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OUR ISLAND STORY ” ' I _ 55

In the year 1851 there‘were established, according to the law, fifty—seven schools in ‘Queen’s County, with two thousand four hundred and three scholars; thirty-three schools in ‘King’s 'County, with one thousand three hundred and fourteen schOlars; and thirty—two schools in Prince County, with one thousand and nineteen scholars,--—a total of one hundred and twenty-two schools ‘ and four thousand seven hundred and fifty-six Scholars. ‘

At the opening of the Legislature, in the year 1852, the Lieu— tenant Governor directed attention to the “lamentable want of education," and “the great apathy which seems to have prevailed on this most important question ” “It becomes, therefore," he said, “the duty of the Legislature to put their shoulders to the 'wheel, and 1n addition. to the provisions they make for the Academy

in Charlottetown and the district schoolmasters, to take care that.

the inestimable blessings of education be extended to every corner Of this colony." ’

The members of the Legislature did, accordingly, “put their

shoulders to the wheel.” Education was the chief t0pic of the .

Session. A special committee, appointed in the session of the previous year, to enquire into “the expediency of making educa-

tion free,”reported that the number of pupils attending the schools ,5 i had decreased and was decreasing. 'In 1844 there were a hundred

and twenty-six public schools, imparting instruction to 5040 schol'

~ ars, while in 1850 there were only a hundred and thirty schools,

including primary and infant schools, and 4547 pupils-” showing ' a. decrease of pupils, although during that period the increase of

children under sixteen years of age was about 7,000.” The com- mittee expressed the opinion that "unless the schoolmasters’ salaries are wholly paid by the Government and a system of Free . ,Education established, many settlements will not be able to reap

_, the benefits of education for the rising generation.” They, there—

fore", recommended that “a bill be passed providing means to es—'

tablish schools on the Free System throughout the ISland, and

that a tax of one halfpenny per acre be imposed upon all lands, .

in addition to the present land assessment, with proportionate levies 1n respect to town and pasture lots.”

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