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APPENDIX C.'

INSPECTORS' REPORTS.

INSPECTORAL DISTRICT, No. 1.

Geo. W. Mersereau, M. A., Inspector, Doaktown, N. B.

This District embraces the Counties of Restigouche, Gloucester and Northumberland.

SIR: I beg to submit the following report on the condition of Public Schools in my Inspectorate for the year ending Dec. 31st, 1892.

I am pleased to be able to report that progress has been made in all branches of the service in nearly every Parish. Teachers have striven by attending the County Institutes, studying Standard Educational works, and reading the "Educational Review," to reach "higher ground"; Trustees were more attentive to their important duties, and parents have taken more interest in having their children prepared, by means of the Public School, for the various duties of citizenship. Many schools have been supplied with better furniture, maps and apparatus. Much fencing has been done, and in not a few cases improved accommodation has been provided.

Addington.-Glencoe District, No. 21, opened school for the first time in August of this year. The Trustees of No. 2 still retain the services of Miss Effie McKinnon, and the school has improved upon its former excellent condition. Some repairs have been made to the School House in No. 8. Better desks are badly needed. Mr. Wm. Stewart, Secretary to Trustees in No. 6 is a careful and painstaking officer. He has had the school room supplied with new black boards. The enrolment in No. 4 increased and the school improved in many ways. Miss Bessie McNaughton is the teacher. My last two visits to No. 5 were unsatisfactory on account of the small number of pupils in attendance. The Campbellton Superior School has been well conducted during the year by Mr. Ernest W. Lewis, B. A. He has established a Reading Room in connection with his department and hopes by means of it to give his pupils a taste for good reading. Miss Rebecca M. Barnes continues to teach the Primary DepartShe is one of the most successful Primary Teachers in my Inspectorate. All

ment.

the work of her school is well done. She teaches singing by note. Her pupils in Standard II. can sing the scales by number and letter and transpose readily from one scale to another. The department located near the station made very considerable improvement during the year.

Dalhousie.—I am pleased to be able to report a slight improvement in the educa tional condition of District No. 10. There seems to be few pupils in attendance in No. 12, for the number of children there must be in the district. In No. 8 the school house is altogether too small. In No. 1 (Town), the schools have been very poorly conducted. The Trustees have neglected to make necessary repairs in buildings, outhouses, fences, etc., and by failing to supply needed apparatus. So far has this economy (?) been carried, that on September 29th last there was no fire in the building and the pupils in the primary department were actually suffering from cold. All the departments have suffered from this penuriousness on the part of the Trustees, but none so much as the Primary. It consists of Standards I., II. and III., with an enrolment of nearly 80. Pupils are admitted to Standard I. at all times of year instead of but once a year as in any such community where the schools are intelligently conducted. The Teacher has scarcely anything with which to illustrate her work or make her room attractive. On my last visit there were 48 children crowded into this ill-ventilated, dingy, cold, gloomy room. Small wonder that the result of my inspection was unsatisfactory.

Should this state of affairs continue it would much advance the educational interests of the County to remove the Grammar School to Campbellton, where the schools are generously supported by the people and intelligently supervised by a progressive Board of Trustees.

Colborne. The school in No. 1 has been provided with a complete set of automatic desks and blackboards have been repaired. The school in No. 1 fell off considerably. The Trustees were grossly careless in the matter of wood supply. The Superior School in No. 2 made an excellent showing on my last visit. More attention should be paid to Physical Exercises, etc.

Durham.-The Trustees of No. 2 deserve much praise for the many needed repairs and improvements made in the school house and grounds during the year. The Teacher, Mr. H. W. Robertson, did his duty also faithfully and well, both in the school-room and in the care of school grounds and premises. A full set of desks and seats was provided in No. 1. The School House in No. 1 is situated in such a swampy place that in wet weather the pupils have to wade through a mud hole to enter the school-a drain and a few loads of gravel would greatly improve this.

The

Beresford.-The School House in No. 2 should be moved nearer to the road and finished inside. It is now too cold for pupils in winter time. Better school accommodation is greatly needed in No. 2. The school in No. 3 makes but little progress. Teacher seems industrious, but the pupils have no desire to excel and are kept at home after a very few years' attendance. No. 13 has not nearly so good a school as it had last year. A new School House was built in No. 63. sends his children to the school in the adjoining District,

One of the Trustees of No. 7

though the distance is greater

and the school in his own District immeasurably superior. In No. 11 there were 21 pupils present without slates and 14 without books. The Trustees promised to remedy this. The School in No. 8 showed marked improvement. Many and serious complaints were made against the Trustees and Principal in No. 4. Against the Trustees that they were borrowing money without authority; paying the Principal in advance, while allowing the other teachers to wait a year or more for their salaries; not meeting the just obligations of the District promptly; not collecting taxes impartially, etc., etc. Against the Teacher that he too frequently closed his school to attend to private business and take part in political campaigns. I trust that these complaints against my old friend are entirely without foundation.

Bathurst.-Attendance at the School in No. 3 has increased to a very encouraging .extent. I trust that it can be operated continuously for the future. The School in No. 18 makes very little, if any, progress. The pupils have no idea of thoroughness. Memorizing lessons and advancing through reading books seems to be their ideal of progress. In No. 13 there is far too much work for one Teacher and at present there is no room for an Assistant. There were 77 pupils enrolled during the first term of this year and there are said to be 119 children of school age in the District. The Trustees have promised to build next summer. In No. 17 the accommodation is insufficient. She school room in No. 10 was scrupulously neat and clean and the pupils were making substantial progress. Miss Isabel McDonald, one of our best teachers, was in charge. The Advanced Department in the Grammar School building in No. 2 had improved somewhat in tone. In the Primary Department in the same building there are children whose home influence and lack of parental control make them very difficult to manage in school, and the present Teacher is entirely unable to cope with them. The work done in the Convent building was of a very superior" character. These Teachers are solving the problem of attendance by making parts of the exercises so interesting that the pupils are anxious to attend, and then by studying the nature of each individual pupil, they are able to apply just the right stimulus to secure effort on the part of each. These remarks apply as well to the Sister-Teachers' Schools in the Village. They are among the best taught schools in my Inspectorate. The constant superintendence given to these schools gratuitously by one of their number is beyond all price. In both schools much attention is paid to singing and calisthenics. In the Town they use wands, in the Village dumb bells in these exercises to the delight of every pupil who has this incitement to physical development. The organization in both Town and Village continues to be unsatisfactory.

New Brandon. --A determined effort was made to have a District erected between No. 8 and No. 9 by taking a slice from each. I could not see my way clear to sanction such a step. Two good schools are far preferable to three poor ones, though the former may be two miles from some of the pupils. In No. 5 the School House was moved to the middle and a far better attendance was the result. Miss Minnie Millar is doing excellent work in No. 9. On my last visit I found the school better classified than ever before. The penmanship is particularly worthy of commendation. The school in No. 11 shows decided indications of improvement. No. 7 continued school throughout the year. No. 2 was supplied with a half dozen very fine double desks and seats.

Caraquet. The School in Caraquet Centre No. 10 continued to be the best school in the Parish. No. 2 was supplied with a dozen new desks and seats, the material of which was good, but the workmanship so bad that in a very few weeks they shrank and warped so as to very nearly fall to pieces. The Trustees of No. 5 procured 15 desks and seats, all of which were for the smaller pupils. I was well pleased with the progress made by the pupils of No. 6, of which Mr. Aimé A. Gionet is the popular Teacher. Some work was done during the year on the inside of the School House in No. 9. Pokeseudie Island has been set apart as an independent District. During the year I called a meeting for organization, but no business was done. No. 1 remains unorganized.

Shippegan.-District No. 8 operated a school for a part of the year. No. 10 had a school during first term for the first time in 14 years. It seems difficult for the Trustees of No. 9 to get a Teacher, yet they manage to have a school for the greater part of the time. No. 9 had no school during the year, but have been building a new School House and hope to have school continuously for the future. No. 8 operated a school during the year under many discouragements. The Schools in No. 6 and No. 4 were well conducted as usual. The pupils in No. 4 make little, if any, progress, because the Trustees seem to be satisfied with any Teacher, no matter how incompetent.

Inkerman. At the beginning of second term, school was opened for the first time in District No. 7. District No. 10 is badly in need of a new School House. Some wish the District divided. That would necessitate the building of two School Houses. As it is a new Settlement and there are but 44 Ratepayers in all, I am afraid that they will have to content themselves with one school for some time to come.

St. Isidore. There are only three Districts in this Parish, one of which is not yet organized, though a meeting was called for that purpose. The two organized Districts maintained schools throughout the year.

Saumarez. District No. 2 is long and narrow, with a school at each end. The Ratepayers have agreed to have their District divided, and I shall see that their wishes. are carried out as soon as an equitable boundary can be decided upon. No. 4 had no school during the year. As there seemed to be no other way of securing school privileges to the children in No. 1, I annexed a part of that District to No. 3, and shall probably attach the remainder to the Portage River District. District No. 3 contains two ungraded schools besides the Tracadie Superior School. The School House near Ferguson's Point was moved nearer to the end of the bridge, to accommodate the Ratepayers newly admitted from No. 1. Some of the Ratepayers living near the Backwoods School (so called) wished to have their section erected into an independent District. As but few took any interest in the matter, and the present school service is fairly satisfactory, I decided not to disturb the present arrangement. The Tracadie Superior School is still taught by Mr. B. D. Branscombe, who, with an untrained assistant, produces excellent results, though most of his work has to be done in two languages.

Alnwick. A new School House was built in District No. 1 to replace the one destroyed by fire last year. The Trustees of No. 12 have their School House about