OUR ISLAND STORY THE FIFTH CHAPTER

Free Education For The Children of the People.

In the years following the settlement of Prince Edward

Island not much attention was paid to the education of the youth -

of the colony. To conquer the forest and obtain a livelihood were then the essential requirements and objects alike of immi- grants and natives. Comparatively few of those who came first to this Island, had gone to school in the Mother Country. Whe- ther born in France, England, Ireland or Scotland they were, for the most part, illiterate. They arrived here in shiploads and in a state of poverty. Nor were the means of learning and mental culture easily available. A feW‘ itinerant schoolmasters gave in- struction, throughout the country, to the children of parents who appreciated the great practical value of a knowledge of the three R’s. In Charlottetown a private school or two were early

established.

The first movement towards a public school system for the I Island was made. in the year 1804. I Land on which to build an' academy in Charlottetown was, in that year, granted by the Gov- -

ernment, of which Lieutenant Governor Fanning was the official

head. The College Square, upon which Prince of Wales College is . snow situate, was then set apart for the purpose of “laying the - foundation of a college thereon for the education of the youth in r

the learned languages, the liberal arts and sciences, and all the branches of useful and polite literature.” But not until the year 1825 did the Legislature undertake to assist in the education of

Children throughout the Island. An Act- passed in that year _

authorized the payment of small grants of public money to aid. the people in the erection of schoolhouses and in the payment of teachers. But the responsibility of parents for the payment of