Canadian Liberal, described the Premier's statement as satisfactory and the motion was carried without division. The Session was closed on Mch. 24th after an Address had been passed to H.E. Earl Grey (Mch. 20) expressing regret at his departure, appreciation of his work in Canada, and all best wishes for his future. Other incidents of the year may be summarized as follows:

Jan. 1. The Report of the Registrar-General (Department of Provincial Secretary) shows in the past year 55,871 births in the Province, 24,036 marriages and 33,539 deaths-a total in the past 12 years, respectively, of 608,292, 238,994, and 373,063.

Jan. 17.-Mr. C. C. James, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, states the expenditure on Agriculture in 1910 at $748,169 and the appropriations for 1911 at $837,907 with $70,732 in capital account. Mar. 22.-A large Delegation waits upon the Provincial Premier and urges the Government to take up the question of caring for the feebleminded-especially women who were stated to yearly give birth to 100 more or less feeble-minded infants in this Province. Mar. 13.--The Conservative members of the Legislature gather at the Albany Club and present a handsome Testimonial to Dr. R. F. Preston, the Party whip, in recognition of his services.

Apl. 19.-The Oxford County "graft" case is ended by M. T. Buchanan pleading guilty and promising restitution.

June 8. It is stated that Provincial Government regulations enact that none but the British flag will be allowed to fly in the Algonquin National Park.

Sept. 30.-The Report of Dr. R. W. Bruce-Smith, Inspector of Prisons and Public Charities, for the year ending this date, shows 51,177 patients admitted to the Hospitals and 58,098 treated, $180,822 as the Provincial grant and $1,607,518 as the total amount received; 41 City refuges and Houses with 5,992 inmates, a Govment contribution of $83,932 and a total expenditure of $402,839; 31 Orphanages with 4,980 children, a Government grant of $17,643 and total expenditures of $195,929. This work was under the administration of the Provincial Secretary-Hon. W. J. Hanna.

Provincial. Education

Its Progress

and Problems

Educational conditions during the year were marked by substantial progress along certain lines. In his annual Report the Minister of Education (Hon. R. A. Pyne) dealt with conditions in 1911 and the statistics of 1910. He was able to say that in the previous five years the expenditure upon primary education alone had risen from $6,100,000 in 1905 to $9,300,000 in 1910. "This satisfactory state of affairs is a good indication of the manner in which the people have realized their responsibilities for the proper education of their children. They have felt that Canada cannot lag behind in a matter of such paramount importance as education. No public money is more wisely spent, and none brings in richer returns to the State than that spent upon the schools. The expansion of Canada in material things would be of little worth if a decline in educational enthusiasm were to accompany it. Fortunately the contrary spirit has asserted itself, and while the record can be dwelt upon with satis

faction, it should not blind us to the larger necessities of the future."

Normal-trained teachers were steadily replacing those with 3rd class certificates-the latter being gradually restricted to new districts or the poorer counties. The shortage of teachers was still a difficulty caused by the Western demand and by general prosperity. It was being met by compelling students in training schools to pledge their first year's teaching to Ontario and by paying larger salaries-the average rural salary increasing in 1910 by $24 for male teachers and $32 for female and the urban salaries $80 for male and $33 for female. During 1911 there were 1,034 pupils admitted to the Normal and Model Schools of whom 379 were proceeding to the higher-grade certificates. In this connection the Minister pointed out that teaching was no longer a convenient stepping-stone to other professions and urged School Boards to increase salaries wherever possible. He also made a new suggestion: "School Boards might do something by providing residences for teachers and thus present a tangible inducement to adopt teaching as a permanent profession." Other lines of Departmental work were reviewed as follows:

The new Act of 1911 providing machinery for the establishment of classes for industrial training has already lent stimulus to the movement for what is comprehensively termed 'Technical Education.' In a number of urban centres the Advisory Boards, whose special concern it is to institute and develop these classes, have been set up and the result thus far is eminently encouraging. The appointment of Dr. F. W. Merchant as Director of Industrial and Technical Education will enable a thorough organization and inspection of the work to be made throughout the Province. Without waiting for such encouragement as the Federal authorities may decide to give to Technical training, as part of the duty which the Dominion Government must discharge in respect of national industrial efficiency, the Legislature last year voted an ample sum of money for immediate purposes and will be asked to supplement the grant during the coming year. The agricultural courses established in connection with the High Schools have led to such promising results that a number of new centres have been provided during the year. Another step of equal importance was taken in 1911 in order to promote elementary agricultural instruction in the rural public schools. Professor S. B. McCready, of the Staff of the Ontario Agricultural College at Guelph, has been transferred to this Department and appointed Director of Elementary Agricultural Education. To inspect and encourage the schoolgarden work connected with the rural schools is one of the duties of the new Director, and the prospect of a general extension of this practical application of agriculture to the school programme, is excellent. There were in 1910 just 17 school-gardens in the Province upon which grants aggregating $750 were paid, while at the close of 1911 the returns showed 33 school-gardens with grants aggregating $2,320.

.

Special attention was paid to New Ontario and its pioneer activities and difficulties. To quote the Minister again: "The placing of a Normal School at North Bay was designed to supply for the northern schools teachers possessing a knowledge of the country. A Model School with a four months' course of training is also connected with the Normal School at North Bay and, not

withstanding the natural obstacles which exist in the way of securing an adequate supply of local teachers, the initial progress made is satisfactory. The Legislature has been generous in school grants to the North, and in 1911 the sum of $190,000 was voted and expended in this way. The policy of aiding in the building of schools has been followed, and about $7,000 was advanced, under the Inspector's recommendations, to various sections which would have been unable otherwise to erect buildings."

To return to the question of salaries the average of all male teachers (urban and rural alike) in the Public Schools in 1910 was $711 or an increase of $51.00 and of all female teachers $483 or an increase of $34.00; in the High Schools the average for all teachers, of both sexes, was $1,259 or an increase of $64. There were in 1910 138 Continuation schools doing High School work with 5,917 pupils; there were 6 Protestant Separate schools with 419 enrolled pupils, 187 Kindergartens with 18,943 pupils, and 23 Night Schools with 1,645 pupils. The attendance in all the Elementary schools totalled 459,145 and the total number of teachers with 1st class certificates was 834; 2nd class, 5,511; 3rd, 2,370; miscellaneous, 1,803. The teachers who had attended Normal Schools numbererd 5,743 and the total Legislative grant in 1910 was $805,635. Other statistics were as follows:

The Inspector of Public Libraries, W. R. Nursey, reported some progress during 1911. Eight new Libraries were incorporated and two re-established though a number had to be temporarily closed; the Travelling Libraries increased in their demand for books and in numbers from 208 to 242; there was continuous work upon the cataloguing of the Libraries of the Province and 55 were completed; the total Åssets of 131 Free Libraries reported (Dec. 31, 1910) were $2,455,048, Liabilities $219,835, Receipts $310,188, and readers 143,764 with 880,748 volumes in hand and 2,783,439 loaned; 224 Association libraries reported with 463,883 books and 591,847 loaned during the year. The total of all Libraries was 417. In this connection the Ontario Library Association met in Toronto on Apl. 17-18 with A. W. Cameron, B.A., of Woodstock in the chair and addresses from W. R. Nursey and others. Resolutions were passed asking the Ontario Education Department to make it compulsory for school teachers to understand the work of helping and directing children in the choice of books in connection with their studies and the

Dominion Government to appoint a Royal Commission on the establishment of a National Library. L. J. Burpee of the Ottawa Carnegie Library was elected President.

The Ontario Educational Association met in Toronto on Apl. 18-20 and celebrated its 50th anniversary with Dr. F. W. Merchant in the chair, about 800 Delegates present, and a large number of Sections holding separate meetings and discussing a great variety of subjects. Amongst the topics dealt with were the Schools and the Empire (Colonel S. Hughes, M.P.) and Educational Responsibilities; Technical Education in Continuation Schools, the Salaries of Teachers and the Kindergarten programmes; Literature in the Schools and Rapid calculation in figures; the Bible as a Text-Book with a motion in favour of formally authorizing it for instruction which was lost by a small majority; Medical inspection of pupils and the holding of Teachers to contracts; Simplified spelling, the Scotch and Ontario systems of training Teachers, and re-construction of the Rural School system; the teaching of good manners, Personal hygiene, and moral purity, the nature of teaching in England and Household Science instruction in the schools; the question of Commissioners in rural districts instead of elective Trustees.

The new President elected was J. H. Laughton of Parkhill; a Resolution was passed approving a Superannuation scheme which involved the Government's setting aside $60,000 yearly and requiring from teachers three per cent. of all salaries up to $1,000 with a larger percentage above that figure; and one thanking the Government for its new Primers. The Trustees Section also asked the Minister of Education to take the necessary steps to place "personal hygiene and moral purity on the curriculum of studies," and to have treatises on these subjects printed in pamphlet or booklet form for teaching and for reading by the pupils. This Section complimented the Minister upon "the many advances you have made in trying to uplift the Public School to its proper standard, the most commendable one being your efforts to place a professional teacher in every section of the Province." The Presidents of the various Departments or Sections were elected as follows:

Speaking in Toronto on Aug. 30 Dr. Pyne, Minister of Education, took some credit to himself for the growing public interest in Technical Education. It should be assisted by the Federal Government and not left to the Provincial authorities. "We all hope that the result of the Dominion Commission will be that grants will be given from the Federal Treasury to each Province and then let each Province work out its own salvation." Meanwhile, on June 1st, the appointment of Dr. F. W. Merchant as Provincial Director of Industrial and Technical Education was announced by the Premier. Dr. Merchant was to remain Inspector of Normal and Model Schools, his successor in the Inspectorate of Public and Separate Schools was to be R. H. Cowley, M.A., while Dr. John Waugh replaced Mr. Cowley as Inspector of Continuation Schools with G. K. Mills, B.A., as an Associate Inspector.

An important and rather sensational issue developed during the year as the result of a statement by Mrs. May R. Thornley, President of the W.C.T.U. of London, before the Ministerial Association of that City on Mch. 20th. She there stated that there were 40 Clubs in London where liquor-drinking, gambling and other vices were practised and added: "The vicious tendencies of to-day start in the Public Schools and Collegiates. In London we are no worse than they are all over the Province but the conditions are terrible to consider. They start in the primaries and run right through our schools." This statement evoked wide criticism and much local indignation. Mayor Beattie issued a statement saying that Mrs. Thornley must either prove or retract her charges and the Chairman of the Local Board of Education emphatically denied the statement. La Presse of Montreal (Mch. 30) accepted the assertions as correct; H. Dickinson of Toronto, with 10 years experience in Ontario teaching, stated in The Globe of Apl. 5 that Mrs. Thornley was well within the truth in her general statement; Inspector Archibald said to the same paper on Apl. 6th that "hundreds and hundreds of cases of the immorality complained of in London have come to my notice and I have heard some very bad things. It is criminal in the extreme not to educate our children in morals.”

There were many letters in the papers and they were largely pessimistic in tone. John Wallis, Principal of the Queen Alexandra School, Toronto, wrote the press at length reviewing the situation which he declared to be worse in localities at one time, than at another, and as growing more outside of than within school limits. The Globe of Apr. 17 drew earnest attention to the immoral literature and vile booklets and picture cards which had flooded the country in recent years; Dr. White of Lindsay, President of the Trustees Section of the Educational Association, stated (Apl. 18) that "Immorality is more prevalent in the schools, and consequently out of the schools, than it ought to be " while a deputation led by the Rev. Laurence Skey of Toronto told the Section