PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND.

at the annual meeting a full report of their work for the year then closed. They should make also a half—yearly report to the Super- intendent of Education setting forth the condition of the school, the number of days it was in operation for the term, the names of the pupils and attendance, the classifica- tion, curriculum, etc., as found in the school register, whose accuracy should be vouched for in the teacher’s affidavit of diligence and fidelity attached to the returns.

The superintendent should require an at- tendance in each school of fifty per cent. of the resident pupils of school age, and a min- imum of at least twenty pupils. Where a smaller attendance was shown, he should or- der a proportionate deduction in the statu- tory salary of the teacher, and should ad- vise the trustees of the district concerned, who should pay to the teacher the amount retained when they had collected it by as- sessment upon the parents of the absentees. The superintendent was to determine what schools should have more than one teacher, having regard to the number of forty pupils as the unit for one teacher, and also what schools should be allowed the services of a teacher of the first class. All schools should be strictly non-sectarian, and the teachers were required to open their schools each day with reading, without comment, from the sacred Scriptures, but no pupil should have attendance thereat enforced upon him against his parents’ will. All children be- tween eight and thirteen years should attend school at least twelve weeks out of the year. To encourage in districts the development of a taste for literature, a grant should be made from the treasury equal to half the amount that had been raised and expended for a school library, but the grant should not exceed $20 in any one year.

2 5a

385a

The towns of Summerside and Char- lottetown were severally constituted a dis- trict, and the schools therein were placed under boards of trustees of seven members each, four of whom should be appointed by the Lieutenant Governor in Council, three by the council of their own town. One trus- tee from each part should retire each year. If either town should fail to appoint their quota, those trustees appointed by the Gov- ernor should constitute the full Board. They should have, to hold and acquire property for school purposes and to administer their trust, all the powers that were granted to the trustees of the rural schools. They should receive each year from the Town Council all such moneys as they required for the maintenance of the schools in their care. To purchase property for school purposes, they were given limited powers to issue deben- tures, which debentures at maturity be- came payable by the Council. In all re- Spects the schools of these towns were to be subject to the provisions of the Public Schools’ Act, which came into force on July I, 1877.

The Act met with considerable opposi— tion. Hostility was provoked by the clauses that made one straight uniform curriculum for all public schools, and that fined the par- ents of those who did not send their children to the public school, inasmuch as upon them fell the assessment for deductions in teach- er’s salary by reason of deficiency in attend- ance. This objection to the new act was based on religious principle. Others ob— jected from money considerations. Assess- ment for support of the school now fell alike upon all in the district: the house- holder who had no children now shared the burden of the school with the parents, to

whom it properly belonged. The supple-