| Transcript |
- 26 VICTORIA ILLUSTRATED.
Minister of Education ; S. E. Pope, Esq., L. L.D., Superintendent of Education, and D. Wilson, Esq., B. A., Inspector of Schools. It is,
however, necessary to state that in the rural districts common schools are established and maintained by the Provincial Government and
are free to all except the costs of books of learning. The schools are all in the hands of trained, competent and certified teachers,
the value of their incumbencies being settled according to merit. In the larger cities of the Province the regulations are somewhat
different regarding tuition ; these cities are obliged to furnish all necessary cost of school building, expenses and cost of maintenance,
and shall pay one half the teachers' salaries, the Government bearing the other half. This policy is a new one and highly laudable from
the fact that the rural districts, which are increasing rapidly, are less able to bear such expense than are the population of the various
cities. Victoria proper is splendidly provided with schools of the different grades. The Central and High schools, three in number, are
located on a fine campus of ten acres of beautiful grounds ; the buildings are separate, and are furnished with every device for
ventilation, light and health. They comprise a High school for the advanced classes of boys and girls and two graded schools of eight
divisions each, one for boys and the other for girls. There is also a graded school in Victoria West and four Ward schools distributed
around the city. The number of scholars at present is nearly 2,500 and the teachers include some of the highest graduates of English and
Canadian colleges. The management of the city schools is vested in seven trustees, three of whom are appointed by the Government and four
by the City Council. Salaries of the teachers are fixed by the Government. Summing up, it may be briefly said that the object is to give
the children a thorough, pure and secular education, and the Lord's Prayer may be used in opening and closing, while no distinction of
creeds shall be tolerated.
ANGELA COLLEGE.
It is doubtful if there is anywhere on the continent a Young Ladies' College which embodies a more thorough education with moral, refined
atmosphere and surroundings than that which bears the name as above, and its success is due to the efforts of its founder and proprietress,
Miss C. E. Dupont. The college is virtually under the auspices of the Church of England, whose clergy visit the college three times a week
to give instruction on church history and church doctrine ; but it is not a church school in the ordinary sense the departments of
instruction and management are exclusively vested in Miss Dupont. The college is situated in the finest part of the city and is a beautiful
structure, surrounded by lovely gardens and grounds. There are about fifty pupils ranging upward from the age of six years, some of whom
make their home at the college, others attending during the day. There are four terms yearly and the course of instruction is divided into
two grades of elementary, two of junior, two of inter-
THE STEAMER " ISLANDER " OF THE CANADIAN PACIFIC NAVIGATION CO.
|
|---|
