Women’s Institute groups have promoted School Fairs, Garden 
     
     Clubs, Sewing Clubs, and 4-H Clubs for our young people. They were 
     
     the first to promote Music in the rural schools. Two W.I. Convention 
     
     areas carried on individual pilot projects, in the rural Charlottetown 
     
     area and in the Kensington area. In the latter area, their first music 
     
     teacher, a university graduate in music, had fourteen classrooms un- 
     
     der her tuition. Her salary was raised entirely in this area 
     
     by contributions from the W.I.’s and the Kensington High School, and 
     
     by means of three Festivals held near the close of the school year. 
     
     Government assistance was received in succeeding years, and now, 
     
     with music as a subjec‘t of the curriculum the salary of the music 
     
     teacher in the school is government paid. 
     
    

    
     These projects were the forerunner of the Prince Edward 
     
     Island Musical Festival with the Charlottetown Rural Area spear- 
     
     heading the movement. 
     
    

    
     New desks, cupboards, bookcases, pencil sharpeners, books, 
     
     pictures and pianos have been provided, as well as sand tables, scrap 
     
     books of current events, modern maps, globes, dictionaries, reference 
     
     books, clocks, kettles, electricity, sinks, bells, waste paper baskets, 
     
     prizes, and window blinds. Hot beverages and/or hot lunches were 
     
     provided. One of the biggest improvements was the installation of 
     
     indoor septic toilets, the idea for which came from the late Premier 
     
     Walter Jones, was enthusiastically promoted by the Provincial W.I. 
     
     Board, and carried out in practically every rural school by the local 
     
     W.I. branch, with government assistance providing half the cost. The 
     
     W.I.’s have never hesitated to use the mop and scrubbing brush when 
     
     circumstances demanded it. 
     
    

    
     Thousands of dollars have been spent every year by the Wom- 
     
     en’s Institutes on the schools. N ow that modern rural schools (which 
     
     in many instances the W.I’s have helped to finance) have greatly re- 
     
     placed the old buildings, the Institutes keep their finger in the pie 
     
     through their monthly visits, reporting in turn to their School Boards 
     
     the current needs of the classrooms, contribute to school projects. 
     
    

    
     It was only a step from the rural school to the rural commun— 
     
     ity. Sadly enough, 2000 young people annually left the Island prov- 
     
     ince to live elsewhere — in earlier years, to the New England States, 
     
     butlatterly to Central Canada. It has always, therefore, been the aim 
     
     of the Women’s Institutes to make country life more attractive by 
     
     providing better facilities for education by requesting further 
     
     Teacher-training at Prince of Wales College, (especially through 
     
     Summer Schools), by providing school libraries, and by championing 
     
     the Carnegie Library Project under Miss Bateson; here they did a 
     
     magnificent job in local organization. They have planted trees along 
     
     streets, cleaned up cemeteries, and unsightly spots, built community 
     
     halls and rinks, tennis courts, sidewalks, improved grounds around 
     
     Memorials. (e.g. almost $7000.00 was spent in the year 1930-31 on 
     
     communities); music and drama are promoted, and they partici— 
     
     pate in the Rural Beautification competitions for school and com- 
     
     munity. For 3 years the Provincial BoaN sponsored the Audubon 
     
     Screen Lecture Tours, bringing experts in Wild Life and Conserva- 
     
     tion to the Island. 
     
    
   
   
    
     -97..