report for 1894-95 (Vol. 1, Chap. VII).

The answer of the provincial legislature to the Dominion government refusing to enact a remedial law was approved December 26, 1895, and the legislature at once dissolved, that an appeal might be made directly to the people. The election held on January 15 resulted in an overwhelming triumph for the premier, Mr. Greenway, and his policy of nonsectarian schools.

The Dominion parliament assembled January 2, on which day Lord Aberdeen, as governor-general, presented his address to the lawmakers and strongly urged the necessity of compelling Manitoba to submit.

It turned out that the Dominion cabinet was seriously divided on the subject, and on January 4 half of the ministers resigned their portfolios. Subsequently the retiring ministers were induced to withdraw their resignations. It was now clear that the only hope of the separateschool party lay in the promised interference of the Federal Parliament. No definite action was taken in the matter until March 2, 1896, when a remedial bill was introduced. The conservative government then in power had less than two months left to them before the necessary dissolution of parliament, and it was evident that the bill had no chance of being carried, or even fully considered, in the time remaining. Such discussion as took place was bitter, and the dissolution of parliament, on the 24th of April, carried the whole question back to the people of the Dominion. The question involved and the results of the election are thus set forth by an English authority:

It may be briefly stated that in the election struggle the Catholic school system was the main question, and that the Catholic bishops and clergy threw themselves vigorously into the contest and exerted their utmost strength to secure the return of members pledged either to establish separate schools, or else, in vaguer terms, to see justice done to the Catholic minority in Manitoba. But though the numerical key to the victory in the Dominion parliament was actually in the hands of the most Catholic province, Quebec, the Liberal opposition leader was returned to power by a considerable majority; and the Liberal party thus took the lead in Canadian politics for the first time in eighteen years. It is true that several considerations, rather political and economic, and even perhaps ethnological, helped to bring about Mr. Laurier's triumph; but the latter's solemn undertaking to settle within six months the Manitoba school difficulty, which had racked Canadian politics for over six years, was undoubtedly a strong element in the situation, since it was felt that if on the one hand a definitely coercive measure could never be put into operative effect in Manitoba, nor the Catholics, on the other hand, induced to accept the Manitoba public schools, the only hope of a settlement acceptable to both sides lay in some proposal emanating from a leader who would be at once a noncoercionist by political and a Catholic by religious conviction.

The next stage in the struggle is therefore the compromise at once put forward by Mr. Laurier, on the part of the Dominion, and subsequently accepted by Mr. Greenway, the premier of Manitoba. It was very much on the lines suggested by Sir Donald Smith's earlier commission, but was on the whole less favorable to the Catholics. The main points were these: On a petition signed by the parents or guardians of 10 children attending a school in a rural district, or of 25 children in a town or village, any clergyman or authorized religious teacher is to be permitted access to the school to give religious instruction at stated times. And in any town school where the average attendance of Roman Catholic children is 40 or upward (in rural districts 25 or upward) they may be entitled to the services of one Catholic teacher, who must, however, be fully qualified according to provincial or national school standards. In districts where the children speak French wholly they are to have a teacher speaking both French and English, so that the teaching may be on the bilingnal system. But all schools are to be national, under provincial control, and subject to the same regulations and inspections. The same text-books are to be used, and all teachers must be properly qualified by passing the provincial examinations and taking the prescribed normal school course.

The settlement was not satisfactory to the Catholic authorities, and the Papal intervention was eventually sought. The encyclical of His

Holiness was conciliatory in tone, but condemned the settlement as unsatisfactory from the Roman Catholic standpoint.

Provisions of the law of 1890.-By the law of 1890 the general control of schools was vested in a department of education, which is to consist of the executive council, or a committee thereof, appointed by the lieutenant-governor in council, and also an advisory board composed of seven members, four of whom are to be appointed by the department of education, two by the teachers of the province, and one by the univer sity council. Among the duties of the advisory board is the power "to examine and authorize text-books and books of reference for the use of the pupils and school libraries; to determine the qualifications of teachers and inspectors for high and public schools; to appoint examiners for the purpose of preparing examination papers; to prescribe the form of religious exercises to be used in schools."

The law provides "for the formation, alteration, and union of school districts in rural municipalities, and in cities, towns, and villages;" for the election of trustees in each district; for the maintenance and control of the schools.

All public schools shall be free schools, and every person in rural municipalities between the age of 5 and 16 years, and in cities, towns, and villages between the age of 6 and 16, shall have the right to attend some school.

SEC. 6. Religious exercises in public schools shall be conducted according to the regulations of the advisory board. The time for such religious exercises shall be just before the closing hour in the afternoon. In case the parent or guardian of any pupil notifies the teacher that he does not wish such pupil to attend such religious exercises, then such pupil shall be dismissed before such religious exercises take place.

SEC. 7. Religious exercises shall be held in a public school entirely at the option of the school trustees for the district, and upon receiving written authority from the trustees it shall be the duty of the teacher to hold such religious exercises.

SEC. 8. The public schools shall be entirely nonsectarian, and no religious exercises shall be allowed therein except as above provided.

The schools are to be supported by public grant and district assessments, but schools

not conducted according to all the provisions of this or any act in force for the time being, or the regulations of the department of education, or the advisory board, shall not be deemed a public school within the meaning of the law, and shall not participate in the legislative grant.

THE SYSTEM OF BRITISH COLUMBIA.

In accordance with the school law of 1891, British Columbia maintains a system of free secular schools which are under the charge of a superintendent appointed by the lieutenant-governor in council. The superintendent is assisted by the council of public instruction. The local unit of school administration is the district. School trustees, elected by vote of persons who pay a property tax, are empowered to provide sufficient accommodation for all children of the district between 6 and 16 years of age, inclusive. The trustees must visit the schools

and see that they are conducted in accordance with the regulations, and report annually to the superintendent. School attendance is compulsory for all children between the ages of 6 and 12 years for six months in each year, unless they are under private instruction. Teachers must be provided with a Government certificate, of which there are six grades. The lowest is valid for one year, the next higher for two, and so on to the fifth; this and the sixth grade certificates are valid for life or during good behavior.

Graduates of arts of recognized British or Canadian universities are exempt from examinations on the art of teaching, school discipline and management, and the school law.

The strictly nonsectarian character of the schools is indicated by the following provisions of the law:

No religious creed is allowed to be taught; the Lord's Prayer may be used at the opening and closing of the schools. No clergyman is eligible as superintendent, inspector, or master.

The schools are supported entirely by appropriations from the public treasury.

THE NORTHWEST TERRITORIES.

The report of the superintendent of education in the northwest territories of Canada presents an interesting view of the efforts for popular enlightenment in the northern part of our continent.

The territory under supervision covers an area of 302,000 square miles, with a population in 1891 of 66,799.

While the people are chiefly of British origin, other nationalities are represented in sufficient numbers to increase the school difficulties. The occupations are farming, ranching, lumbering, and mining, and the population widely scattered as a consequence. Nevertheless the report gives evidence of advanced ideas with reference to the conditions for effective schools. The system of public schools is under the control of a council of public instruction, comprising four members of the executive committee and four appointed members, of whom two must be Protestants and two Roman Catholics. The appointed members have no vote, their duties being purely advisory. A school district must not exceed in area 25 square miles, and must contain not less than four resident taxpayers (property tax) and at least twelve children of school age. Each district elects school trustees. who manage

the local school affairs.

Provision is made for separate schools for religious minorities (Protestant or Roman Catholic), the ratepayers establishing these separate schools being relieved of taxes for the public schools. The decade 1886 to 1896 witnessed a remarkable growth in the schools. The number rose from 76 to 366, an increase of 381 per cent, and the enrollment from 2,553 to 12,796, an increase of 400 per cent.

Efforts were early

At the latter date 433 teachers were employed. made to secure professional training for teachers, and by a regulation