Chapter Six MISCELLANY The history of a community has many facets. Three of these, edu¬ cation, the liquor traffic, and entertainment are considered here. Education It is not generally known that the Island's first school was located in the Mount Stewart area. Ronald MacDonald , one of the Scottish pion¬ eers who came to Scotchfort in 1772, was a schoolteacher. He at first taught, in Gaelic, at Glenaladale , and the school was continued after he moved to . His home was on the site of the house most re¬ cently occupied by Reginald MacDonald , and the school was out in front. It was attended by the children of the new settlements of Pisquid and Allisary and also by those of Captain MacDonald and his wife, Margaret, the "Queen of Tracadie ." Ronald's wife assisted in the classroom, and we are told that when, on one occasion, she reprimanded Flora, the eldest of the Glenaladale children, that young lady called her the "Callich Chros- ta," the "cross old woman." It was not until 1825 that the Legislature gave serious considera¬ tion to the question of public education. In that year, an Act gave small grants to aid in the erection of district school houses and to help with teachers' salaries. It is difficult to determine when the Mount Stewart district schools were subsequently established. In the Journal of the House of Assembly for February 20, 1834, reference is made to the schoolmaster at St. Andrew's "being licensed since July, 1830." Savage Harbour , ac¬ cording to the Report of the Visitor of District Schools for the year end¬ ing March 31, 1838, had a well established school at that time. Later reports date the Pisquid school as being "vacant some years" prior to 1839 and the one at Head of Hillsborough being in operation in 1849. The earliest located reference to a school in the village of Stewart occurs in the Visitors' Report for the year ending January 31, 1843 where he mentions that the schools at Pisquid and Mount Pleasant ( North) "are also vacant and teachers wanted." There were eventually two schools in the village, one beside the present home of Claude Affleck , and the other, a two-room structure, near the con¬ temporary Irving Service Station. In his Report for 1909, Inspector G. J. McCormac , pointing to the success of the MacDonald Consolidated School at Mt. Herbert and urging "city advantages for country child¬ ren," recommended the unification of the Mount Stewart schools. This was effected in 1913 when the Mount Stewart North building was moved to the site on , a location near the centre of the com¬ bined districts. Reporting bright prospects for the future, the Inspector congratulated the villagers on "their splendid new high school" and generously commended the efforts of Mr. George Green , principal, and Miss Clara Walsh , assistant teacher. At a ratepayers' meeting, held November 25, 1929, the sum of $1,000. was voted to build an additional school room. A serious overcrowding problem had been developing for several years and had become so acute that pupils were prematurely graded to make way for newcomers. The boundaries of the old Mount Stewart School Districts were registered on May 20, 1884. They are reproduced here as found in the School Boundry Registration Book of the Department of Education. Those of Mount Stewart South School District No. 182 were described —95—