PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND.

schools had neglected to qualify under the new act, their appointment was cancelled at the end of the year 1878, and in conformity with legislation of 1879 the province was divided into two inspectoral districts, and Messrs. John S. Murray for the West, and Peter Curran for the East were appointed on July I of that year.

A comparative statement for the years immediately before and after 1877 best shows what the recent legislation had done for education.

In the year 1876 there were 344 teach- ers employed and 68 schools vacant; in 1877, 373 teachers and 74 vacant schools; in 1878, 413 teachers and 52 vacant schools; in 1879, 450 teachers and 21 vacant schools. But all that the act of 1877 accomplished for the country is small when compared with its result in Charlottetown. There. the small schools scattered over the town in buildings altogether unfitted for their purpose, were vbrought together into several large build- ings, and the children for the first time came under the inspiring influences of gradation and membership in large classes. Mr. John Harper, ,who had become principal of the Normal School on the resignation of Mr. Donald Montgomery when the act of 1877 came into effect, was City Superintendent of Schools, and to him fell the task of grading the pupils that came together from the 'dif- ferent schools of the town. He took pro- ficiency in reading as the standard of attain- ment in his classification. Upper Prince Street School had nine departments; East Kent Street had five; Queen’s Square, for- merly St. Patrick’s, came under the control of the board with three departments Janu- ary I, 1878; Rochfort school had five; and Spring Park one. On February 23, 1878, the contract was let for the building of West

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Kent School. His Honour, Governor Hodg- son, laid the cornerstone on April 29th, and the school was used in the early months of 1880. The Davis School, now the Sum- merside High School, was occupied in Jan- uary, 1879. Annie L. Smith was principal of Prince Street School; Lemuel Miller of East Kent School; Peter Curran of Queen Square School; and A. A. McKenzie of Rochfort School.

The act had changed conditions in Char- lottetown. It removed the stigma attach- ing to the housing of the public schools; it introduced the principle of separation of classes or grades which materially improved the quality of .the work done in the public schools, and made them at last the equal of the private schools that had hitherto flour- ished on the fees paid by parents who were sufficiently wealthy to give their .children better environment than could be obtained elsewhere. The public schools won general approval and throve to the disadvantage of those privately maintained, and a necessity arose that the state should provide for young ladies the higher educational privileges hitherto afforded them by private schools, and a call was made that the College should be opened to the'young ladies who wished its opportunities. On the ground of economy it was contended that to have six instructors in the College and the Normal School for about one hundred students was clearly a great financial waste and an unjustifiable expenditure of energy. All these and other arguments brought about the legislation of 1879, whereby the two higher institutions of this small province were on July I united and placed directly under the management and control of the Board of Education. Thenceforward students were to be admit- ted through examination directed by the