110 Community

In spite of these conditions, the Board of Education reported to the Assembly in 1834 that, since their first meeting in July, 1830 three masters of grammar school, seventy-one district teachers and six Acadian French teachers had been lioensed.55 One of the masters of grammar school, John McNeil], was to become the first School Visitor for the Island in 1837. The district teachers of interest to eastern King’s County are listed with places of residence, possibly at the location they were teaching when licensed. At East Point: John Arbuckle, Neil MacKinnon and James MacLaughlan; at Lot 43, Michael Dunn and Lot 44, Donald MacDonald. Also listed, Edward Kickham of Charlottetown and Patrick Doyle of Vernon River. These last two were Souris West names.

First Class or lowest teachers were to be competent to teach English, reading, writing and practical arithmetic. Second Class teachers, in addi- tion to the above, were required to teach geometry, trigonometry, mensura- tion, land surveying, navigation, together with English grammar, and to have competent knowledge of classics and the higher branches of mathe- matics, together with geography and the use of the globe. Third Class or highest were to be competent in all of the above with at least twenty-five scholars, five of whom should be doing Latin or Greek or the higher branches of mathematics.56

There was a schoolmaster at East Point in the year 1823. A satirical letter to the editor of the Register, written in December of that year, refers to the November 29 issue of the newspaper. It is signed: A Country Schoolmaster, Garth Village near East Point. The copy of the newspaper may have been sent by the proprietor of Lot 47 as names of those in arrears of rent are listed in it.57

The Census of 1833 lists one school in Lot 44 with 17 males and 3 females, and two schools in Lot 45 with 32 males and 10 females.58 Again, in the 1841 Census, there are two schools in Lot 45: one at Norris Pond and the other at the western edge of the Lot on the Souris River, teacher, Edmund Shea.

The inspection of schools by an official school visitor began in 1837. But the work became too much for one man and, in 1847, an Act of the Legisla- ture, among other things, made provision for a Visitor for each county: “who should visit each school twice a year, advise with the teacher and determine the system and course of instruction to be practised in the schools.”59 John McNeil] remained School Visitor for Queen’s County, John Arbuckle for Prince and John Ross for King’s.

On March 1, 1849, John Ross called at the Souris schools. The teacher at the Souris District School was John McNeill, a local man from east of Souris. Twenty-two of the twenty-three students were present. The teacher in the Norris Pond School was Michael Dunn. This school was given an exceptionally good report. Twenty-seven of the twenty-eight students were present.60

The Norris Pond School was on the west side of the pond, to the left of the road which ran closer to the shore in those days. Mrs. Patrick St. John (Anastasia MacAulay) has left an account of her early education in that school. Her first teacher was an Irishman, Michael Dunn, written “Dunn” in most of the records but she says they always called him Dinn.61 Her next teacher was Edmund Shea and her third, Peter McInnis of Red Point, who later studied medicine and returned to Souris to practise for a short time. This school building, she said, was later moved to Souris and placed west of the Legion building where it was used as a private school for a time. The