Education and
General

The Province

The Report of Dr. A. H. MacKay, Superintendent of Education in Nova Scotia, for the year ending July Development; 31st, 1914, indicated a clearly progressive period-an advance in the general enrollment, the number of and the War. teachers, the expenditure and the conditions as a whole. Teacher's salaries showed a slight average improvement, the Normaltrained teachers increased in number, the financial support of the school sections grew somewhat, the vacant schools were at the lowest figure in 50 years. Dr. MacKay recommended a more systematic treatment of defective and incorrigible pupils; urged the extension of medical inspection into rural districts; stated that physical training had contributed greatly in the promotion of discipline and better work and that the female teachers often made better drill instructors than male teachers; warmly approved the Cadet Corps training in the High Schools as "an invaluable physical, mental and moral education"; mentioned the winning of the Senior Imperial Challenge Shield for rifle-shooting at London, England in May-June, 1914, by No. 458, Cadet Corps, of Church Point, with an English corps second and Ottawa Collegiate fourth; referred to the adoption of a number of Ontario text-books for the High Schools and of Readers for the Common School grades. The Statistics of 1914 were as follows:

An interesting part of the Report dealt with the Acadian Bi-lingual schools where 5680 pupils were enrolled with an average attendance of 3966 and 140 teachers were employed of whom 15 were males and 125 females. Of these teachers 120 were Normal-trained. The Chairman of the Halifax School Commissioners (R. V. Harris) reported much over-crowding in the local schools and urged the presence of women on School-boards while endorsing, as to punishment in schools, the recent statement of Judge W. B. Wallace: "Sentimentalism which opposes punishment of juveniles is unwise and dangerous. Corporal punishment, when deserved and prudently safeguarded, should be encouraged in all the schools. Instead of there being too much of it, there is too little of it in all the schools and in the homes." Technical education made progress during the year and the Nova Scotia Technical College with its courses in Land surveying, architecture, engineering, machine design, electrical machinery, coal mining, metallurgy, assaying, etc., had 11 graduates and an enrollment of 33 students.

Local technical schools were conducted at Amherst, Halifax, New Glasgow, Sydney, Truro, and Yarmouth with 1560 in attend

ance. The coal mining and engineering schools, at 17 points, totalled an average enrollment of 214. The N. S. College of Agriculture under Principal Cumming had 102 regular students with 40 receiving their diplomas in 1914. The short courses were attended by 351 students, a ladies' short course was inaugurated, and the Rural Science School for teachers under L. A. DeWolfe made a beginning in establishing school exhibitions, home gardens for the scholars, and encouraging an interest in farm work. Dr. James W. Robertson addressed meetings at Halifax (Mar. 14th), Antigonish (Mar. 15th) and other points upon the importance to the Province of the work and conclusions of the late Dominion Royal Commission on Technical Education and the progress made by Ireland, Denmark and Germany in this connexion. Principal F. H. Sexton, of the Nova Scotia College, stated on Dec. 30th that during the year, in that institution, many new courses were added to the technical classes, such as millinery, home economy and cooking, hand-wrought jewellery, gasoline engines, automobile engineering, stenography and typewriting. "These evening classes are meeting with a ready response from the people who have to work for their living in the day time. In Yarmouth 3 per cent. of the population attend such classes or one out of every 30 inhabitants. In the City of Halifax the number taking work has increased to 860 or about one in every 50 of the population." A School of Navigation had also been opened.

Educational questions were debated in the Legislature on Mar. 17th in connexion with the Department's annual Report presented by Premier Murray on Mar. 20th-27th and on Apr. 2nd and 16th, when text-books were discussed at length. J. C. Tory pointed out on Mar. 27th that the Normal-trained teachers had grown from 433, or 19 per cent. of the whole in 1890, to 1314 or 45 per cent. in 1913. A point of occasional local discussion, though of more frequent reference in other Provinces, was the Separate (Catholic) School issue. It elected W. A. Richardson as Mayor of Sydney over a keen antagonist of these schools, on Mar. 2nd, and alleged conditions in Halifax and Cape Breton evoked a Report in March from a Special Committee of the Provincial Grand Orange Lodge which contained the following statement: "In Halifax at the present time there are thousands of children, sons and daughters of Romanists, who are being educated in separate establishments, at the expense of the Protestant ratepayers, and these children are being taught, by Roman priests and nuns, doctrines which are absolutely subversive of the rights and traditions of Protestants." It was stated that 126 nuns and 2 brothers of a religious Order received $6,145 as a Provincial grant for six months up to June 30th, 1913. This statement was signed by Rev. F. C. Ward-Whate, George White, and H. J. Harrison.

Of the higher educational institutions the University of King's College, Windsor, founded in 1789, had 719 graduates up to 1914 and in that year a total of 91 students with 9 professors and 4 lecturers; 16 graduates received their degrees on May 16th. During the year Sir H. M. Pellatt and J. H. Plummer of Toronto, endowed, respectively, a Chair in Philosophy and a Fellowship in English.

Dalhousie University, Halifax, founded in 1818 had 1979 graduates to date, 417 students in 1914, with 36 professors and 40 lecturers; the retirement of R. C. Weldon, K.C., D.C.L., PH.D., Dean of the Law Faculty, was an event of 1914 after many years of labour for the advancement of the institution; a campaign originated and conducted by the student body for the collection of funds to erect a Students' building was successful in obtaining $5912 by July 9th; at this time it was announced that Dr. D. A. Campbell had transferred $30,000 in dividend-paying securities for the endowment of a Chair of Anatomy in the College with the promise of another $30,000 in the future the whole in memory of his late son. The Presbyterian University, founded in 1820, with 512 graduates altogether had, in 1914, 41 students, 4 professors and 4 lecturers. Acadia University, Wolfville, had in 1914, 240 students, 24 professors and lecturers; its old-time residential building was burned to the ground on May 26th and a new one soon got under way; the graduates on May 27th totalled 58 in Arts, Science, Theology and Engineering. The University of St. Francis Xavier, Antigonish, had 103 students and 18 members on its Staff; 15 degrees were conferred on May 15th and a large pass list announced with several new professors. College Ste. Anne, at Church Point, had 56 students and 21 on its Staff; Holy Heart Seminary had 43 students and a Staff of 7 and St. Mary's College also in Halifax-had 73 students and 5 on its Staff. The Royal Naval College, Halifax, had 20 students and 3 professors.

Nova Scotia made quiet progress during 1914 in material affairs and an illustration of this was in fur-bearing animals. Little was heard of the Province in this respect, outside, but the Report of the N.S. Board of Game Commissioners to the Premier, for the year of Sept. 30th, 1913, stated that "the breeding of fur-bearing animals in captivity promises to become an industry of large proportions. Fur-farming in Nova Scotia began with experiments in the breeding of mink. For a number of years the Game Act contained provisions for the encouragement of mink breeding. Nearly all the valuable fur-bearing animals are now being bred in captivity, and in the case of most of them some success has been attained. The animals chiefly bred in Nova Scotia are the fox, mink and skunk. For the year permits for fur-farming have been issued as follows: 75 for foxes, 34 for mink, 29 for skunk, 10 for raccoon, 1 for beaver and 1 for muskrat. . . . According to the reports received from fur farmers there are now in captivity in Nova Scotia 447 foxes of all kind. During the year 122 were sold, and of these 19 have been exported. Nova Scotia mink are celebrated for the quality of their fur, the pelts bring the highest price in the market. It is probable that, next to the fox, the mink will prove to be the most profitable of the fur-bearing animals for breeding in our Province." The coming of the war had a serious effect on the industry, though probably not a destructive one as pessimistic financial critics asserted toward the close of the year-except as to the speculative side of the development.

In any case it was to Nova Scotia only a side issue and in 1914 all its basic industries, except steel-making, held their own despite

general depression and world-war. In addressing the Halifax Board of Trade on Oct. 27th President F. B. McCurdy, M.P., said some interesting things as to Provincial conditions: "In a period when serious depreciation has been occurring in the securities issued by municipalities and particularly, smaller towns, the cash savings. in Nova Scotia have been sufficient to not only absorb the municipal offerings in the Province, but substantially to increase the amount of savings deposited in chartered banks and the amount of money invested in life insurance endowment policies. . . . The average production per head in the Province was approximately, $280, or taking 5 members to a family $1,400 per home. There are other advantages of great importance; for instance, our resources are concentrated and navigation is open for 12 months of the year. During a period when other parts of Canada were paying attention particularly to the construction of works yet to become productive, the activities of the residents of Nova Scotia have been devoted largely to the actual production of wealth. The result has been that in Nova Scotia, generally speaking, liabilities are small, and during the financial strain of the past two years payments in this Province have been better met, and there has been less interference with the volume of business than in any other part of Canada." The Halifax Chronicle in its annual estimate of Nova Scotian production put the figures for 1914 as follows:

The commercial failures of the year, according to R. G. Dun & Co., were 76 in number with liabilities of $600,898 as compared with 133 and liabilities of $1,627,428 in 1904. In agricultural matters the spring was a late one with frosts early in June; the Provincial estimates of production in 1914 were 4,179,084 bushels of oats, 7,022,116 of potatoes, 6,844,200 of turnips and 757,810 tons of hay; the numbers of Live-stock were stated at 67,688 horses, 138,534 milch cows, 161,300 other cattle, 217,698 sheep, 57,817 swine, and 1,082,632 poultry; at an average of 3,000 pounds each the milch cows produced 405,000,000 pounds of milk worth about $5,000,000; Principal Cumming of the Agricultural College estimated the value of all crops in the Province in 1914, at $34,091,144 of which $15,156,200 stood for hay, $7,500,000 for live-stock sold, butter, etc., $1,900,000 for orchard products, $1,200,000 for garden crops, vegetables, etc., $8,334,944 for grains, etc. According to this authority: "The outstanding gains of the year have been in cooperative dairying; the continued successful growth of the co-opertive movement among the fruit-growers; the improvement of such field crops as oats and wheat and potatoes and turnips consequent on the Field Crop Competitions and Seed Fairs, which have been a prominent feature in the agricultural policy of the past semi-decade; the marked improvement in the dairy cattle in particular and of nearly all classes of stock, due to the new life of our Agricultural

Societies, to the co-operative movement among the dairy men and to the new Live Stock Improvement Associations; the increased area of land plowed this Fall, and, finally, a continued development of the movement towards agricultural education for every man who makes his living from the soil." The United Fruit Companies, Ltd., handled, after three years of operation, 60 per cent. of the Annapolis Valley crop with 300,000 out of 500,000 barrels for export. The Dominion statistics for Nova Scotia production in 1914 were as follows:

The Lunenberg catch-the largest branch of Nova Scotia fisheries, showed 118 vessels engaged in 1914 with 154,065 quintals caught, an estimated loss over 1913 of $344,000; the Fisheries of this and other Provinces benefitted by the removal of certain discriminations imposed by Portugal upon Maritime and Newfoundland fish but now removed as a result of the revived alliance with Britain; in the fisheries as a whole prices varied enormously during the year with the lobster trade suffering particularly by the War in both price and market an estimated $2,250,000 worth being held as practically unsaleable in October. In shipping Halifax had an increase of nearly $4,000,000 of exports during the year ending Mar. 31st, 1914-a total of $19,157,170 with imports of $11,546,554. At the end of the year it was stated that the Terminal works to the south of the city on which contracts amounting to upwards of $7,300,000 had been let were progressing favourably. The new No. 2 Pier, which, when completed would represent an outlay of probably $1,250,000 was practically ready for occupancy on the north side and was said to be the most modern and up-to-date pier on Canada's Atlantic seaboard. An overhead bridge at Richmond was also under contruction. Wholesale business during the year was good and collections satisfactory.

As to Mining (Sept. 30th, 1914) there was milled 13,156 tons of gold yielding 3158 ounces. The production of coal was 6,654,000 tons (2240 lbs.) as compared with 7,252,452 tons in 1913 and the Dominion Coal Co. contributed 4,718,000 tons to this total, the N. S. Steel & Coal Co. 750,000 tons, the Acadia Coal Co. 397,000 tons, the Intercolonial Coal Co. 213,000 tons. Cape Breton Island produced 81 per cent. of the output and the total Provincial revenue for the year from Mines was $760,561; the Dominion Coal Company's Employees Benefit Society had 10,200 members and an income of $150,000 to which the Company gave $64,000, the employees $64,000 and the Provincial Government $13,000. The effect of the War in this industry was shown in the large number of men contributed