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JOURNAL OF EDUCATION

VOL. III.

FOR

Upper Canada.

TORONTO, AUGUST, 1850.

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I have the honour to transmit to you herewith, a copy of the Common School Act for Upper Canada, which, having passed the Legislative Council and Assembly, received the Royal sanction and came into force on the 24th instant; and I desire to direct the attention of the Council over which you have been chosen to preside, to the duties which will devolve upon it under the provisions of this Act.

Though the Act is new, the provisions of it are mere renewals of the provisions of the general School Act of 1846 and the City and Town School Act of 1847-combined into one Act, with a new and more simple arrangement, and such additional provisions as experience has suggested, and the progress of the schools and the new system of Municipal Councils seem to require. The duties of the County Councils under the new School Act are substantially the same as were those of the District Councils under the School Act of 1846, with this exception, that the County Council is relieved from the task of forming and altering school-sections, and of considering applications and levying assessments for the erection and repairs of school-houses.

Under our present system of Municipal Councils, a two-fold provision has been made to enable the people, through their local representatives, to meet together and manage their local affairs: The one is by the meeting of the representatives of the several Townships collectively in County Councils; the other is by the meeting of the several representatives of a Township in such Township separately. It is the several Townships that act in the one case as well as in the other; but in the one case they act collectiveZy, and in the other separately. Of course some diversity of opinion may naturally exist as to the precise parts of a school system which can be best managed by the Townships in their collective or separate representative capacity. After large consultation and much consideration, it has been decided that the Townships separately can best arrange the boundaries of school-sections and do what may be deemed expedient in providing school sites, and for erecting and repairing school houses and imposing other schoolsection assessments; but that the Townships can best consult collectively in regard to the selection of proper School Superintendents, and can best arrange for the more uniform, certain and punctual providing and payment of the local assessment moiety of the School Fund.

It will be seen by the first section of the new School Act, that all lawful proceedings and obligations of every description which have taken place under former school acts are confirmed until fulfilled or modified according to the provisions of this Act. The du

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ties of the County Council are specified in the several clauses of the 27th section of the Act.

1. The first and immediate duty of the County Council will be to cause to be levied upon the several Townships represented in the Council a sum or sums at least equal (clear of all charges of collection) to the sum or sums of money apportioned to them for the current year out of the Legislative School grant. That apportionment I have notified to the Clerk of your Council, as required by the 35th section of the Act. If any of the Township Councils in your County have anticipated the apportionment of the Legislative grant, and have levied a sum or sums for the payment of the salaries of teachers equal to the amount of the legislative grant apportioned to such municipalities therein, then it will be unnecessary, in such cases, for the County Council to impose any further assessment. But in every case the County Council must see that the local assessment part of the School Fund is available to Teachers before the end of the second half-year-the Legislative grant part of it being payable at the end of the first half-year. In the neighbouring state of NewYork, this order of proceeding is reversed. The County assessment part of the School Fund must be imposed and collected and attested to the State Superintendent, before the State part of the Fund apportioned to any County can be paid. In my circular addressed to Wardens of Districts, and dated January 16th, 1848,* I called the attention of Municipal Councils to the great injustice to Teachers," and injury to the efficiency of the school system, arising from the non-payment of the local assessment part of the School Fund at the end of the year. Several Councils provided forthwith for the future punctual payment of the amount of the local school assessment prescribed by law, on or before the fourteenth day of December of each year. What several Councils se promptly and advantageously did in the cases referred to, the new School Act requires to be done in every case.

2. The securing, and mode of paying, the local School Fund is another subject which will engage the attention of the County Council. The new School Act contemplates but one financial officer and his subordinates in each county. If the payment of the School moneys in each. District by one financial officer (in the person of the District Superintendent of Schools) has, during the last few years, been attended with no inconvenience equal to the advantages of it, of course no greater inconvenience will be experienced by confining the payment of such moneys to the County Treasurer. But if the County Council deem it expedient, it can appoint any number of sub-Treasurers, even to the Treasurer of each Township as a sub-Treasurer, duly providing for uniformity of responsibility and obligation in the method and punctuality of payments of school-moneys. Under this system, local Superintendents will be under no temptation, at any time, from considerations of personal convenience, to withhold or delay the payment of school moneys; they will be relieved from keeping financial accounts, and from giving sureties as heretofore. The mode of accounting for the expenditure of school-moneys will be extremely simple and complete. No receipts need be given or taken. The order of the Trustees in behalf of a legally qualified Teacher will be the Local Superintendent's authority in each instance, for his cheque upon the County-Treasurer or Sub-Treasurer; and the Local Superintendent's cheque will in each instance be such Treasurer or Sub

See Appendix to the Provinsial School Report for 1847, page 21.

The

Treasurer's receipt for the school-money paid out by him. duty of the County Auditors will be plain and easy; and the school moneys will be best secured against every kind of misappropriation.

3. The next most important duty which the new School-Act devolves upon the County Council, is the annual appointment of Local Superintendents of Schools. I believe that it is generally agreed that it is not expedient or desirable to have both County and Township Superintendents; but as to which class of these local school officers should be provided, there is considerable diversity of opinion-some preferring a County Superintendent, others desiring Township Superintendents. The new School Act leaves the decision of this question to the choice of the Local Representatives of the people assembled in County Councils-each Council having authority o appoint a School Superintendent for each Township, or for two, three or four Townships, or for a County, provided it does not contain more than one hundred Schools. In some municipalities, where the duties of the office have been very imperfectly discharged, doubts are entertained by many persons as to the utility of the office at all; but this is not the case where the office is filled with ability,diligence and skill; and School Countries are unanimous in their judgment and practice as to the vast importance of an efficient local inspection and supervision of schools.*

The new School Act, by fixing the minimum of the allowance of a Local Superintendent, has relieved the Municipal Council of what bas often proved an embarrassing and thankless duty. During the last session of the New-York State Legislature, a Bill was introduced, on the recommendation of the State Superintendent of Schools and the Report of a Select Committee, providing for the abolition of the office of Town Superintendents and the appointment of a School Superintendent for each Legislative Assembly District-analogous to an electoral riding with us. The salary of each Superintendent was fixed at $500 per annum. There are 128 Assembly Districts and 11,000 Schools in the State--giving an average of about 86 schools to each Superintendent, who was required to visit each school twice a year, with a remuneration of nearly six dollars per school. With us, under the new School Act, the Local Superintendent is required to visit each school under his charge at least once in each quarter, and to deliver a public educational lecture in each section once a year, besides various other duties prescribed by law; and the minfmum of his remuneration is fixed at one pound per school-a less sum than is given to Local Superintendents by most of the Township Councils from which I have heard the present year. Persons who offer their services at a very low figure in order to get an office, generally do little that is of any value after they get the office, and then justify their inefficiency by the plea that they do more than they are paid for. It is of very little importance to the people at large whether a Local Superintendent receives a few shillings more or less per school; but it is of the greatest importance to them and their children, whether an able supervision be provided for their schools. Under the provisions of the new School Act, new and feeble Townships can be provided with an efficient School Superintendence, and aided, if not altogether relieved, in regard to its remuneration.f

* The following remarks, from a late New-York School Report, deserves the deep attention of all Municipal Councils, School Trustees and other friends of popular education:

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The success of schools is based upon two things which are closely connected and mutually dependent on each other; viz. the pre-eminent moral and intellectual qualifications of teachers, and the active and vigilant supervision of inspectors to render the methods of teaching more and more perfect. If either of these be wanting, the whole fabric receives a shock from which it is unable to recover. The great and important object is to have good schools. To have none is a great disadvantage; but to have bad schools in which error is taught and learned, is a great misfortune. A superintendng power is the main spring of all schools. A moment's reflection will satisfy any one that the whole must hinge upon it. If the education of the people be seriously taken up, we may rest assured that the whole vigor and life of that education will depend upon the system by which it is to be regulated. If it be weak and insecure, the schools will make no advance; they may, by some transient circumstances, have a momentary success, but there will be no security that they do not speedily fall back into a deplorable state of langour. If, however, these schools are placed under a vigorous and active government, the spirit of that government will be communicated to every part of the machine, and will impart to it life and motion."

+ This provision in regard to the duties and minimum of Local Superintendents, 1 first submitted to the consideration of the Government on the 23rd of February, 1849, It formed the 23rd Section of a then proposed "Draft of Bill making further provision for the improvement of Common Schools in Upper Canada,"-designed to remedy the defects of the then existing School law, and to adapt it to the provisions of Mr. Attorney-General

The School Act imposing upon a local Superintendent not only miscellaneous duties which require judgment and knowledge of men and things, but a visitorial examination of each School once a quarter, (which, if conducted as the law expressly enjoins, cannot be performed in more than two Schools a-day,) and a lecture on education in each School Section once a year, and the examination of Teachers for the Schools, the County Council should spare no pains to search out and appoint men as local Superintendents who will command public attention as lecturers, who understand the true principles of school organization and the improved modes of school teaching, who will do justice to the great interests entrusted to them by their examinations of teachers, their visitations of schools, and their patriotic exertions to diffure sound education and knowlege as widely as possible. I doubt not each County Council will respond to the spirit of the New-York State Superintendent of Schools, when he says, "It is fervently hoped that in every election hereafter to be made of a Local Superintendent, the most competent individual, without reference to sect or party, will be selected. On such a subject, where the good of their children is at stake, men should dismiss their narrow prejudices, and tear in sunder the shackles of party. They should consult only the greatest good of the greatest number of the rising generation. They should direct their preferences to those only who are the ardent friends of youthful progress to those only, the smoke of whose incense offered in this holy cause, daily ascends to heaven; whose lips have been touched with a burning coal from the altar."

And as the selection to the office of Local Superintendent of Schools should be made upon the sole ground of personal qualification and character, and irrespective of party considerations, so should the duties of the office be performed in the same spirit, During the recent discussions in the Legislative Assembly on the School Bill, it was averred on all sides that the office of Chief Superintendent of Schools was and should be non-political-that whatever might have been the political opinions of the incumbent, or of his mode of advocating them, previously to his appointment to office, that, as in the case of a judge, he should take no part in party political questions during his continuance in office. On this principle I have sacredly acted since my appointment to office, as was admitted in gratifying terms by all parties in the discussion referred to; and I think the same principle should be insisted upon by each County Council in respect to each local Superintendent of

Baldwin's Municipal Council Bill, then before the Legislature. The following are the reasons I assigned for this provision:

"The Twenty-third Section confers upon Township Superintendents, within the limits of their respective jurisdictions, the powers of District Superintendents, with two vitally important provisos :-The one fixing the minimum of the allowance to Township Superintendents, [at one pound per School the other prescribing additional duties of the highest importance to the progress of Common Schools [namely, that the Superintendent should visit each School once a quarter, and deliver a lecture on Education in each Section, once a year.] Without these provisos, I think the system of Township Superintendents will prove a failure, as it has done in the State of NewYork; with these provisos, I think it will add very greatly to the efficiency of our Common School System. In the Municipal Corporations Bill, I perceive the minimum of allowance to certain officers is prescribed by law; and I think such a provision absolutely essential to the efficiency of the office of Township Superintendent. The inefficiency of the late office of Township Superintendent was, I am persuaded, chiefly owing to the absence of the provisos which 1 here propose. In some instances, persons offered to perform the duties of Township Superintendent gratuitously, and such offers were invariably accepted: but that gratuitous zeal soon subsided; and as gratuitous service is irresponsible service, those who performed it considered themselves entitled to gratitude for the little that they did, rather than liable to blame for the much that they did not. Besides, when there were rival candidates for the office, the lowest bidder almost always received the largest suffrage; but when once in office, he would proportion his work to his compensation. Such was the tendency and practical effects of the system: although there were many honourable exceptions. And a still worse effect of that system was, the appointment, under such circumstances, of many incompetent persons. The first proviso which I propose, will remove all competition for the office upon pecuniary grounds; and while the compensation will be such as to secure the services of competent persons, the duties enjoined by the second proviso can hardly be discharged, or even attempted by incompetent persons. The second proviso will prevent the Councils from appointing persons who are not competent to prepare and deliver lectures; and persons who are competent to do that will be most likely to be qualified to inspect and superintend the Schools- their qualifications for which will be necessarily increased by their obligations to prepare public lectures on such subjects. The second proviso will p.oduce, per annum, 12,000 school visits of Superintendents, instead of 3,000, as at present, besides, 3,000 public school lectures,-one in each School Section in Upper Canada. The vast amount of good which will result from such an arrangement, can scarcely be estimated."-" Correspondence on the subject of the School Law for Upper Canada,” lately laid before, and printed by order of, the Legislative Assembly, page 32.

Schools, and should be faithfully acted upon by every person filling that important office, thus making it equally confided in by all classes of the community. I am sure every Municipal Council in Upper Canada will agree with me, that the entire superintendence of the School system, in all its parts and applications, should be perfectly free from the spirit or tinge of political partizanship—that its influence, like the genial light and warmth of the sun, should be employed for the equal benefit of all without regard to party, sect, or colour.

It will, of course, be a matter of discretionary consideration with each County Council, as to whether it will leave any or all the Township Superintendents in office during the remainder of the current year, before re-appointing or changing them. If not re-appointed or changed, the present local Superintendents will, of course, (as provided by the first Section of the Act) be paid for the current year by the Council appointing them, and according to its agreement with them. But they must henceforth perform their duties according to the provisions of the new School Act,-the basis and authority for all Common School proceedings of every description, In all cases where the superintendence of Schools in any Township has not been provided for the current year, it will be necessary for the County Council to supply that essential instrumentality in the payment of the School moneys and the supervision of the Schools.

By the first section of the Act, you will perceive that all the elections, appointments, contracts, assessments, &c., which have taken place in your Municipality are confirmed until fulfilled or superseded according to the provisions of the same. By the 47th section, you will observe that an election of a new Board of Trustees is provided for in your Municipality the first Tuesday in September next, and that you are authorized and required to give due notices for the holding of such election.

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4. In respect to the exercise of other powers with which the Act invests the County Council, I do not think it necess ry to make more than one or two remarks. I trust that by the commencement of next year, provisions will be made for the establishment of School libraries, when the County Council will be able to judge as to the mode in which it can best employ its legal power for the introduction and diffusion of that most potent element of high civilization. The County Council is, of course, the best judge whether and to what extent it may be desirable and expedient to make provision "to give special or additional aid to new or needy School Sections, on the recommendation of one or more local Superintendents." It will be important that the County Council see that all balances of School moneys yet unexpended and in the hands of any local Superintendent, and all Township Assessments for raising part of the current year's School fund, be paid into the hands of the County Treasurer or Sub-treasurer, and expended and accounted for in the manner prescribed by the Act.

5. The spirit in which the provisions of the new School Act have been, generally speaking, discussed and adopted in the Legislature, I regard as an omen for the good of our country, and worthy of imitation in all Municipal and Local School proceedings throughout Upper Canada. Party differences were not permitted to mar this great measure for the education of the people; and although there were individual differences of opinion among men of different parties as to some details of the Bill, yet men of all parties united in the support of its general principles, and in an earnest desire and effort to render it as perfect as possible in all its provisions. I hope that no party spirit will be permitted to impair the efficiency of its administration in any Municipal Council, public meeting or Corporation. In the great work of providing for the education of the young, let partizanship and sectarianism be forgotten; and all acting as christians and patriots, let us each endeavour to leave our country better than we found it, and stamp upon the whole rising and coming generations of Canada, the principles and spirit of an active, a practical, a generous, and christian intelligence. I have the honour to be, Sir, Your obedient servant,

To the Warden of the-of

[CIRCULAR.]

[OFFICIAL.]

E. RYERSON.

To the Mayors of Cities and Towns in Upper Canada, on the Duties af City and Town Councils under the new Common School Act, 13th and 14th Victoria, Chapter 48.

EDUCATION OFfice, Toronto, August 12th, 1850, SIB,-In transmitting to you a copy of the new Common School Act for Upper Canada, I wish to call the attention of the Council over which you have been elected to preside, to Its principal provisions relative to Cities and Towns. These provisions are contained in Sections 21, 22, 23, 24, and 47.

From the twenty-first and three following sections of the Act, it will be seen, that there is to be but one Board of School Trustees for each City or Town, as there has been since 1847; but that the Board of Trustees is to be elected by taxable inhabitants, instead of being appointed, as heretofore, by the Corporation. It is at variance with a fundamental principle of representative government, to invest a Board of Trustees who are not elected representatives of any constituency, with discretionary power to raise or cause money to be raised for School purposes; it has been found that without such power, their office is quite inadequate to accomplish the objects for which it has been created. There is also reason to believe that, as a general rule, persons who are formally elected by the suffrages of their fellow-citizens at large for the special object. of representing and promoting their educational interests, will be more likely to attend to those interests with greater energy and zeal than the nominees of any Corporation-although much (and in some instances immense) good has been done during the last three years by Boards of Trustees appointed by the Cor porations of the several Cities and Towns in Upper Canada, Under the provisions of the new School Act, the School Trus tees of each City and Town are to be elected by a larger suffrage than the members of the municipal Council, and being the representatives of their fellow-citizens for School purposes, have the management of all the Common School affairs of the City or Town, and determine the sum or sums of money to be raised for Common School purposes, and the manner in which such sum or sums of money shall be provided. But as the whole apparatus of agency for levying and collecting property assessments, has already been created, and is in the hands of the municipal Council, it would be superfluous and bad economy to create a new municipal authority and a new agency of offi cers, &c., for levying and collecting assessments for School purposes. To do this, therefore, devolves upon the municipal Council, whose duty in this respect is strictly ministerial,

This is the system which has been established with so much success in the principal Cities and Towns of the neighbouring States, from which we have adopted so much of our general Common School system. In the City of New-York, for example, the Board of Education (called with us Board of Trustees) the members of which are elected in the several wards of the City, as is provided in the new School Act with us, determines the sum or sums of money necessary for every Common School purpose, and the municipal authorities are required by law to provide the sum or sums thus determined from time to time by the School representatives of the people. And in behalf of no object is there such unanimous and cordial willingness among all classes and parties to contribute liberally, as for the edu cation of the young,

In my Circular, dated the 15th January, 1848, addressed to Heads of City and Town Corporations, I explained at large the system of Schools required to supply the educational wants of Cities and Towns, and for which provision is made by establishing one general Board of Trustees with proper powers, for all the Schools in each City and Town. The expositions referred to, need not be repeated in this place; but after the election of the new Boards of Trustees for Cities and Towns, I shall deem it my duty to address them on the nature of their duties and responsibilities under the provisions of the present School Act; an Act which I trust is destined to confer great and lasting benefits upon the Cities, Towns, and Villages, as well as Counties and Townships, of Upper Canada. I have the honour to be, Sir, Your obedient servant,

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E. RYERSON.

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In the eighteenth, and two following sections of the new Common School Act for Upper Canada, (a copy of which I herewith transmit) special powers and duties are conferred upon Township Councils, in addition to the general powers given them in the third clause of the thirty-first section of the Municipal Corporations? Act, 12th Victoria, chapter 81. On the duties which are thus devolved upon Township Councils, and this part of our School system, I think it proper to offer a few practical remarks.

As in common life, there are some things which each individual can do best alone, and other things which can be best accomplished by combination with others; so in our Municipal and Common School systems, there are some interests which can be best promoted by the Townships separately, and others which can be best consulted by the union of several Townships, assembled, through their representatives, in County Council. The line of demarcation which the Legislature has deemed it most natural and advantageous to draw, in prescribing the respective duties of Township and County Councils, (that is of Townships separately and collectively,) in the administration of the School system, I have pointed out in my Circular to County Wardens; and I need not, therefore, further allude to the subject in this place.

1. The authority and duty of the Township Council to levy assessments on certain conditions for the purchase of school sites, the erection of School-houses, and other Common School purposes, are so plainly stated in the first clause of the 18th Section as to require no other remark than this-that the inhabitants of each School Section ought certainly to be the judges as to assessments levied upon them for the school purposes of their own section, and their wishes should be carried into effect without regard to the opinions of any person not belonging to their Section; and as the Councillors are the proper representatives of the Township on Township affairs, so should the Trustees of each School Section (or a majority of them) be regarded as the representatives of such Section in its School affairs. Such are the true principles involved in this clause of the Act.

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2. The second clause of the 18th Section of the Act, authorizes the Council, at its discretion, to establish a Township Model School. The attempts of local Councils to establish Model Schools have thus far proved entire failures; and, with one exception, think the money applied by the Councils and from the School Grant for such Schools, has done little good. late District Councils have, in every instance except one, abundoned the attempt. I would suggest to each Township Council to consider such a matter well before undertaking it. To the success and usefulness of a Model School, a model teacher, at any expense, is indispensable, and then a Model School-house properly furnished, and then judicious and energetic manage

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3. The third and fourth clauses of this Section, relate to the authority, and duty of the Council in regard to the formation and alteration of School Sections. The formation and alteration of School Sections is a duty, on the judicious performance of which, the efficiency of the Schools greatly depends. The conditions and precautions provided in the new Act relative to The time and manner of making changes in the limits of School Sections, will prevent the recurrence of the evils which have been experienced and the complaints which have been frequently made on this subject, and afford due protection to all. parties effected by such changes. The duty of forming and altering School Sections, which was formerly enjoined upon District Councils, now devolves upon Township Councils. I know not that I can add anything on this point to the remarks which I made in my first Circular addressed to the Heads of District Municipal Councils, 1st Cctober, 1846. Subsequent

experience has only confirmed me in the correctness and im portance of those remarks, which are as follows:

"Much-very much-in respect to the efficiency of Common Schools depends upon the manner in which the provision of the law is acted upon. The tendency is to form small School Sections; each parent is anxious to have the School-house as close to his own door as possible. But the evil of forming small School Sections is as great as the local tendency is strong. I have been much impressed with the magnitude of this evil by the reports of School Superintendents and Inspectors in the States of Massachusetts and New York-countries similarly situated to our own, and whose experience on this important subject is highly valuable to us. They represent that the efficiency and usefulness of their Schools has been greatly retarded by the unwise multiplication of School Sections thus multiplying feeble and inefficient Schools, &c., subdividing the resources of the inhabitants, as to put it out of their power to build proper School-houses, or support competent teachers without incurring a burthen which they are unwilling, if not unable to bear. The same documents also contain many curious statistics, proving that on an average, the punctual attendance and proficiency of pupils residing from one to two miles from the School far exceeds that of those pupils who reside within a less distance. The purport of these statements is to show, that proximity to the School is not essential either to the punctual attendance or to the proficiency of pupils. The managera of Common School education in these States have of late years directed their particular attention to prevent and remedy this evil of small School Sections; and they detail many examples of beneficial success. Some of the advantages of large School Sections are, the lessening of the burthen, upon each inhabitant, in establishing and supporting the schools; the erection of better buildings, and the procuring of greater conveniences for instruction; the employment of better teachers, and, therefore, the benefit of better education for youth. The subject is, therefore, submitted to the grave consideration of the Council, whenever the exercise of this part of its powers may be required."

4. It will be observed that special provision is made for the formation and alteration of union School Sections, consisting of parts of two or more Townships, and that alterations of Sections and the formation of separate Sections, provided for in the 19th Section, take effect the 25th day of December-thus preventing the inconvenience resulting from alterations in School Sections, in the course of the year, and at the same time providing that the annual returns of children of school age residing in each Section the last week in December, shall be a proper basis on which to distribute the School Fund to School Sections the ensuing year. It is hardly necessary for me to direct the, attention of the Council to the notifications required by the third and fifth clauses of this Section of the Act. It is important that the local Superintendent should be made acquainted with all proceedings relative to the Schools of which he has the oversight; and for that reason provision is made in the 5th Section, the 12th clause of the 12th Section, and the 5th clause of this 18th Section of the Act.

5. The provision of the 19th Section, as far as it relates to separate Protestant and Roman Catholic Schools, is substantially the same as that contained in the 55th and 56th Sections of the School Act of 1843 and in the 32nd and 33rd Sections of the School Act of 1846, with the exception that the present Act imposes more effective restrictions and conditions in the establishment of such schools than either of the former Acts referred to. Under the City and Town School Act of 1847, the establishment of separate schools in Cities and Towns was at the discretion of the Municipalities, and not at that of the applicant parties. No complaints having been made against this provision of the law, even in cities and towns, it was at first proposed to extend the application of the same principle and provisions to Township Municipalities; but objections having been made to it by some (both Protestant and Roman Catholic) Members of the Legislature, the provision of the former School Act was re-enacted-requiring however, the petition of twelve heads of families instead of ten inhabitants, as a condition of establishing a separate school, and aiding it upon the principle of average attendance, instead of at the discretion of the local Superintendent, as under the former acts. But notwithstanding the existence of this provision of the law since 1843, there were last year but 51 separate schools in all Upper Canada-nearly as many of them being Protestant as Roman Catholic; so that this provision of the law is seldom acted upon, except in extreme cases, aud is of little consequence for good or for evilthe law providing effectual protection against interference with the religious opinions and wishes of parents and guardians of all classes, and there being no probability that separate schools will be more injurious in time to come than they have been in time past. It is also to be observed, that a separate school

is entitled to no aid beyond a certain portion of the School-fund for the salary of the Teacher. The School-house must be provided, furnished, warmed, books procured, &c., by the persons petitioning for the separate school. Nor are the patrons or supporters of a separate school exempted from any of the, local assessments or rates for Common School purposes. The law provides equal protection for all classes and denominations; if there be any class or classes of either Protest

ants or Roman Catholics who are not satisfied with the equal protection secured to them by law in mixed schools, but wish to have a school subservient to sectional religious purposes, they should, of course, contribute in proportion, and not tax a whole community for the support of sectarian interests.

6. The twentieth section of the Act provides, under certain circumstances, for the incorporation of all the Schools in a Township under one Board of Trustees, like all the Schools in Cities and Towns. This would supersede the necessity of the School-Section divisions of a Township, and establish one interest and one management for all the schools in such Township. In the State of Massachusetts, this option is given, as the inhabitants of each town (called township with us) can have each school managed by an elective committee of three (analogous to our Trustees), or all the schools managed by Select Men (a Board of Trustees) for the whole town. The Hon. HORCE MANN states that schools managed according to the latte method, are generally more efficient than those managed by sparate committees. But the towns there are smaller in geogaphical extent than our townships. I am not prepared formily to recommend Township Boards of Trustees; but I thinkit is well for the inhabitants of each Township to have the power of adopting it, if they desire to do so.

7. efore concluding, I desire to advert to the relief which the povisions of this Act afford Municipal Councils in the settlerent of school-section disputes. Heretofore, a very considerale portion of the time of some Municipal Councils has been ocupied in the investigation and discussion of such disputes, t a heavy expense to the Municipalities, and often to the satifaction of no party. Besides, it was hardly fair to make a elective Council a judicial tribunal for the impartial trial of atters, affecting, in a considerable proportion of cases, one or are individual Councillors themselves, or one or more individua constituents, by whom one or more Councillor-judges had beer opposed or supported at municipal elections, or whose ancipated support or opposition at future elections might pla, Councillors in a position equally painful in the investigati of such matters. It is a grave question of civil polity, whher popularly elective bodies should be invested with judicial funions. The judicial decisions of such bodies have generally bn most severely criticized, and have exposed their authors to nre odium than have any other judges been liable to for their cisions. The judicial decisions of the highest elective bod in the land-the Legislative Assembly-have been question! even in the smallest matters, such as a decision on the cduct of a newspaper reporter towards one of its own memrs. I have always, therefore, considered it impolitic and just to Councillors to impose upon them the task of investiting and deciding upon personal matters of dispute betweemheir constituents, or in which they themselves might be consiced as interested parties. The new Act is free from this oction. It will be seen by referring to the eleventh section, the 18th clause of the twelfth section, and to the seventeenth seon, that the new Act provides for the settlement of nearly alrobable school-section disputes by a simple unexpensive syst of local arbitration, (without appeal to the Chief Superin'dent, or to any other tribunal)-a mode of settling disputes ich I hope will soon become general throughout the proce.

8. I hope to hav in my power, in the course of a few months, to presentch Township Council in Upper Canada with a copy of a vable work on School Architecture-containing a great varief plans of school-houses and premises, specifications, and ey information necessary to aid in the erection and furnishinf school-houses, and providing every description of school,aratus. paratus. I trust that each Township Council will do honou, its important position in this great work of the country's cation, and by the united and individual example of its mers, speedily succeed in rendering a good school accessible tvery child in the Municipality. I believe the present Schact furnishes greater facilities than any preceding one for taccomplishment of this object; a party, a selfish, a slothful-it alone can defeat it.

I have, honor to be, Sir,
Tour Obedient Servant,
E. RYERSON.

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SIR, With this Circular you will receive a copy of the new School Act for Upper Canada, 13th and 14th Vic., ch. 48, and of the Forms and Instructions necessary for its due execution.

The duties which this Act imposes upon local Superintendents are of the gravest importance; and it is on the nature of these duties and the manner of discharging them, that [ desire to address you on this occasion.

The new Act relieves each local Superintendent from being a Treasurer of school moneys, from keeping financial accounts, and from giving bonds with sureties to the Municipal Council appointing him. The County Treasurer is the responsible officer for the safe keeping and prompt payment of the County School Fund, upon the orders of local Superintendents. Whatever balances of School moneys may chance to be in your hands, should be forthwith handed over to your County Treasurer-you taking his receipt for the same.

1. The duties of each local Superintendent are clearly pointed out in the several clauses of the thirty-first section of the Act. The first duty mentioned is, to apportion the School money notified to him by the County Clerk, to the several School Sections within the limits of his charge. This he is to do according to the average attendance of pupils in each School, unless otherwise instructed by the Chief Superintendent of Schools. The local distribution of the School Fund among the several schools according to average attendance (the mean attendance of pupils for both winter and summer being taken) is an important provision of the law, and based upon reasons which will be found in a note ;* but it should not be adopted without previous and full notice to all parties concerned. It is not, therefore, to be adopted the present year. You will this year apportion the School money to the several sections within the limits of your charge entitled to receive it, (as in former years) according to the ratio of children over five and under sixteen years of age in such sections respectively, as compared with the whole number of children of the same ages in the

*This provision of the new Act was first submitted by me to the consideration of the Governor-General in Council the 14th October, 1848, in transmitting the draft of a short bill designed to remedy some of the defects of the School law of 1846. The reasons assigned for the introduction of this new principle into the law relative to the apportionment of School moneys, were as follows:

"The Twelfth Section proposes giving a discretionary power for the distribution of the School Fund in each District to the several Schools, according to attendance, instead of according to School population. The Bathurst District Council has strongly advocated attendance as the basis of distributing the District School Fund. As population has been invariably adopted in all the popular School Laws with which I have met, as the basis

of distributing the local School Fund of each County or Town, as well as the State or National Fund to the several Municipal localities. I hesitated in proposing any other until within a few months since, when I received the last Annual Report of the Massachusetts Board of Education, in which I find this distribution of the School Fund recommended to the Legislature with a force of argument which, I think, cannot be resisted. I find experienced persons whom I have consulted of the same opinion. I find on exam ination, that in many large School Sections, the attendance of pupils is often pot larger than in small ones. Distributing the School Fund according to attendance will therefore be favourable to small Sections. I find also that the attendance of pupils in new and poor rural Sections and Townships is larger in proportion to the whole School population, than in older Townships and Cities or Towns. The adoption of the proposed principle of distribution, will therefore be favourable to the newer and poorest sections of the country. This is the result of a most extended inquiry into the statistics of School attendance as compared with School population in the State of Massacusetts; and the Secretary of the State Board of Education concludes his argument on this point with the following impressive remarks :

"It is most obvious, then, that an apportionment of the income of the School Fund, according to the average attendance of children upon the School-taking the mean of attendance for both summer and winter schools-would conduce greatly to the benefit of the smaller, the more agricultural, and the more sparsely populated Towns. It would distribute the bounty of the State on the principle of helping those who help themselves. It would confer the benefit of the income on the children who attend the public Schools, instead of bestowing it in behalf of children who attend Academies and private Schools, and never enter public Schools at all; and thus it would give a practical answer to the pertinent question why money should be given to those who disdain to use it. And, lastly, it would be a new argument of great weight in many minds in favour of a more uniform attendance upon School; because, the detention from School of any child who ought to be in it, would diminish the Town's share of the income, and thus inflict palpable injustice, not only on the absentee, but on all other children in the Town.'"

In the last Annual School Report of the Superintendent of Schools for the State of New-York, laid before the Legislature a few months since, I find the same provision recommended to the favourable consideration of the Legislature of that State, in the following words :

It is respectfully suggested to the Legislature, whether the ratio of apportionment and of distribution of the school money, might not advantageously be so changed as to have reference to the attendance of pupils upon the district schools, for a certain specified period during the preceding year, instead of being upon either population, or the number of children actually residing in the district. By the adoption of this mode of distribution, strong inducements would be presented to the taxable inhabitants of the several districts, to place their children in the common schools, and to keep them there, for a sufficient length of time to secure an additional share of the public money."

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