-o PAST AND PRESENT OF ery. Henry Beer , Patrick Blake and James H. Cummisky , all of Queens. The presidents of the Legislative Council included John Bal- derson and Thomas Walker Dodd of Queens, and A. B. McKenzie and William Campbell were prominent members. The premiers were almost all of Queens for many years. "There be three things which make a nation great and prosperous. A fertile soil, busy workshops and easy conveyance for man and goods from place to place." These words' were used by Bacon. Our soil is fertile. Certain ingredients of its original fertility are being used up. If fertilizers in large quantities were imported at reasonable rates the product of the soil could be immensely increased. Manure is the basis of successful agricultural opera¬ tions. That our soil is still fertile is evi¬ dent by the very large production of roots and grains. As regards the busy workshops the fu¬ ture will have a tale to unfold. One of our greatest hindrances is the lack of workshops. The few we have are busy and prosperous. With coal and wood so near the opportuni¬ ties for advance along this line are attractive. More enterprise is necessary. For conveyance our railway system con¬ nects the chief centres and offers rapid means of internal communication in addition to the navigable rivers. Our seaports and harbors are excellent and steamers provide local con¬ nections and also facilities with other parts of Canada , Newfoundland and the States. The direct steam service with Eng¬ land, unfortunately, seems to be discontin¬ ued. This, it is to be hoped, will be tem¬ porary. More workshops, more industries should be among our ambitions and this would open up a field of labor for half a million people in this island. Immigrants from Europe numbering nearly half the population of our island came in to New York a week or two ago, over seventeen thousand in one day. The population of , now numbering over forty thousand, is fast pressing on that of Queens. Active attention to immigration is advisable. For educational purposes the county is divided into one hundred and eighty-four school districts with two hundred and forty- five departments, two hundred and thirty- six teachers being employed last year, sixty- two holding a first-class license, one hundred and twenty-five second and forty-nine third, with seven thousand six hundred and forty-two pupils enrolled. Six school dis¬ tricts united, and formed the MacDonald Consolidated school at Hillsboro provided and equipped by the munificence of Sir Wil ¬ liam MacDonald, the greatest educational benefactor Canada has yet produced, a na¬ tive of . Consolidation of other districts should be considered. There are six first-class schools in the county at Emerald , Kelley's Cross, Stanley, Uigg , Victoria, Vernon, River Bridge, and seven¬ teen graded schools. In 1855 there were in but ninety-four schools with four thousand eight hundred and eighty children enrolled and six Acadian schools with three hundred and nine pupils. The advance in education will be shown in a separate part of this work. The branches taught were, in 1855, reading, writing and arithmetic. A few studied gram¬ mar and geography, and a very few book¬ keeping and algebra. A new educational act had just come into force providing for state education, being in advance- of the mother country in this respect. Now our people generally are fairly well educated. The ownership of the townships which comprised the provincial electoral districts was vested in the crown when the island was