of 1871, he urged compulsory attendance in the School Law, requiring all children of school age to spend a portion of their time each year in school. In 1877, the Public School's Act was passed, which, with few ex¬ ceptions, remains the basis of our Public School System of today. (Taken from "Past and Present of Prince Edward Island .") CRAPAUD SCHOOL The first teacher of whom we have any record was George Bynon , who taught school in Crapaud in 1840-41, with forty-eight pupils enrolled. In the report of John MacNeill , Visitor of District Schools, he expressed himself as being highly pleased with the progress made, and "the interest the teacher evinces in the moral, as well as the intellectual improvement of his pupils. This School makes the Bible the foundation of its utility". He also stated that an increase had taken place in the classes learning Grammar and the higher rules of Arithmetic. 1842-43, Crapaud , James Bulpitt , Teacher The School Visitor's report for this year stated that forty-two pupils were enrolled. Reading, Writing and Arithmetic were taught with success, and satisfactory progress had been made, "several excellent writers being found in this School, and the system of discipline enforced is judicious and highly efficient." Signed, John MacNeill , Visitor of District Schools. January 31, 1843 We have no definite information relating to the building of this School, nor the site upon which it was located, and, as Crapaud , at that time, extended from the eastern part of Tryon shoals to DeSable, we pre¬ sume that it was situated near the eastern section of the district, be¬ cause we find that, on October 6, 1839, when the Countess of Westmore ¬ land and her daughter, the Lady Cecily Jane Georgiana Fane , visited Crapaud , Her Ladyship was waited upon with an address from His Lord¬ ship's tenants in that quarter, in which they requested, among other things, assistance in completing a suitable place of worship, and in pro¬ viding for elementary educational needs. Another memorial from "the Inhabitants of the Back-Settlements of Crapaud ," numbering twenty-eight families with seventy-eight child¬ ren, represented the petitioners as being newly arrived, and "unable to attend to the means of grace," through lack of Church and Sunday School facilities. In her reply, dated Charlottetown , September 20, 1839, her Lady¬ ship expressed satisfaction with the tone of the address, and went on to say: "I have, in compliance with your wishes for suitable places of wor¬ ship, and schools for the instruction of your children, appropriated £300 to effect these purposes — £100 to be applied to the immediate completion of the Chapel already commenced upon the territory near the coast; the other £200 to be administered in such sums as may be thought most ex¬ pedient by those capable of judging, from whom I shall lose no time in obtaining the proper information. Respecting the schools, I shall apply for advice to the Lady Mary Fitz - Roy (wife of the Lieutenant Governor ), -«f 83 )§►-