Legislative Assembly Honourable Gordon L. Bennett : So I conclude you have no views on the mat¬ ter? Or would you care to express them? L. George Dewar : I have always had views on the question and I have ex¬ pressed them on various occasions in public and private. Honourable Gordon L. Bennett : But you are tongue-tied now? L. George Dewar : I am commenting on the policies of the Government, I am considering the Draft Address , I am not presenting policy for the Government. Honourable Gordon L. Bennett : You can express an opinion though. Some Member : You can express an opinion. Walter R. Shaw : That's up to you to do the expressing. Honourable Gordon L. Bennett : We have done ours. L. George Dewar : However, I am glad to see that he is proceeding to take some action with respect to the appointment of a Co-ordinating Council on Higher Education. It will be interesting to see how that and by what means and what that will consist of by way of members. I presume that the Minister of Education will give us some information on that point as times goes by. It states that it will deal with the equitable distribution of funds and the regulation of the development of higher education in the province, commendable motives for the Council to have in mind. However, I would suggest to the Minister and the Government that they still have the final responsibility for any decisions that are made with respect to higher education in the province. Perhans I should leave the question of education, but first I should mention the question of pre-school education which the Minister touched on the other evening. Now that was another promise that was made before the election, that Summerside and Charlottetown would have kindenrartens and we presumed that they would have them immediately. However, we find that the Government has again appointed a Commission to look into the question. I understand that they have ap¬ pointed Father Sharkey to conduct an inquiry into pre-school education. Now I am sure Father Sharkey is quite a capable and learned man in many ways: I wonder, though, if he has any first-hand knowledge with respect to pre-school children. Several Members: Remarks inaudible. L. George Dewar : Mr. Speaker , when the interruptions are over I would just like to sum up my impressions of the educational situation in the province. I think that although the Minister assured us that he was going to give adequate policies with respect to education that the policies that were considered by him to be inade¬ quate under the former administration have become much more inadequate. (Ap¬ plause) You have only to consider teachers' salaries: previously they were getting anywhere from $400 to $1,000 a year increase, and are now being cut down to $75.00 in some instances. Several Members: Oh, oh, terrible, terrible! L. George Dewar : We have the matter of school taxation which we assured this Legislature last year that we were going to inquire into and do something about, and it is absolutely forgotten and left out of the Speech from the Throne altogether. Walter R. Shaw : Oh, my, myl L. George Dewar : There is a matter of school books which has not adequately been looked after according to the election promises which were made and we are Btill looking forward to full implementation of that promise. The consolidation of schools we understand has been frozen and no progress is being made in this respect although I understand that there are requests from certain areas of the province for consolidation of the schools. In the matter of vocational training I think there is also a "deepfreeze" going on. Monies were voted last year to expand the vocational facili- —114—