PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 383a three Inspectors of Schools . It should l>e empowered to prescribe the course of stud¬ ies-and to fit and train teachers. A corpo¬ rate board of three trustees should be elected in each district who should have the general management of the school buildings and be empowered to keep * them in repair, and should also have the engagement and direc¬ tion of the teacher, and should have some power to compel attendance of children at school. Of 15,431 children enrolled in the public schools there was an attendance of but 8,799. The schools of Charlottetown should be improved. The Board of Education had not been empowered to erect or rent build¬ ings, or pay salaries, but a new law should provide for a board of trustees for Charlotte - town and for Summerside , to have powers analogous to those of district trustees with reference to school buildings and school teachers. School buildings in the towns and populous districts should be large and of sufficient apartments to accommodate the children of school age, and the children should be graded into classes and rooms ac¬ cording to attainment. Existing legislation made no provision for this principle, and progress in educational work in the schools was greatly impeded. In fact for four years previous the Board had refused to establish new grammar schools believing advanced work to be imp< >ssihle in a single department with many classes of many grades. The statutory salaries should be in¬ creased. Of the 417 schools established but 335 were found in operation last year. Though ninety-three teachers had been li¬ censed, a still larger number had left the pro¬ fession, thus increasing thenumber of vacant schools. The total amount paid in salaries last year was $51,472. Of the 335 teachers, 157 were females, and received salaries vary¬ ing from $113 to $129; and 178 were males receiving salaries varying from $146 to $324.44. Only eighteen, however, were paid the larger amount. In the year 1877 was passed the Public Schools ' Act , embodying the find¬ ings of the Parliamentary Committee and the recommendations of the Board of Education. It gathered up in itself all that the people of Prince Edward Island had been able to work out in fifty years of trial at the educational problem. With a few amend¬ ments that changed no important principle of the original Act , it remauis the basis of our school system of today. It established a Board of Education to be composed of the members of the Executive Council to¬ gether with the Superintendent of Educa¬ tion, and the principal of the Prince of Wales College. This Board was given control of all matters connected with public education in the province. It was empowered to di¬ vide the Island into school districts, having regard to the principle of requiring for each district so constituted an area of four square miles and a school population of forty chil¬ dren between the ages of five and sixteen years. In districts already established that fell below in school attendance, it was re¬ quired to rank the school in the lowest class and pay to the teacher the minimum salary, or if the attendance should fall below twelve to close the school and assist the district people in the transportation of the children to the nearest schools, or combine the dis¬ trict with the districts adjoining. The Board should have .power to make regulations for the government and discipline of the schools, and prescribe the text-books to be used and the course> or standards of instruction and study in the schools.