legislation of some sort. With advancement in most other directions, and with more rigid requirements of teachers as to scholarship and training, they receive no better salaries than were paid twelve years ago; and yet complaint is made that many of the best teachers leave the profession after a few years' service! Perhaps the fault rests more with Trustees than with the general body of the Ratepayers; for it is unfortunately true that in some cases the only interest shown by Trustees in the schools is to keep them closed as long as possible, and, when compelled to open them, to employ the cheapest teachers obtainable without regard to the educational needs of the district. A more summary method than the law provides seems necessary in order to prevent School Trustees from thwarting the purposes for which the School Law was enacted. It is true that many districts throughout the Province are so poor and so sparsely populated that, even with the special Provincial Grant provided in such cases, they are obliged to rest satisfied with school privileges for only a part of the school year, and with teachers who are willing to accept a very small remuneration. This is a disadvantage incident to pioneer life, and cannot be helped, but districts which have an assessable valuation of $20,000 and upwards, are well able to maintain a school permanently, and to employ at a reasonable salary teachers of a class not lower than the Second. In districts having an assessable valuation of $45,000 and upwards, an assessment of not exceeding one dollar on the hundred would provide for the employment of first class teachers at better salaries than the majority of that class receive, and would in addition meet all other necessary expences, with the exception of the cost of new buildings. In the cities, towns and other centres of the population, salaries should be paid which would induce men of ability to devote their lives to the profession, and ensure to them and their families a competence for declining years. The salaries now paid are sufficient to induce a sufficient number of young people to enter the profession; but having entered, and having acquired experience which in other professions would be rewarded with increased remuneration, they see before them so little prospect of payment proportioned to their increased efficiency, and so few avenues of advancement to awaken ambition, that they turn aside into more remunerative paths of activity. If there be a remedy for this evil, it must be found in the direction of paying to experienced teachers much larger salaries than are paid to novices, and in multiplying the positions, in connections with the service, to which good salaries are attached. Of about 1,700 teachers employed the past Term, not more than twenty-five received salaries of over $700, and only ten, including the insructors of the Normal School received a salary of $1,000 and upwards. The responsibility and the remedy rest largly with the wealthier districts. The poorer districts are in many cases doing to the best of their ability. It will be seen from the table given below that 57 per cent. of the amount paid for Teachers' salaries is derived from the Provincial Revenue and the County Fund. TABLE IX.-DISBURSEMEETS OF PROVINCIAL GRANTS. The total amount of Provincial Grants to Teachers for the year ended June 30th, 1893, was as follows: Of the above sum, $7,254.13 were paid as special grants to teachers in poor districts, an increase of $506.52 on special grants of previous year. The total expenditure during the year for the Grammar, Superior and Common Schools (not including district assessments for school buildings, apparatus, fuel, etc.,) is approximately as follows: PROVINCIAL GRANT FOR SCHOOLS FROM THE YEAR ENDING JUNE, 1886, To THE YEAR ENDING JUNE, 1893, INCLUSIVE, AND NUMBER OF TEACHERS EMPLOYED EACH YEAR. *This amount does not include the sum of $1,162.50 paid to the School for the Blind in Halifax, for the support and education of sixteen New Brunswick pupils. It will be seen from the table given above that there has been an increase of 65 teachers in the last two years, and an increase of Provincial Grants for the same time of $9,990.74. The increase in the Provincial Grants is accounted for not only by the increase in the number of teachers employed, but by an upward tendency in the class of teachers employed. The increase in the number of Teachers of the First Class during the last two years has been 64; of the Second Class, 30, and the decrease of the Third Class, 29. These facts show decided progress from an educational standpoint. TABLE X.- APPORTIONMENT OF COUNTY FUND TO SCHOOL TRUSTEES. Under the provisions of the law for the distribution of the County Fund, the following amonnts were paid: Term ending Dec., 1892: To Boards of Trustees in respect of the services of teachers,.. $24,926 11 21,102 63 $46,028 74 586 46 600 00 $47,215 20 $23,310 07 To Boards of Trustees in respect of Teachers,... .... To Institution for Deaf and Dumb (Table XI),. "School for the Blind, Halifax Total for Term,... $47,215 20 Of the above amount $4,866.47 was paid as extra aid to Poor Districts. It will be seen from the last column of this table that in respect to attendance of pupils the Districts in the County of Gloucester show the maximum average per pupil received from the County Funds, viz.: 93 cts, for Ordinary Districts and $1.24 for Poor Districts; and that the County of Queens shows the minimum average per pupil from County Fund, viz.: 29 cts. for Ordinary Districts and 39 cts. for Poor Districts. The general average for the province is 57 cts. for Ordinary Districts and 76 cts. for Poor Districts. The County Fund is withheld from Boards of Trustees which refuse to comply with the Inspectors' recommendation in respect of apparatus, repairs, etc. TABLE XI.-GRANTS TO THE BLIND ASYLUM, HALIFAX, AND TO THE DEAF AND DUMB INSTITUTION, FREDERICTON. The following provisions for the education of the Blind and of the Deaf Mute children of the province were enacted in 1892: For every blind person received into the Halifax Asylum or other Institution for the Blind, approved as aforesaid pursuant to this Act, and educated and boarded therein, the Board of Managers of such School or Institution for the Blind shall be entitled to receive from the Provincial Treasury, at the rate of $75 per annum payable halfyearly, and also to receive at the same rate from the County School Fund of the Municipality to which the said blind person belongs. This section to apply to the blind persons in attendance at the Halifax Institution at the time of the passing of this Act." "The Trustees or Board of Managers of the Deaf and Dumb Institution in Fredericton shall be entitled te receive from the County School Fund of the County to which any deaf or deaf mute person received into the said Institution, and educated and boarded therein, belongs, at the rate $60 per year, payable half-yearly. This Section to be applicable to children at the Institution at the time of the passing of this Act." Under these provisions the Managers of the Blind Asylum, Halifax, received for the Term ended December, 1892, the sum of $600 from the Provincial revenue, and an equal sum, in the aggregate, from the County Funds of Albert, Carleton, Kings, Northumberland, Queens, Restigouche, St. John, and Westmorland; and for the Term ended June, 1893, $562.50 from the Province, and an equal sum from the Counties named above. The total number of New Brunswick pupils was 16 for the First Term named and 15 for the Second. At the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb there was an attendance of 23 pupils for the term ended December, 1892, and 32 for the term ended June, 1893; on account of these the Institution drew from the County Fund of the several Counties from which the pupils came, $586.46 for the First Term named and $920.05 for the Second Term. Other interesting details will be found in the table, and in the Reports of the Principals found in Appendix E, to which I beg to direct attention. TABLE XII. - SUPERIOR SCHOOLS. The total amount disbursed during the year for Superior School service was $12,007.54. During the term ended December, 1892, there were 48 schools in operation, and 50 the following term. According to the census of 1891, the number of Superior Schools allowed by law for the several Counties on the basis of population are as follows: Albert, 1; Carleton, 3; Charlotte, 4; Gloucester, 4; Kent, 4; Kings, 4; Madawaska, 1; Northumberland, 4; Queens, 2; Restigouche, 1; St. John, 8; Sunbury, 1; Victoria, 1; Westmorland, 7; York, 5. Total for Province, 50. An additional school may be established in each county, on the recommendation of the Inspector, and several of the counties have availed themselves of this provision. The school accommodation, appliances and premises in all Superior Schools must be satisfactory to the Inspector, who shall report thereon to the Chief Superintendent. At the closing Examinations in 1895 and thereafter, Candidates who may wish to qualify themselves for the Principalship of Superior Schools will be required to pass an examination in Elementary Latin Grammar, and One Book of Cæsar, or its equivalent. The number of pupils receiving instruction in the Superior Schools in advance of Standard VIII, was 242 for the Second Term of 1892, an increase of 21 on the number for the corresponding term of 1891, and 248 for the First Term of 1893—an increase on corresponding term of previous year of 18. The following table shows the Superior Schools which have pupils above Grade VIII, and the number of pupils in the higher grades: Superior Schools Giving Instruction Above Grade VIII. |