The superintendent of education is appointed by the governor in council, and is also the secretary of the council of public instruction. His duties are generally the same as those of a minister of education, with the exception that he has not to find a constituency for election, and is answerable directly to the government instead of to the house of assembly. The education department in Nova Scotia has hitherto had the good fortune of being considered nonpartisan, although the council is exclusively made up of the members of the provincial cabinet and its secretary, the superintendent.

The district commissioners of schools are continuations of the boards which were in 1832 invested with the power of directing and stimulating education in the days of voluntary subscriptions for the support of schools, when local efforts of specified degrees were rewarded by certain provincial grants. There were recently 33 such boards presiding over as many divisions of the Province, but their functions are now mainly confined to the rectification of the bounds of the school sections and the determination of those which, owing to their geographical and other conditions, should be placed on the list of those receiving special aid, one-third more of both the county and provincial grants than the normal ratio.

The inspector, who is appointed by the council of public instruction on the recommendation of the superintendent of education, is the secretary of each of these boards within his inspectorate, but this duty is merely an incidental part of his work. The Province is subdivided into 10 inspectorates, which gives on an average over 200 schools to each inspector. This office is one of the most important in the whole system, for the inspector directly inspects each school within his district, makes up the pay list from the return from each of the schools, pays the provincial and county grants to the teachers and trustees, when the same is authorized to be paid from the education department, to which a summary of all returns, etc., is promptly sent as the basis of the division of the funds; withholds approval from returns of schools in which the law has not been observed until there is the required reform, etc. The inspectors are the direct agents of the education office, reporting monthly on all the schools visited by them, and coming into authoritative contact with teachers and trustees in every section of the Province.

Local authorities.-The school section is the unit corporation for school purposes, and geographically includes a territory about 4 miles in extent with the school near the center. There is an injurious tendency in many sections to reduce the geographical limits of the section for the purpose of having all the children near the school, while neither the wealth nor the population of the section will allow a good teacher to be employed. The experience of the educational authorities proves that under ordinary circumstances it is better to be 2 miles distant from a good school than to be only 1 mile from a poor school. The section is governed by a board of three trustees, one of whom retires each year at the annual meeting of the section, when his successor is elected. In towns having a municipal government the board of trustees is known as the school commissioners, three of whom are appointed by the municipal council and two by the provincial government, one member each retiring annually. In the city of Halifax there is a board of 12 school commissioners, 6 appointed by the city council and 6 by the provincial government, the two senior of each group retiring after serving three years. Cities or towns, no matter how much their extent may exceed the normal 4 miles, form but one school section. The great mass of school sections are rural, with a simple board of three trustees; the number of sections in 1898 was 1,874.

The annual school meeting is the most important educational event in the rural school section. Except in certain specified sections it is fixed by law to be held on the last Monday of June, just before the close of the schools for the year, and seven or eight weeks or more before the opening of the schools in the new school year. It is the annual parliament of the section, where the taxpayers assemble to discuss the educational administration, elect the new trustees, and vote the amount of supply to be levied upon the section for the support of the schools for the following year. The sum of the valuations of the property within school sections having schools was in 1897 $80,738,448, in 1898 $81,726,341, and in 1900 $82,641.987. The value of the school property itself was in these years $1,484,635, $1,502,711, and $1,675,629, respectively. The total amount voted at the annual meeting of 1900. to be assessed on the section property, was $519,620. $120,551 of which was for building and repairs and $380,681 to supplement the fund from the other two sources for the salaries of teachers. One of these sources is the county fund, which is raised under the statute by the collection, with the rates (property taxes) of each county, of an additional sum equal to 30 cents per head for each inhabitant

within the county at the last decennial census. This fund is distributed annually to the board of trustees of each section which conducts an approved public school as follows: First, a small grant of $25 for each teacher employed for the year in the section; then the balance and greater portion is divided to each section in the municipality in proportion to the grand total days' attendance made by the pupils in each school according to the returns sent in at the end of the year. This stimulates the trustees to secure as large an attendance of pupils as possible, in order to increase their revenues from this source.

The provincial grant is the third source of revenue for the support of the school, but it is paid directly to the teacher and is dependent on the class of license held as well as on the number of days taught. Originally a Class D, or thirdclass, teacher received a grant of $60 per annum; Class C, or second-class, teacher, $90; Class B, or first-class, $120, as well as Class A, or county academy, teachers who were not engaged in a county academy. But in 1888, in order to prevent an excessive growth of the grant from the provincial treasury, the sum total was definitely fixed at $167,500, and in 1895 at $182,500 (in 1900 raised to $190,000), to be paid in joint proportion to the days taught and the scale above given. The scale was extended to allow $180 for Class A teachers as subordinates, and $220 as principals of schools with high-school departments of prescribed magnitude. For 1900 the total amount of county grant to the school sections was practically the $120,000 authorized, and the total amount of the provincial grant to teachers, 2,485 in number, was practically the $182,500 authorized by the statute.

This sum does not include the grants to the county academies which in 1900 amounted to $16.720. The county academy is that high school within the county which receives a special grant on account of its agreement to admit free any students from the county who are able to pass the county academy entrance examination. This examination is conducted by the staff of the institution under general regulations upon question papers prepared by the education department, on the first eight years' work of the public schools, generally known as the "common school grades. The county academies are of four orders, determined merely by the extent of their equipment, and receive annually the respective grants of $500, $1,500, and $1,720 in lieu of the provincial grant to its teachers. These grants are an inducement to the shire town of each county to make its high school of superior merit as compared with the other high schools which may be within the county and which may capture the grant if the shire town fails to provide the required accommodation. As a matter of fact. there are many high schools in some of the 18 counties of the Province which are superior to the county academies in the poorer counties. The course of study for these institutions is that of the grades IX, X, XI, and, if desirable and possible, XII. The number of high-school students enrolled in the other high-school departments doing exactly the same kind of work, without participation in the academic grant, but in the enjoyment of the less liberal provincial grants to teachers according to the general system, was 4,053. Not being subject to the special testing of the county academies, these numbers include a greater proportion of pupils who are not so fully up to the standards. In many of the "common schools

a few of the pupils are doing a portion of the high-school work, as are also some special students in the high school proper. These numbered during the same year 1,652.

From 1864 to 1880 the only suggestion of a course of study for the common (elementary) schools was the list of books prescribed and for the high (secondary) schools the syllabus of the teacher's examination, of which there were four grades, known as D, C, B. and A, one advancing above the other by about an average year's work, except the latter, which meant about two years' additional work, and fitted a candidate for a county academy head master's diploma.

From 1880 to 1885 the educational department, assisted by the provincial educational association, developed a course of study for the common schools first, then for the high schools. In 1893 the high-school course was made the basis of a system of high-school examinations, which are now held at forty different stations throughout the Province in the first week of July, the closing week of the school year. Provincial certificates of grades D, C, B, and A are given to all candidates with the value of each subject or paper as marked by the provincial examiner of that subject, those not reaching the prescribed standard for a "pass" receiving a "decapitated" certificate bearing simply the full details of the examination record. Foreign languages are optional in this course. In the twelfth grade of the public schools, which is the fourth grade of the high schools, or grade A, there is a bifurcation into a classical side and a scientific side with a nucleus of subjects in common, leading respectively to the certificates of A (class

ical) and A (scientific). The secondary schools are in this manner federated into a species of provincial university of secondary rank. The certificates of scholarship of the various grades are accepted as the scholarship qualifications of the different classes of teachers, and also in lieu of the entrance examinations into the various universities and technical colleges, thus doing away with the former necessity of having different classes in the same school if students in it were preparing for different colleges. In this manner the articulation of all private as well as public institutions of the higher education with the public-school system is perfectly accomplished. Even when the unsuccessful candidate has not "passed," his certificate, if bearing marks high enough on the various subjects required by the entrance standard of any given institution, will exempt him from examination upon those subjects. As the examination is conducted in the most impersonal manner by provincial examiners whose scholarship is universally acknowledged, and as the course of study and the examination papers themselves, as well as the results, are published in the official journal of the education department, the standards can be most easily understood by all educational officers who accept them at their value.

Classes of schools.-The public schools comprised in the system above outlined include the common school of eight grades (when possible, a preliminary year of kindergarten for pupils under 5 years of age is allowed) and the high school of four grades.

Qualifications and classification of teachers.-Teachers must have a Government license, which is granted upon proof of scholastic and professional qualifications. The former are tested by an examination which, as stated above, is either that required for graduation from a high school or its equivalent. For professional qualification the candidate must be either a graduate from the normal school or must pass an examination in the theory and art of teaching.

Teachers are classified in four grades. The school trustees of each district determine the amount of salary for the teachers of the same, but, as explained above, the provincial regulations fix the amount of the Government grant payable to the teacher of each class.

For the year ending July, 1901, the average salaries from all sources were as follows:

The development of the normal school (which receives an annual grant from the treasury, amounting in 1901 to $11,896) and the establishment of manual training schools in close relation with it are the most noteworthy recent events in the educational record of the province. With respect to these developments the superintendent says:

The provincial normal school, which has always been doing good work from the date of its institution, under Dr. Forrester in 1855, has now been more fully equipped than ever before.

The new science building, which also functions as the school of agriculture, has been completed with a full set of well-furnished laboratories for biological work, qualitative and quantitative chemical work, mineralogical and geological work, and a special library. The main building has been partly remodeled internally, fitted up with modern accommodations, a physical laboratory, and an enlarged general library.

The Macdonald Manual Training School, under the charge of T. B. Kidner and his staff, is installed in the original normal school building of 1855 and looks out on the campus of the new building.

The Truro Domestic Science School, under the directorship of Principal CampED 1902-29

bell, and also affiliated to the normal school, is by the side of the manual training school.

And finally, the public schools of Truro are affiliated as training schools, where student teachers have to develop power and demonstrate their skill in teaching a regular school. These schools are conducted by an able staff of teachers.

The school of agriculture has its lecture headquarters and its chemical and biological laboratories and greenhouse in the science building of the normal school. The dairy, live stock, barns, piggery, poultry, agricultural, and horticultural operations are used in the practical instruction on the provincial farm. The teachers in attendance at the normal school are required to take courses here to enable them to understand the elements of agriculture, to the extent of being able to interest their pupils in the observation and study of the laws of nature on which the attachment to and success in husbandry greatly depend. Farmers' classes alternate. * * *

In my previous reports I endeavored to show the importance of developing the industrial sentiment in the public schools instead of the professional notion hitherto prevailing so exclusively. I pointed out what was being done in other countries and our own few attempts in school gardening and nature study.

About two years ago, as can be seen from the Journal of Education, I had been considering the possibility of utilizing some of the best trained graduates of the school of agriculture as special teachers of the so-called **nature lessons," which is the elementary scientific basis of the art of agriculture. The plan proposed was to find, say, ten schools which could employ such a teacher half a day each week. But rural trustees who had faith in such a plan to the number of ten in one district of the country could not be found. The teachers trained to give useful nature lessons were very few. Our present normal school, in affiliation with the school of agriculture, is now giving a course of such instruction to all. But a course of even one year, in combination with the other subjects requiring attention, is hardly sufficient to develop the knowledge and power desirable. A graduate course of the school of agriculture is necessary.

Professor Robertson, who is the adviser of Sir William Macdonald's intelligent generosity, directed hitherto especially to manual training schools, and adapted rather to towns and villages than the country, saw from his experience of what was done in some European countries and from the similar work which he had already undertaken, that such a scheme might be demonstrated to be of special value to rural communities.

The idea then in his mind was further matured and expressed at the convention of the dominion educational association in Ottawa. It has later been specifically formulated and published as an experiment which Sir William Macdonald is willing to make to prove its value to rural schools.

The school includes the establishment of a "nature-study" school at Guelph, the homologue of our school of agriculture, in affiliation with the normal school at Truro, and the support of his trained teachers for a few years in a few selected localities in each province of the Dominion. Sir William's demonstration will be profoundly appreciated and eagerly observed in Nova Scotia. However, not only the general public, but teachers whose accomplishments are solely in the department of words instead of things, may find it hard to see the great use of such training. Hence it becomes the duty of all interested in the improvement of our education to think it out fairly and fully before giving expression to opinion. The following tables show the enrollment in public schools and the expenditure for public education for the years specified:

Nova Scotia educational statistics, public schools, 1880-1901.

1880

1885

1890

1895

1900

1901

Total receipts by the Province of Nova Scotia for school purposes, 1880–1901.

Central authority.-The central control of public education in New Brunswick is vested in a board of education comprising the lieutenant-governor, the members of the executive council, the president of the University of New Brunswick, and the chief superintendent of education. The last named is the secretary and chief executive officer of the board. In his appointment regard is had solely to his professional fitness and executive ability.

The board of education has extensive powers. It is authorized to provide for the establishment of a normal school with model or practice departments; to appoint a principal for the same at a fixed salary ($1,400), and to appoint the necessary assistants; to create inspectorial districts and appoint qualified inspectors (not exceeding eight in number); to determine the salaries of these officials and the allowances for traveling, office expenses, etc. (total not to exceed in each case $1,200); to divide the Province into school districts; “to make regulations for the organization, government, and discipline of schools, for the arrangement and order of school premises, and for the classification of schools and teachers; to appoint examiners of teachers, and to grant and cancel licenses;" to prescribe textbooks and apparatus for the use of schools, books for school libraries, plans for the construction and furnishing of schoolhouses, and courses or standards of instruction and study for schools; to determine all cases appealed from the decisions of inspectors; to prepare and publish regulations under which public moneys may be drawn and expended for schools.

Local authorities.-The local school districts into which the Province is divided must contain each not less than fifty resident children, between the ages of 6 and 16 years, unless the area of such district shall contain 4 square miles." Towns, villages, and populous localities having a community of interests form, so far as practicable, single school districts.

The school affairs of each district are managed by a board of trustees. In the villages and rural districts the board comprises three trustees elected by the resident taxpayers. In cities and incorporated towns the members of the school board are appointed for a term of three years, part by the governor in council and part by the city or town council. Two members of the board must be women. Classes of schools.-The public schools are classified as common schools, superior schools, and grammar or high schools. The superior schools are common schools with advanced classes; the law authorizes one such school to every 6,000 inhabitants; the grammar schools are county high schools and, like the high schools of the cities, are essentially secondary schools.

Sources of income.-The funds for the support of the schools are derived from the provincial grant, the county school fund, and the district assessment.

Each teacher is paid from the provincial treasury a fixed amount per school year. This allowance depends partly on the class of license held by the teacher and partly on the grade of school in which he is employed and his position therein.