at $138,513,750; fisheries at $31,264,631; while the estimated value of the dairy products was in the neighbourhood of $80,000,000. The real significance of these figures only becomes apparent when taken in conjunction with the statistics of population.

According to the census of 1911 the population of Canada was 7,206,643, or fewer than two persons per square mile. Even if allowances are made for the great areas of northern Quebec, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories, which, lying as they do beyond the wheat line, can never maintain a large population, the indubitable fact remains that the country could easily support a population many times as great. The present-day population of Canada is uniquely distributed, nearly the whole of it being found within the strip of land, less than 200 miles in width, which lies along the southern boundary. That the population is also very mixed in character can be seen by a study of Table I. which gives the salient facts regarding the distribution and racial origins of the people at the time of the last census.

The table shows that the population of Canada is largely of British and French origin, 55 per cent. British and 28.5 per cent. French. The remainder is made up of people of German origin (5.5 per cent.), other Europeans (6.3 per cent.), and people of various origins (5.6 per cent.). The French-Canadians are found mainly in Quebec, although there are French settlements in western and northern Ontario, in the maritime provinces, and wherever lumbering is carried on. They cling tenaciously to their religion, their language, and their customs, thus creating almost insuperable educational problems in provinces other than Quebec. Except in Quebec, people of British stock predominate everywhere. The non-English-speaking immigrants of Canada have settled largely on the prairie lands of the middle-west. Both Saskatchewan and Manitoba have large colonies of Icelanders, Ruthenians, Poles, Austrians and Germans. Many of Canada's most urgent yet delicate educational and political problems are caused by these foreign settlers.

Of Canada's population in 1911 only 78 per cent. was nativeborn, 7.21 per cent. English or Welsh, 2.35 per cent. Scotch, 4.21 per cent. American, and the remainder German, AustroHungarian, Russian, Chinese, etc. The increasing numbers of English-speaking immigrants during recent years, as can be seen from Table II., remain a matter for congratulation.

Citation of Canada's distances and the varied character of her population does not give the whole story of the basic difficulties which confront her educational administrators. The problem of religious faiths is ever before them, since the religious denominations of Canada are more numerous than her constituent races. Fortunately, however, for ease of administration, four denominations claim the religious adherence of 84 per cent. of her population-Roman Catholics 39.31 per cent.; Presbyterians 15.48 per cent.; Methodists 14.98 per cent.; and Anglicans 14.47 per cent. But obscure sects like the Mennonites, comprising less than I per cent. of the population, cause more trouble in educational affairs than their numbers would appear to justify. Through Separate School Acts in each of the dominantly Protestant provinces, Roman Catholics are conceded the privilege of teaching in separate schools the religious formularies and doctrines peculiar to their church.

Another factor which cannot be overlooked in the discussion of Canadian education is the comparative newness of the country.! Although Canadian history can be traced back to John Cabot's expeditions of 1497 and 1498, the settlement of the country in the early days was very slow. At the death of Frontenac in 1698, two centuries after Cabot's epoch-making discoveries, the white population was only 13,355. It was not until the influx of the United Empire Loyalists, between 1783 and 1790, that the rate of settlement, even in the east, became accelerated. As for the west, that vast domain remained for two centuries (1670-1870) under the control of the Hudson's Bay Company-a company which was essentially fur-trading and, therefore, lukewarm or even hostile towards any permanent settlement which would

automatically decrease the value of its monopoly. With the completion in 1885 of the Canadian Pacific Railway-the first of the three transcontinental railways which Canada possessesthe modern era of Canadian history begins. The prairies called for settlers. When Canadians, Britishers, and Americans failed to supply the demand, immigration agents sought other centres of population, and with the coming of the "foreigner" came also the problem of his education.1

From the general trend of the foregoing account it will be deduced that Canada's main educational problem is a rural one, and must for many years continue to be so. More than fifty-five per cent. of Canada's population is classed as rural; a large proportion of the other forty-five per cent. resides in small urban centres almost indistinguishable in character from rural areas. Apart from the ever-present rural problem, Canada, because of her newness, is confronted with many others that do not concern countries of older foundation. The rapid influx of population, especially to the prairie provinces, has created an unprecedented demand for schools. Saskatchewan, for example, to keep pace with the demand, is compelled to organise a new school district every day of the year. But that is not the whole of the difficulty. Not only must schools be built, teachers supplied, and the administrative machinery set in motion, but only too frequently the bi-lingual question must be faced as well. Distances are great, roads and other means of communication bad or nonexistent, so that the task of inspection and supervision can only be efficiently performed by persons fired with a missionary zeal for education and inured to every discomfort of pioneer travel.

For widely scattered populations a highly centralised administration for education has everywhere proved to be the most effective. And hence we find highly centralised administrations in Canada. That for Ontario, for example, is more highly centralised than any other in America. But as population increases, devolution of authority becomes necessary in order to keep up local interest in education. Although some of the more thickly settled provinces of Canada have probably reached the stage when decentralisation would be beneficial, no signs of such action are as yet apparent.

Valuable contributions to Canadian education have been made

In 1911, 11.02 per cent. of Canada's population five years of age and over could neither read nor write. This illiteracy is largely due to juveniles, Indians, and non-English-speaking immigrants.

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by many lands and peoples. The Scotch tradition has largely influenced her institutions of higher learning; in more recent years England, through the Rhodes Scholarships at Oxford, tends to play a greater part. But no country has taken such a prominent place in moulding educational opinion and practice as the United States of America. For over a century the United Empire Loyalist tradition has been in effective operation. The close proximity of the two countries, the ease of intercommunication, the similarity of economic problems, have all contributed to the patterning of Canadian education after that of the United States. Canadian students in their thousands have pursued postgraduate courses in American universities. The Canadian public school has many of the features of the American common school." The sovereignty of the provinces in educational affairs, the eight years' course of elementary schooling, the system of authorised texts, the four-year high school, the system of teacher training, the system of certification of pupils for entrance into high schools, the uniform courses of study within each province, etc., if not actually borrowed from the United States, bear more likeness to the systems there found than they do to systems of Great Britain or continental Europe. The peoples of the prairie provinces, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, are turning more and more for inspiration and guidance to the democracy across the border, partly for geographical and economic reasons, and partly in the belief that Ontario, once their only guide, is not now quite so progressive as formerly.

The outline and discussion which follow are given in the hope that not only may they prove useful to the foreign student of Canadian education, but also be a contribution to the problem of educational reconstruction after the war.

II. CENTRAL AND LOCAL CONTROL

In the written part of Canada's constitution, that which is embodied in the British North America Act, 1867, sovereign powers over education are granted to the several provincial legislatures. According to section 93 of the Act, “in and for each province the legislature may exclusively make laws in relation to education," providing the rights and privileges with respect to denominational schools, which any class of persons has by law in the province at the union, are properly safeguarded.