THE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION IN THE PROVINCE OF MANITOBA.

[Compiled from recent reports of the Department of Education for the Province of Manitoba and other documents relating to education in Manitoba, which can be seen at the Board of Education Library, St. Stephen's House, Cannon Row, Whitehall, London, S.W.]

INTRODUCTION.

For the last thirty years Manitoba has enjoyed the status of a self-governing province and the privileges of membership in the Canadian Federation. Originally "an agricultural settlement peopled by emigrants from Scotland and Ireland under Lord Selkirk, this district passed, in 1821, into the hands of the Hudson Bay Company. Unincorporated, however, with their other territories, it retained its separate existence till the rights of the Company were purchased by the Government for the purpose of creating the new federal province. Up to this date the little colony, known as the Red River Settlement, had been administered by a Governor appointed by the Company and assisted by a Council selected from men of local importance.

The population has been slowly increased by immigration not only from the United Kingdom but also from the neighbouring provinces of Ontario and Quebec. In 1869 this stood at some 12,000, and it has been estimated that of this number about 1,000 were whites, 5,000 Scotch and Irish half-breeds, and about 6,000 French half-breeds (métis). From the date of the Union (1870) immigration has continued to swell these numbers but at a quickened rate, so that in 1891 the enumerated population was 154,442, and it is calculated that it now nearly attains to 200,000. It is a very heterogeneous population both in race and religious belief, including as it does English, French, Germans, Icelanders, Hungarians and Finns; and the difficulties due to this admixture of races are largely responsible for the bitter struggles that have disturbed the peace of the new province for the last ten years. These struggles have centred round the problem of the schools, and considered in this light the history of educational effort in Manitoba falls naturally into three periods:--

(a) The period of unorganised effort in the settlement. (b) The denominational period-1871-1890.

(c) The unsectarian system of the Act of 1890.

* Cf. Mr. R. L. Morant's report on "The Manitoba School System" in the first volume of "Special Reports on Educational Subjects," from which much valuable information has been derived.

(a) The Settlement Period.

During the period of the Company's administration it was no part of their policy to make any provision of financial aid towards establishing schools a permanent charge upon their revenues, though occasionally assistance was granted towards maintaining poor schools already in existence. The work of education was undertaken by the various religious communities within the territory. "Each Church had by its side a school under the control of the missionary. There was no system of taxation in vogue; the school was sustained by private subscriptions or by grants from the missionary societies." The results of these early missionary efforts were by no means inconsiderable; education is said to have been in a much better condition than the isolated and scattered state of the population would have led one to expect, and in 1857 there were 17 schools in operation; but in view of the subsequent controversy it is well to remember that it is admitted on both sides that at the time when the Union was effected these schools were neither supported by grants from public funds nor controlled in any way by public officials.

At this date the Catholic and Protestant parties were almost equal in numbers and each supported their own schools, and though the proposed inclusion of this territory in the Dominion was met in some quarters with the violence of open rebellion, and in others with serious apprehensions of a possible curtailment of privileges hitherto freely enjoyed, it does not appear that there was any special anxiety with regard to the schools as then established. The notable Section 22 of the Manitoba Act is the result of the struggles in other provinces rather than due to any anticipation of immediate difficulties under the new conditions, though no doubt, as has been suggested, the idea of a possible shifting of the relative strength of religious parties helped to recommend its adoption.

As in the subsequent development of events much weight was attached to the interpretation of this section and of the similar one in British North America Act (1867), it may be well to quote the full text of the article in the Manitoba Act.

Section 22. The Legislature makes laws in relation to education subject and according to the following provisions:

(1.) Nothing in any such laws shall prejudicially affect any right or privilege with regard to denominational schools which any class of persons have by law or practice in the province at the Union.

(2.) An appeal shall lie to the Governor-General in Council from any act or decision of the legislature of the province or of any provincial authority affecting any right or privilege of the Protestant or Roman Catholic minority of the Queen's subjects in relation to education.

(3.) In case any such provincial law as from time to time seems to the Governor-General in Council requisite for the due execution of the provisions of this section is not made, or in case

any decision of the Governor-General in Council on any appeal under this section is not duly executed by the proper provincial authority in that behalf, then and in every such case and as far only as the circumstances of each case require, "the Parliament of Canada may make remedial laws for the due execution of the provisions of this section and of any decision of the GovernorGeneral in Council under this section."

(b.) The Denominational Period, 1870-1890.

Such were the conditions under which the new province opened its educational legislation with the Manitoba Schools Act. This measure was passed in 1871 and established a State system of strict denominational schools.

*

The following is a summary of the main provisions of this measure and of the principal amendments:

1. The whole education of the province was placed under a central board of education, appointed by the Lieutenant

Governor in Council.

2. This board was composed of two sections, one Protestant, the other Catholic, equal in number. One-third of each section retired every year, and the Governor appointed their successors.

3. To this board was handed over the grant made for education every year by the provincial legislature to be divided equally between the two sections.

4. Each section of the board had exclusive and independent control over its own schools,† made its own regulations, and appointed and supervised its own inspectors, conducted the licensing and examination of its own body of teachers, and selected its own books for school use, especially on religious subjects.

5. For the actual management of schools, the whole province was divided up into school districts, in each of which the inhabitants elected a board of trustees, with duties similar to those of our school managers; a certain number of the trustees retired every year, and others were elected. These school districts were 24 in number, corresponding to the electoral divisions.

6. As the population was then more or less definitely segregated in certain areas corresponding with their differences of religious beliefs, it was arranged that 12 of these school districts, "comprising mainly a Catholic population," should be Catholic, under the Catholic section of the central board, and 12 in the same way Protestant.

7. Each board of trustees had authority, in his own district, to make all arrangements for providing and managing schools,

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*This summary is taken from Mr. Morant's Report on The Manitoba School System."

Their only joint function was to make regulations for registering and reporting the daily attendance of scholars,

Sessional Papers, 33a, p. 7.

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