160 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND 
     
    
   
   
    
     such occasion. On the arrival of His Honor the Lieutenant 
     
     Governor, the guard presented arms and the band played the 
     
     National Anthem. The usual salute of 15 guns was also fired 
     
     from Fort Edward by Major Morris’s battery of artillery, as His 
     
     Honor departed from Government House. A new school law 
     
     was passed this year dealing successfully with the delicate and 
     
     difficult problem of our school question; which law is now 
     
     admitted by all classes and creeds among us, to be well adapted 
     
     to the educational wants of a mixed community like ours. 
     
    
   
   
    
     The administration, of the Province is vested in a Board of 
     
     Education, a Chief Superintendent and Inspectors. Each Dis- 
     
     trict has a local Board of Trustees, elected annually by the 
     
     ratepayers. The salaries of the teachers are paid from the 
     
     Provincial Treasury, but may be supplemented by local assess- 
     
     ment, in which case the Treasury pays a further equal amount. 
     
     The Government subsidy varies, according to grade, from $180 
     
     to $450 for male teachers, and from $130 to $380 {or female 
     
     teachers. The success of the school law is very clearly shown 
     
     by the fact that within the first eighteen months of its operation 
     
     the attendance of pupils at the public schools increased by over 
     
     five thousand. 
     
    
   
   
    
     The annual training of militia commenced in july this year. 
     
     The Provincial Rifle Association held its meeting at Kensington, 
     
     in August, which was largely attended. At the close of the 
     
     contest, Gunner Alexander Home, rst artillery, was declared 
     
     the winner of the rst prize of $60, accompanied by the 
     
     Association medal. 
     
    
   
   
    
     On the 22nd of November the Hon. J. C. Pope was elected 
     
     member of the Dominion House of Commons, for Queen’s 
     
     County, in place of the Hon. David Laird, who was appointed 
     
     Lieutenant Governor of the Province of the North West 
     
     Territories. Mr. Pope was subsequently made Minister of 
     
     Marine and Fisheries, a change of government having taken 
     
    
   
   
    
     place under the leadership of the renowned veteran Sir John 
     
     A. McDonald. 
     
    
   
   
    
     On the occasion of the assembling of parliament, 1877, the 
     
     guard of honor, accompanied by the militia band, was com- 
     
     manded by Major Morris, while the usual salute of 15 guns 
     
     was fired from Fort Edward by the rst battery of artillery. 
     
    
   
   
    
     The annual drill was again ordered to take place at local