Full text of "Canada and its provinces; a history of the Canadian people and their institutions by one hundred associates"

See other formats

Archives Edition

CANADA AND ITS PROVINCES

IN TWENTY-TWO VOLUMES AND INDEX

(Vols. I and 2)
SECTION I

NEW FRANCE, 1534-1760

(Vols. 3 and 4)
SECTION II

BRITISH DOMINION, 1760-1840
(Vol. 5)

SECTION III

UNITED CANADA, 1840-1867

(Vols. 6, 7, and 8)

SECTION IV

THE DOMINION:

POLITICAL EVOLUTION

(Vols. 9 and 10)

SECTION V

THE DOMINION:
INDUSTRIAL EXPANSION

(Vols. ii and 12)

SECTION VI

THE DOMINION :
MISSIONS; ARTS AND
LETTERS

(Vols. 13 and 14)

SECTION VII

THE ATLANTIC PROVINCES
(Vols. 1 5 and 16)

SECTION VIII

THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC

(Vols. 17 and 1 8)
SECTION IX

THE PROVINCE OF ONTARIO

(Vols. 19 and 20)

SECTION X
THE PRAIRIE PROVINCES

(Vols. 21 and 22)

SECTION XI

THE PACIFIC PROVINCE

(Vol. 23)

SECTION XII

DOCUMENTARY NOTES
GENERAL INDEX

GENERAL EDITORS

ADAM SHORTT
ARTHUR G. DOUGHTY

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

THOMAS CHAPAIS GEORGE M. WRONG

F. P. WALTON ANDREW MACPHA1L

WILLIAM L. GRANT A. H U COLQUHOUN

DUNCAN ROBERT KILPATRICK

THOMAS GUTHRIE MARQUIS

VOL. 18
SECTION IX

THE PROVINCE
OF ONTARIO

PART II

OF THE
AND THEIR IN
ONE HUNDRED -x

ADAM SM'- -K »

' K
U

JOHN STRACHAN
From the fainting in the Department of Education, Toronto

CANADA

AND ITS PROVINCES

A HISTORY OF THE CANADIAN

PEOPLE AND THEIR INSTITUTIONS

BY ONE HUNDRED ASSOCIATES

ADAM SHORTT
ARTHUR G. DOUGHTY

GENERAL EDITORS
VOLUME XVIII

/ 'Y

PRINTED BY T. & A. CONSTABLE

AT THE EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS

FOR THE PUBLISHERS' ASSOCIATION

OF CANADA LIMITED

TORONTO

GLASGOW, BROOK & COMPANY
1914

Son

S57

CONTENTS

THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM. By VV. PAKENHAM

I. PRIOR TO THE UNION OF THE CANADAS . . .277

II. FROM THE UNION OF THE CANADAS TO THE RETIREMENT

OF RYERSON ....... 300

III. FROM THE WITHDRAWAL OF RYERSON .... 319

\ EDUCATION, SECONDARY AND UNIVERSITY. By KENNETH
BELL

I. EARLY EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT .... 345
II. RYERSON AND SECONDARY EDUCATION .... 357

III. THE GROWTH OF UNIVERSITY EDUCATION . . . 383

^ MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1791-1867. By ADAM SHORTT

I. BEFORE THE UNION ...... 405

II. AFTER THE UNION . . . . . .428

, MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1867-1913. By K. W. M'KAY . . 455

MUNICIPAL DIVISIONS ... . 45&

GOVERNING BODIES ..... . 457

QUALIFICATION OF MEMBERS OF COUNCILS . . 464

THE MUNICIPAL FRANCHISE .... . 466

ASSESSMENT AND TAXATION .... . 467

INCOME ASSESSMENT .... . 47°

INCOME EXEMPTIONS ..... • 47°

PROPERTY EXEMPTIONS .... . 472

MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP .... • 475

MUNICIPAL BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS . . 4&O

ONTARIO RAILWAY AND MUNICIPAL BOARD . . 4^2

HIGHWAY IMPROVEMENT ...... 4&4

via

THE PROVINCE OF ONTARIO

THE LOCAL IMPROVEMENT SYSTEM ..... 488

PUBLIC HEALTH ....... 490

MUNICIPAL LEGISLATION ...... 492

ENTERTAINMENT AND PUBLICITY . . . . -493

THE BONUS SYSTEM . . . . . . . 494

CARE OF THE POOR ....... 495

MUNICIPAL ACCOUNTS AND AUDITS ..... 497

MUNICIPAL STATISTICS ...... 499

AIDS TO MUNICIPAL DEVELOPMENT. . . . • 5°7

THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM. By THOMAS MULVEY

I. JUDICIAL DEVELOPMENT, 1774-1913 ' - . . . . 513
First Judicial Period, 1774-91 — Second Judicial Period, 1791-
1880— Third Judicial Period, 1880-1913

II. COUNTY COURTS ....... 540

III. THE DIVISION COURTS ...... 542

IV. SURROGATE COURTS ...... 545

V. THE LAW SOCIETY ....... 546

HISTORY OF FARMING. By C. C. JAMES

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE . . . . • S51

EARLY SETTLEMENT, 1783-1816 ..... 552

A PERIOD OF EXPANSION, 1816-46 ..... 556

ORGANIZED AGRICULTURE, 1846-67 ..... 562

THE GROWTH OF SCIENTIFIC FARMING, 1867-88 . . . 569

THE MODERN PERIOD, 1888-1912 ..... 574

FOREST RESOURCES AND FORESTRY. By B. E. FERNOW

TIMBER AS A REVENUE-PRODUCER ..... 585

THE FOREST AREA ....... 586

FORESTRY REGULATIONS BEFORE CONFEDERATION . . 589

FOREST PRESERVATION SINCE CONFEDERATION . . . 593

PRESENT STATE OF FOREST WEALTH .... 598

THE FISHERIES OF ONTARIO. By E. T. D. CHAMBERS

THE COMMERCIAL FISHES ...... 603

THE SPORTING FISHES ...... 607

MINES AND MINING. By W. G. MILLER

i. ONTARIO'S MINERAL INDUSTRY . ... . .613

CONTENTS ix

II. THE HISTORY OF MINING IN ONTARIO .... 6l6

Early Mining, 180x3-45 — Discoveries of Ores and other
Minerals — Early Copper-mining — Early Silver-mining — Early
Gold-mining — Nickel-Copper Mines of Sudbury — Cobalt
Silver Area — Porcupine Gold Area — Iron-smelting — Petroleum
and Natural Gas — Portland Cement — Materials of Construc-
tion— Minor Mineral Products — -Mining Revenue — Depart-
ment of Mines— Ontario's Mining Laws — Royal Commission's
Report, 1890.

ILLUSTRATIONS

JOHN STRACHAN .... Frontispiece

From the fainting ill the Department of Education, Toronto

EGERTON RYERSON ... . Facing page 302

From the fainting by J. W. L. Forster

MEMORIALS OF UPPER CANADA . „ 362

(1) QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY, KINGSTON, IN 1840

(2) THE DISTRICT SCHOOLHOUSE AT CORNWALL

(3) THE EARLY HOME OF SIR JOHN MACDONALD AT

ADOLPHUSTOWN

From the John Ross Robertson Collection in the Toronto
Public Library

LETTER FROM THE BISHOP OF TORONTO (JOHN

STRACHAN) TO SIR CHARLES BAGOT . „ 364

GEORGE MONRO GRANT. . 39°

RcproJuced by permission from the ' Life'' by W. L. Grant
and C. /•'. Hamilton

MINING IN ONTARIO ... „ 618

(1) NICKEL-COPPER SMELTER AT COPPER CLIFF

(2) LOADING PIG-IRON BY MAGNET AT PORT ARTHUR

MINING IN ONTARIO . . 630

(1) THE TOWN OF COBALT AND COBALT LAKE

(2) A WORKED VEIN AT COBALT

THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

VOL. xvirr

THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

PRIOR TO THE UNION OF THE CANADAS

WHEN Simcoe came to Newark in 1792 as the first
lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, there were
probably not more than 25,000 white people in
the colony. Those settled about the Detroit River were
loyalists of British and French extraction, too isolated in
interests and too few in numbers to play a large part in the
early educational history of Upper Canada. Here and there
upon the St Lawrence, the Bay of Quinte, and the Niagara
River were settled retired soldiers, the officers of British
regiments. These officers were the men of substance in the
settlements — the magistrates, school commissioners, legisla-
tive councillors, and assemblymen of years to come. They]
were familiar in the old land with conditions that fostered
grammar schools, Etons, and Oxfords for the instruction of j
the professional classes, and left the instruction of the masses -
to the church, to chance, or charity. More numerous than1
these were the Highlanders of Glengarry, to many of whom
the parish school of Scotland had taught the lesson of free
elementary education. Most numerous of all and dominat-
ing all the settlements were the disbanded provincial soldiers
and civilian refugees from the American colonies. Although
these had fought the extreme forms of colonial democracy
to the bitter end, they were still democratic enough to
remember and appreciate the public elementary schools of
their former homes.

The conditions of the young colony in 1792 were unfavour-
able to educational progress. The settlements were scattered,

Z7T

278 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

the settlers few, and there were scarcely any urban centres.
As yet there were no roads or means of land transport, no
regular mail service, few books or newspapers, and little social
life. The struggle with great forests and long winters, with
the fear at times of actual starvation, made schools and
scholars alike seem impossible luxuries.

Simcoe, the first of a long line of soldier-governors, came,
to his office with the clear-cut purpose of saving Canada]
from the republicanism which had wrested from England her !
American colonies. To this end he strove to create in Upper
Canada a second England, with England's political and social
systems, her law, her church, and her education. The English-
man's conception of public education did not include elemen-'
tary schools or schools for the masses. Public security
depended upon the character of the professional and adminis-:
trative classes, and secondary education, therefore, was the
immediate concern of the state. Simcoe urged the Home
Office time and again to set apart waste lands as an endow-
ment for grammar schools and a university, and the land
grant of 1797, supplemented by the District Schools Act of
1807, was the tardy but direct response to his persistence.

The act of 1807 was the first statutory acknowledg-
ment of the responsibility of the legislature in the matter of
education, but there were elementary schools of a kind in
Upper Canada before 1807. Before 1790 the garrison towns,
Kingston and Newark, had each its elementary school with
its chaplain as schoolmaster, and private elementary schools
of an American type were maintained at Fredericksburg,
Ernestown, Adolphustown, and Napanee. With the increase
in population after 1790 the private elementary schools in-
creased. The tuition fees varied from less than one dollar
per month to more than three dollars. The courses of
instruction were generally elementary and rarely classical,
if the stateriients of the Due de la Rochefoucauld, who
visited the colony in 1795, may be accepted. In all schools
much stress was laid upon training in morals, manners,
and religion. Anxiety in this regard led Bishop Jacob
Mountain to attempt in 1798 to revive the old right of the
church in England to license all instructors of youth. This

PRIOR TO THE UNION OF THE CANADAS 279

attempt, taken together with a well-defined suspicion of the
itinerant teacher from the United States and of his text-
books, induced the crown in Upper Canada to declare in
1799 that henceforth all teachers, private or otherwise, must
be licensed after examination by commissioners duly appointed
by the crown to that end. The most noted of these later
private elementary schools were Mr Blayney's at Newark
in 1797, Mr Cooper's at York in 1798, Mr and Mrs Taylor's,
a commercial school, at Newark in 1802, and other schools
at High Shore in Prince Edward in 1803, Meyers' Creek in
1805, Ernestown in 1806, and elsewhere on the Bay of Quinte.

The district schools created under the act of 1807 were/
not popular. They became class schools, accessible only to
the well-to-do, undemocratic in organization, and denomina-
tional. The assembly began soon to attack them, demanding
the transfer of their revenues to schools for the masses. The
legislative council, supported by the conservative executive,
defended them and rejected the assembly's bill for schools
for the people. With the end of the War of 1812 the legisla-
tive council, now grown more liberal, offered to compromise
by extending the act of 1807 to include common schools.
The assembly refused the offer. During the war free elemen-
tary schools were attached to the garrisons and training
camps, and itinerant teachers of writing and singing grew
numerous throughout the settlements. v'The close of the
war brought a great increase in population, in particular frorr\
the United States, where common schools were wellnighl
universal. These conditions, added to the continued failure}
of the district schools, made action inevitable. At last all
parties agreed that while it was wise to ' stem the tide of
well-to-do youths who were seeking instruction in the United
States' by maintaining the district schools, it was just as
wise to foster the demand of the people, particularly of the
' poor,' fcr knowledge, by provision for ' common ' education.
The Common School Act of 1816, the first of the great series
of common school acts, was one result of this agreement.

In the terms of the act of 1816 the parents, wherever they '
could furnish at least twenty scholars, might unite, provide;
a schoolhouse, and elect three trustees who should have ^

280 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

authority to examine into the character and capacity of
teachers, appoint them, and dismiss them. The teachers
must be British subjects or must have taken the oath of
allegiance. Subject to the endorsement of the board of
education to be nominated by the lieutenant-governor in
each of the ten districts of the province, the trustees should
,/make rules for the government of their respective schools,
and prescribe the courses of study and text-books. To aid
the schools the legislature voted $24,000 per annum to be
apportioned roughly, on the basis of population, among the
ten districts then existing. Each district in turn distributed
its portion among its teachers on the basis of school registra-
tion. The parents had to meet all additional charges out of
fees or subscriptions.

The act was at once effective in creating common schools.
Incomplete statistics quoted by Gourlay in 1822 show that
within a year or two after the passing of the act, in one
or two districts, a population of 35,000 was served by 193
schools, with an average attendance of thirty-five pupils
per school and at an average cost to parents or subscribers
of $10.50 per pupil per year.

Once put into effect, however, the limitations of the act
became all too apparent. The words ' furnish at least 20
scholars ' admitted of such latitude of interpretation as
would ' multiply schools to an extent which it would require
three times the provincial revenue to support.' The appro-
priation of $24,000 was out of proportion to the total pro-
vincial revenue. The absence of method in apportioning
the grants among the teachers left room for many abuses.
Other limitations had their origin partly in the act and partly
in the social conditions of the country. The trustees were
often inexperienced and indifferent ; ' too careless and too
ignorant to discriminate right from wrong in the trust they
have undertaken for the public benefit.' There were no
school buildings and no local funds with which to provide
them. ' One might suppose,' says a contemporary sketch
of education in Upper Canada, ' from the shattered condi-
tion and ill-accommodation of many school houses, that
they were erected as pounds to confine unruly boys and

PRIOR TO THE UNION OF THE CANADAS 281

punish them by way of freezing them and smoking them, so
that the master can do little more than regulate the cere-
monies of the hearth.' Many teachers were ' young adven-
turers, or travelling strangers.' ' A teacher of twelve months
is a prodigy ; one of as many weeks the most common.' ' The
public papers ' gave ' continual accounts of the most abomin-
able impostors finding employment and encouragement as
schoolmasters.'

Opposition to the act of 1816 was not based wholly upon
the defects in the act itself. It was part of the wider conflict
which had its origin in the first polity of Upper Canada,
began to assume definite form even before the War of 1812,
and grew in intensity until settled by the Rebellion of 1837
and the union of the two Canadas. On one side of the
conflict were ranged the lieutenant-governor, the profes-
sional and administrative classes, the executive and legisla-
tive councils, and, in the main, the adherents of the Anglican
Church. On the other side were ranged the masses of the
people, especially in the rural districts, the legislative
assembly, and, in the main, the adherents of the non-Anglican
churches. It was a conflict, primarily political and religious,
in which educational movements can with difficulty be
isolated from the more pressing issues of state and church.

The assembly constituted itself guardian of the act of
1816, and the legislative council of that of 1807, and, neither
tolerating interference from its rival, progress ceased. For
three years the fruitless rivalry persisted. At length, led by
the Rev. John Strachan of York, who, as leader of the Anglican
Church, had now become sponsor for the district schools,
the council offered a compromise. One law and one system
would be better than two. 'The district schools might be
made to serve the purposes of the common schools, and might
ultimately replace them. And so the District Schools Act
of 1819 attempted to increase, and, through scholarships,
to popularize the district schools. But the compromise was
not accepted. Instead, the Common School Act of 1816 was
renewed in 1820 with amendments which reduced the crown
grant, but regulated and equalized its distribution among the
teachers.

282 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

Foiled in the attempt to meet the demand for common
schools by an extension of the district schools, Strachan
turned now to create a rival or substitute system of schools.
The Bell-Lancaster movement of England — the monitorial
movement, as it is more familiarly known — had begun
to attract the attention of the lieutenant-governor, Sir
Peregrine Maitland, and of Strachan. It offered cheap
elementary instruction, and cheapness was a prime con-
sideration in the education of the masses. Bell's system,
moreover, included religious instruction in accordance with
the tenets of the Anglican Church. Naturally the lieutenant-
governor and Strachan preferred it, and decided to adopt it
in Upper Canada. As a first step the lieutenant-governor
brought out from London Mr Spragge, a teacher skilled in
Bell's methods. As a second step he arbitrarily took posses-
sion of the common school building in York, which was
closed temporarily, and in 1820 installed Spragge. Thus
created, Spragge's school, known as the Central School, was
to train monitors and masters for similar schools in all urban
centres of any size in Upper Canada. The training was to
be moral and religious, and to be subject to the control of
the Anglican Church. Strachan's plans for the upkeep of
these schools included an appropriation from the revenues
of the land grant of 1797 made annually on the lieutenant-
governor's order. In time these schools would expand into
a system to rival the common schools, or into a substitute
system, much as the Anglican schools of the National Society
in England were rivals of the non-denominational schools
of the British and Foreign School Society.

Strachan's plans were submitted to the Home Office in
1822 and informally confirmed. In accordance with these
plans the lieutenant-governor created in 1823, of his own
authority, the general board of education to direct all schools
in receipt of state aid, and to control all lands and funds for
educational purposes. As chairman of the board, Strachan,
was the first superintendent of education for Upper Canada.;
He was expected to visit schools, to counsel, to recommend
courses of study and text-books, and, in a general way, to1
direct the educational activities of Upper Canada.

PRIOR TO THE UNION OF THE CANADAS 283

In the meantime the Common School Act of 1820 was
about to expire, and the assembly, suspicious of the new
school policy, pressed for a renewal on a permanent basis.
Strachan's plans for a ' national system ' of schools were
deemed premature, and his party consented to a compromise
in the School Extension Act of 1824. This act made per-
manent the Common School Act of 1820. It recognized, if
it did not create, the crown-nominated general board of
education already referred to, and conditioned the crown
grants to common schools upon the character and efficiency
of the teachers as attested by examinations conducted by
the district boards of education.

The creation of the general board of education without'
the authority of the legislature, the appropriation of revenue
from school lands to the maintenance of Spragge's school, the
ecclesiastical exclusiveness of that school and of the schools
of which it was to be the forerunner, aroused, as has been
said, the suspicion of the assembly. When Strachan's uni-
versity policy became known, this suspicion expanded into
violent and at times unreasoning hostility towards every part
of Strachan's educational policy. The legislative council,
ever loyal to Strachan, returned this hostility with interest.
Caught between two opposing forces, the common schools
could not advance. The story of elementary education '
between 1825 and 1840 is a story of petitions, reports, and
doctrinaire proposals, or of captious criticisms and recrimina-
tions, and always of legislative inaction.

Party strife was not the only obstacle to the progress ofl,
the common schools. There was also the financial obstacle.;
The country was poor, the provincial revenues meagre, and
the people still unfamiliar with the idea of local taxation for
education. Pleading in 1829 for free schools, Strachan was
unable to suggest a source of revenue. In 1831 a committee
of the assembly urged a land grant of 100,000 acres for common
schools, and in the same year Buell's Common School Bill
proposed to increase threefold the provincial grant to common
schools. In 1832 another committee of the assembly drew
attention to the fact that the provincial grant did not amount
to much more than one shilling per pupil, or ten dollars per

284 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

teacher per year, and declared that ultimately the burden
of the common schools must rest upon revenue from land
grants and upon local contributions. Pending an appropria-
tion of waste lands, the legislature of 1833 trebled the pro-
vincial grant to common schools and suggested a more
equable distribution of it among the districts on the basis
of population. Within each district the share of each school
was to be based as before upon the registration of pupils, but
no school was to receive its share until the trustees guaranteed
in local subscriptions an amount twice as great as its share.
Burwell's Common School Bill of the same year proposed
to make assessments on ratable property a primary source
of revenue, but local taxation for school purposes was still
a generation away, and the bill received scant consideration.
As William Lyon Mackenzie's party grew, it took sides
with the common schools, demanding not only a land grant
for common schools, but also the transfer of the clergy re-
serves to the common school fund.

Still another obstacle to progress in the common schools
was the absence of expert control. Buell's bill of 1831 pro-
posed to add to the local trustees township boards of superin-
tendents who as experts should inspect and direct the schools
of the township. These township boards were to be repre-
sented, one member each, in the district board, which had
authority to supervise the common schools and report
annually to the governor and legislature. Burwell's bill of
1833 went a step farther. The general board of education,
whose creation in 1823 without the authority of the legisla-
ture was an important item in the assembly's long indict-
ment against Strachan and the executive council, had just
been abolished by order of Goderich, the colonial secretary,
but had lived long enough to demonstrate the usefulness of a
central authority. Burwell proposed to add to township and
district boards a crown-nominated general or central board,
which should administer the common schools and distribute
the school funds under such conditions as might be prescribed.
The Buell and Burwell bills were both too advanced even
for the assembly, but their fine balance of authority be-
tween local and central boards, and their emphasis upon

PRIOR TO THE UNION OF THE CANADAS 285

the expert, influenced Ryerson in his school laws of 1846 and
thereafter.

The agitation in educational affairs became more critical/
after 1834. The legislative council blindly refused to accepn
any educational measure that originated in the assembly.!
The assembly went even further. In 1834 it instituted
inquiries into Strachan's personal expenditures in England
in behalf of the charter of King's College, and into
the crown grants to Bishop Macdonell in behalf of certain
Catholic teachers. In 1835, led by Burwell, it attacked in
detail and with such vehemence the educational proposals
of the legislative council that, though it did violence to their
sympathies, Lieutenant-Governor Colborne and Lieutenant-
Governor Head urged the legislative council to consent to
the reorganization of the common schools. The reply of the
council in 1836, with the colony on the verge of rebellion,
was a refusal to accept without question a school system
which duplicated the New York system, or which departed
radically from the existing system of Upper Canada, and a
refusal, in view of limited revenues and the need of roads
and prisons, to increase materially the provincial grant to
common schools.

The claims of the common schools, however, would not
down. Social and educational reforms were in the air.
' The schoolmaster was abroad.' Cousin had just published
his report upon the schools of Prussia, and France had just
set to work to organize her elementary education. Brougham
in England and Dick in Scotland were pressing home upon
the people of both countries the educational needs of the
masses. England made her first crown grants to elementary
schools in 1833, and soon after commissioned Kay-Shuttle-
worth, her minister of Education de facto, to organize the
education of the poor. In England rising social forces
created mechanics' institutes, reading-rooms, evening schools,
and adult schools in many industrial centres. In Upper
Canada the same forces induced the assembly to appoint
between 1830 and 1840 several commissions to report upon
prisons, asylums for the insane, institutes for the deaf and
dumb, and, in general, the education of the masses.

286 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

One of these commissions, which reported in 1836, was
an education commission of three members of the assembly
with Dr Buncombe as chairman. New political and com-
mercial conditions, the commission claimed, made it neces-
sary to educate the masses. This education should be
scientific or modern rather than classical. For this purpose
laboratories, workshops, and gardens should be attached to
schools. Women should be equipped for the few careers
that as yet were open to them, and especially for teaching.
All teachers should be trained. The commission embodied
in a draft bill several suggestions that played an important
part in later educational legislation. School boards, whether
local or township boards, were to be elective or representative.
Uniformity, a prime consideration, was to be achieved by
inspectors who certificated teachers, inspected schools, and
assisted in prescribing school studies and text-books. Local
school revenues should be derived from rates levied upon the
properties in the school districts or sections. There should
be four normal schools and a superintendent of common
schools.

With the thought of preparing for some measure of
house-cleaning, as a result of the Durham Report, Lieutenant-
Governor Arthur decided to institute a general commission
of inquiry into public affairs, and appointed McCaul, Grasett,
and Harrison a special committee on education. The com-
mittee was instructed to approach its duties with the con-
viction that efficiency in the common schools was the first
educational need, and that to begin educational reform else-
where than at the base of the pyramid was ' to invert the
legitimate order of a common inheritance.'

The report of the committee, issued in 1840, is, in so far
as it refers to the common schools, an interesting presenta-
tion of the views of moderate men on the education of the
masses at the time of the union of the provinces.

The weakest spot in the common school system was the
teacher. His remuneration should be increased ' to be equal
at least to that of a common labourer,' especially in days
when day labour was paid so well. His intellectual and moral
status should always be carefully tested, especially when so

PRIOR TO THE UNION OF THE CANADAS 287

many teachers were ' incompetent and improper persons.'
He should be trained in a normal school, and that training
should be ordered with a view to evolving uniformity every-
where in school methods, courses of study, and even text-
books.

In approaching the problem of schools and school build-
ings the committee thought it well to disregard the existing
common schools. Each township should have a model
school, created and controlled preferably by a species of
joint stock association for the township. Each model school
should possess two acres of ground or thereabouts, two
class-rooms, and living rooms for the male teacher and his
wife, also a teacher. He taught the boys in one class-room,
she the girls in the other. In addition to this permanent
or model school, each township should possess four occasional
or itinerant schools, which were to be supervised by the male
teacher of the model school and taught by one or two junior
instructors who moved about from locality to locality. In
time, and with the growth of population, these itinerant
schools might develop into model schools.

The remuneration of the model school teacher should be
increased to at least $200 per year, an amount made up from
a more generous crown grant and from higher fees. The
report, indeed, regards fees — and fairly high fees, of about
two dollars per quarter — as advisable and necessary. The
remuneration of the teacher's wife and of the itinerant
teacher might reasonably be less than $200.

It was important that the text-books should be improved.
Certainly those of American origin were bad in manufacture
and dangerous in contents. Better books could be imported
from Great Britain or manufactured in the colony itself.
Uniformity in the text-books would tend to bring about
uniformity in the school subjects. English should be taught
everywhere in the form of spelling, reading, and writing ;
and so also arithmetic with mensuration and book-keeping.
The Scriptures should be studied. New subjects like history
and geography should have places on the time-table. There
must be a provincial board of commissioners to enforce uni-
formity. This board should make rules and regulations as

288 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

to teachers' certificates, text-books, courses of study, school
buildings, and school sites. The chairman of the provincial
board, called the provincial inspector-general of education!
should be the executive head of the educational agencies
of the province. Between the provincial board and thd
township authorities stood the district boards, whose duties
were to be limited largely to inspecting and reporting. The
township authorities were to be elected by the shareholders
or supporters of the model and itinerant schools, but the
other boards were to be nominated by the lieutenant-governor.

Much has been said thus far of the efforts of the legis-
lature to create common schools. It might be well here to
refer to the social conditions out of which the common schools
grew, and to describe those schools.

There was a dearth of intellectual interests in Upper
Canada in the early decades of the century. The one gospel
of life was work, and work meant a bitter and benumbing
struggle against great forests, long winters, and remote
markets. Scattered in small and rude communities or
isolated clearings, the settlers were denied the stimulus of a
rich social life. Politics were still the prerogative of a certain
class in the colony and had scarcely yet risen above the
wretched bickerings of factions. Many settlers, especially
in the rural and remote districts, were denied wholly the
privilege of public worship. The professions of law, medicine,
divinity, and teaching were often not served, or served by
adventurers or incompetents from the United States or the
British Isles. Poverty throughout the colony made a luxury
of books, and an imperfect mail service limited correspond-
ence and newspapers to the few urban centres. Indeed, so
forbidding were conditions that the editor of the Courier
could declare publicly in 1836 that ' the majority of our
legislators can neither read nor write nor speak English.'

The dearth of intellectual interests may be regarded as
the remote cause, but conditions peculiar to the early settle-
ments must be regarded as the immediate cause of the slow
evolution of public schools in Upper Canada. The rapid
influx of an incongruous population threw into relief the/
incongruities in existing educational ideals and practices;

PRIOR TO THE UNION OF THE CANADAS 289

In the main the settler from the United States brought with
him an abiding faith in the methods, courses of study, and
text-books of the public schools of New York and Massa-
chusetts. But the settler from the British Isles was wholly
unfamiliar with the idea of public education, or indeed of any
popular education apart from the instruction offered by the
church or by charity. Across these divergent views cut the
views of the native-born Canadian, whose faith in any form
of education suffered from his long and strenuous contest
with the privations of colonial life, and the views of the
administrative classes, in whom current political conditions
had developed an exclusive faith in secondary or higher
education.

The problem of school maintenance was not a simple one.
The people were poor, and had been taught to expect state
maintenance of education and to resent suggestions of local
responsibility and local taxation. The persistent abuse of
the land grants, the sequestration of school lands to the
purposes of the grammar schools and the university, and the
misuse of university funds as revealed in official investiga-
tion, tended to quicken the resentment. Even the assembly,
the patron of all forward steps in elementary education,
rejected without discussion Burwell's bill of 1834-35, which
found in local taxation one, though not the chief, source of
school revenue. On the other hand the state itself was poor.
The home authorities had closed the home treasury. Pro-
vincial lands were not readily salable. The revenues of the
colony were quite inadequate, and were pre-empted by ser-
vices that seemed to be more pressing than schools.

When the crown grant to common schools was $10,000,
it was provided that no teacher should receive more than
fifty dollars per annum from the grant. When the crown
grant was increased by the act of 1833, it was ordered that
no teacher should receive his portion of the grant, which
portion rarely exceeded seventy-five dollars, unless the school
area provided at least an equivalent amount in maintenance
of the school. This local provision assumed generally the
form of fees for tuition. Here each school or each teacher was
a law unto himself. Few schools prescribed a fee lower than

290 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

one dollar per quarter and few went beyond one dollar per
month. The law permitted exemption from fees for the
very poor, and persistent complaints of teachers and trustees
bear witness to the fact that many neglected to pay who
were not so exempt. But the salaries of teachers did not
make up the whole of maintenance. School buildings had
to be considered, and the state offered no aid in the provision
of buildings and equipment, or in the upkeep of the plant.
These things were left to the voluntary co-operation of the
subscribers to the school — with very obvious results.

The ' voluntary ' element was a prime factor in the
administration of the schools. The only bonds that attached
the local trustees to the district board of education or general
board (so long as it existed) or legislature were the grant and
an annual report — and the grant was offered practically
without conditions. All authority rested as yet in the local
area. The local trustees, who were chosen by the fellow-
subscribers of the school, provided and administered the
school buildings, and, to all intents and purposes, certificated,
appointed, and dismissed the teachers, determined the fees,
prescribed the courses of study, the discipline, and even the
text-books. Without inspectors or official visitors, and with
each school area a law unto itself, uniformity in school
organization was impossible.

It was not an easy matter to select a site for the school-
house. The loose organization of the subscribers permitted
much discussion, many meetings, and great delay. In a
general way it might be said that the sites were small in area,
poor in soil, and shadeless, and lay near main roads, or near
the homes of influential subscribers.

In the earlier days of the common school legislation the
schoolhouses were often makeshifts — disused or rented dwell-
ing-houses, or meeting-houses, or settlement-houses, or halls,
or old taverns. In the course of time the school building
itself was evolved, and in turn often did duty as meeting-house
or village hall. This building followed a type simpler in
design and ruder in handiwork even than the pioneer homes
themselves. In the county of Norfolk ' a rude log school-
house was constructed by the early settlers as soon as they

PRIOR TO THE UNION OF THE CANADAS 291

could do so conveniently. A fireplace extended along nearly
a whole side of the building. Logs of considerable length
were rolled into this in cold weather for fuel, while before it
rude benches or hewed logs were placed as seats for the
instructor and pupils.' In Middlesex there were ' school-
houses of round logs, fourteen feet by sixteen feet, with
an open fireplace, windows on three sides, desks built all
around the walls, and hewn benches without backs.' Among
rural schools a room fourteen feet by sixteen feet, with
a ceiling seven feet high, was not uncommon. The roof
was shingled, or, in earlier days, covered with bark, or split
timber or plank. In later days in urban centres the sides
were frame or rough-cast, but in the earlier years they were
made of squared or rounded logs, chinked with plaster or
clay. In a few cases the floor was the bare earth and the
chimney or fireplace was built of logs lined with clay. The
windows, whose panes were small and rarely complete, were
long and low. The doors, crudely built of plank, were often
hung with wooden furnishings and left unlocked. The benches
referred to above are variously described. In bleakest form
and perhaps rarest they were pine blocks on an earthen floor,
but the usual pattern was a plank or slab with holes bored
or burned into the bottom wherein the legs of the bench were
inserted. The older pupils practised their writing at built-in
desks consisting of boards nailed to sticks inserted into the
chinks between the logs and running round three sides of
the room, while about the centre of the room the little boys
and girls in their homespun suits sat as rigidly as they might
on long low benches, backless and deskless. In the centre
itself classes stood and recited, ' toeing the crack.' Much
wood was required to feed the huge fireplace during the long
winters, and it was supplied, generally green, by a levy on
the parent of a fixed amount per pupil. Apart from desks,
benches, wood, water-pail, and the teacher's desk, itself a
treasure-house of things expropriated, the school possessed
no furnishings or apparatus, no maps, blackboards, very few
globes, and, until the third decade of the century, not many
slates.
\ None of the scanty revenue of the school could be spared

VOL. XVIII B

292 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

for repairing or cleaning. ' Bees ' could be relied upon to
take charge of the former, the bigger boys in turn opened up
the school in the morning and ' fired up,' and the bigger girls
swept the room. In some cases the teacher was held respon-
sible for repairing, firing, and cleaning. A Scarboro teacher
slept in the schoolroom, ' rolling up his bed in the morning
and going for his meals to the homes of his pupils.' In a few
cases — following, no doubt, a plan very common in England
— the school included under its roof such modest accommo-
dation as might enable the teacher to keep house, with land
for a garden. But by far the most widespread custom, one
prevalent, too, in the Eastern States, was that of ' boarding
round.' However much the luckless pedagogue may have
rebelled at the weekly shifting of quarters, by no means the
most insignificant part of his influence and success sprang
from the intimate associations with the families of his pupils,
with whom, according to the simple hospitality of the day,
he was always a welcome, even if inevitable, guest.

The teacher was badly paid. A contemporary speaks of
his remuneration as ' little more than an ordinary mechanic's
or labourer's hire.' A district report of 1839 saYs : ' 1° this
country the wages of the working class are so high that few
undertake the office of schoolmaster except those who are
unable to do anything else.'

The effect of low remuneration was evident in the char-
acter of the teacher. William Lyon Mackenzie described him
(there were comparatively few female teachers) as ' a most
abandoned man ' and ' a base demagogue.' Crooks spoke
of him as ' the worthless scum not only of this but of every
other country.' The assembly addressed Lieutenant-Governor
Colborne in 1831 as follows : ' The insufficiency of the
Common School fund to support competent, respectable,
and well-educated teachers has degraded common school
teaching from a regular business to a mere matter of con-
venience to transient persons or common idlers who often
stay for one season and leave the schools vacant until they
accommodate some other like person ; whereby the minds
of the youth of this Province are left with vulgar, low-bred,
vicious, and intemperate examples before them in the persons

PRIOR TO THE UNION OF THE CANADAS 293

of their monitors.' Even as late as 1843 the first assistant
superintendent of education could describe the teachers of
Upper Canada in these terms : ' Boarding for a few days at
a time with the several families by whom they are employed
and changing from house to house, their minds have become
dissipated and private study has generally been altogether
neglected. . . . Otherwise they live generally in the lowest
taverns and consequently associate with the lowest and most
dissipated characters in the neighbourhood.'

By the act of 1816 the trustees were required to examine
into the teachers' scholastic attainments ' as far as they
themselves knew,' with the result that he who ' only knew
how to read and write a little or he who could "figger," read
the Bible without stumbling, mend a pen, and control the
pupils with vigour, often found opportunity to teach.' Per-
haps one of the best evidences of the scholastic inefficiency
of the common school teacher is found in the persisting
demands of legislative committees and commissions between
1830 and 1840 for official inspection, the public examination
of pupils and teachers, the issuance of teachers' certificates by
expert authority, and the creation of a training-school for
teachers.

By the same act of 1816 it was prescribed that the teacher
should be a British subject, or take the oath of allegiance.
As a matter of fact, he was rarely a native Canadian. More
frequently he was a Scotsman or an Irishman, an ex-teacher,
or retired soldier, or tailor, or decayed ' gentleman ' who
taught, or taught and farmed at intervals. Quite frequently
he was an itinerant teacher from the United States, whose
text-books and political theories, especially after the War of
1812, were regarded with suspicion. Complaints against
' American adventurers ' are both numerous and bitter, even
as late as 1840.

But all this is only the sinister side of the picture. Teachers
came from time to time from the United States offering special
courses in such subjects as writing, singing, and English, and
these often were the only instructors to visit remote settle-
ments. Dr Ryerson spoke with appreciation of the instruc-
tion he himself received from such teachers, especially in

294 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

English. And while it could not be expected that all the
rapidly upspringing common schools should find ready to
hand a corps of teachers of uniform excellence, there were
not lacking, even in remote country sections, schoolmasters,
native-born or foreign, of good scholarship and good char-
acter alike. The teacher who ' was a good scholar and
wrote a good hand ' was invaluable to his simple neighbour-
hood in the extra-school duties of making out legal docu-
ments, writing business letters, or setting down in a fair
hand the family records in the great Bible. Here and there
the typical dominie from the old land brought the leaven
of culture into the crudeness and materialism of the new
country. As for the best of these, their work stands, like
heroic deeds, beyond the need of ordinary praise, and even
the worst, who drew down upon their heads the blame so
conspicuous in the records of the time, were not without
their merits.

The pioneer conditions that affected the buildings and
teaching personnel affected also the pupils. Attendance
was very irregular. Bad roads, remoteness from schools,
inclement weather, insufficient clothing, above all, the de-
mands of the farm, were the chief causes. Even in winter
the farm made its demands, and the older boy was often
detained from school to chop and clear, and to draw logs to
mill or wheat to market. With the opening up of the maple
bush in early spring he was withdrawn finally for the year.

Irregular attendance was an unpromising background
for good discipline. Indeed, if we are to accept contem-
poraneous references at their face value, the discipline was
not good. A school was classed as ' easy ' or ' hard ' ; a
teacher was selected often on the score of physical prowess,
or of skill in ' blue beech teaching,' or of success in with-
standing all efforts of the pupils to ' put him out.' The
school processes were described colloquially as ' no lickin',
no larnin'.' ' Education,' says James Young, ' was practical
because it knew what the birch was for and applied it.' But
irregular attendance was not the sole explanation of the
unsatisfactory discipline. The age, the persistent interfer-
ence of the parent, the fee-paying relationship of pupil to

PRIOR TO THE UNION OF THE CANADAS 295

teacher, the supremacy of the authority of the trustees, and
the irresponsibility of the teacher all take their part in the
unhappy results.

In the absence of expert supervision or of a strong central
authority, local conditions and the accomplishments of the
teacher determined the courses of study and the text-books.
The result was a diversity that was almost chaotic. Religious
instruction was, of course, fundamental. The Bible appeared
in every common school, and as psalter, testament, or Scrip-
tures, particularly as the New Testamejnt, was daily read,
learned by heart, and, at times, expounded. Occasionally,
and in particular where the teacher was a clergyman, Bible
instruction was supplemented by a study of the catechism,
Anglican or Presbyterian, and of such books as Watts's Scrip-
ture History. Until late in the eighteenth century spelling
and reading were combined in the one subject of reading,
but as horn-books and primers gave way before spellers and
readers, formal spelling emerged and, early in the nineteenth
century, began to monopolize the activities of the elementary
school. Spellers made spelling popular. It became the
chief measure of efficiency in teacher and pupil. Indeed, in
view of the relative abundance of spelling-books, of the
supremacy of spelling in the school programmes, and of the
spelling matches and spelling bees, spelling can be described
only as a popular ' craze ' in the first half of the nineteenth
century. Reading, of course, persisted. The primer, the
natural successor of the old English horn-book, was pro-
bably used freely in remoter parts as a first and only reader.
Grammar, as such, was rarely taught, and then only by
teachers who had brought classical traditions from the old
country. Writing ranked high as a school subject and as
a measure of competency for both teacher and pupil. All
needed the accomplishment, and all gloried in a bold, hand-
some, and dignified type of handwriting. Arithmetic, like
writing, was taught often by an expert, whose chief qualifica-
tion as a schoolmaster was his skill with ' riggers.' Not so
important a school subject as writing or spelling, arithmetic
grew steadily into favour towards the middle of the century.
Generally the instruction was limited to the fundamental

296 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

processes, but here and there the teacher ventured into
vulgar fractions, mensuration, and even book-keeping. Geo-
graphy and history played a very incidental and isolated part
in the elementary schools before the middle of the century.
They represented accomplishments for which the settler had
slight regard or for which the paramount claims of other
subjects left no room. The teachers, moreover, were in-
competent in these subjects, and text-books, unless it be
faulty or dangerous American books, were inaccessible.
Beyond these traditional subjects, and where the demands
of the parents or the equipment of the teacher made it
possible, such extra subjects appeared as Latin, Greek, French,
Algebra, Euclid, and, if we may believe the story of an Elgin
County boy, even Gaelic. Indeed, Mackenzie's sketches
and the recommendations of the McCaul committee on educa-
tion leave the inference that in rare cases gardening, knitting,
and sewing appeared in the school curriculum.

School - books were extremely scarce and of a varied
character. In certain subjects many pupils had none, and
relied wholly upon oral instruction or upon the text-books of
their fellow-pupils. Wherever text-books were available, they
passed like heirlooms from father to son or brother to brother,
and like common property from pupil to pupil. Murray,
the assistant superintendent of education, reports of some
districts that he found only ' two or three old tattered frag-
ments of books in their schools.' Gourlay tells us that
' in one class you will frequently see "oruTchild with Noah
Webster's spelling-book in his hand and the next with Lindley
Murray's.'

In content and in workmanship these books were crude.
The elementary school was a very new institution and had
just begun to make its own text-books. The scholar could
not or would not co-operate, and the task fell to the elemen-
tary teacher, who was often ignorant and worked without
standards or precedents, with obvious results. Moreover, the
books were ' cheap and nasty,' badly printed on poor paper
and badly bound with leather facings. But they were freely
illustrated with crude cuts

Upper Canada was too poor and her population too

PRIOR TO THE UNION OF THE CANADAS 297

sparse to create publishing houses or school-books of her
own, and she imported both English and American books.
The cheapness of the American books and their greater
suitability to colonial conditions drove the English books
from the schools. Protests against this, especially on the
part of the administrative classes in Upper Canada, were
numerous. Rolph's protest was typical : ' It is really
melancholy to traverse the Province and go into many of
the Common Schools ; you find a herd of children, instructed
by some anti-British adventurer instilling into the young
and tender mind sentiments hostile to the parent state ;
false accounts of the later war in which Great Britain was
engaged with the United States ; geography setting forth
New York, Philadelphia, Boston, etc., as the largest and
finest cities in the world ; historical reading books, describ-
ing the American population as the most free and enlightened
under heaven ; insisting upon the superiority of their laws
and institutions to those of all the world, in defiance of the
agrarian outrages and mob supremacy daily witnessed and
lamented ; and American spelling-books, dictionaries, and
grammar, teaching them an anti-British dialect, and idiom ;
although living in a Province and being subjects of the
British Crown. . . .' ^

The early speller was primer as well as speller, but with
a purpose less obtrusively religious and more patently
scholastic. Mavor's, an old-country speller, was the earliest
and most common of the spellers in use in Upper Canada.
Dilworth's speller, or, to be more accurate, New Guide to the
English Tongue, was also a very popular English speller.
The content was still largely religious, with quotations from
the Scriptures and with much discoursing on practical
ethics, manners, etc., interwoven with scraps of information
in history, geography, and science. It closed with copies
for handwriting! Other and more advanced spellers were
also in use — Cobb's, Carpenter's, Webster's and Lindley
Murray's. Webster's American Speller was probably the
most famous. It was based upon Dilworth's, was the
exponent of a reformed spelling, and did more than any one
book to create the American craze for spelling. Like the

298 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

primer, Webster's speller began with the alphabet in various
forms of type, with meaningless combinations of letters in
syllables, and with lists of three-letter words. These were
followed by lists of longer and more difficult words, which
in turn were followed by simple sentences or extracts for
reading, and thereafter columns of words and passages for
reading alternated. These reading passages were generally
an unrelated miscellany whose content was largely moral,
social, or didactic. The book closed with eight illustrated
fables that were exceedingly popular, and with a species of
moral catechism which was intended to replace the Lord's
Prayer, commandments, creed, and catechism of the primers.
Murray's speller, better known later as the English Reader, was
primer, speller, and reader, and represents a later evolution
from both primer and speller. In addition to its contents
as primer and speller, it contained reading selections in prose
and verse from great English authors, and formed a sort of
modern reader for more advanced pupils.

The grammars in common use — and grammar, as we
have seen, was not freely taught — were Lennie's, Murray's,
and Kirkham's.

There was much diversity in the arithmetic texts. Many
pupils were without books other than note-books with pro-
blems dictated by the teacher. Walkingame's was probably
the most popular text, followed closely by Dilworth's Tutor's
Assistant. Daboll's, Keel's, Rogers', Willett's and Grey's
were other and less common texts. All the texts abounded
in rules and problems, some went no farther than the four
fundamental operations, a few included vulgar fractions, and
all attempted here and there to inculcate moral lessons in
the guise of mathematical problems.

There is evidence that some schools could boast an
odd copy of Morse's Geography or of Olney's and of Gold-
smith's History of England or History of Rome, but maps,
charts, or pieces of illustrative apparatus were wholly
absent.

In considering the methods of instruction in the elementary
schools of this period it must be remembered that the achieve-
ments of the Bell-Lancaster movement in improving school-

PRIOR TO THE UNION OF THE CANADAS 299

room management and of the Rousseau-Pestalozzi move-
ment in improving the method of conducting the recitation
filtered slowly, very slowly, through to these remote schools
of Upper Canada. Generally there were three grades of
students : those who were learning the alphabet, those who
had some competency in the primer or its equivalent, and
those who had some competency in the Bible or reader.
Within each of those grades, and especially in arithmetic,
writing, and spelling, the instruction was individual. The
teacher did not instruct in groups or classes ; indeed, he did
not instruct at all. He assigned lessons to individuals and
heard recitations, with little or no explanation. In arith-
metic, for instance, each pupil was expected, and by persistent
and wasteful drill forced, to memorize number combina-
tions, tables, rules, etc., and later by mechanical applica-
tions of these, especially of the rule of three, to solve problems
or rather puzzles. Perhaps the wastefulness of the methods
of the day is best illustrated in the teaching of writing.
It bulked large on the time-table, involving at least two
hours daily. There were no copy-books with engraved copy
headlines, no detached engraved copy-slips, and no black-
boards on which to exhibit copies. The instruction was
individual, with little examination or criticism of the pupil's
work. The teacher gave most of his time to preparing quill
pens, or ruling the pupil's loose sheets of writing-paper. The
ink was poor, a product often of home or school manufac-
ture, and the paper dark and rough. In rare cases birch bark
was used. Slates and blackboards began to appear after
1820, and steel pens and engraved copy-slips after 1840.
These, with the evolution of class instruction and of the
analytical, inductive methods of Pestalozzi, wrought great
changes in the teaching of writing as well as of the other
subjects of the curriculum.

300 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

FROM THE UNION OF THE CANADAS TO THE
RETIREMENT OF RYERSON

Act of Union, proclaimed in February 1841, seemed
to clear the way for the solution of several problems
in Upper Canada. Governor Sydenham called upon
his first legislature to attack at once the problems of local
government and popular education. The bill to organize
municipal institutions became law in 1841, thus creating the
local machinery required by a system of common schools ;
and a common school act followed in the same year.

This school act of 1841 was based upon the report of
Buncombe's commission, modified in the effort to meet in
the one act the needs of both Lower and Upper Canada.
It was hastily prepared ; it was not the work of practical
educators ; its success depended upon the efficiency of the
municipal system among a people who had not yet learned
the lesson of local self-government ; and it contained the
first statutory recognition of the separate school question.
It is not surprising, then, that it was instantly and universally
unpopular. Indeed, almost before it was fully in force, the
Hincks Act of 1843 replaced it.

The Common School Act of 1843, known as the Hincka
Act, was the first of a series of frank imitations of American
school laws. It took great pains to define the School Fundj
That fund consisted, in the first place, of the provincial grant
to common schools, which was to be apportioned among the
townships, cities, and towns on the basis of population, and,
in the second place, of an equivalent amount (or double the
amount, if so decided) levied by the municipal council con-
cerned as an assessment upon property and collected by the
municipal officer. Each school's share of the School Fund
should be supplemented by subscriptions or ' rates ' collected
from the parents of pupils in attendance.

Administrative control of the common schools was vested
primarily in the chief superintendent of common schools for

FROM UNION TO RYERSON'S RETIREMENT 301

Upper Canada, who should be the provincial secretary.
There might also be an assistant superintendent. The chief
superintendent was to apportion the provincial grant among
the townships, cities, and towns on the basis of population,
issue report-blanks and regulations, and report annually to
the governor upon model, normal, and common schools.

County and township superintendents stood next in the
hierarchy of expert officials. The county superintendent,
who was appointed by the court-of-wardens of the county,
distributed the crown grant among the townships, cities, and
towns, visited each school monthly, examined teachers, and
issued and annulled teachers' certificates. These certificates
were either permanent or limited to one year. The town-
ship superintendents were selected by the councils concerned
and performed duties that seemed to conflict with those
of the county superintendents. They distributed the pro-
vincial grant among the schools of the township, visited
schools, examined teachers, issued and annulled certificates.
These certificates were valid for one year in the township
concerned. Supplementary to these administrative officials
were the boards of trustees, who were elected annually by the
freeholders and householders of each school section. These
boards had charge of the school property, regulated the courses
of study and text-books subject to the approval of the town-
ship superintendent, and appointed and dismissed teachers.

The act of 1843 marks the beginning of a new stage in the!
history of the common schools of Upper Canada. Here is!
at last a real attempt to examine and certificate teachers,
to secure uniformity in text-books, courses of study, and
methods, and to leave the ultimate authority where it lies
best — in the hands of the local trustees. And here is the
beginning of an effort to authorize local taxation in support
of common schools, and to eliminate all suggestion of local
patronage in the distribution of the provincial grant. The
act provided also for the exemption of the very poor from
local ' rates ' for schools, and for the organization of one or
two schools as free schools.

In May 1842 the Hon. R. S. Jameson, vice-chancellor of
Upper Canada, was nominated to the post of superintendent

302 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

of education for the united provinces under the act of 1841.
By prerogative of the crown the Rev. Robert Murray, a
Presbyterian minister stationed at Oakville, who had taken
much interest in social and educational questions, was named
assistant superintendent for Upper Canada. Years later Dr
Ryerson claimed that the office had been promised to himself
by Governor Sydenham. It is known that he pressed home
this promise upon Sydenham's successor, Bagot. Sir Charles
Metcalfe probably knew of the promise, and certainly con-
sulted Ryerson, then the head of Victoria College, with refer-
ence to a ' plan for organizing Upper Canadian education,
from lowest grades to highest, into a harmonious, interlock-
ing, complete whole, non-sectarian and non-political.' The
promise of the appointment was certainly renewed, and
Murray was about to be removed from office when action
was stayed by the governor's break with his ministry and
his appeal to the country on the question of responsible
government. Ryerson, whose past led many to believe that
he would stand by the principle of responsible government,
went to Metcalfe's side and became his most vigorous and
successful supporter. Metcalfe won, and in September 1844
Murray was transferred to King's College as a professor
of mathematics and Ryerson was appointed to the assistant
superintendency.

The change was a wise one. Murray's task was not
light — to enforce an unworkable act — and, at his best, the
gentle-spirited scholar was out of place in this period of
storm and stress in Canadian education. But Ryerson's
appointment, though wise, was not popular. Many friends
of responsible government never forgave his support of
Metcalfe, and never quite abandoned a position of hostility
towards his educational policy.

x Ryerson began to prepare for his duties by an extended
visit to the schools of Europe and the United States. Shortly
after his return he submitted to the governor, in March 1846,
his report on a system of public elementary education for
Upper Canada. It is not a great report like those of Cousin,
Arnold, and Horace Mann. Ryerson saw many schools,
read many curricula, conferred with many teachers, and

EGERTON RYERSON
From the painting by J. ]V. I.. Forster

FROM UNION TO RYERSON'S RETIREMENT 303

the report is a summary of his observations and conclusions.
It cannot be regarded as a very interesting summary. Ryer-
son's style was not very felicitous, and his uncertainty as to
his own knowledge forced him to take refuge in copious
quotations. His schemes and ideas have been described as
1 loosely-assembled ' and ' heterogeneous,' and ' his informa-
tion,' in George Brown's opinion, ' was about things which
everybody already knew.'

If the report is not the work of a really great educator,
it here and there reveals a fine practical wisdom. The
author selects with the sure touch of the administrator those
features of foreign school systems which are applicable to
conditions in Upper Canada, and though as yet an amateur
in elementary education, his judgment never fails to endorse
those methods or practices in the primary schools of the day
which were permanent.

Ryerson's definition of the end of education — ' to remove
pauperism, misery and crime ' — was not new to the citizen
of 1846 ; nor was his definition of its scope as universal,
embracing all classes, complete for each class, yet independent,
and forming ' a pyramid with primary instruction as the
base.' He caught the new note of Germany, scarcely yet
heard in England, when he insisted upon a recognition of
modern industry and commerce in some form of elementary
practical education. The needs of the hour in Canada
suggested careful treatment of the question of religious in-
struction. Religious instruction was essential in all public
schools, but sectarian instruction was not essential anywhere.
This was Ryerson's conclusion, and although forced by
political conditions to accept and even foster separate schools,
he remained faithful to his conclusion throughout a long
official life. Passing to a consideration of the subjects and
methods of elementary instruction, Ryerson expanded the
curriculum of the three R's to an extent that alarmed teachers
of his day, but, singularly enough, every additional subject
lay in the line of school progress since 1846. He added
practical grammar (composition), geography, drawing, history,
music, natural history (nature study), natural philosophy
(elementary science), agriculture, physiology (hygiene), civil

304 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

government, and political economy. He suggested many
new methods or devices in instruction, but he did not suggest
one upon which subsequent educational history has set its
seal of disapproval.

Normal school training would increase the teacher's
efficiency and his rewards and would give security to his
tenure of office. There should be uniformity in school-books.
The national commissioners of education in Ireland were
making great progress in this regard. A provincial board
of education in Upper Canada could in time drive out the
heterogeneous sets of school-books and transfer supreme
control to the state. Experts, inspectors, or superintendents,
should follow the school laws into the school sections and
secure the co-operation of the people in their enforcement.
Of course these experts ' ought to be sought with a lantern
in the hand.' Finally, Ryerson passed to a brief considera-
tion of a group of individual agencies such as a school journal,
teachers' conferences, school libraries, and school visitors,
agencies which subsequent years were to develop in Upper
Canada. Indeed, in respect of these agencies, as in other
respects, the story of Ryerson's administration is the story
of his effort to make effective the views expressed in this
report of 1846.

The chief defect in the act of 1843 lay in its neglect to
provide machinery to make its provisions effective. Ryer-
son sought to remove some results of this neglect in his
common school act of 1846. He sought also to thrust for-
ward into clearer view the principles upon which his new
school system must be based. In the first place, the great
burden of elementary education must in time be shifted
from the parents to the assessable property of the school
section, and education thus maintained must ultimately
become compulsory education. In the second place, while
the administration of public education must remain for the
present in the hands of the people themselves, the state might
aid and advise. Certainly there should be co-operation
between the people and the state. And slowly — if possible,
unobtrusively — under the magic wand of state aid, the
balance of power must shift from the people to the state.

FROM UNION TO RYERSON'S RETIREMENT 305

Under the act of 1846 the assistant superintendency was
abolished and the superintendent became the executive head
of common school education. He was required to distribute
the provincial grant among the municipalities on the basis of
population, to advise trustees as to school buildings and equip-
ment, encourage uniformity in text-books, develop school
libraries, exercise general oversight over a normal school soon
to be established, and in a general way advance the cause of
education by diffusing information. Conscious, perhaps, of
the personal hostility of certain political leaders and fearful
of the effects of such hostility upon educational legislature,
Ryerson, who was to become superintendent, sought to
place the superintendency beyond the reach of political
influence. The superintendent must be appointed by the
governor and must be responsible to the governor and not
to the party in power. The superintendent was to be aided
by a crown-nominated general board of education of not
more than seven members, who should devise regulations in
behalf of the normal school and of uniformity in text-books,
and should advise the superintendent on all questions sub-
mitted to it. The district council must divide the town-
ships, cities, and towns into school sections and levy an
assessment on the district equal at least to the provincial
grant for the district. Moreover, it might assess the property
in each school section for sites, buildings, and residences
for teachers. In particular, it should appoint and pay a
district superintendent of common schools, the most impor-
tant and, despite the absence of a test of competency,
the most efficient agent in the organization of the common
schools.

The duties of the district superintendent were carefully
defined. He apportioned the district levy among the schools
on the basis of school population, visited the schools, exam-
ined candidates for teachers' certificates, annulled teachers'
certificates for cause, enforced the use of approved text-
books, counselled local trustees, and settled local disputes.
In examining candidates for certificates, foreigners, unless
specially licensed by the governor, were to be rejected. The
certificates issued might be special, i.e. limited to a certain

306 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

school for one year, or general, i.e. valid in the district until
cancelled for cause.

While the authority of the local trustees remained
supreme, Ryerson did not hesitate to prescribe minutely the
conditions under which that authority might be exercised.
The elections must be conducted with much formality, and
one trustee must retire annually. Trustees might select
text-books for use in their school, but the selection must be
made from lists approved by the general board of education.
It was the duty of trustees to levy rates upon parents in
support of the school, and they were also authorized to
exempt indigent parents from those rates.

To secure the co-operation of the people and thus develop
public opinion in behalf of his policy, Ryerson created ' school
visitors.' These visitors were clergymen, magistrates, coun-
cillors, members of parliament, and local notables. The act
regarded them as the advisers of teachers and, to retain
their interest, it authorized any two of them to examine and
certificate teachers temporarily.

The newly created general board of education was soon
at work, led by Ryerson. After creating the Toronto normal
school, it attacked the problem of text-books. American
school-books were found everywhere, and in particular along
the border. Canadian printing-houses had begun to issue
reprints of several English and American school-books, thus
creating vested rights. Denial of the right to use these
books would be resented as the imposition of an unjust
financial burden as well as an interference with personal
liberty. In some subjects, moreover, as in geography,
no Canadian or English books were available. Under these
conditions the board of education moved cautiously. It
approved provisionally all Canadian-made books then in
use, and a few English and American books such as Morse's
Geography and Kirkham's Grammar. Having secured the
right to reprint, it recommended for use in Upper Canada
the famous National Series of school-books of Ireland. This
series gradually won the field and kept it until 1867.

It is not easy to overestimate the influence of the National
Series of school-books on school progress. The series was

FROM UNION TO RYERSON'S RETIREMENT 307

complete, including not readers only, but also treatises on
arithmetic, mensuration, geometry, geography, grammar, etc.
Its contents were unusually effective — finely graded religious
and moral instruction skilfully intermingled with a wide
range of facts from history and science. The grading of
the readers was so excellent as to form thereafter the basis
for the grading of all classes in the common schools.

Ryerson now set vigorously to work to convince the
country that elementary education was a supreme necessity.
His toil was incessant. His first annual report, Upper
Canada's first great educational inventory, involved an im-
mense amount of work. To this annual report he added
numerous circulars to trustees, superintendents, and councils
explanatory of new features of the act and of the duties of
all officials under the act. These circulars he supplemented
in turn by an admirable report upon school architecture, by
a well-conceived series of conferences with teachers, trustees
and the public, and by a Journal of Education.

All was not smooth sailing for Ryerson after the passing
of the act of 1846. Political opponents resented the great
expansion in the superintendent's authority, and Ryerson's
prodigious energy in exerting that authority provoked
charges of ' Prussian despotism.' Behind this lay a general
suspicion of the undemocratic usurpation of authority by
the school visitors and district superintendents. Moreover,
the popular temper was becoming restive under the numerous
and abrupt changes in the school law, especially as these
changes fostered the separate schools, increased the cost of
education, and intensified the complexities of educational
administration.

The Supplementary Act of 1847 served for the moment
to intensify the opposition. In earlier common school acts
every school was a rural school, but the growth of cities and
towns, with their need of finer grading and their dislike of
co-education, was creating a demand for an urban school.
The Supplementary Act authorized a town or city council
to nominate not more than six persons, who with the mayor
should be the board of trustees of the common schools of
the corporation. This board should manage each common

VOL. XVIII C

308 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

school through a special committee of not more than three
persons, all of whom should be of the same denomination as
the adherents of the school itself. The separation thus made
between rural and urban schools was necessary and per-
manent, but two clauses of the Supplementary Act caused
much irritation. One clause authorized the governor to dis-
miss any district superintendent for misconduct pending the
next meeting of the council that appointed him — another
example, it was claimed, of the ' Prussian ' methods of the
superintendent. The second clause permitted but did not
compel urban councils to assess property for all school
purposes, and, by omission, seemed to deny to urban boards
of trustees the right to levy rates on parents. When the
board of trustees of Toronto asked the council to assess
property for the use of the schools, the council denied the
request, and the board, unable to levy rates on the parents,
closed the schools, to the great anger of the citizens.

Opposition to the school law became so pressing that
Ryerson submitted to the ministry two drafts of reforms.
Before action could be taken the Baldwin-La Fontaine ministry
assumed office in 1848, and Ryerson's enemies, now in power,
prepared to avenge his desertion of responsible government
in 1844. An attack in the legislature failed, but his draft
bills were emasculated by one unfriendly to his policy and,
despite his protests, passed into law as the Cameron Act of
1849. Ryerson's enemies now looked for his resignation.

But at this, the darkest hour of Ryerson's official life,
the tide had begun to turn. His policy was winning friends
in both political parties. The leaders of the great religious
bodies rallied to his support. The Cameron Act itself aroused
much opposition. Ultimately Baldwin gave way, and author-
ized Ryerson to delay the enforcement of the Cameron Act
and to prepare a new act.

The new act was the act of 1850, the Great Charter, as
it has been called, of common school education in Upper
Canada. There were objections to this act, the old objec-
tions to abrupt changes in the law, to the increase of cost,
to the progressive transfer of authority from the people to
the state official, to the ' free ' school idea now emerging

FROM UNION TO RYERSON'S RETIREMENT 309

clearly into view, and to the ' denominational school ' clauses,
but on the whole the act, like most of Ryerson's subsequent
acts, had the support of both political parties and of all
classes of people.

The act perpetuated the cleavage between rural and
urban schools. It based provincial and municipal grants
upon the average attendance, and not upon the school popu-
lation as heretofore. It permitted the substitution of assess-
ments on property, in part or whole, for rates upon the
parents, thus ushering in the era of the ' free ' school. It
recognized two connecting-links between the Education
Office at Toronto and the schoolhouse. One was the local
superintendent. He was appointed by the county council to
take charge of not more than one hundred schools in one or
more townships. While the Education Office defined his
duties, he was responsible to his council in the discharge of
those duties. Freed from most of his former responsibilities
in the distribution of grants, he became what Ryerson ever
strove to make him — an educational expert. The other
connecting-link was the county council of public instruction.
Its membership consisted of the local superintendents of
common schools together with the trustees of the grammar
schools of each county. Ryerson's own duties were left as
defined in the act of 1846, but the general board of educa-
tion became the council of public instruction, with jurisdiction
enlarged to include teachers' examinations, school libraries,
teachers' institutes, and, in general, the common schools.

Ryerson regarded the act of 1850 as in one sense final.
It created the framework of an educational system, and
subsequent acts and regulations could do little more than,
provide details. To this latter task Ryerson now set him-
self with untiring industry, and for twenty years at least his
success was remarkable. He evolved the Ontario system
of training and examining teachers, willingly or unwillingly
he created the separate school system, and he made free
and compulsory education both possible and inevitable

The Hincks Act of 1843 promised a provincial normal
school. Ryerson, who saw in the training-school the agency
that would solve the problems of chaotic curricula, poor

3io THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

teaching, and bad text-books, urged in his first report the
organization of a normal school after the manner of the
training-schools in Dublin and Albany, and provided funds
therefor in his act of 1846.

Acting with the newly created general board of educa-
tion, Ryerson converted the unoccupied governor's residence
and stables in Toronto into a normal and model school,
chose T. J. Robertson, a chief inspector of the national'
schools of Ireland, as headmaster, and opened the first normal;
school session in November 1847. The admission require-
ments were nominal — a certificate of character, a promise to
teach in Upper Canada after graduation, and success in a
simple test in reading, writing, and the elements of arith-
metic. Once admitted, the student was provided with free
instruction, free books, and, in the main, free maintenance in
approved houses. The course of training, which was largely
academic owing to the inability or unwillingness of the
grammar schools to train common school teachers, was pre-
tentious. It included the English language, geography,
history ancient and modern, logic, the theory and practice
of arithmetic, algebra, physics and agricultural chemistry,
sacred music, and drawing. On the professional side there
was a brief course in the theory of education, with much
practice-teaching in the normal school.

The normal school was looked upon as Ryerson's own
creation and was at once attacked by his many enemies. Its
maintenance out of the provincial grant for common schools
provoked the opposition of both teachers and trustees. Its
academic courses were open to young men and women who
had no thought of becoming teachers. It was impossible
to promise efficiency in a six months' course of training.
There was some doubt, too, of normal school methods,
subjects, and text-books ; and there was much fear of co-
education as authorized in the normal school after the first
session.

Under the spur of this criticism Ryerson reorganized the)
normal school after 1850. He purchased the site on Gouldi
Street, Toronto, in 1850, and completed the erection of build--
ings for the normal school, model school, and Education

FROM UNION TO RYERSON'S RETIREMENT 311

Office in 1852. He authorized an admission examination, to
be conducted in the counties by committees of local super-
intendents. He expanded the curriculum, chiefly on the
scientific side, promising to add practical horticulture and
arboriculture in the grounds of the new normal school, and
he combined the two six-month sessions per year into one
session of nine months, urging the need of a long vacation
during which the normal school masters might attend teachers'
conferences. To eliminate the students who sought aca-
demic rather than professional training, Ryerson withdrew all
financial privileges from those who would not give an under-
taking to teach after graduation ; and to minimize the evils
of co-education, he assumed personal responsibility for the
conduct of the students and issued a series of very paternal
regulations for their guidance.

Between 1850 and 1870 the normal school nourished
apace. The long session had a disastrous effect upon the^
attendance, and the two-session plan was soon revived.
Gradually all examinations became written examinations,
and all, including the admission examinations, were held in
Toronto. In the academic instruction that the normal
school was at first forced to give there was much training in
English of the formal type with analysis and parsing. There
was also much science. Ryerson thought to help the agri-
cultural interests of the country, but despite garden plots,
arboretums, and the best science apparatus of the day, the
instruction was non-experimental, bookish, and ineffective.
As the grammar schools improved the academic courses of
the normal school contracted, and the professional courses
expanded until Ryerson could say in 1867 that ' the object
of the normal and model schools is, therefore, to do for the,
teacher what an apprenticeship does for the mechanic, the
artist, the physician, the lawyer, to teach him theoretically
and practically how to do the work of his profession.'

Prior to 1853 all teachers' certificates, even those of
normal school graduates, were issued by local authorities,
superintendents, or county councils of public instruction.
In 1853 the council of public instruction authorized the
issuance of provincial certificates on the recommendation

312 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

of the normal school masters. From 1853 to 1871 there:
was a dual system of certificates : provincial certificates'
issued to normal school graduates and local or county certi-
ficates issued by the county educational authorities.

In the lists of normal instructors of this period appear
names well remembered in Upper Canada. Henry Youle
Hind, Robertson's assistant, was succeeded in 1853 by the
Rev. William Ormiston of Victoria College, who was succeeded
in turn by Barren, Watts, and Sangster. On Robertson's
death in 1866 J. H. Sangster succeeded to the headmastership,
which he held until 1871.

The religious movements of the early half of the century
began to find expression after 1835 in persistent demands
for religious instruction in the common schools. At the
same time the Act of Union thrust into the foreground the
religious problems of the minorities in the two Canadas.
Moreover, the uncertainty as to the treatment of religious
instruction in impending common school legislation after the
Union provoked a flood of petitions and counter-petitions.
The result for the moment was to transfer the ' battle of the
creeds ' from the grammar schools and the university to the
common schools.

The first issue of the struggle was an amendment to the
act of 1841, agreed to by all political parties, which author-
ized the creation of separate schools, Protestant or Roman
Catholic, wherever the ' dissentients ' could muster fifteen
school children. The act of 1843, in replacing that of 1841,
provided that ten dissentient resident householders or free-
holders, Protestant or Roman Catholic, might by petition
obtain the right to create a separate school, to be managed
in the same way as the regular common school. It also pro-
vided that a conscience clause should apply in the common
school, by virtue of which a child should be exempted from
such religious exercises as were objected to by its parents
or guardians. Ryerson saw in these separate schools a
danger to the unity and efficiency of the national system.
He believed also that the conscience clause made them un-
necessary. But he was loyal to rights acquired before he
accepted office. His act of 1846 re-enacted the separate

FROM UNION TO RYERSON'S RETIREMENT 313

school classes of earlier acts, and in his official life he scrupu-
lously, though reluctantly, enforced those clauses. The act
of 1847, which created a board of school managers for each
city or town with a special committee in charge of each
school, provided that the members of the special committee
should be of the same denomination, Protestant or Roman
Catholic, as the adherents of the school. As the board of
managers determined the number of the individual schools,
Ryerson did not look for a rapid growth in the number of
urban separate schools. For economic reasons there were
practically none in the rural districts.

As the great act of 1850 was passing through the legis-
lature, Ryerson, fearful of a coalition of Anglicans and Roman
Catholics in behalf of a system of voluntary or church
schools, made concessions to the Roman Catholics. The
famous clause nineteen provided that, at the written request
of twelve resident heads of families, the township council or
the urban school board, as the case might be, must establish
a separate school for Protestants or Roman Catholics.

Careless wording of the act of 1850 denied the right to
create more than one separate school in each city or town,
and this disability brought on a crisis in Toronto. Ryerson's
amending act of 1851 permitted the organization of at least
one separate school in each ward or in two or more wards
combined.

Discussion upon the amending act of 1851 served to make
the separate school question exclusively a Roman Catholic
or a Protestant question and not a denominational question.
Since 1851 the legislature has resolutely opposed all efforts
to gain recognition for separate denominations within the
Protestant body. The discussion also served to convince
the friends of the common schools of the determination of
the supporters of Roman Catholic separate schools not to
rest in their agitation until separate schools were coequal
under the law with the common schools. The progress
towards this equality was necessarily slow. Protestant feel-
ing ran high in Upper Canada in the presence of the
strong Roman Catholic influence of Lower Canada. Great
leaders like William Lyon Mackenzie, Brown, and Ryerson

314 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

asserted in and out of season that separate schools, given
full recognition, would shipwreck the national system. Each
advance, effected only by much agitation, by the skilful
manipulation of political rivalries, and often by the votes of
the Roman Catholic majority from Lower Canada, made
further advance more difficult.

A particularly vigorous movement led by Bishop de Char-
bonnel of Toronto, aided indirectly by Strachan and some
of his clergy, induced Ryerson to consent to the compromise
act of 1853. This act limited the separate school's share of
the school fund to the provincial grant, and exempted its
supporters from all property assessments for common schools,
for which they had hitherto been liable, on condition that
they duplicated the provincial grant in voluntary subscrip-
tions. For the first time it gave authority to separate school
trustees to levy rates upon parents and to certificate teachers.

But the agitation did not cease in 1853. Indeed, political
conditions fanned it, and the Tache Act of 1855 was the
result. This act left the Protestant separate schools as they
were, but nullified all former separate school legislation in
so far as it referred to Roman Catholic schools. Hence-
forth a public meeting of ten Roman Catholics, freeholders
or householders, might create a separate school in any school
section or any ward of a town or city. The trustee board
elected by the supporters of each school became a corpora-
tion with the powers and privileges possessed by the common
school board. The trustees of the various wards might unite
to form a general board of managers for the town or city.
Separate school boards, if they could show an attendance of
fifteen pupils, were authorized to license their own teachers,
levy rates upon their own supporters, and claim a due share
of the provincial grant. The supporters of separate schools
were to be free from all municipal assessments in support of
common schools or school libraries.

The act of 1855 strove to do for the Roman Catholics of
Upper Canada in a statutory way what had already been
done for the Protestants of Lower Canada. Drafted with
this object in view, the act overlooked some existing dis-
abilities and created some new ones. When the leaders of

FROM UNION TO RYERSON'S RETIREMENT 315

the Roman Catholic Church became conscious of these dis-
abilities, they renewed the agitation with attacks upon the
common schools, school-books, and school libraries, and upon
Ryerson himself. While Ryerson and the church leaders
continued the controversy in the press and on the platform
with a vigour and directness of speech not fashionable to-day,
R. W. Scott of Ottawa championed the cause of the separate
schools in parliament. Ultimately Scott won Ryerson's co-
operation and carried through the Scott Act of 1863.

The amendments effected by the act of 1863 included
further provision for the creation of separate schools in rural
districts, especially in union sections, with cancellation of
the clause which required an annual notice from supporters
of separate schools of their intention to continue as supporters
and of the clause which required separate school trustees to
take oath as to the correctness of their attendance records.
Henceforth separate schools should share, not only in the
provincial grant, but also in the equivalent municipal grant.
Separate schools must be subject to the inspection of the
superintendent and must conform to the regulations of
the council of public instruction. Separate school teachers,
except such as were already qualified by law in Upper and
Lower Canada, must hold the same certificates as common
school teachers and must obtain them in the same way.
Ryerson claimed that the act of 1863 ' would not affect
seriously the national system of schools,' but would serve as
a ' safety-valve which directs and paralyses opposition to
our public school system.' The Roman Catholic leaders
claimed that, apart from unimportant details, it gave, the
recognition that was due the separate schools. And although
the time of its passing was one of much bitter feeling, the act
was almost the last word in a long controversy. The separate
schools of Ontario remain to-day practically as they were
defined by the law of 1863, and since 1863 the separate school
question has ceased to be a grave issue in Ontario politics.

When the educational resolution of the delegates at the
Confederation conference was submitted to the legislature
in 1865, it was endorsed even by such staunch opponents of
the act of 1863 as Brown and Alexander Mackenzie, and

3i6 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

ratified unanimously. As wrought into the British North
America Act, this resolution gives the provinces authority
to legislate in the matter of education ' saving the rights and
privileges which the Protestant and Roman Catholic minority
in both Canadas may possess as to their denominational
schools at the time when the union of the Provinces goes
into operation.'

The movement towards free and compulsory education in
Upper Canada cannot be separated from the general move-
ment which filled out the framework of the school system
created by the act of 1850. An act of 1853 enunciated again
the three ways of maintaining schools, i.e. voluntary sub-
scriptions, rate bills on parents (not to exceed twenty-five
cents per pupil per month), or assessments on property.
The same act recognized such auxiliary agencies as the
museum, a collection of educational, scientific, and artistic
exhibits which Ryerson was anxious to assemble at Toronto
after the manner of the South Kensington museum in
London ; the Journal of Education, which was to bring to
every teacher, board of trustees, and municipal council the
evangel of free elementary education ; and the superannuation
fund, which provided, out of contributions from teachers
and the state, a modest retiring allowance for worn-out
teachers. An act of 1855 increased the grant to school
libraries, which were to be the forerunners of the mechanics'
institutes and free libraries of a later date, and authorized
the creation of the book depository for the distribution at a
low price of school, prize, and library books, maps and
apparatus — two institutions which long retained a first place
in Ryerson's anxieties and affections. An unimportant act
of 1860 practically completed the list of general statutes
between 1850 and 1870. But circulars with regulations,
instructions, and explanations were innumerable, and em-
braced courses of study, text-books, teachers' certificates,
religious instruction, public examinations, school prizes and
merit cards, public recitations, public lectures by superin-
tendents, vacations, and all phases of common school educa-
tion. Ryerson himself travelled much in Upper Canada,
conferring, and explaining his policy, and much among the

FROM UNION TO RYERSON'S RETIREMENT 317

schools of Europe, inquiring and borrowing. Indeed, he
himself boasted that his system was eclectic, with its law
from Massachusetts, its finance from New York, its teacher-
training from Germany, its text-books from Ireland, and
its museum and depository from England.

Under these conditions the common schools prospered
mightily. They met with much opposition, not a small
part of which was due to Ryerson himself. He did little to
bridge the chasm between his enemies of the Metcalfe days
and himself. Indeed, his controversial temper widened it.
His large manner in the use of public money, his unwilling-
ness to compromise, his readiness in violent speech, his
impatience at restraint, his paternalism, even his adminis-
trative genius, which drew all reins of authority into his
own hands, raised up many opponents. But Ryerson and
the common schools won. The figures given below bear
witness to the victory :

1850

•
1870

School population of Upper Canada .

259,258

483,966

Pupils in attendance

151,891

421,866

Number of schools

3,095

4,403

Number of free schools .

252

4,244

Amount paid in salaries

$353,716

$1,222,681

Amount for other purposes .

$56,756

$489,380

Total expenditure

$410,472

$1,712,061

Number of teachers

3,476

5,165

Number of brick schools

870

Number of stone schools

117

428

Number of frame schools

1,191

1,888

Number of log schools .

1,568

1,406

The success of the free school principle under the per-
missive clause in the act of 1850 and the pressure of new
social and political conditions prepared the way for Ryerson's
first great post-Confederation act and his last great law^
the School Improvement Act of 1871. Under this act and
the regulations that supplemented it common schools became
public schools or ' free ' schools supported, in so far as local

3i8 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

revenues were concerned, wholly by assessments on property.
A corollary of free schools was adequate accommodation.
A minimum equipment in grounds, buildings, apparatus,
books, etc., was now prescribed. A second corollary was
compulsory attendance. The act required parents, under;
penalties, to utilize opportunities for the free instruction of i
children between seven and twelve years of age during at,
least four months of the year. The new curriculum pro-
vided for the ' thorough teaching of the three primary
subjects of all good education, reading, writing, and arith-
metic, and for the teaching of other subjects directly con-
nected with the social progress and practical pursuits of the
people.' Here Ryerson, who had a weakness for preten-
tious curricula, inserted natural history, natural sciences,
mechanical, industrial, and commercial arts, history and
civics, drawing and music. In the interests of both the
public and the high school the sphere of each was very care-
fully defined, especially where they tended to overlap. Fifth
and sixth grades or classes were authorized for public schools,
and at the end of the fourth class a written examination
was instituted for admission twice a year to the high schools.
This admission examination, based upon the public school
curricula of the first four classes, was destined to give tone
and purpose to all public school work.

The act marked another stage in the evolution of the
educational expert in Ontario. All teachers were to be
trained, examined, and certificated under the authority,
more or less direct, of the council of public instruction. In
an effort to eliminate the partialities and jealousies that
attended upon local control, the law abolished local super-
intendencies, substituting county inspectorships, and went
as far as it dared towards converting the inspector into a
servant of the Education Office. It prescribed his duties,
emoluments, and qualifications.

An old man worn with the cares of office, Ryerson now fell
again upon troublous times. Blake and the liberal party had
fought his act of 1871 tooth and nail. The provincial treasurer
now interfered with his administration of the finances of
the Education Office. Local superintendents whose services

FROM THE WITHDRAWAL OF RYERSON 319

were dispensed with under the new act, teachers who were
declared unqualified by the new standards, and ratepayers
who were hostile to free schools and compulsory education,
combined to assail his policy in and out of season. Irritated
by the attacks, Ryerson offered to resign his office, but the
offer was refused. Rushing to another extreme, he entered
an election campaign in vigorous opposition to Blake, and
the success of Blake's party trebled his difficulties. Again
he offered to resign, but Blake, not yet prepared to appoint
a minister of Education, postponed action. In the mean-
time, however, the ministry took authority to review the
decisions of both the superintendent and the council of
public instruction. The annulment of certain regulations
under this authority was followed by an inquiry into the
organization of the council itself and ultimately by the act of
1874, which made the council's membership in part repre-
sentative of the teachers. Ryerson's opponents turned next
to attack his text-book policy and the depository. Harassed
and hopeless, Ryerson again offered his resignation, and
Mowat, who was now premier, persuaded that the country
was at last ready for a change in the method of administra-
tion, accepted it in 1875. The act of 1876 abolished the
superintendency and the council of public instruction, and
created the department of Education with a responsible
minister, or member of the cabinet, as its executive head.

Ill
FROM THE WITHDRAWAL OF RYERSON

A)AM CROOKS became minister of Education in February
1876. Unlike Ryerson, he could not claim that his
office and duties lay outside the domain of politics,
and he could not expect the unhampered support of both
political parties. It was due to this, perhaps, and to the
charges of absolutism so often urged against Ryerson in his
last years, that he was not unwilling to reverse Ryerson's
policy and decentralize authority. It was due to the same
cause, no doubt, that his own educational policy was marked

320 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

by extreme caution. He followed and never ventured to
anticipate popular demands. Apart from trifling changes
in details, he left the educational system in 1883 almost as
it was in 1871.

The ' permissive ' factor bulked large in Crooks's revised
regulations of 1879. His Compulsory Attendance Act ol
1 88 1 made permissive the appointment of truant officers tc
enforce attendance of children between the ages of seven anc
thirteen for at least eleven weeks per year. In the same
year county councils were by law permitted to supplement
the crown grants to teachers' associations and county model
schools. Crooks's text-book changes were never abrupt and
became obligatory only after years of waiting. Crown grants
were withdrawn gradually from the educational agencies by
which Ryerson set such store — the depository, school libraries,
the prize system, and the Journal of Education. They all
ceased to exist, through neglect if not by law, before 1883.

During its last years the council of public instruction had
conducted its examinations through a sub-committee of edu-
cational experts. Crooks retained this sub-committee under
the name of the central committee of examiners and com-
mitted to it the administration of the rapidly expanding
examination system of the province. In 1880 the central
committee of examiners was authorized to delegate the im-
mediate conduct of the examinations (e.g. the preparation
of examination papers and the evaluating of answers) to
a sub-committee of examiners, and in 1882, custom becom-
ing crystallized into law, the central committee was given
advisory duties in connection with all questions submitted
to it. Its members were appointed by the lieutenant-
governor in council, and, unlike those of Ryerson's council
of public instruction, they were educationists, teachers, in-
spectors, and college professors. Its chairman and dominant
force was George Paxton Young, professor of moral and
mental philosophy in the University of Toronto, and some-
time inspector of grammar schools.

Changes in the courses of study of the public schools;
followed in due time after Ryerson's withdrawal from office, j
Ryerson's pretentious curriculum of 1871 was found imprac-

FROM THE WITHDRAWAL OF RYERSON 321

ticable. In 1882 Crooks reduced and consolidated the
studies of the first four grades, separated them completely
from the studies of the fifth and sixth classes, and thrust
Ryerson's new subjects, such as the natural sciences, mechani-
cal, industrial, and commercial arts, agriculture, etc., into
the fifth and sixth classes as options. These subjects re-i
mained, of course, in the printed schedules, but disappeared
at once from the schoolroom. George W. (afterwards Sir
George) Ross, who succeeded Crooks as minister in 1883,
went farther. Attacked on the score of overpressure in the
schools, he withdrew the tabooed subjects in 1887 even from
the optional lists, forced practical English into prominence,
combined several of the remaining subjects, and claimed
that Ryerson's nineteen subjects had been reduced to eight
or nine. Among the eight or nine were included, moreover,
new subjects such as music, temperance and hygiene, and
drill and calisthenics. Even within this limited prescrip-
tion of subjects liberty of revision was everywhere allowed,
trustee boards acting in co-operation with their teachers.

One of the big educational problems of the last twenty
years of the century was the text-book problem. Warned
by Ryerson's experiences, Crooks attempted to shirk respon-
sibility in the matter. He authorized at least two text-
books in each subject and limited authorization to the
subject-matter. Business competition must guarantee good
workmanship. In so far as the readers were concerned, this
policy grew into three authorized sets of books, with the re-
sultant confusion and irritation. Ross, who had a genius
for simplicity and uniformity in administration, gave notice
early in his administration of his intention to revert in part
to Ryerson's policy and to authorize one text-book in each
subject, and in particular one set of readers. With regard
to his schedule of authorized books of 1886, he claimed that
his books were modern in method and content, Canadian
in workmanship and spirit, few, cheap, and efficient — the
product of the experts of the schoolroom. The department
of Education controlled them in content, manufacture, and
selling price.

More important than the text-book problem in its political

322 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

significance was the problem of religious instruction. Prior
to 1841 each school was a law unto itself in this matter.
After 1841 the demand for religious instruction led, on the
one hand, to the creation of separate schools in which religious
instruction was persistent and sectarian, and, on the other
hand, to the institution of the conscience clause, which pro-
tected the religious scruples of dissentients everywhere. An
act of 1855 made opening and closing prayers optional exer-1
cises in all common schools. In 1878, as an indirect result
of an attack upon the separate schools, Crooks was forced
to prescribe conditions under which local clergy might offer
religious instruction to school children in schoolhouses after
school hours. But the agitation in behalf of obligatory
religious instruction in public schools continued, and in 1884
Ross authorized the use of a volume of Scripture readings
which had been prepared or revised by all denominations,
and, subject to the conscience clause, made daily prayers and
Scripture readings without comment obligatory. Trustees
might also order the learning of the ten commandments. A
political agitation followed, and Ross revised the Scripture
readings in 1887 and authorized the use of the whole Bible
as an alternative.

But the most difficult problem was that of the so-called '>'
bilingual schools. French settlers in the extreme east and
west of the province and German settlers in the centre
created this problem. So long as each school was a law unto
itself, the problem did not attract attention. With the
growth of the central authority and with the appearance
of racial jealousies, especially after the union of the two
Canadas, an agitation began to develop against bilingualism
in the schools. The Germans, who were few in number
and isolated, had already practically abandoned instruction
in German. But the French, compact in organization and
increasing rapidly in number, met the agitation by a demand
for the official recognition of the French language. The
council of public instruction consented first to the substi-
tution of French grammar for English grammar in the
examination of teachers, and then in 1858 approved of a
special list of books for the English-French schools. In

FROM THE WITHDRAWAL OF RYERSON 323

1874 county councils were permitted to appoint bilingual
inspectors in counties where there were at least forty English-
French schools. In 1879 Crooks, urged on by the French,
authorized the use of Quebec school-books in the English-
French schools of Ontario. But the agitation against the
bilingualism of these schools continued to develop, and in
1885 Ross took the first step in restraint. He required the
use of the authorized English readers side by side with the
French (or German) readers. He instructed the inspectors
to enforce the teaching of English in all schools, and, to aid
them, published a syllabus of English lessons for English-
French schools. But Ross recognized that the teachers in
these schools held the key of the situation. They were in
the main natives of Quebec, and those among them who were
ambitious and successful soon drifted back to more attractive
posts in their native province. Of competency in French
studies, then, the teachers in the bilingual schools of Ontario
in those years had little, and of competency in English
studies they had far less. They could not teach English
even if they wished to. To meet this difficulty Ross created
in 1886 a bilingual model school for the training of teachers.
The school failed from lack of students with a preparatory
education, and the agitation was renewed. After a special
commission had reported, Ross repeated his instructions to
the inspectors as to the teaching of English in the bilingual
schools, and proposed in 1890 to reorganize and expand his
scheme for the training of teachers for those schools. He
authorized sets of bilingual readers for French and German
schools and forbade the use of unauthorized and, in par-
ticular, Quebec readers. Recognizing the need of instruc-
tion in colloquial English, he issued a detailed course of study
therein. Reading, grammar, and composition in French
might be taught, but not without reading, grammar, and
composition in English. English alone was to be used by
the teacher in the conduct of the classes unless its use was
quite impracticable by reason of the pupils' unfamiliarity
with it. Despite the requirements of the law, however, the
bilingual teacher remained as he was, and the agitation spent
itself for the moment.

VOL. xvm r>

324 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

Great spaces and sparse population delayed the appear-
ance of the infant school in Ontario. When the kinder-!
garten came to Toronto in 1882, it was a private institution.
Ross, ever eager to fill out and unify, accepted it in 1885 as
a ' permissive ' branch of the system. Its growth in thirty
years into threescore kindergartens in the urban centres of
Ontario has been slow and quite out of proportion to its
reflex influence upon the training of teachers and upon the
organization of the primary curriculum.

In 1890 Dr J. G. Hodgins, who in 1844 had entered the
Education Office as a clerk with Ryerson, and who had
become deputy minister of Education after Ryerson's with-
drawal from the superintendency, retired from office to
become librarian and historiographer of the department of
Education. Alexander Marling's death after a few months
in the deputy minister's office made room for John Millar's
appointment in 1890.

The years 1870 to 1890 witnessed momentous changes in
Ontario's method of training and certificating public school
teachers.

The great school law of 1871 demanded as its comple-
ment an extension of the training agencies. Ryerson began
by reorganizing the teachers' associations or institutes. He
made their maintenance a charge upon the department of Edu-
cation, the municipal councils, and the teachers themselves.
He made the attendance of teachers practically obligatory.
As the new school law made attendance at a training-school
compulsory upon all candidates for permanent certificates
as teachers, Ryerson foresaw the overcrowding of the normal (
school at Toronto, and induced the government to open a (
second normal school at Ottawa in 1875, with J. A. McCabe
as principal. In 1871 Sangster retired from the principal-
ship of the Toronto normal school, to be succeeded by Dr
Davies. With the appointment of T. Kirkland and Dr
Carlyle as his assistants the course of instruction was en-
larged, in particular on the side of the natural sciences.
In 1876 the admission requirements and the courses of
study of the two normal schools were again revised with
the view of enlarging the prescription in English and

FROM THE WITHDRAWAL OF RYERSON 325

science, and the two-session year again became a one-session
year.

Concurrently with this change in the normal schools the
schedule of certificates was reorganized. The county council
of public instruction had outlived its day. It was expensive,
and its members, in so far as they were grammar school
trustees, were not necessarily competent. It was now con-
verted into the county board of examiners, with the county
inspector of public schools as chairman, and the headmaster,
of the high school and certain holders of first-class certificates
who were nominated to membership by the county council .
as members. Certificates were to be classified as first-class,
second-class, and third-class. Third-class certificates were
to be valid for three years, with renewal under restricted con-
ditions, and to be limited to the county concerned unless
endorsed for another county by the inspector thereof. First-
and second-class certificates were permanent and provincial
certificates of two or three grades, A, B, and C. All candi-
dates were examined at the county towns under the super-
vision of the county boards of examiners on papers prepared
by the central committee of examiners. The answer-papers
of candidates for second- and third-class certificates were
evaluated by the county boards of examiners, those of first-
class candidates by the central committee of examiners at
Toronto. Only teachers with five years' experience might be
candidates for first-class certificates, and only those with three
years' experience might be candidates for second-class certi-
ficates, unless specially exempted. Normal school students
sat for the same examinations under the same conditions as
the other candidates whose preparation was private.

Ryerson left office with his system of teacher-training
unfinished. Crooks took up the task at once and finished
it, or blazed the trail which Ontario followed for thirty years.
Ryerson had legalized the appointment of monitors — a class
of teachers fashioned after the pupil-teachers of England,
but without the training and experience of their English
prototypes. Under the competition of these monitors the
regulations as to third-class certificates were relaxed, with
the result that untrained monitors and third-class teachers

326 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

tended to drive the trained second- and first-class teachers
from the schools. At the same time public opinion in Ontario,
reflecting European opinion, was coming to the conclusion
that some form of professional training for all elementary
teachers was indispensable. Crooks met the situation by
the act of 1877 and the regulations thereunder.

It was obvious to Crooks that the new training should be
short and cheap as well as compulsory. The act authorized ,
each county to set apart a graded public school in its chief
urban centre as a model school for the training of teachers.
Minimum requirements as to accommodations, equipment,'
and teachers were prescribed. The headmaster of the school
was to offer a short course of instruction in the theory and
practice of teaching, and the class-rooms were to provide oppor-
tunities for practice-teaching. Subsidized by the department
of Education and, later, by the county councils, and fostered
by the county boards of examiners, more than fifty of these
county model schools were soon engaged in training third-
class teachers for the public schools.

Provided now with normal and model schools, Crooks
proceeded to elaborate their organization. The high schools
had developed rapidly since 1870 and could now be entrusted
with the major part of the training of public school teachers
in scientific and literary branches. But the training of the
normal and model schools must be made more practical
and professional. Acting through the central committee of
examiners, the minister prescribed courses of study and
schemes of examinations for third- and second-class teachers.
Holders of third-class non-professional or academic certifi-
cates obtained after a course in a high school were eligible
for admission to a county model school for a third-class pro-
fessional course of eight weeks, just as holders of second-class
non-professional certificates, similarly obtained, were eligible
for admission to a normal school for a second-class profes-
sional course of twelve weeks. As the high schools were still
deemed inefficient in the more advanced work, both the non-
professional and professional courses for first-class teachers
were offered in a special nine months' session of the normal
schools. All candidates for certificates as public school

FROM THE WITHDRAWAL OF RYERSON 327

teachers must begin by way of the county model school
and a third-class certificate. All candidates for second-class
certificates must add to the model school course at least one
year's experience in teaching and a normal school course, and
all candidates for first-class certificates must add another
and higher normal course or examination, with or without
attendance. A third-class certificate was valid for three years
in the country where issued, but might be endorsed by any
inspector as valid in his inspectprate. Second- and first-
class certificates were valid during good behaviour in any
public school in the province. Elaborated thus, the Ontario
scheme for teacher-training illustrated early and well the
Ontario passion for uniformity and completeness in educa-
tional administration, and in particular in the administration
of public examinations.

Between 1870 and 1885 a very rapid movement of public
school teachers out of the profession strained to the break-
ing point the machinery for training teachers. Relief was
sought in various directions. High schools were encouraged
to train for the non-professional or academic examinations
of third- and second-class teachers, and even of first-class
teachers. The courses of the training-schools became more
professional. Exemption from attendance at a normal school
was granted candidates for second-class certificates whose
teaching experience justified such action. Provision was
made for the renewal of expiring third-class certificates for
a period beyond the three years and for the extension of
their validity throughout the province. To meet the re-
quirements of remote and poor districts the law of 1882
created a lower or district certificate.

Measures to relieve the scarcity of teachers were not
permitted to arrest the steady progress of the training-school
system, especially in Ross's administration. The law of
1882 lengthened the model school session to three months
and prescribed in careful detail its equipment, staff, and
accommodation. Ross, who had been an inspector of the
county model schools, added music, drawing, temperance, and
hygiene to their course of instruction. The normal school
course was lengthened and psychology was added to the

328 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

subjects of instruction. In 1885 Ross proceeded to establish i
training institutes at Kingston and Hamilton for first-class
public school and high school teachers. In 1 886 he organized
a system of teacher-training for his newly created kinder-
gartens. Young women, duly admitted and apprenticed in
any kindergarten in the province, were to be trained there
for one year for assistantships and, later, for one year in a
normal school for directorships. Ross also fostered teachers'
institutes. Ryerson had given these their start. Crooks
had provided them with a fixed revenue from provincial and
county grants. Ross made it an obligation upon all public
school teachers to attend them, and, to give unity and purpose
to their proceedings, appointed Dr James A. McLellan as
their director in 1885.

The untiring activity of Ross resulted in many enact-
ments during his last nine years in the Education Office.
On these enactments he left the impress of his experience
as teacher and inspector, an experience that disposed him
to a personal interest in all school agencies, and the impress
of his genius for symmetry and completeness, even to the
exclusion of variety. This activity, moreover, combined
with Ross's political prominence, aroused a critical spirit
whose influence gave to some school legislation after 1896
the appearance of hesitation and even reaction.

Ross reorganized a part of the administrative machinery.
In 1891 the central committee of examiners was replaced by
the joint board of examiners, a small body which represented
both the department of Education and the University of
Toronto. Its functions were limited to the conduct, more
or less direct, of the joint matriculation and departmental
examinations. In 1896 the joint board became the educa-
tional council, a larger body whose members, chosen by the
department of Education and the University of Toronto,
represented the universities and schools of Ontario. It con-
trolled more or less directly all public examinations, and
ultimately became endowed with, although rarely called
upon to exercise, advisory functions in all educational matters.
The same year, 1896, saw the beginnings of more recent
efforts to bridge the chasm between the public and high

FROM THE WITHDRAWAL OF RYERSON 329

schools of Ontario. An enactment of that year authorized
the creation of boards of education, in the main elective, who
should administer both public and high schools in urban
centres. In the same year, the annus mirabilis of Ross's
educational administration, the county grant to each public
school, a grant whose origin lay in the great school laws of
the early forties, was replaced by a township grant of $150
per school, itself an increase from the $100 grant of 1891.

Ross also extended his list of school agencies. He fostered
free night schools for students over the legal school age. As
these night schools duplicated the instruction of the day
public schools, they could succeed only where and when the
public schools failed. As a matter of fact, their success was
fitful during Ross's administration, and remained so until the
tide of non-Saxon immigration gave a new student body
and European precedents gave a new and industrial purpose.
Ross also fostered more advanced public school instruction.
In the act of 1899 he sought to reorganize the fifth classes,
and in enactments of 1896 and 1899 he laid the foundations
of the Ontario continuation schools. With a liberality
limited by the inadequate revenues of the province he aided
many educational agencies of an elementary character, such
as poor schools in remote and sparsely settled districts, the
free libraries which were now evolving slowly from the-r
mechanics' institutes, evening classes with an industrial
purpose in connection with the mechanics' institutes, art
schools which had a none too happy existence in half a dozen
urban centres in the province. For the public schools them-
selves he strove to achieve a maximum attendance through
his Truancy Act of 1891. This act provided for the appoint-
ment of truant officers to enforce, first by persuasion and
finally by process of law, regular attendance throughout
the school year upon children between eight and fourteen
years of age.

Ross was very quick to respond to the demand for amend-
ments of the courses of study in the public schools. Needle-
work and other forms of household science were endorsed
as optional subjects in the public school curriculum as early
as 1894, and were made obligatory in 1897. Agriculture,

330 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

which in one form or another had already appeared in the
normal school curriculum, was introduced tentatively into
the courses of study of the fourth and fifth classes of the
public schools in 1891, and was made obligatory in all but
urban schools in 1899. In 1899, also, commercial subjects
were given a definite status in the course for fifth classes,
and manual training was admitted as an option to the courses
for the fifth and lower classes. These additions to the public
school curriculum are interesting as evidence of a growing
desire to adjust the schools to life itself. They are not inter-
esting as achievements. In the absence of revenue, equip-
ment, teachers, and even method, years must pass before
these subjects ' come to their own ' in the public schools of
Ontario. In response to the same demand to adjust the
schools to life, and on the eve of his retirement from the
Education Office, Ross endorsed the addition of constructive
work, nature study, and supplementary reading to the
public school courses of study, and consented to reorganize
the instruction in the literature, history, and physiology and
temperance of the high school entrance examination.

The text-book question and the bilingual school question
were still thorns in the flesh of the minister of Education.
Criticism of the character and cost of school-books and of
the method of publication resulted in the text-book commis-
sion of 1898. This commission endorsed Ross's policy, but
the criticism, accentuated by political conditions, persisted.
An agitation over the neglect of English in the English-
French schools resulted in an official inquiry in 1893, which
called attention to the unsatisfactory character of the text-
books in those schools, found the teachers to be incompetent
to teach English, and emphasized remedies which had been
suggested by previous inquiries. Instructions to inspectors
to enforce the regulations quieted the agitation for the
moment, but it was revived before Ross left the Education
Office. He then attempted to force all teachers in the
English-French schools to take the ordinary qualifying ex-
aminations of teachers, but substituting French grammar
and composition for English grammar and composition. He
also ordered the preparation of another pamphlet of sugges-

FROM THE WITHDRAWAL OF RYERSON 331

tions on the teaching of English in English-French schools,
and issued careful instructions as to the use of text-books
authorized for those schools.

But it was in his teacher-training system and in his
examination system that Ross's characteristics as an adminis-
trator exhibited themselves at their highest. He organized
those systems with singular inclusiveness, refinement of
detail, and mechanical precision. Indeed the automatic
efficiency of his system of public examinations, as achieved
in the legislation of 1896, provoked a reactionary movement
which is still in evidence, although only spasmodically
effective.

Under Ross's guidance the training institutes already
mentioned passed in 1890 into the school of pedagogy at
Toronto, and in 1897 mto the normal college at Hamilton
with Dr James A. McLellan still as principal. For ten years
this college was destined to train the high school and higher
grade public school teachers of Ontario. In 1892 the
teachers' institutes were reorganized under a new director,
and third-class certificates were made renewable on examina-
tion at a county model school. In the same year more exten-
sive professional training was required from kindergartners,
and this was supplemented in 1894 by a more extensive
academic training. In 1896 model schools were created in
the unorganized districts. In 1898 a scheme was devised
for training cadet instructors, together with voluntary read-
ing courses for teachers who sought to improve their pro-
fessional status. In 1899 the third normal school in the
province was established at London.

Ross's success in merging the various matriculation
standards and examinations of the universities of Ontario
into the provincial examination for teachers, and in evolving
an expert agency for preparing examination papers and
evaluating answers, belongs to the story of secondary educa-
tion. With no less success, however, Ross reorganized the
high school entrance examination and in 1891 instituted the
public school leaving examination. In creating in 1891
county and non-urban centres for the high school entrance
examination, in enlarging the entrance boards of examiners,

332 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

by the addition of representative public and separate school
teachers, and in increasing the responsibilities of the boards
in passing or rejecting candidates, he went far towards com-
mitting the high school entrance examination wholly to the
charge of the expert, and towards converting it into the pro-
motion examination from the fourth class of the public
schools. He created the public school leaving examination
to give symmetry to his examination system and to arrest
the movement which was turning pupils away from fifth
classes in the public schools and into the high schools.
Although it was never a successful examination, and he was
forced to amend it often during the remaining years of his
administration, he never ceased to defend and cherish it as
an index of public school progress.

The years between 1899 and 1913 fall into two clearly
defined periods, the period of adjustment and the period of
reconstruction. The period of adjustment covers the five
years of the administration of Richard Harcourt, who suc-
ceeded Ross as minister of Education. The hesitation that
marked Ross's last years in the Education Office persisted
in a modified form throughout Harcourt's administration.
Until the educational system had adjusted itself to the great
changes of 1896, it was imprudent to go forward. And in
any case the numerical weakness of the party in power forbade
vigorous legislation. Harcourt, like Crooks, was perforce
content to follow at some distance, not to lead, public opinion.

Harcourt inherited most of Ross's educational problems.
He sought to disarm criticism of the text-book policy by
making very few changes in the list of authorized books, and
by promising to select new books for authorization on the
advice of experts inside and outside the educational council
and from books already published and tested. Protests
against what was called the examination evil he met, on the
one hand, by renewed efforts to minimize the mistakes of
examiners and examinations, and, on the other hand, by the
abandonment of the public school leaving examination in
1899 and the withdrawal of one or two subjects from the
high school entrance examination. Caught in the reaction
from the overloaded curriculum of 1896, he withdrew Latin,

FROM THE WITHDRAWAL OF RYERSON 333

Greek, French, and German from the courses and examina-
tions for second-class public school teachers, and book-keeping,
art, reading, spelling, and writing from the examinations,
though not from the courses ; and in response to the per-
sistent demand for the ' adjustment of the curriculum to
life,' he planned to give greater emphasis to English, art,
and the natural sciences. The result was the curriculum of
1904. In response to the outcry against uniformity and
rigidity in courses of study and methods of instruction, he
increased the number of optional subjects and courses in the
public and high schools and declared his intention to enlarge
the initiative of teachers, trustees, and examination boards.
Without money and without teachers, his response to the
agitation in behalf of manual training, household science,
and industrial education was cautious. It was not until
Sir William Macdonald's generous grants in maintenance
of manual training instruction ceased in 1902 that he took
the first step — a very hesitating step — in the evolution of a
schedule of grants for manual training, household science,
and technical education.

The problem that began to bulk largest after 1900 was
the rural school problem. The rural school population was
not increasing and the rural school attendance was very
unsatisfactory. The rural school curriculum was not
adjusted to the needs of the country, and the teacher, now
generally a woman, was incompetent to adjust it. Low
salaries, a shifting teaching staff, many uncertincated teachers,
wretchedly equipped schools were other grave features of
the problem.

Ross recognized the importance of the problem, but in his
day and with his revenue, as we have seen, he made slow
progress towards solving it. Harcourt continued Ross's
policy. His regulations of 1903 promised aid to school
gardens, but very few school boards responded. The act of
1899 legalized the organization of consolidated schools, but,
apart from the one consolidated school created at Guelph
with Sir William Macdonald's assistance, the act did not
bear fruit in Harcourt's day. Indeed, in face of strong local
pride and of transportation difficulties in inclement weather,

334 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

it is probable that consolidated schools will not prosper in
Ontario. To train teachers for rural schools, Harcourt
extended the normal school session to a school year, and
enlarged the course of training by specific instruction in
nature study, household science, agriculture, constructive
work, and art. He accepted, for teachers of household
science, the courses of training at the Lillian Massey School,
Toronto, and at Macdonald College, Guelph, and, for teachers
of manual training, the courses at the Agricultural College,
Guelph. With the same purpose he took steps to extend the
influence of public libraries among both parents and school
children. He facilitated the conversion of mechanics' insti-} >
tutes into free public libraries, aided school libraries, and
created small travelling libraries for free circulation among
remote mining and lumber camps. But behind all these
measures was a government whose lease of life was uncertain}
a provincial revenue which was inadequate to effect far--
reaching reforms, and a public opinion which was not yet
convinced of the need of such reforms. It was perhaps in the
formation of public opinion, therefore, that these measures
achieved their greatest results.

The period of adjustment ended in 1904. The missionary
forces of this period had done their work well, and the pro-
vince was now ready to advance. Reform in education had
been promised by both political parties. The new govern-
ment was now anxious to fulfil its promises, and its great
numerical superiority made the fulfilment an easy matter.
Moreover, the spectre of a stationary revenue which had
always hung over the educational legislation of Ross and
Harcourt now began to disappear and a mounting revenue
made possible both immediate and far-reaching action.
The period of reconstruction began in 1905^

The progress made during the eight years of reconstruc-
tion that have now (1913) elapsed has affected every phase
of public education and every educational agency from the
kindergarten to the university.

It affected the personnel and functions of the adminis-
trative staff. Dr R. A. Pyne succeeded Harcourt as minister
of Education, and a year later, on the death of Millar, who

FROM THE WITHDRAWAL OF RYERSON 335

had given faithful service to the department of Education for
fifteen years, Dr A. H. U. Colquhoun became the deputy
minister of Education. In sympathy with tendencies that
had grown more marked since 1890, and subject always to
his paramount responsibility to parliament and people, the
minister committed the various services and offices of his
department to the charge of educational experts. He re-
vived the superintendency of Education in 1906, at least ine
its advisory functions, and selected as superintendent Dr
John Seath, whose forceful character and varied experience
had fitted him to play a dominant part in the reconstruction
of the educational system. In the same year the minister
replaced the educational council by the advisory council of
education, whose members must be educationists elected by
the university senates and the various teaching orders of the
province, and whose duties were to be advisory in the main
and executive only so far as examinations are concerned.
In its advisory capacity, it is to be added, the council has
given good service in such matters as the courses of study
and the text-books ; but even here it is doubtful whether it
can ever be quite so effective as the inspectors and expert
officials of the Education Office. Its executive functions,
on the other hand, seemed to contract ministerial responsi-
bility and have been transferred gradually to the permanent
administrative staff.

The increase in the numbers and duties of the staff inside
the Education Office has been paralleled by a reorganiza-
tion of the staff outside in the inspecting and supervising
fields. The scheme of public school inspection devised by
Ryerson in 1871 could not meet the demands of the public
schools of 1906. There must be more inspectors with fewer
schools for each to inspect. For these inspectors there must
be more carefully defined duties, better remuneration, and.*
greater security of tenure through the curtailment of the!
municipality's authority and the expansion of the minister's.)
To assist these local inspectors or to supplement their efforts'
in the newer school activities there should be special proi
vincial inspectors, such as the continuation school inspectors
and the directors of technical education and agricultural

336 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

education. Over all local inspectors should preside a chief
inspector of public and separate schools. All these things
were provided in the act of 1909 and its amendments.

Reconstruction in administration was accompanied by
reconstruction in the schools themselves, especially in the
rural schools and in the schools in remote districts. Meagre
revenues and a decreasing school population had come to
mean an antiquated school fabric. The minister by turns
urged and ordered larger buildings, more playgrounds,
school gardens, school libraries, illustrative and experimental
apparatus, and schoolroom decorations, and the ratepayers
responded by almost doubling their annual outlay on the
schools between 1905 and 1911. The success of his effort^
was due, in the main, to the magic use of provincial grants.
He increased those grants and distributed1 them no longer]
on the basis of attendance, but on the basis, among other
things, of accommodation and equipment.

The courses of study of the public schools were also
amended, primarily with the object of co-ordinating the school
subjects into the whole round of human experience. With
the aid of special grants and of teachers now specially trained,
the subjects born of recent socialistic and materialistic move-
ments, such as nature study, constructive work, household!
science, horticulture and agriculture, art, and physical,
culture, began to pass quickly out of the schedule of options;
into the schedule of obligations. When the equipment in(
the new subjects has become complete and the instruction!
both compulsory and universal, the goal towards which thej
Education Office now moves will be attained and the whole
boy will be at school.

More important even than the reforms in the school
fabric and the courses of study were the reforms in the teach-
ing staffs. No problem bulked larger in this period of re-
construction than the problem of ' the improved status of
the teacher.' Before 1900 the fifty-six county model schools
had filled three-quarters of the rural and village schools with
immature, inexperienced, and wretchedly paid third-class
teachers, and threatened to drive second-class teachers from
the province. Moreover, after 1900, the new studies, social-

FROM THE WITHDRAWAL OF RYERSON 337

istic and materialistic, began to demand recognition in the
model schools, and could not be granted it without a complete
reconstruction of session, staff, and equipment. And so,
with efficiency and economy in view, Dr Pyne decided in
1906 to abolish most of the model schools and replace them
with additional normal schools at Hamilton, Peterborough,
Stratford, and North Bay. The model schools to be retained
were reorganized in 1909 and made provincial in adminis-
tration. Their graduates were awarded limited third-class
certificates valid for five years in the more remote or less
prosperous districts. The seven normal schools were also
reorganized in 1908 in staff and courses and soon turned the
tide in favour of the second-class teacher. By 1911 sixty-J
five per cent of the public schools teachers were normal-/
trained.

To renew or prolong the professional training of the
teachers, the minister established summer schools, particu-
larly in the unorganized districts of the province, and recon-
stituted the teachers' institutes as species of extra-mural
normal schools. He also issued for the use of the teacher
a carefully edited series of manuals of methods in the public
school subjects.

But ' improved status ' involved better remuneration as
well as better professional training, and early in 1906 the
minister turned his attention to the low salaries of public
school teachers. His first remedy for the evil, a minimum
salary determined by statute, was objected to as an inter-
ference with local initiative. He replaced it with the ' bonus,'
a much enlarged provincial grant, based, among other things,
upon the grade of certificate held by the teacher and the
salary paid him. The response to this and other measures
was immediate. The average public school salary of thel
male teacher increased from $514 in 1905 to $767 in 1911,"
and that of the female teacher from $348 to $518.

The dearth of legally qualified teachers already evident
in Ross's administration persisted during Harcourt's, and
became acute in the early years of Dr Pyne's. The bigger
salaries of the schools in Western Canada, the general pro-
sperity of Ontario, and to some extent the more strenuous

338 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

character of the teacher-training courses shared in creating
this scarcity. Dr Pyne strove to meet the crisis by improv-
ing Ontario's salaries, increasing the number of model schools,
establishing summer schools for teachers with limited certi-
ficates, and requiring from each teacher in training a pro-
mise to teach in Ontario at least one year.

The text-book problem was advanced far on the way
towards solution. Acting upon the report of a commission
of 1907, Dr Pyne reaffirmed in practice Ross's policy of one
authorized text-book in each subject, and that a Canadian-
made book, unless an English book already in the market
was obviously superior. Beyond this he departed radically
from Ross's policy. By fixing upon seven years as the
ordinary duration of authorization, he hoped to avoid frequent
or abrupt changes in text-books. Selecting and employing
his own editors, he was able to own outright the copyright
of the more important books such as the readers. Whether
the minister selected and remunerated the editors, or the
publishers employed them on the basis of a royalty on the
books sold, the minister exercised full control over the con-
tents, mechanical form, and price of each book. He was
able to do this through an editor-in-chief who was added to
the permanent staff of the department of Education, through
revising committees who were drafted from the prominent
teachers of the province, and through persistent use of tender
and contract. The result was an efficient and remarkably
cheap set of text-books.

The reaction against the examination system devised in
1896 continued throughout Harcourt's administration. The
reduction in the number of written texts in the high school
entrance examination, the abolition of the public school leaving
examination, and the withdrawal of such subjects as reading,
writing, book-keeping, and art from the non-professional
examinations for public school teachers were proofs of the
sincerity of the reaction. Dr Pyne, who was committed to
the policy of retrenchment and efficiency in examinations,
proceeded at once to develop his policy. He withdrew
grammar, arithmetic, mensuration, and geography from the
public written examinations for teachers, substituting, with

FROM THE WITHDRAWAL OF RYERSON 339

certain safeguards, the recommendations of the instructors ;
and he was prepared to go farther. But the public would
not follow him, and when the teachers joined the public he
halted, restored the abandoned subjects, even revived the
public school leaving examination, and concentrated his
attention upon perfecting public written examinations as a
necessary agency in the educational system of Ontario. That
he has succeeded in this purpose the disappearance of pro-
tests against the ' examination evil ' is conclusive evidence.

The bilingual question came again to the front in this
period. The new factors in this revival were the nationalist
movement of Quebec — whose influence spread throughout
the French settlements in Ontario and arrested all efforts
to assert the supremacy of the English language in the English-
French schools — and the restiveness of the English-speaking
Roman Catholics, who were forced to accept the supremacy
of the French language in many separate schools where the
majority of the ratepayers were French. Like most educa-
tional questions of the period, the bilingual question received
vigorous and definitive treatment. Dr F. W. Merchant, the
chief inspector of public and separate schools, was com-
missioned in 1910 to report upon the condition of the English-
French schools. His report, an unusually thorough one,
formed the basis of the new regulations issued by the depart-
ment of Education in 1912. These regulations permitted
the use of French as the language of instruction and com-
munication without specific restriction in the first form or
class, but in the other forms and after the school year 1912-13
limited its use to one hour per day and forbade its use as the
language of communication. On the other hand, as soon
as the pupil entered the school he must begin the study and
use of the English language. Special or supervising inspectors
were to be appointed to enforce these regulations. Competent
and legally qualified teachers must be engaged, and to train
them the bilingual model schools must be reorganized, in-
creased in numbers, and supplemented by an elaborate series
of summer schools. Special grants in aid of salaries were
also offered.

In the midsummer of 1913 these regulations were amended

VOL, XVIH E

340 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

so as to place the supervising inspector on an equality with
the ordinary inspector, and to create the right of appeal to
the chief inspector of public and separate schools in cases
of unusual hardship under the regulations. Despite the
amendments, however, the opposition of many English-
French schools to the new regulations persisted. The abrupt
withdrawal of the children from the classes on the arrival
of the inspector of the instruction in English left several
schools uninspected and forced the department of Education
to withhold the provincial grants. As political and religious
factors will inevitably force their way into the agitation, it
is unsafe to say that the bilingual problem is yet solved.

The story of the Roman Catholic separate schools since
Confederation has not been very eventful. Acting under
the law of 1863, Ryerson instructed the high school inspectors
to inspect the separate schools. Despite some show of oppo-
sition on the part of the separate schools in 1865 at Kingston
and in 1871 at Toronto, these inspectors continued to perform
their new duties in a more or less effective way until 1882,
when at the request of the separate school authorities the
department of Education appointed inspectors who, as pro-
vincial officers, were to devote all their time to the inspec-
tion of separate schools. This method of supervision remains
practically unchanged.

The constructive work in the evolution of Ontario's dual
system of schools ceased in 1882. The separate school act
of 1886 strove to approximate the duties and privileges of the
supporters of the two types of schools. Under that act and
its subsequent revisions the regulations as to the duties of
pupils and teachers and as to courses of study remain identical
in public and separate schools. The text-books vary only
in the content of the readers, and the conduct of the school
varies only in the matter of religious instruction. Indeed,
this identity is now evident even in the training and licensing
of teachers. A decision of the Privy Council in 1906 made it
clear that the clause of the act of 1863 which authorized the
issuance of certificates to ' such teachers as were qualified
by law in Lower Canada and Upper Canada ' had reference
to persons and not religious orders. Since 1906 the teachers

FROM THE WITHDRAWAL OF RYERSON 341

in the separate schools in Ontario have been subject in the
matter of training and certificates to the same regulations
as the teachers in the public schools.

It remains to be noted that urban conditions tend to
foster separate schools, and that the expansion of the urban
population of Ontario during recent years has been accom-
panied by an expansion in the number and influence of the
separate schools. In 1852 there were 46 separate schools
with an enrolment of 3000 pupils. In 1882 there were 190
schools with an enrolment of 26,000 pupils. In 1911 the
number of schools had increased to 495 and the registration
to more than 59,000. In the meantime the number of
teachers had increased from 210 in 1867 to 1193 in 1911,
and the total expenditure from $42,719 to $897,890.

EDUCATION
SECONDARY AND UNIVERSITY

EARLY EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

A the end of the eighteenth century the Upper
Canadian people could scarcely be said to exist as
a community. Scattered here and there throughout
the province were tiny settlements of United Empire Loyalists
and groups of Scottish and Irish immigrants ; roads as yet
were very few and very bad, and the task of clearing the land
for agriculture seemed of itself enough to absorb the energies
of the inhabitants. It was no soil for the luxuries of
civilization.

Yet both races of which Upper Canada was mainly com-
posed have always been famous for their ideals in the sphere
of education. The United Empire Loyalists and the Scottish
emigrants carried with them democratic and religious tradi-
tions which helped them to feel the need of schools, while
their loyalty to Great Britain made them unwilling to see
their children educated in the United States. From the
very first the settlers would seem to have realized that if a
British community was to be developed with a distinctive
character of its own in Canada, education must be one of
the means of that development. From the first the varying
conceptions of the future of Upper Canada which its early
days brought forth embodied themselves more or less definitely
in an educational as well as a political or constitutional form.
Thus, as we shall see, there came to be a radical and a con-
servative programme of education, and Upper Canada early
plunged into that ' education question ' which is one of the

S45

346 EDUCATION, SECONDARY AND UNIVERSITY

most difficult of modern problems. The Canadian phase of
that problem, from the smallness of the issues involved and
the primitive character of the stage, has about it a distinct-
ness of outline and a crude simplicity which throw into high
relief the principles at stake.

Thus a single personality sums up in himself the whole
essence of that conservative tradition which fought so gallant
a losing battle in Canada. To appreciate the character of
educational history in Upper Canada, it is essential to under-
stand the outlook and ideals of John Strachan, first bishop
of Toronto.

At least five phases of the educational development of
the colony will always be associated with the name of this
vigorous personality. He began as the most successful of
the private school teachers of the earliest days : he ruled the
most famous of the district grammar schools : he was the
stepfather of Upper Canada College : he became the first
president of King's College and the founder of Trinity College.
John Strachan arrived in Canada on December 31, 1799.
On January 15, 1852, he presided at the formal opening of
Trinity College. Nowhere so well as in this long career can
be studied the first and perhaps the most significant epoch
of Upper Canadian education — the Anglican epoch.

When Strachan as a young man not much over twenty
arrived in Canada, he had already had considerable experi-
ence as a teacher. He had graduated from Aberdeen Uni-
versity in 1796, and while still a student there had helped
to support himself by teaching in the vacations. He meant
to enter the Presbyterian ministry ; but meanwhile, being
much in need of money for himself and his mother and two
sisters, he had applied for the mastership of the parochial
school at Kettle. Here, as he delighted to recall sixty years
later, he had as one of his pupils the future Sir David Wilkie,
whose ability he claims to have detected and fostered. A
disappointment in securing a post as demonstrator in Glasgow
University, however, led him to close with the offer of a
tutorship in Canada in the family of Richard Cartwright of
Kingston — an offer which had previously been made to
Strachan's friend and contemporary Chalmers, afterwards so

EARLY EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 347

famous as a preacher and as the leader of the Disruption of
1843. Strachan probably had hopes of future employment
in public education, for already there was talk of a university
in Upper Canada supported out of the public funds ; but
there is no evidence in the correspondence of Cartwright
relating to Strachan's appointment of any specific offer of a
university post to him. He was engaged and came out as a
tutor and nothing more. Almost at once, however, he began
to combine the teaching of Cartwright's sons with the main-
tenance of a school of his own at Kingston. But in 1803
he was ordained into the Church of England, moved to
Cornwall, and set up there what soon became the most
famous of Upper Canadian private schools.1

Numerous records remain of Strachan's methods as a
teacher, for it is a notable fact that in the school at Cornwall
were trained a very large proportion of those who became
leaders in the first half-century of provincial history. ' He
that is anxious to spare labour,' said Strachan, ' ought not
to be a public teacher ' ; he worked sixteen hours a day at
his school and his parish, yet these years, as he says himself,
were among the happiest in his life. It is indeed easy to
see that Strachan had a firm grip of the fundamentals of
education. It may be questioned whether in the whole
course of Canadian educational history there is any one
with quite the same instinct for teaching that Strachan pos-
sessed. In one respect Professor G. P. Young, in another
Principal Grant, were his rivals, but at any rate there can be
little doubt that the political and ecclesiastical preoccupa-
tions of Strachan deprived Canadian education of a teacher
who might have moulded several generations of men as only
a great teacher can. It should never be forgotten in judging
the ideals and projects of Strachan that on the subject of
teaching he spoke as one having authority ; that he under-
stood the art as did very few indeed of his contemporaries.
' We doubt," says Dr Scadding, ' if in the most complete of
our modern schools there was ever awakened a greater
interest or intelligence.' Strachan's methods, like those of
all real teachers, were not conventional : as has been pointed

1 In 1807 this school became a district (grammar) school.

348 EDUCATION, SECONDARY AND UNIVERSITY

out by a recent authority, he was ' not wholly free from the
defects which were characteristic of the schools of his time ;
he sought to develop among his pupils a spirit of emulation
and competition rather than of helpful co-operation.' More-
over, he employed at times other incentives to proper and
studious behaviour which are still more at variance with the
best thought of the present day. ' Now and then,' says Dr
Scadding, ' a boy would be seen standing at one of the posts
with his jacket inside out, or he might be seen there in a
kneeling posture for a number of minutes or standing with
an arm extended holding a book.' Since, in fact, teaching
has become rather a science than an art, Strachan's methods
have fallen out of date. He read up work overnight to keep
ahead of his head-boys : he wrote his own text-books, and
set his problems out of everyday experience : he soundly
thrashed his pupils when discipline demanded it — one, a
future bishop, has left a feeling description of ' Black Monday '
with its relentless lash and writhing victims : he made them
ask one another questions and take one another's places in
class, and justified his system in that ' besides being in-
structive and stimulating to the pupils, it was also highly
diverting to the teacher.' All this is very old-fashioned.
But tried by the best of all tests, Strachan proved himself
a teacher indeed, for his old pupils loved and revered him
through life. ' He was never afraid,' says one of them, ' of
having his dignity lowered by liberties taken with him ; he
always felt every confidence in his position, and entered
warmly and personally into many of the boys' amusements,
and thus gained an immense influence over them ; almost
all of them embraced his principles.' Like all great teachers,
Strachan was intensely human. As a bishop well over seventy
years of age, he scoured the province on a wagon on his episco-
pal visitations, and when the wagon stuck in the mud, alarmed
his chaplain by rolling his vestments up into a bundle and
tramping to his destination with them under his arm. To
the end of his life he always carried about bright sixpences
in his pocket to give to small boys who were bold enough
to stand their ground when he advanced upon them swinging
his stick threateningly and whistling (as he often did, even

EARLY EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 349

in church) a Scottish air. The blend of vigour and kindliness
in Strachan's nature made him a power in whatever circle
he moved. In 1813 he left Cornwall and came to York as
rector, and headmaster of the district school, which with
characteristic energy he preserved from destruction in the
war.

Thus Strachan first appears as one among a band of
private school teachers on whose efforts alone the early
settlers depended for their children's education. From the
first such teachers existed in various local centres : the
Stuarts, father and son, at Kingston, the Rev. Robert
Addison at Niagara, and Baldwin, of York, being perhaps
the best known. But Strachan eclipsed them all, and
boys were actually sent from York to his school at
Cornwall. Some time, however, before Strachan had left
Cornwall, attempts had begun to be made towards putting
the teaching of the province on a more stable basis.
The originator of these attempts was the first lieutenant-
governor of Upper Canada, Lieutenant-Colonel Simcoe, who
realized as fully as the most intelligent of the inhabitants
the educational needs of the country. Characteristically
enough, however, Simcoe's views on education were based
on his own experiences at Eton and Oxford. He saw many
reasons for believing that Eton and Oxford should be as far
as possible transplanted to Canada. The United States,
possessing neither a king, nor an aristocracy, nor an estab-
lished church, stood for everything which Canada must
shun. Yet the United States possessed a system of educa-
tion, to the schools of which Canadians, in the absence of
any system of their own, were always tempted to send their
sons. American text-books, the only books available, were
permeated with anti-British sentiments and extreme demo-
cratic notions. In the interests of the Empire, therefore,
the home government must exert itself to organize Canadian
education. Simcoe had no sooner arrived at Quebec on his
way to Newark than he wrote suggesting to the colonial
secretary, Dundas, the foundation for higher education of
at least two grammar schools and a university, adding that
' lower education being less expensive may be provided by

350 EDUCATION, SECONDARY AND UNIVERSITY

relatives.' Thus Simcoe at once revealed his conception of
educational organization as being one which should begin
at the top, should rely on the home for its base, and limit
itself, for the time at least, to the formation of the minds and
characters of those who could afford to continue their train-
ing for a number of years. In that education, moreover,
as later letters reveal, religion must play a great part — the
best type of teacher would be clergymen ' of English families
and propensities,' of sufficiently ' just zeal and primitive
manners ' to face banishment among so primitive a people.
By fostering loyalty, adds Simcoe, to put things on the
lowest ground, such education would fully repay its cost.

The answer of the home government did not go as far
as the governor wished. A university, it replied, was out
of the question as yet, but ' respectable schools ' were very
desirable. Obviously it felt that some evidence of local
demand must appear before it could take any further steps.
Before Simcoe left the country, the Upper Canadian legisla-
ture had already followed up his letters by an address signed
by the speakers of both houses, asking not only for grammar
schools for each district, but also for a university. The home
government thereupon took the very important step of
founding an educational endowment for the province. It
gave its sanction to the establishment of ' free grammar
schools in those districts in which they are called for,' and
also to the later establishment of ' other seminaries of a
larger and more comprehensive nature for the promotion of
religious and moral learning and the study of arts and sciences.'
For this purpose a certain portion, eventually fixed at rather
more than half a million acres, of waste lands of the crown
were to be reserved. Thus Canadian education was given
an endowment of immense potentialities reserved for a
purpose which was defined with studied vagueness. Pre-
sumably what was intended was to do for Upper Canada
that which innumerable pious benefactors had done for the
grammar schools and universities of England. Whether
the model was to be followed exactly or not did not appear.
What had actually been done was, for the time at least, to
call into being not education, but the education question.

EARLY EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 351

Two schools, one at Kingston and one at Newark, were,
soon established, and received grants from Simcoe. The
endowment was sanctioned by the colonial secretary in
1797-98, but as the lands were only valued at about one
shilling an acre, none of them were as yet sold. In fact, the
grant once secured, interest in education seems to have
lapsed — at least till 1806, when £400 was spent on a ' philo-
sophical apparatus for the purpose of illustrating the prin-
ciples of natural philosophy,' which was handed over to
Strachan. In 1807, however, a step in advance was taken.
To each of the eight districts of the province £100 a year
was assigned to pay the salary of a school-teacher. The
' respectable grammar schools ' had come into being. Not
fewer than five trustees for each were appointed by the
lieutenant-governor, to select school-teachers and make rules
for the conduct of the schools. The inhabitants were expected /
to provide a schoolhouse by voluntary subscription. It was
as master of the Home district (grammar) school that Strachan
came to York in 1813.

These district (grammar) schools did little for educa-
tion except to stimulate the demand for it. An act of parlia-
ment and the grant of a teacher's salary are not enough to
make a school unless they are fortified by popular support
behind the educational movement. Instead, the grammar
schools called out a steadily swelling volume of protests and
petitions. In the first place, they were not, as the royal
grant had specified that they should be, ' free.' Boys who
came from a distance had to board either with the teacher
or in the town, and all pupils paid fees for tuition. Only the
wealthy or those who lived in the town would reap the benefit
of the school. Thus, ' instead of aiding the middling and poorer
classes,' the schools ' cast money into the lap of the rich.'
Probably the strongest objection was the religious one:
masters and trustees of the schools were Anglicans, and religion
was a school subject. Thus early began the formation of a body
of opinion which might be called radical. Contemporaneously
with the efforts of Brougham and the radicals in England,
the more extreme members of the Canadian legislature
began to demand popular as distinct from ' class ' education.

352 EDUCATION, SECONDARY AND UNIVERSITY

Two results, in fact, followed from the act of 1807. The
first was a series of attempts, in 1810, 1811, 1812, and follow- '
ing years, made by the house of assembly, to repeal or
amend the act, all of which were rejected by the upper house.
The lower house thus made itself the spokesman of the grow-
ing number of petitioners who complained of the operation
of the act in the various districts to which they belonged.
A complete deadlock ensued between the two houses — the
upper house answering the lower by introducing a bill, on
the motion of Strachan's friend and former employer Cart-
wright, to extend and consolidate the grammar school
system, the lower summarily rejecting this bill and bombard-
ing the executive council with demands for the repeal of the
act. The second result was even more significant. The in-
habitants of Ernestown in 1812 took the practical step of
protesting against the establishment of the school at Kings-
ton by establishing an ' Academy ' at Bath under Barnabas
Bidwell, late of Massachusetts, and father of the famous
Marshall Spring Bidwell/ In 1815 was formed the Midland
District Society, incorporated by act of parliament, to collect
funds in England and elsewhere for the setting up of a primary
school. True, nothing as yet came of the project. It was
obvious, however, that, while popular interest in education
grew, the unpopularity of the grammar schools did not
decrease, and that the attempt to reproduce too closely the
English system in Canada was driving Canadians to look for
models and even teachers in the United States. These
alarming symptoms may account for the fact that in 1816
was passed the Common School Act, which set aside ^6000
annually for the endowment of common schools in ten dis-
tricts. In 1819 followed another act, which contained
several important amendments of the act of 1807, in the
direction of increasing the popularity and efficiency of the
schools by public examinations and of strengthening parlia-
mentary control (by providing for an annual report on the
grammar schools to be laid before the legislature). More
important still, provision was made for the promotion from
the common schools of ten pupils to be annually selected by
lot from nominees of the trustees in each district and edu-

EARLY EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 353

cated gratis at the district school. The scholarship system
kept indeed well within the bounds of English precedent,
and made no very great concession to democracy ; for it
gave education, not as a right, but to those who showed
exceptional power to make use of it ; still, the provision
represented an attempt to make the grammar schools work-
able and to meet objections. The acts of 1816 and 1819
taken together seemed to hold out hopes of an eventual
settlement.

Meanwhile Strachan was steadily rising into influence in
the province. He worked as successfully at York as he had
at Cornwall, and under him the ' Old Blue School ' estab-
lished its reputation. As early as 1813 he was chosen to the
executive council as an honorary member ; he became a full
member in 1817 ; in 1820 he entered the legislative council.
It soon appeared that the whole programme of Simcoe had
been adopted and elaborated by Strachan. He laboured
hard and long for a single established church. In the sphere
of education he supported the scholarships, but he devoted
much more energy to completing the educational ladder by
adding to it a university. In 1819 he declared that ' a foun-
dation at York open to all denominations ' would ' add
twenty per cent to all the lands in the province,' and was
urgently needed on behalf of the learned professions.
Strachan proved himself at least in earnest about education,
and with 1820 his influence becomes paramount in that field.

Not that he always used that influence well. In 1820
occurred the famous case of Apple ton, the common-school
master who was dismissed to prepare the way for a compre-
hensive system of ' National Schools ' based on the system
of Dr Bell. The project came to nothing ; but the dis-
missal laid up future trouble. In 1823 a board of Educa-
tion was again set up by the executive act — against which
the house of assembly at first protested, but which it sanc-
tioned in 1824 — to supervise the whole school system and
to control the school reserves, and Strachan became chair-
man with a salary of £300 a year. He soon reported to the
lieutenant-governor, Sir Peregrine Maitland, that the school
lands were not likely to become productive soon enough to

354 EDUCATION, SECONDARY AND UNIVERSITY

make a university at all possible. In 1825 Maitland wrote
home suggesting that ' to provide for education being received
under circumstances that must produce a common attach-
ment to our constitution and a common feeling of respect
and affection for our ecclesiastical establishment,' a quarter
of a million acres of school lands might well be exchanged for
an equal number of a more productive character elsewhere.
As no reply came to this dispatch, Strachan, for this and other
reasons, determined to go to England. The result of his
mission proved by no means such as Maitland anticipated.
So far from ' increasing attachment to the constitution,' it
helped to bring on the rebellion of 1837 ; so far from ' in-
ducing respect and affection for the Anglican Church,' it raised
a storm which worked itself out in the secularization of the
university. The charter of King's College, the fruit of
Strachan's journey, became the battle-ground of a twenty-
two years' conflict.

The charter was carefully discussed both by James
Stephen of the colonial office and by the Archbishop of
Canterbury, who thought the proposed constitution almost
dangerously ' liberal.' But its real father is Strachan him-
self. Already, before he went to England, he had drawn
up for the governor an elaborate statement of his plans for
a university, which is interesting as a full exposition of his
educational ideal. Those young men who looked forward
to the learned professions, he wrote, were not often able to
go to Scotland or to England for their university training.
They therefore went in large numbers to the United States.

Now in the United States a system prevails unknown
to, or unpractised by, any other nation. In all other
countries morals and religion are made the basis of
future instruction, and the first books put into the hands
of the children teach them the domestic, the social, and
the religious virtues, but in the United States politics
pervade the whole system of instruction. The school
books, from the very first rudiments, are stuffed with
praises of their own institutions and breathe hatred to
everything English. . . . The establishment of a Uni-
versity at the seat of Government will complete a regular
system of education in Upper Canada from the letters

EARLY EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 355

of the alphabet to the most profound investigations of
Science, — a system which will be intimately connected
with the District Schools, as they send up a number of
boys to be educated gratis. The district schools may
be connected with the University by means of scholar-
ships . . . and the University might in time become con-
nected with Oxford and Cambridge by possessing four
exhibitions at each for the benefit of its more promising
sons. ... In this manner the children of the farmer
and the mechanic might be found filling the highest
offices of the Colony to which they had arisen by their
superior talents.

The professions of law and medicine require home-
trained men to fill them. But more important still is a
university conducted by the clergy, for ' nothing could be
more manifest than that this colony has not yet felt the
advantages of a religious establishment ' since ' sectarians
of every description have increased on every side, and since
the religious teachers of all other religious denominations —
a very few respectable ministers of the Church of Scotland
alone excepted — come almost universally from the republican
States of America.' The university should be ' made to
assimilate as much as possible with Oxford and Cambridge,
and for this purpose tutors and professors should be appointed
as soon as funds will admit. No professor, tutor, teacher,
or officer who is not a member of the Church of England
should ever be employed in the institution.' In spite of
this last proviso, it will scarcely be denied that Strachan's
scheme showed vision and grasp. The learned professions,
he was convinced, could make public opinion ; to secure the
best material for them the educational ladder must be at
once high and easily climbed by the really fit. As the pro-
viso about tutors shows, Strachan had passed beyond the
system in which he had himself been trained, and realized
that personal contact with individual teachers is required
to supplement the professorial system, if the full value is
to be obtained from the lectures. No real education could,
he felt, be conducted without a religious foundation on which
to rest. Lastly, almost in the spirit of the Rhodes Trust, the
old universities of the mother country should be thrown open

VOL. xvm F

356 EDUCATION, SECONDARY AND UNIVERSITY

to the youth of the colonies. Unfortunately, however,
Strachan could not avoid displaying a thoroughly sectarian
spirit as regards the other denominations ; and, admirable
as his scheme is, it is not always easy to discover whether it
was advocated in the interests of education or in those of
Anglicanism. ' A farther and more pressing reason,' he
says elsewhere, ' for hastening the active commencement of
the university is to be found in the fact that our Church in
its present state may be said to be struggling for existence,
attacked as she is by the Romish Church and all the sectaries
who, though agreeing in nothing else, join in opposing her
because she is the establishment of England.'

Still, the charter of King's College went beyond even
Strachan's wishes in its bias towards the Church, though by
conservative opinion anywhere within the English Church or
the English universities it would probably have been thought
exceedingly liberal. By a subsequent order-in-council 250,000
acres of the original grant were exchanged for more produc-
tive lands ; Strachan himself, and after him his successors
as archdeacon of York, were to be presidents ex officio ; the
Visitor was to be the bishop of Canada, also ex officio ; all
the members of the staff and the council were to sign the
XXXIX Articles ; the chancellor was to be the lieutenant-
governor and the council to be appointed by him. Finally,
however, ' no religious test or qualification shall be required
of or appointed for any scholars or persons graduating except
the Divinity students.' It was this last proviso, it may be
surmised, which troubled the archbishop of Canterbury.
Nevertheless, one cannot envy the position of the dissenting
undergraduate with such a hierarchy of orthodoxy pitted
against him ; and to the other denominations this invitation
to enter an Anglican fortress could scarcely be acceptable.

In the sphere of politics the charter of 1:827 proved fertile
in positive results ; in that of education its influence was
purely negative. It prevented far more education than it
encouraged ; it sterilized the university and created the
' University Question.' Indirectly, indeed, it led to the foun-
dation of Upper Canada College, and, in an amended form,
was the basis of King's College ; its ideas were revived in

RYERSON AND SECONDARY EDUCATION 357

Trinity College ; and, lastly, among its enemies it encouraged
endeavours to checkmate it by means of rival foundations.
Henceforward, indeed, Strachan is a force in Upper Canadian
education, thanks rather to the opposition which he evokes
than to the projects which he advances. He was, it began
to become evident, the champion of a lost cause. Hence-
forward the Anglican ideal fought a losing battle against the
two rival ideals of the denominational arts college and the
neutral school.

It is idle to speculate on what would have been the result
if Strachan could have carried out his ideal of concentrating
higher education in Anglican hands. Upper Canada decided,
on this particular point, to follow American rather than
English precedent, to dispense with an established church
and to aim at state neutrality. At the same time she gained
something from this attempt to force upon her an alien
system, for if Strachan could not establish a university at
once provincial and Anglican, he at least helped to create the
Anglican College, and whatever future denominational arts
colleges have before them in Ontario, they will always owe
something to the sturdy Presbyterian graduate of Aberdeen
University who became so vehement a champion of the
methods of Oxford and the privileges of the English Church.

II
RYERSON AND SECONDARY EDUCATION

IN 1825 Strachan preached a sermon on the death of
the bishop of Quebec which contained a violent attack
on the Methodists. A rejoinder, widely circulated and
read, was written by a young Methodist preacher, Egerton
Ryerson, who was destined to be the next great force in the
educational history of Upper Canada. The bulk of Ryerson's
work for education is to be found in the public schools. For
him education was a pyramid rather than a ladder ; and he
was preoccupied more with its base than with its apex.
Strachan's heart was in the university, Ryerson's in the

358 EDUCATION, SECONDARY AND UNIVERSITY

primary school. Still, in the history of higher education
Ryerson has a most important place : his attitude is charac-
teristic of an epoch, and the organization which he founded
affected every side of the educational system. The contrast
between the two men is fundamental. Ryerson was self-
taught ; he had snatched hours from work on the farm and
in the mission field to read Watts' s Improvement of the Mind,
and became in the end ' one of the best informed men of his
day in the country.' He was more of a preacher than a
teacher. As principal of Victoria University we are told ' he
was earnest and efficient, eloquent and inspiring, but he
expected and exacted too much work from the average
student. All revered him, but the best of the class appre-
ciated him most.' He was diligent and clear-headed, prepared
to travel thousands of miles to study the systems and
methods of other countries, quick to detect their details and
outline, and to weave them into his own ideal. He was as
courageous and dogged as Strachan and quite as voluminous
a writer. Where Strachan is eloquent Ryerson is straight-
forward, clear, and exhaustive, a pertinacious and inex-
haustible controversialist. The intense humanity of Strachan,
his unscrupulousness, his vigour, his hearty laugh, his broad
Scottish accent, his immense vitality made him bitter enemies
and staunch friends ; he was a personality first — a school-
master, a politician, or an ecclesiastic afterwards. Ryerson
has had devoted admirers and trenchant critics, but it is
hard to isolate him from his system ; he gave up a whole
life to the elaboration and expounding of a detailed and
complex organization, and the man tends to be lost in the
bureaucrat. Ryerson's strength lay in his powers as an
administrator, and it was fortunate indeed for the province
that he found ample scope for his gifts.

Ryerson, the founder of the High School, entered the
educational world as the champion of an ' academy.' We
have seen that academies had already appeared as a protest
against the grammar schools ; they were now to take on a
new importance as protests against the college. The battle
between Upper Canada College and Upper Canada Academy
is the prelude of the battle between Victoria, Queen's, Regio-

RYERSON AND SECONDARY EDUCATION 359

polis, Trinity, and University Colleges, out of which the
present system of university education has emerged.

Upper Canada College is interesting from several points
of view. For one thing, it is a monument of British colonial
policy. It owes its existence to the conciliatory interven-
tion of the home government into the battle of the charter.
No sooner had Strachan returned to Canada than the house
of assembly began an attack on his position. In 1828 a
committee reported on the charter as being ' based on prin-
ciples which are calculated to defeat its usefulness and
confine to a favoured few its advantages,' and a petition
against it was presented to the crown. The popular house
showed itself thoroughly in earnest. Meanwhile the Tories
had gone out of office in England, and Sir George Murray
succeeded Lord Bathurst as colonial secretary. A select
committee of the imperial parliament was appointed to
inquire into the state of civil government in Canada, and in
the course of its report strongly urged the modification of
the charter. The Anglican party in Canada found itself
betrayed by the British government, and the committee, in
defiance of Oxford models, actually recommended the appoint-
ment of a Presbyterian as well as an Anglican professor of
divinity, and that other professors should only be required
to recognize in their lectures the truth of the Christian reve-
lation and ' should abstain altogether from inculcating par-
ticular doctrines.' Maitland was recalled, and Sir John Col-
borne was sent out as lieutenant-governor with instructions
to allow the university question to cool. Instead of King's
College he was to bring forward a much more modest plan,
which eventually took shape as Upper Canada College.

Like many compromises, Upper Canada College satisfied
nobody. The suggestion of establishing a ' minor college '
instead of going forward with the university was approved
by both houses, but when it came to details, they were less
easily satisfied. The upper house objected to the use of the
endowment for a mere ' preparatory seminary.' The house
of assembly, on the other hand, submitted in 1830 (after
the college had already been begun on another basis) an
elaborate scheme for its establishment, which was practically

360 EDUCATION, SECONDARY AND UNIVERSITY

a popular version of a university charter, and hence has con-
siderable interest. It put the government of the college into
the hands of a council elected half by the legislative council
and half by the assembly, and it explicitly stated that no
religious qualification whatever should be required of any
' Chancellor, Professor, Tutor, Lecturer, Scholar or other
person being a candidate for any situation in the said College.'
It gave facilities for any denomination to maintain a lecturer
in divinity at the college. Needless to say, the upper house
rejected the bill. Meanwhile Colborne had by his own act
hurried forward the establishment of the college on the model
of St Elizabeth's School, Guernsey, which he had himself
refounded as governor of the island. His first step was
characteristic : he wrote to his friend the vice-chancellor
of Oxford that ' as a generation may pass away in correspond-
ence across the Atlantic, I and the trustees of the College
give you full power to select one Principal and the two
Classical Masters and the Mathematical Master.' With
the approval of the board of education, Russell Square was
fixed on as the site of the college, part of the education
reserves handed over to it as endowment, and the old
Home district (grammar) school where Strachan had taught
closed as soon as the new building was complete. Canada
at last had an institution founded on the best English models
and served by Englishmen of approved orthodoxy and scholar-
ship. So impatient was Colborne of criticism of his creation
that when in 1831 the Methodist conference ventured to
protest against the exclusive privileges of the Church of
England in the management of the school, his answer was
that a ' system of education which has produced the best
and ablest men in the United Kingdom will not be aban-
doned here to suit the limited views of the leaders of societies
who perhaps have neither experience nor judgment to appre-
ciate the value or advantages of a liberal education.' The
rejoinder to this unfortunate expression of opinion was
written by Egerton Ryerson.

Colborne's bitterness against the Methodists came chiefly
from the fact that they had already set about the establish-
ment of Upper Canada Academy. The year 1829 was scarcely

RYERSON AND SECONDARY EDUCATION 361

over before a move had been made among the Presbyterians
and the Methodists, who distrusted the ' Governor's College,'
to set up independent colleges under the control of their
denominations. In 1828 the Methodists had separated from
the American Connection and set up a Canadian Church ;
a Canadian system of education became therefore more than
ever necessary for them. They were the first Church to get
their project under way. Cobourg was chosen as the site for
an arts college with a special class for divinity students, vain
attempts were made to get a government grant, and a build-
ing was none the less begun. In 1835 Egerton Ryerson went
to England to raise subscriptions, and returned with ' the
first royal charter ever granted to a college not under the
State Church.' In 1836 Upper Canada Academy began
work in its own building at Cobourg. Thus at least one
result of the foundation of Upper Canada College was to
introduce an era of denominational colleges and academies,
founded on the same lines as the Anglican college, by the
other religious sects. In 1837 Regiopolis College was founded
at Kingston by the Roman Catholic bishop Macdonell, and
by that date the movement among the Presbyterians which
produced both Knox and Queen's Colleges was well under
way, and a little later an Anglican divinity school was opened
at Cobourg by Archdeacon Bethune. Bishop Strachan and
his opponents at least agreed on this, that higher education
should be religious in its atmosphere and collegiate in its
form.

Upper Canada College itself had a useful part to play
in the next generation. It did for a later age very much
what Strachan's school at Cornwall had done for an earlier
period ; that is to say, it gave a tone to the future leaders
of the country. Upper Canada boys became a type and
owed a good deal to the teaching and discipline of the school.
The curriculum was classical in character, and the classics
of men like Harris and McCaul were of a highly polished
but not very broad character ; the boys got plenty of drill,
but not perhaps very much background. It was to be long
before Latin and Greek were taught in such a way as to pro-
vide a really adequate education. Thus there was doubt-

362 EDUCATION, SECONDARY AND UNIVERSITY

less some ground for the numberless complaints, directed
both from within and without the legislature, against the
absence of an up-to-date system of instruction in Upper
Canada College. But the real enmity to the foundation
came from the fact that it devoted itself in effect to the
training of gentlemen according to Anglican standards ; it
was one of the last strongholds of the Anglican monopoly.
This and the fact that its finances would seem to have been
grossly mismanaged lay at the root of its real defects.

In 1833 the government of the school was transferred to
the council of King's College, still the forlorn herald of a
non-existent university. This body might indeed have ful-
filled a useful function could its members have risen to their
opportunities. In 1832 the board of education, long the
focus of attacks by the house of assembly, was dissolved on
the home government's advice, and the council succeeded
to its position as supervisor of the school lands. Thus the
representatives of the university held in their hands the
control of the whole provincial system of education — a pos-
session which they might have used with immense profit to
the province. As it was, the activities of the council were
limited to paving the way for the university. It had already
set about the purchase of a site and begun to acquire what is
now Queen's Park, Toronto ; it was soon to spend a large
sum of money in having a wooden model made for the future
building. Here its services to education between 1828 and
1839 ended.

Indeed, at this period politics became altogether too
absorbing to give education an opportunity. It was the
day of William Lyon Mackenzie rather than of Egerton
Ryerson. Colleges and universities appeared often enough
in ' Reports on Grievances ' and ' Articles of Impeachment,'
but got little other encouragement. Lord Durham's Report
describes the schools throughout the country as of a very
inferior character even in thickly populated districts. Still,
the political agitation on the university question had at
least one result : it convinced the Anglican party of the
need of concession. The home government refused to
sanction the opening of the college or to amend the charter

5
o

<: K

RYERStN AN» SECONDARY EDUCATION 3*3

by its own act, and insisted that the legislature must settle
the question. At last, on the eve of the rebellion, the legis-
lative council passed an amendment of the charter of 183%, /^^ I"*
which, at least in appearance, fulfilled the wishes of the
house of assembly. The Visitor was no longer to be the
bishop of Quebec, whose place was taken by the judges of
King's Bench. The president was to be appointed by the
governor and need not be a clergyman. Nor need any
members of the council or professors do more than declare
their belief in the inspiration of the Bible and the doctrine
of the Trinity. Lastly, the council was to consist of the
chancellor and president, five professors, the principal of
Upper Canada College, the speakers of the two houses, and
the two law officers. Thus the university was to be less
dependent on the legislature than it would have been under
the assembly's previous scheme, by which the council was
appointed by the legislature, but at the same time need not
be bound to the church. It was an excellent solution on
paper, but clearly a great deal depended on the personnel of
the college dignitaries. If they were all Anglicans, as were
all the members of the council at the time, it would be long
before Anglican influence would cease to be paramount.

These concessions at any rate removed the chief political
difficulties in the way of establishing the university. All
that stood between the province and a university now was
finance. Strachan and his fellows may have understood
teaching, but they showed little capacity as administrators.
They had spent, it appeared, by 1839 well over £10,000 in
buying and preparing the university site, and another £1000
on plans and preparations for buildings. What remained
was as yet utterly inadequate for the running expenses of
the institution. However, with the Union of 1841 and the
restoration of order, the situation improved, and by 1842
the income from the endowment had become £11,718. In
that year the governor-general gave his consent to the open-
ing of university work. Ceremonies, speeches, stone-laying,
and building operations on a large scale followed ; Strachan,
now a bishop, made a presidential address of real eloquence
and partisan retrospect ; and, what was more important, a

364 EDUCATION, SECONDARY AND UNIVERSITY

staff of professors and twenty-six students began work in
the parliament buildings, emptied by the moving of the
capital to Kingston. The professors were Dr McCaul of
classics and belles-lettres, Dr Beaven of divinity, Richard
Potter of mathematics, H. E. Croft of chemistry and anatomy,
and Dr W. C. Gwynne of medicine. In 1843 W. H. Blake
took the appointment of professor of law, previously declined
by W. H. Draper. Three of the professors were not clergy-
men of the Church of England. From two of them at least,
as events proved, the party of the president was to meet
with trouble. When Croft was conducting an experiment
in the course of his inaugural lecture, some burning chemicals
which he was using fell upon the bishop's lawn sleeves and
set one of them on fire, and the incident was remembered
later as typical of the relations of the two men. Thus the
act of 1837 had at least one immediate result ; it set re-
formers within the camp.

The bishop's foes, however, were not only those of his
own household. In one of those portentous pamphlets, of
which he produced so many, occurs the complaint that no
sooner did Presbyterians and Methodists

succeed in compelling such an alteration of the charter
as wholly deprives King's College of any acknow-
ledged religious character, and consequently of any
security in respect of the doctrines which may be taught
there, than they set themselves actively and successfully
at work in obtaining from the government and from
the legislature, charters for the foundation of two col-
leges in such strict and exclusive connection with their
respective religious denominations as that, not only the
government of each college, but the whole business of
instruction to be carried on within it, is required to be
absolutely in the hands of those who declare and sub-
scribe themselves members of one religious society.

In fact Victoria and Queen's had already in 1843 become
the rivals of King's. The first university to open in Upper
Canada was the former of these, which was incorporated by
act of parliament in 1841 and assisted by the sum of £500
out of the provincial revenue. The first principal was Dr

LETTER FROM THE BISHOP OF TORONTO (JOHN
STRACHAN) TO SIR CHARLES BAGOT

TORONTO, zist May 1842.

MY DEAR SIR CHARLES,

The College Council has requested

me to draw your Excellency's attention to the last Statute of the
University, which appropriates the sum of four thousand pounds
sterling, to the purchase of a library — a Philosophical, and Chemical
apparatus, a Museum and Medical preparations, etc.

The Council, after discussing at some length the relative import-
ance of these several items, arrived at the conclusion, that before
they can proceed in a satisfactory manner to subdivision and
speciality of appropriation, it is necessary to ascertain, how many
Professors your Excellency has considered it right to invite from
England — that they may transfer to them, as the best qualified, the
pleasing duty of selecting the books, and other things necessary for
conducting their respective Departments.

The College Council will have great pleasure in placing such
funds within their reach, as may be required for the purposes
alluded to, should your Excellency enable them to do so by
directing the required information to be transmitted for their
guidance.

I have the honor to be,

My dear Sir Charles,

Your faithful Friend and Servant,

JOHN TORONTO

The Right Honorable

Sir Charles Bagot, G.C.B.
etc. etc. etc.

'l /i<M« *3TT3 a R, ci

TOOAff 8HJHA H > H i >! <UT <V£Ai^)A#3'?v- and anat<
*i » w.* •« **»briiic- In 1*43 W. H. Blake

'jsly declined

;; least,

balaai/ptn ?xif )ir>auoD si^slloJ; srfT •• ; meet

:^rf} lo oJuJBi? JB^I odJ ot noiimilE s'vafioliaaxS -tjo^.vjnb oi aranment
Kbnijoq briB^oorff iooT 'lo niira srfi H3lBn(tOiq'^ riDiffyr .x^toviriU
i K'jltn >fi J bnjj JfiDirfqoaofiiH c --fi^'if C 1o . • -^'dl '&v '

.:j}3 i?npiJ#sujq'ji'q,'(!G3ibpl'/r bri't; »nu-j;iuM i: .

' ' ' :; ' V ' ^ Hit II. A ll ' iS I flC

tlcbi 3iU riJ^iu»I jmp :HnMapyb.i?flfi . «!«t) 9ri .

iai avtlcbi .

:)io"ij<l Iwii .aoirful'jnua vdj i« bovhir. ^.nuJt lf.»V93 sggdJ lo son*
bnt .'iuwivi.fx'ue oJ -lonnara YioiD«1eJlJ.«. ^ ••»"( bpsoyiqi -.IIBOJI Jja\|U of his
wuci .:iif)1w>8n oJ Yifi?a-J33rt i'i^<«oil«hqoi<jq^nQ '{Jilfii»9<}ii. i

ol ji'?h 3i f;jTjFj?rro-.i ' '-- -«!wi
ol

Uq ru -jii-zs'jl'i Jcaig av£ff Jli-fftehuo") SggfloD
yrii T-i b^srupsi acf •<«« is ,t/bt3t ib|ij nlriliw abljl^^^
02 ob 01 ju-jri) 9ldr>(» von-jHsoita IHO/ faiirofia QB^n&sfajUW from

boJliTianjnJ oil cl noilJ-unoVii 'b'jiif^w1 srff •^nihsaiiD

Citnuectioi) w-i'J? their

av{c l>^iiness of

fj ii»i ift'ib yM
,1nfivi3ci b'lu bnbh'i Mrfli'f1

T VLHOT.

;,<,.; , , *rixiy j^ T S^.i In-COnie '

sifl srfT i; Upper

.sj.ta.aJ9 ok» . .
l"h

ft '

'**

1 <7*^ /t^~_<<~~ e^e^+~~?

^ ^^^i^-'S'c- **•

RYERSON AND SECONDARY EDUCATION 365

Egerton Ryerson. Queen's did not begin working till 1842,'
and then only in a ' clapboard building,' though its act of
incorporation passed the legislature in 1839. Some diffi-
culty occurred, however, over this act, chiefly it would appear
because it contained a provision that the chair of theology
at Queen's should be maintained out of the endowment of
King's College — an attempt to carry out in a roundabout
way the recommendation of the imperial parliament com-
mittee that two theological chairs should be set up in the
university. This project came to nothing, and the act was
repealed and a royal charter given instead, substantially
identical except for the omission of the proviso about the
divinity chair. The episode is interesting because it points the
way to the later proposals of John A. Macdonald's bill of 1847.

That the sudden fertility of the Canadian soil in the
universities and colleges was a healthy sign cannot be
doubted : it showed a real sense of the need of education
and it led on to a great variety of experiment. Still, it
multiplied colleges beyond available means of support, and
seemed to postpone indefinitely the attainment of a national
university. Good or bad, the movement came directly from
the distrust which Strachan had awakened.

By 1843, then, the educational problem of Upper Canada
had been fairly stated. Private schools, common schools,
grammar schools, academies, a minor college, a provincial
university, a Methodist, a Roman Catholic, a Presbyterian
university — all these were in existence, many of them in;
competition, very few of them adequately supported, and
none of them properly co-ordinated. The educational
history of the next ten years consists in attempts, some
successful, many failures, to organize and focus all this dis-
persion of energy. In some cases there followed an actual
economy in effort or an increase in efficiency — in others merely
the multiplication of new centres and confusion worse con-
founded. In the main it was a triangular battle ; between the
spirit and traditions of Strachan on one side, the ideals of
men like Ryerson on another, and on the third a principle
which neither was prepared to accept — the principle of
secularization.

366 EDUCATION, SECONDARY AND UNIVERSITY

This period of organization, actual and abortive, is
nowhere better reflected than in the development of the
common schools — which is outside our scope. As regards
secondary education, the work of systematizing scarcely
became prominent before 1854. Between 1843 and 1853 it
is the university question which monopolizes attention. As
already suggested, there is little essential connection between
education and the university question. The lectures of
McCaul, Blake, and Croft continued more or less regularly
throughout the battles of the politicians and the polemics of
the newspapers. Still, it was in the real interests of education
to determine how best the endowment could be used to foster
efficient teaching. That this was being done when the
majority of the people of the province distrusted King's
College (which monopolized the endowment) and sent their
sons elsewhere, could scarcely be maintained. Strachan's
position, however, was that, once given a fair chance, King's
would win steadily in the confidence of the people and become
in time what it was in name, a genuine provincial organization.
The other colleges, merely evidences of a fit of petulance on
the part of the sects, would dwindle and disappear. Such
men as Ryerson and Liddell, the heads of Victoria and
Queen's, desired almost as keenly to support a movement
towards centralization. But to them centralization came
very early to mean federation, and if they could secure the
latter they were prepared at a pinch to forgo the former.
They wanted support out of the state endowment for the
denominational colleges. They did not want those colleges
to lose their individuality ; they objected, not to state en-
dowment of religious education, but to the monopoly of
that endowment enjoyed by the Anglican professor of
divinity. Dr Beaven should not alone of theologians have
his salary paid by the state. On the other hand, there
was a steadily growing body of men who felt that the only
way to secure a provincial university was to secularize
it — to exclude Dr Beaven altogether. If religious educa-
tion was wanted, let the religious communities pay for it ;
in the provincial institution, let it be limited to divinity
students. As a political solution this last had much to be

RYERSON AND SECONDARY EDUCATION 367

said for it. But it represented without doubt a retrograde'
step in education.

Between 1843 and 1849 occurred five attempts to solve the
university problem — the first Baldwin bill, the Draper bills
of 1845 and 1846, the Macdonald bill, and the Baldwin act.
Something was accomplished as a result of all this effort, but
on the other hand Knox College in 1844, tne College of ;
Bytown in 1849, and Trinity College in 1851 appeared to
increase the number of scattered institutions.

Early in 1843 Dr Liddell of Queen's wrote to Dr Ryerson
of Victoria making the following propositions : firstly, that
there should be one university, ' the University of Toronto ' ;
secondly, that ' there should be as many separate colleges
within the University as the Province might require,' each
with a ' separate governing power ' of its own, and all subject
to the provincial university council, on which each college
should be represented. Ryerson, while agreeing in principle,
pointed out that the buildings at Cobourg had cost too much
and were too good to be lightly abandoned, but both men
seem to have arrived at the conception of a group of colleges
both ' literary ' and ' theological ' together forming a uni-
versity. Both supported the Baldwin bill, which indeed
embodied much of Liddell's scheme.

When Dr Beaven in the church newspaper attacking the
Baldwin bill asked if it could be proved that the council of
King's College had violated any trust, Ryerson pointedly
answered that ' the very existence of the Reverend Dr Beaven
as Theological Professor in the University of King's College '
supplied the answer. ' What business has a Theological
Professor of the Church of England to be in the University
under the amended Charter ? ' What the Baldwin act pro-
posed to do was to remove him. It was this which led
Bishop Strachan to characterize it as ' the leading object of
the Bill to place all forms of error on an equality with truth '
and to add that ' such a fatal departure from all that is good
is without parallel in the history of the world, unless indeed
some semblance to it can be found in Pagan Rome, which
to please the nations she had conquered condescended to
associate their impure idolatries with her own.' The bill

368 EDUCATION, SECONDARY AND UNIVERSITY

actually proposed to constitute the University of Toronto, to
consist of King's, Queen's, Victoria, Regiopolis, and Upper
Canada Colleges, no one of which, but the university alone,
was to grant degrees, and all of which were to be fully re-!
presented on the university council. All the endowment was
to be given to the university, and the colleges were given a
temporary allowance of £500 a year, after which money for
them was to be raised from the clergy reserves. The pre-
amble to the bill stated that its object was to extend the
benefits of university education ' without offence to the
religious opinions of any,' by leaving the teaching of divinity
and the education of the clergy to collegiate institutes in-
corporated with the university but managed under their
several charters. It is noteworthy that one result of the bill
was to create a rebellion in the college council, of which, as
was later pointed out, the college professors were the only
members who could attend regularly, for the speakers and
law officers of the united parliament were far too busy to be
there except on very rare occasions. Professors Croft and
Gwynne, on November 4, 1843, brought in a motion expressing
their support of the Baldwin bill, ' because they conceive
that the sooner existing imperfections in the charter are
remedied the better for the country.' They followed this
up by seceding from meetings and thus making a quorum
impossible, and finally went so far as to petition the assembly.
This was indeed a fitting sequel to the setting fire to the
bishop's lawn sleeves, and the rebels were soundly taken to
task by Sir Charles Metcalfe. Meanwhile the bill, thanks to
political vicissitudes, was lost. Draper, who at the bar of
the house had argued the case of King's College against the
act of 1843, now had to produce, as leader of the conservatives,
a solution of his own. Baldwin had his revenge in the ex-
tremely able speech with which he destroyed the bill of 1845.
This measure differs from that of Baldwin in doing more for
the college than for the university, for it proposed to endow the
former directly from the university fund. ' It is well known,'
said Baldwin, ' how distasteful to a large portion of the people
of Upper Canada is the application of public property, in
which all are equally interested, to the theological purposes of

RYERSON AND SECONDARY EDUCATION 369

any particular denomination. And yet here is a system by
which funds are to be diverted from the general purposes to
which they ought to be applied, and frittered away among
a variety of Collegiate Institutions, which, if not nominally
Theological, will, as is well known, be practically such.'
That Baldwin was right in this last point may be seen from
the second important point in this bill, that King's College
was to be given back the charter of 1827. But despite these
concessions to the bishop, his party could not be induced to
regard the bill of 1845 as much less ' hideous ' than that of
1843, and Dr McCaul, in a pamphlet which he published on
the question, reverted to Baldwin's original suggestion that
the other colleges should be endowed from the clergy reserves
rather than that the university endowment should be divided.
When Draper introduced his second bill — substantially
identical with the first — it was again thrown out, both
Baldwin and Boulton, the champion of King's College, voting
against it. As Draper said : ' This measure was represented
as an attack against the University of King's College, whereas
it was an attempt to strengthen its foundations and make it
more permanent.' He had done his best to bring about a
compromise which should at once keep religious teaching
in the university and relinquish the Anglican monopoly.
Draper's conception of a university comes out in his speech
to the bill, and is perhaps worth quoting. He had provided,
he said, by this bill that

with regard to Literature and Science, all the classes
should go under the same teacher or teachers ; but that
each morning in King's College, when the proper hours
arrived, the bell rings, and the Church of England
student goes to divine worship, and in every College the
same thing would take place and thus each student
would be required to attend Divine Worship in his own
college. . . . Within half an hour another bell rings.
There is a Lecture on Classical Literature — some Greek
or Roman author to be explained, and then the Church
of England man from King's College, the Presbyterian
man from Queen's and the Methodist from Victoria,
. all go forth together to attend the reading of that Greek

370 EDUCATION, SECONDARY AND UNIVERSITY

or Roman writer. They receive their Lecture ; the next
at hand perhaps is a class for Mathematics to which all
of them go ; next Chemistry — all are there ; then
Experimental Philosophy and they all attend that.
But by and bye comes a Lecture which involves some
principle of Theology and each goes to his separate
College and receives instructions on the tenets which
he holds and consonant with the religious views which
he entertains.

It must be allowed that, if Draper's programme of lectures
for the day is even more comprehensive in its scope than the
most congested curriculum of to-day, he has grasped some of
the essentials of a Canadian university.

To such a conception Bishop Strachan could not rise. For
a time, however, he seemed likely to fall in with the last of
the attempts to save King's College from its fate. This was
John A. Macdonald's bill of 1847. Macdonald carried the
views of Draper one step forward. He gave up altogether
the idea of a centralized university and proposed to divide
up the endowment between the various colleges, leaving them
scattered over the province. The university buildings and
site were to be left to King's College, to which was to be
restored the charter of 1827. ' Had this Bill carried,' says
Dr Burwash, ' it would have postponed to the far future the
possibility of a University worthy of the Province, and would
have endowed the Anglican Church with a property which
is to-day worth three and a half millions of dollars.' As
for Victoria, Queen's, and Regiopolis, ' while saving them
from a good deal of financial embarrassment, it would
have consigned them to perpetual and scarcely respectable
mediocrity.'

It is curious, therefore, to see that the bill was accepted by
Ryerson and at first by Strachan, and condemned by McCaul,
by Baldwin, by Croft, and by Gwynne. The ' anti-partition '
party claimed that far too much was given to King's College.
The supporters of the bill, on the other hand, argued against
this centralization of university teaching as likely to deprive
many of the inhabitants of the advantages of education, and
also felt that religious education had a better chance under

RYERSON AND SECONDARY EDUCATION 371

this bill than under any other, since Draper's bill had failed.
But Strachan could never long be content with half instead
of the whole : he withdrew his support of Macdonald, joined
McCaul in claiming for King's the whole endowment, and so
wrecked the bill. He thus delivered over his party bound
hand and foot to the radicals, with whom he had now twice
co-operated to defeat an attempt at compromise. The next
university bill became the famous Baldwin Act of 1849.^

Baldwin, as his speech on Draper's act shows, had come to
the conclusion that the state should not support denomina-
tional education. He had also followed up this position by
deciding, as between what he calls the collegiate and the pro-
fessorial system of education, in favour of the professorial.
In fact, Baldwin had gone back, in the latter respect, to the
mode of Strachan's University of Aberdeen and severed him-
self from the traditions of Oxford and Cambridge, of which the
bishop had become the champion. Again, Baldwin struck a
blow at the state of things under which the management of
the university had lain altogether in the hands of the pro-
fessors. It had become apparent as the result of a parlia-
mentary inquiry that the university had long been living on
its capital, and the only man among the ordinary attendants
at the council meetings who had any interest in economy or
prudent management — Professor Gwynne — had usually been
outvoted. Baldwin proposed, therefore, to put the uni-
versity much more completely under the power of the
legislature. Lastly, as a convinced ' non-partition ' man, he
was determined to reserve to the university itself all the
endowment.

Baldwin's act, then, completely remodelled the university.
The present professors were indeed to remain, with the excep-
tion of Dr Beaven, professor of divinity, and Upper Canada
College still continued as an ' appendage of the University,'
but was given a competent organization to govern itself.
But all religious teaching and all religious services in con-
nection with the university were forbidden, the chancellor
was not to be an ecclesiastic, and the control of the teaching
and professors was vested in the chancellor and the vice-
chancellor. The president and the caput were to manage the

VOL. XVIII G

372 EDUCATION, SECONDARY AND UNIVERSITY

students. The senate, which was to constitute the university
legislature, was to consist of the chancellor, vice-chancellor,
president, and all the professors, and of twelve or more
additional members, one-half to be nominated by the crown
(and not to be ecclesiastics) and the other half by the colleges
' who are now, or hereafter shall be, incorporated,' as any
could be who gave up granting degrees in arts. A board of
trustees was also set up with the Hon. Francis Hincks as
first chairman, and a ' paid manager of the affairs of the
University ' chosen by the crown, with two colleagues, one
appointed by the senate, the other by convocation. More-
over, ' they were prevented from expending more than the
income in any year ; and as the professors would draw a
considerable portion of the income for their salaries, the
amount deficient (if any) would have to be deducted from the
salaries.' Appointments to professorships were to be made
from four names submitted by the senate.

The bill raised a storm. Boulton said in the house that
' by establishing a mere infidel college it would bring down
the anger and judgment of God on the province.' The
bishop, in his indignation, almost reverted to the position
of Macdonald's bill, for he said that the purpose of the bill
was to establish ' a most rigid and oppressive monopoly over
mind, which of all things ought to be most free, and to im-
pose on the deluded public a mutilated sort of education, far
inferior in quality and character to what may be easily
attained, had we in this Province, as in England and Scot-
land, rival institutions.' The bishop had thus at length
become convinced of the evils of monopoly, and, as he said,
' of attempting to legislate for a very small fraction of the
population to the virtual exclusion of a great majority.' He
and Ryerson were for once in agreement, both backed by
Queen's, which absolutely refused to surrender her charter.
But hardest of all for the bishop was the fact that the council
of King's College actually petitioned parliament in favour
of the bill. In 1848 Bishop Strachan had been succeeded
as president by Dr McCaul and had ceased to attend council
meetings, and thus the malcontents had an occasional
majority. Hence Professors Croft, Gwynne, and Beaumont

RYERSON AND SECONDARY EDUCATION 373

were able to carry the petition against Drs McCaul and
Beaven, both of whom entered protests. The petitioners
referred to the establishment of the theological college at
Cobourg, where the bishop required applicants for ordina-
tion to spend a year after graduating from King's, as an indi-'
cation that his lordship himself was not satisfied with King's.
The Baldwin bill was passed in May 1849.

It is significant that among educationists the chief support
of the bill came from the teachers of science and medicine.
Such men were naturally inclined to see the drawbacks of
the collegiate and the advantages of the professorial type
of education. It was from their departments of study that
the strength of the future demand for centralization was to
come, for the elaborate and expensive equipment which they
were in time to need could only be obtained in a centralized
university with a large endowment. On the other hand, for
education as Strachan and Ryerson both understood it,
something more than equipment was necessary, and both
men knew, though both were liable to forget it on occasion,
that for such education a form of close-knit corporate life
was necessary, which could be obtained even more easily in
a small college with strong local traditions than in a large
centralized institution, however wealthy and finely housed.
Strachan at his worst was a bigot, Ryerson at his worst was
a doctrinaire ; both at their best had an insight into the needs
of the country which contemporary politicians, in matters
of education, certainly did not possess.

In spite of the act of 1849, Upper Canada did not intend
to remain a ' nation of infidels,' or even to be suspected of a
tendency to become such. In 1850 an explanatory act was
passed pointing out that there could be no objection to reli-
gious denominations within the university providing out of
their independent funds for the giving of religious instruction.
Under these conditions it seemed at one time likely that
Victoria would seek incorporation, leaving at Cobourg her
preparatory school and divinity faculty. But the move-
ment came to nothing.

Meanwhile Bishop Strachan was preparing the last, and
perhaps not the least important, of his many contributions

374 EDUCATION, SECONDARY AND UNIVERSITY

to Ontario education. Confronted with a provincial uni-
versity conducted on principles which he abhorred and by
men whom he distrusted, he acted precisely as Ryerson and
his followers had acted in 1836 : he determined to create
another ' out-lying college.' Old as he was, he hurried to
England, where he so worked upon Anglican opinion that
he secured help and contributions from great numbers, from
the archbishop and Gladstone downwards, specifically to
counteract the influence of the ' godless college.' While Dr
Beaven, the bishop's former ally, returned as professor of
mental and moral philosophy to ' an institution which he
abominated ' because it had expelled him as professor of
divinity, Strachan actually came back in 1851 with the
promise of what the Globe described as ' a charter incorporat-
ing John Toronto into a University,' and, even before the
charter came, had opened, on January 15, 1852, the Univer-
sity of Trinity College.

Trinity was to be everything which Toronto was not ; it
was to be residential, free from state control, Anglican ;
instead of the professorial system upheld by Baldwin it was
to be ' formed, in so far as possible, into a large household,'
there was to be ' daily and hourly intercourse between the
youth and their instructors,' and among the latter ' friendly
intimacy on terms and with an intensity which nothing but
a college life will admit.' In 1845 residences had been opened
in King's College, but Strachan had apparently not then
realized to the full the value of residential life, or had found
it impossible to make others understand it, and under Dr
Beaven as dean only fourteen students on the average re-
sided, and the receipts amounted to little more than one-
tenth of the expenditure. At Trinity, on the other hand, the
system was immediately successful. If it had been nothing
else, this last achievement of the bishop would always have
been interesting as an experiment. In the vitality of its
traditions, the strength and number of its customs, the
persistence of its type of student, in a certain old-fashioned
classical atmosphere, Trinity has always stood apart from
the other institutions in the province and remained a monu-
ment to its founder.

RYERSON AND SECONDARY EDUCATION 375

The ideals of that founder were now, however, very much
out of fashion. Canadian politicians and educationists were
now looking neither to the old Scottish nor to the old English
universities for the type of institution which was to fulfil
the needs of Canada. The new University of London was
coming into favour, and men like Baldwin and Hincks seem
to have disposed once for all of the ideal which was that at
once of Strachan and of Ryerson, the ideal of religious unity
as the basis of a college education. To this cause the original
endowment was permanently lost. Thus the High Church
party by persistently asking too much, by striving for a
monopoly when they could only hope for a share, by identify-
ing themselves with social exclusiveness, with an aristo-
cratic standpoint, and that type of orthodoxy which brands
those who do not accept its doctrines as heretics, had alienated
those who might have joined in a movement to secure aid
for higher education, on a religious basis, for the common
benefit.

Meanwhile Dr Ryerson had ceased to be principal of
Victoria and become in 1843 superintendent of schools. In
the field of primary and secondary education Ryerson's ideas
ran as directly counter to those of Strachan as did, in uni-
versity matters, those of Baldwin. In the first place, Strachan
carried his admiration of English models wholesale into all
branches of education. What he aimed at was the old-
fashioned English public school, permeated by an Anglican
atmosphere, providing boarding-houses for the boys, charg-
ing considerable fees, and drawing students very largely from
the ' upper classes,' though providing facilities, in the form
of scholarships, for boys of no means or position to be edu-
cated free. Ryerson, as a loyalist of the old type, had very
little inclination to follow American examples, and yet his
outlook was essentially transatlantic. For him education was
not a privilege to be earned or paid for, it was a right — ' the
first and most obvious principles of political economy, human
rights and civil obligations ' dictated that every man should
have the opportunity to be educated as much and as long
as he was capable of profiting by it. The high schools, then,
if they were antechambers to the university for the ' govern-

376 EDUCATION, SECONDARY AND UNIVERSITY

ing classes,' were also important as steps leading on from
the common schools. Moreover, as the necessary training-
grounds for citizens, they must be under the supervision of
public servants and backed by the public support. Demo-
cracy, for men of Ryerson's type — for he was essentially a
conservative — implied bureaucratic checks and safeguards ;
the career must indeed be open to the talents, but also
assisted by official guidance ; popular interest must be the
inspiring force, but system must direct its manifestations.
Still, a measure of administrative centralization must always
be accompanied by a counterbalancing stress upon local
decentralization — i-f each school must adopt the Education
department's recommendations, those schools must be as far
as possible distributed over the province ; education must
go to its constituency, not the constituency to it. Thirdly,
it was implied in this last that such education must be unde-
nominational— it was absurd and impossible that every town
should have half a dozen denominational academies when
the pupils could receive religious instruction in their own
homes and churches. Only in centralized boarding-schools
or universities was definite provision for denominational educa-
tion necessary. Lastly, it followed from Ryerson's outlook
that under his regime primary overshadowed secondary
education ; it was with the base of the pyramid that he was
preoccupied. Thus for at least three-quarters of its first
century secondary education in Upper Canada was restricted
by the fact that, first, the ideal of Strachan sacrificed it to
the university, and, later, the ideal of Ryerson sacrificed it
to the common school. Between 1792 and 1876 only two
attempts were made to grapple with the real problems of
secondary education. Both attempts, however, it is worth
noting, were made by chosen lieutenants of Ryerson's —
G. R. R. Cockburn and G. P. Young.

Cockburn, it is true, soon became the antagonist of the
man who brought him out from England to work in his
Model School. After a year or two under Ryerson, Cockburn
accepted the headmastership of Upper Canada College, and
it was under him that that institution proved its right to
stand out of Ryerson's system by the excellence of its work

RYERSON AND SECONDARY EDUCATION 377

with its pupils. Thus there survived from the old days of
Sir John Colborne a type of institution which is perhaps to
have a future in Ontario, an institution with some at least of
the characteristics of the English public schools — residential,
immune from co-education, laying considerable stress on
athletics, and on esprit de corps. The real function of such
a school is to inculcate in the sons of well-to-do parents a
sensitiveness to social obligations and a genuine public spirit.
This function Upper Canada College under Cockburn did
perform, and it is a function which every day increases in
importance.

Nevertheless the real heart of the problem lay in the;
high schools, and it was this problem which Young attacked
with all the vigour and insight characteristic of him. The
three great events in the history of secondary education
between 1830 and 1880 are Young's three reports on the
grammar and high schools, written between 1864 and 1867;
when Young was inspector.

The situation with which Young found himself confronted
on his appointment was an eminently unsatisfactory one.
Three attempts had indeed been made to introduce order
into the chaos of secondary education, but each had fatal
defects. The first was made before the era of Ryerson in
1839. The commission on education which reported in
that year definitely recommended that ' one system should
be laid down to be adopted by all,' schoolhouses should be
built on a uniform plan, and schools should be visited at
least biennially by an ' Inspector-general of education.' The
act which followed carried out some of these suggestions. It
appropriated 250,000 acres of waste land for the grammar
schools, out of which endowment ^100 a year might on
occasion be advanced to the trustees of any school. Until
the university came into operation, however, half the endow-
ment was to go to Upper Canada College. If a new school
was required £200 might be given towards a schoolhouse, if
the inhabitants subscribed an equal sum ; and £100 a year
would be paid to any school not in a chief town where
a schoolhouse and at least sixty pupils were guaranteed.
Lastly, King's College council was empowered to make rules

378 EDUCATION, SECONDARY AND UNIVERSITY

and regulations for the conduct and good government of the
schools. Thus certain facilities for expansion and a certain
attempt at regularization were introduced. Thirty schools
existed in 1845 where in 1839 there were only twelve. But
the council failed entirely to rise to its opportunities. As
Victoria was fed by its preparatory department, so King's
was fed by Upper Canada College, and its interest in grammar
schools consequently languished. It missed a great oppor-
tunity and opened the way for the triumph of another interest.
Ryerson at first took little heed of the grammar schools.
In his reports of 1845 and 1846 he does not even mention
them ; in 1847 he gives them a paragraph. There are, he
says, 38 grammar schools and academies teaching 3521 boys ;
some of them are ' much to be commended ' ; but only
five per cent of the school-going youth of Upper Canada
receive instruction in secondary schools — the moral being,
the ' unimpeachable importance of the common schools.'
The act of 1850 was the first attempt to ' place under more
popular control ' those institutions which, as Ryerson remarks
in 1848, absorb annually ' a considerable sum of public money,
and as a general rule benefit only those who reside in their
immediate neighbourhood.' Popular control with Ryerson
came very early to mean assimilation with his system of
public instruction. But the act of 1850 was a very tentative
measure — merely giving trustees of common schools the right
to classify the schools under their charge as primary, inter-
mediate, and high schools, or to establish a single school with
three departments similarly graded. Now, in his report for
1850 Ryerson attacks the grammar schdols because ' forming
as they do no part of a general system of public instruction,
teaching has to be done in them of so elementary a character
as would clearly be better left to elementary schools.' All
that he had done, however, to remedy this was to give to
the common schools facilities for claiming to teach what had
better be left to genuine secondary schools. Not that he
was blind to the evils of duplication. Each grammar school,
he recommends, should be made the high school of its
district, and the funds of both high and common schools
applied to education on a uniform system.

RYERSON AND SECONDARY EDUCATION 379

In 1853 he carried his point. State-aided secondary
education was in that year transferred from the control of the
university council to that of the chief superintendent and the
council of public instruction, on which, however, representa-'
tives of the university and the college were to sit.

The principle of working upwards from the base thus won
a decisive victory over Strachan's principle of working down-
wards from the university to the school. The main features
of the famous Ryerson system were introduced — a grant
from the grammar school fund for the salary of the teacher,
studies prescribed by the council, the superintendent to report
annually on the schools to the governor, regular inspectors
to visit the schools, the local trustees to engage the teacher
and to be responsible for the upkeep of the school, the fees
to be as low as possible, and education to be purely voluntary.
Popular management, official guidance and inspection, ancj
partial support by the state — these were the three great
principles of organization. Undenominational teaching anc}
prayers, no compulsory attendance at school, and very lo^
fees — these were the three leading characteristics of the
schools. It will not be denied that the balance of local and
central control is cleverly made and that the organization is
simple and easy to work. At the same time, Ryerson himself
was the first to admit that the situation, for the ten years after
the passing of the act, was by no means ideal.

For one thing, under the act of 1853 the position of high
school trustees proved to be an almost impossible one. They
were given no power to levy a rate, whereas the trustees
of common schools had such power. Here then was an
irresistible temptation for them to unite with the common
schools' trustees to form a ' Union School,' which could be
so supported and was also, of course, cheaper than two
schools ; hence the precise evil of which Ryerson had com-
plained in the grammar schools. Moreover, grants from the
grammar school fund were distributed to various schools on
the basis of the population of the school district, and a new
school could be created if $200 a year could, on this basis, be
claimed by it ; hence a plethora of weak grammar schools.
Both these evils were strongly insisted upon by Young, and

380 EDUCATION, SECONDARY AND UNIVERSITY

the result was the act of 1865, which attempted to remedy
them. This act introduced the system of payment to the
schools on the basis of attendance ; secondly, it provided that
the trustees of the municipality must raise a sum equal to
the government grant for the support of each school ; lastly,
provision was made for introducing the elective principle
into the appointment of trustees. In 1874 came further
changes. Obligatory assessment for contributions to high
school maintenance was now introduced ; the trustees were
empowered to requisition a grant from the municipality ;
high schools of superior equipment were to be called ' collegiate
institutes ' and to become entitled to an increased grant, and
the payment of the government grant was to be fixed on the
basis, not of population, but of ' results.' Provision was also
made for elective members of the council of public instruction
sent by the universities, the high schools, the public schools,
and the inspectors. The way was thus paved for the course
of recent development in which collegiate institutes and
examinations for the purpose of determining results have
played a leading part.

So much for the introduction of a measure of order where
before had been mere chaos. But men of Young's type were
not to be satisfied with the erection of a system. Young's
criticism of secondary education went far deeper. It must
be noted, however, that he was careful to state that Upper
Canada as it then was could not hope to compete with the
best models of secondary teaching. He warmly endorsed the
opinion that the classics provide perhaps the finest of mental
trainings. But he insisted that perfunctory teaching of the
classics, like perfunctory teaching of anything, was worse
than useless. He knew well enough that to put a subject
into the curriculum was not to ensure its being adequately
taught, and he threw the weight of his authority into the
scale in favour of more attention both to English and to
science. But it was to be English taught with a view to
correctness of expression and accuracy of grammatical con-
struction, and with real sympathy for the content, more
especially the ethical content, of the literature. Young
believed — and his view is at any rate deserving of respect —

RYERSON AND SECONDARY EDUCATION 381

that in secondary schools the English language and literature
might be made a real means of education, both in the sense of
a training in accuracy and in the sense of a stimulus to thought.
Similarly, what he prized in science was the method of
scientific study : he believed that a single scientific subject
adequately taught could give an insight into the principles of
logical reasoning which might be made of great value. Thus,
if he wished to modernize the curriculum, it is to be noted
that his object was to ensure not a larger range of subjects,
but a more thorough training in what was taught ; it was the
perfunctory nature of classical teaching which disgusted him.
On the subject of co-education he was emphatic. The dis-
tribution of the school grants on the basis of attendance led
to a great influx of girls into the grammar schools. Young did
not hesitate to condemn the teaching of girls of fifteen, sixteen,
and seventeen in the same classes as boys. His reason may
be given in his own words.

Girls who may have enjoyed no domestic advantages
and who do not understand the beauty of a ' meek and
quiet spirit ' are in danger of being drawn, by the feeling
that they are playing their part in the presence of boys,
into an unfeminine rudeness of behaviour towards their
teacher. A girl who is destitute of refinement of nature,
more readily becomes insolent or sullen at having her
self-love wounded in the presence of boys, than she would
if surrounded by companions of her own sex. At any
rate, the important practical point remains that when
a girl does so far forget herself as to be disrespectful to
a teacher, there is a vastly greater evil in its permanent
effects on her character when the fault is committed
before boys.

It was thus Young's opinion that cheapness and con-
venience in education can be too dearly bought at the price
of those qualities of modesty, chivalry, and self-respect which
it is the business of education to foster.

Young, too, insisted most strongly on the necessity of
some other test than that of attendance in the grading of
schools, and his recommendation led the way to the establish-
ment of a system of examinations as the only real test of a

382 EDUCATION, SECONDARY AND UNIVERSITY

school's efficiency. He recommended the appointment of a
number of inspectors to carry out entrance examinations to
the high schools, and himself conducted a number of such
examinations as inspector. The results convinced him of the
inefficiency of common school education, especially in English.
' I have been told,' he wrote, ' that in a considerable number
of common schools, English grammar is looked on as of no
importance in comparison with such branches as arithmetic,
algebra, and natural philosophy. But I am slow to believe
that there can be more than a very few persons connected
with education who are so stupid as to entertain such an idea.'
As appears from his address as president of the Ontario
Teachers' Association, Young looked forward to the setting
up of four or five great secondary schools of the type, as
regards the aim of their teaching, of Upper Canada College :
he did not welcome the experiment of collegiate institutes
with standards of equipment and a type of teaching but little
superior to that of the high schools, and it would seem that
for the highest type of secondary training he was a believer
in greater local centralization than Ryerson was prepared to
accept.

Since Ryerson's retirement in 1876, however, the most
prominent tendencies in secondary education have taken the
direction of improving the equipment of the schools and
enlarging the scope of the curriculum rather than of
strengthening the quality of the teaching. Immense progress
has been made, particularly of recent years, in the type of
apparatus which even the rural high schools possess for
scientific teaching : the requirements made for obtaining the
status of a collegiate institute have acted as a stimulating
ideal throughout the province, and the influence of a rigid
system of inspection has made throughout for better and
more healthy schoolhouses. At the same time, under the
stimulus of the Education department, the teaching of various
subjects has undoubtedly been immensely developed. Classics,
mathematics, science, English, and history have been stressed
in succession, and each in turn has reached a comparatively
high level in the best schools. The system of examinations
developed first under Ryerson has given great facilities for

THE GROWTH OF UNIVERSITY EDUCATION 383

directing the teaching work throughout the province into any
channel favoured by the central authority, and has perhaps
unduly hampered the freedom of the individual teacher. At
any rate, without in any way belittling the importance of
equipment and system in a provincial scheme of education, it
will probably be acknowledged that what has so far been
lacking in secondary education is the focusing of the teaching
on some one group of subjects thoroughly and adequately
taught. Thus alone can the real purposes of secondary educa-
tion be fulfilled — the inculcation of sound methods of thought
and study, and the stimulation of intellectual curiosity.

Ill
THE GROWTH OF UNIVERSITY EDUCATION

THE Baldwin Act and the foundation of Trinity left the
two ideals of university education in Upper Canada
face to face. A university, it would seem, to be pro-
vincial or national, must be secular and professorial — must
leave out of its composition both a religious atmosphere and
an effort after corporate life. If these two essential con-
stituents of a true system of higher education were to be
included, it was apparently to be only at the price of the
renunciation of both the state endowment and a non-sectarian
constituency. Here was the dilemma — the next forty years
were to be spent upon its horns.

These forty years are memorable in this connection
chiefly Jor three reasons — for what might be called the ideal
of Burwash, for what might be called the achievement of
Grant, and for the compromise of University Collgge. Uni-
versity federation, as conceived by G. W. Ross, by Goldwin
Smith, by Burwash, was eventually to provide the solution
of many difficulties and the promise of an assured future ;
Queen's, as developed and fostered by Grant, was to take
rank beside the school at Cornwall among the few educational
triumphs of Upper Canadian history. Like the Ontario
school system, the Ontario federated university is a monu-

384 EDUCATION, SECONDARY AND UNIVERSITY

ment of organization and statesmanship. Like Strachan
before him, Grant was one of those vigorous and intense
natures which, when they find their way into teaching, do in
that world what is perhaps of more value there than anything
else— found a great tradition. Burwash helped to make
possible a university, Grant created a college, and education
in Ontario depends for its future on the use made of those two
gifts.

UniyersityCollege, like Upper Canada College in the
previous epoch, was an attempt to mediate between the two
opposing camps — between the adherents of Baldwin's secular-
ized and ' professorial ' university and those of Strachan's
residential and denominational university. Hincks, like
Colborne, in trying to make peace, at once introduced a
new complication and developed a valuable experiment. If
University College seems equally incapable of correlation to
the conceptions either of Bunvash or of Grant, either of
Baldwin or of Strachan, it is therefore not the less important ;
and if, like Upper Canada College, it has not even yet fully
vindicated its position in the province, it is easy to see the
possibilities of its future.

It was in 1843 that Hincks attacked the problem which
had so perplexed his predecessors. As already hinted, the
University of London provided him with a model. Baldwin's
bold repudiation of the collegiate in favour of the professorial
ideal had clearly been a mistake. The denominational
college, whether it be King's or Queen's, Regiopolis or Victoria,
had taken too firm a root in Canada to make possible a
university with no college organization contained within it.
Hincks therefore gave an arts college to the state university ;
his act created University College, to which he transferred
all the university professors, except those representing the
faculties of law and medicine, which were discontinued.
The university itself was given no teaching functions at all,
and was made simply an examining and degree-conferring
body. Any other colleges or universities which would send
up students for the university examination could become
affiliated and get representation in the senate, and that
without losing their own university powers. University

THE GROWTH OF UNIVERSITY EDUCATION 385

college was simply to be the first of the affiliated colleges-
undenominational, central in position, and offering a full
course in arts. Such of the endowment as was not used for
the university or for University College was to be devoted
to the affiliated colleges.

Two things were needed to make of this act a working
success : the balance must be held true between the various
colleges and all must adopt the university as their examining
body. Neither condition was fulfilled. University College
was over-represented on the senate, for all its members were
always on the spot. The needs of University College were
always fully pressed, and it soon became clear that there
would never be any surplus for the out-lying colleges. In
their turn, the colleges still possessing degree-granting powers
of their own, with the exception of purely divinity colleges
like Knox and St Michael's, all preferred to examine their
own men and declined to send up any candidates for the
university examination. It has been suggested that an ' in-
stinctive fear ' made them hesitate to fall in with a system
which ' tends to reduce the teaching body to a drill school
for examination.' Doubtless there is much to be said for
the present system under which the teacher is himself the
examiner and all the teaching staff have a share in the setting
of papers. Still, few things do more to stimulate energetic
and efficient teaching than the system which makes teacher
and pupil allies, so to speak, against the examiner. More-
over, in a fully-developed college system it is difficult to see
how all the members of all the college staffs in one subject
can long be able to collaborate in the production of a single
paper. It is as if every judge in every State had a right to
a voice in determining the decisions of the Supreme Court
of the American commonwealth. At any rate, as a scheme
of affiliation the Hincks Act failed. Toronto University
became, in fact, University College — in much the same sense
as, under Colborne, King's College has become Upper Canada
College.

Like its prototype, University College satisfied very few
of the interests involved in the educational question, and
nevertheless did a measure of excellent work. If we take

386 EDUCATION, SECONDARY AND UNIVERSITY

the years from 1853 to 1880 as pre-eminently the period of
University College, it can scarcely be denied that over that
period the chief services in the cause of education were per-
formed by University College. In -at least two ways it
opened up a new vista in Upper Canadian education.

In the first place, it at once began to increase its staff.
True it rejected both Huxley and Tyndall. Still, the appoint-
ments which it made were excellent, and the small numbers
of the students made possible a degree of personal attention
from the staff which had afterwards to be given up. The
work of Professors Cherriman, Wilson, Chapman, and
Young probably told with a good deal more effect then than
such work could possibly do of later years. Secondly, Uni-
versity College set up a standard in another side of academic
life which is not the least important. In 1858 the new build-
ings were completed and the predecessor of the present main
building was occupied for teaching and residential purposes
in 1859. How much of that subtle process of influence
which is called education is due to the architectural setting
of teaching institutions, it would be difficult to determine.
With Trinity, St Michael's, and the university buildings, at
any rate Toronto was well provided with the material of
such influence.

Nevertheless the failure of the Hincks Act soon became
apparent. The breakdown of affiliation not only intensified
rivalries, it also made for popular apathy. Already in 1853
the government expropriated a large part of the university
site for parliament buildings, and even eluded the stipulated
payment of six per cent interest on the value of the land
taken. For the next five years the university was constantly
moving from one place to another, now in the parliament
buildings, now in the medical buildings, and now in a ' tem-
porary structure ' ; and though it eventually secured govern-
ment aid for its erection of the main building, it was only
gradually — and not a little thanks to the dignified appear-
ance of its new quarters — that it made its way into popular
favour. Extravagance in building, on the other hand, was
one of the chief counts against the university in the great
attack of 1860.

THE GROWTH OF UNIVERSITY EDUCATION 387

In 1860 the whole weakness of the educational system, or
lack of system, of the province was laid bare. It was in
1859 that the university moved into the main building, part
of which was devoted to a residence for students. In the
same year the Methodist Conference Committee deputed
Dr Ryerson to draft a memorial on the university question.
Ryerson's chief point was that though the desire of the con-
ference was the same now as it had been more than ten years
ago, in favour of the establishment of a provincial university
unconnected with any one college or religious persuasion,
still they felt that ' any College independent of all inspection
control or competition in wealth, all its officers securely paid
by the state, independent of exertion or success, will in
a short time degenerate into inactivity, indifference, and
extravagance.' Moreover, ' the same considerations of fit-
ness, economy, and patriotism which justify the state in
co-operating with each school municipality to support a day
school, require it to co-operate with each religious persuasion,
according to its own educational works, to support a college.'
The memorial was followed up by a mass of ' proofs and
illustrations,' by another petition from Queen's College, by a
counter-petition from University College, and by the appoint-
ment of a parliamentary committee. The real leader in the
attack on University College was Dr Ryerson, and in the
contest between him and Drs Langton and Wilson represent-
ing the university, a great deal of personal bitterness de-
veloped. As the Globe was not slow to point out, Ryerson's
attitude laid him open to the reproach that his programme
for a university was too much coloured by the success of
his school system. He criticized the system of ' options,'
which, though probably carried to excess in University
College, is an essential element in any advanced teaching ;
he insisted that the number of professors should be reduced,
attacked the scholarship system by which students were
' bribed ' to attend University College, and in an incautious
moment observed that ' as to the large sum sunk in the
buildings, it may gratify an old country and a fastidious
taste to have costly and magnificent College buildings at
Toronto, as it does to have St Peter's at Rome, but are the

VOL. XVIII H

388 EDUCATION, SECONDARY AND UNIVERSITY

people thereby instructed ? is that the way to educate a
country ? The Normal School buildings at Toronto have
been as much admired for their simple elegance as for their
adaptation to the purposes of their erection ; yet that whole
pile of buildings with accommodation for five hundred
students has cost less than ^35,000.' He suggested, too,
the application of his own method of government aid to
colleges in proportion to the sum subscribed by the public.
It may be doubted whether Dr Wilson was not right in main-
taining that Dr Ryerson showed in this connection a real lack
of appreciation of the needs and essentials of higher educa-
tion. On the other hand, it cannot be denied that there
was real cause of complaint on the score of extravagance
and unfairness to the other colleges. The case of the latter
is admirably stated in the speeches and pamphlets of Principal
Leitch of Queen's, who puts the advantages of a ' diversity
of colleges and an equality of religious rights ' in the most
convincing way, and specifically states that the teaching
done by the professors of University College is the ' great
redeeming feature of the whole matter.'

The results of this movement amounted to very little, for
the report of the commission appointed by the governor —
very unfavourable to the university— was never acted upon,
and the relations of the colleges with the university con-
tinued to be very strained. Ryerson, it is true, remained a
member of the senate, but the extent to which his attitude
had exasperated the state institution was seen when in 1868
the small grants which the Canadian legislature had long
made to the colleges were withdrawn after Confederation.
This was a severe blow for the moment, and, with the tem-
porary decline of the colleges, University College simul-
taneously began to make ground. In 1871 G. P. Young
joined the staff as successor to Dr Beaven and began his
remarkable influence as a teacher of philosophy. In 1873
the senate was reconstituted and given a more representative
character. In 1877 the tendency which had already shown
itself in the system of ' options ' took on a characteristic
and important phase with the making of a clear distinc-
tion between the ' fixed ' and the various ' honour ' courses,

THE GROWTH OF UNIVERSITY EDUCATION 389

a feature which has long distinguished Toronto from most
American colleges. In the same year, too, term work as
distinct from examination work began to be counted as im-
portant in determining the student's standing. Most signi-
ficant of all was the movement beginning in 1871, which
eventually led to the creation of the faculty of applied science.
In 1871 John Sandfield Macdonald, always the champion
of economy, proposed that the growing need for some form
of technical instruction for industrial purposes should be
met by the granting of $50,000 to establish an institute of
technology, combining evening classes for working men with
teaching for regular students. This scheme was attacked,
also on the ground of economy, by a great champion of the
university, Edward Blake, afterwards chancellor, who main-
tained that such instruction should be given in connection
with the provincial university, and that the professors of that
institution might aid in the work. Macdonald, however,
carried his scheme, and a building was already bought when
he fell from power. Thus, though the Institute of Tech->
nology was duly opened with Loudon, Armstrong, and Ellis
as instructors, the government, in which Blake had a place,
at once set about a scheme for another university faculty —
that of applied science. In 1878, then, the School of Prac-
tical Science was opened with professors of biology, mathe-
matics, and natural philosophy, chemistry, mineralogy, and
engineering, among whom were Professors Croft and Chapman
from the university. Thus a new development was given
at once to scientific work and to practical training in the
university. The reactions on the arts faculty have of course
been of immense importance. As in most modern universi-
ties, the academic atmosphere of Toronto has been weakened
by the practical and technical character of so much of its
work. Nevertheless it has been and no doubt will be more
and more clearly realized that teachers in arts can learn much
from the methods in the laboratory and elsewhere of medical
and technical education. Moreover, the standards of equip-
ment set up by the latter cannot but react on the rest of the
university.

By 1880, then, Toronto had gone far to make good its

390 EDUCATION, SECONDARY AND UNIVERSITY

position as the centre of Ontarian education. In that year,
too, Professor Wilson, a thoroughly capable man of affairs,
became president of the university, and Professor Hutton

succeeded Dr McCaul as professor of classics, and began the
work of deepening and broadening the study of Greek anc
Latin as the basis of a complete education. True that the
financial crash of 1873 had already shattered the edifice of
economic stability throughout the province which J. S. Mac-
donald had set up, and that the university was already
beginning to feel the results. True, too, that the university
as yet gave no medical training at all. Still, it was certainly
now no longer true, as the Globe had said in April 1860, that
' a stranger coming to Toronto, if he asked for the university
would be driven to Trinity or St Michael's College.' Trinity
College was weakened to some extent in its hold on the
Anglican community by the establishment at London in
1863 of Huron College, which in 1878 became the Western
University, and also by the opening in 1879 of Wycliffe
Divinity College at Toronto by the ' Church Association '
—a body of Low-Churchmen. In 1869 Regiopolis College,
unable to face its financial situation, closed its doors. In
1871 Queen's had sunk to twenty-five students, and when
Presbyterian union came about in 1875 the church decided
no longer to support arts colleges. The synod ceased to
elect the governing body of the university ; the latter became
practically a private institution. And yet it was the out-
lying colleges which supplied the two great figures of the
second half of the century in educational history. The loss
of the annual grant — $5000 to each — led Victoria and Queen's
to throw themselves on the churches and on their alumni.
Snodgrass of Queen's and Nelles of Victoria gave up their
days in loyal service to their colleges, and both institutions
weathered the storm. In 1872 Watson came to Queen's
from Scotland as professor of philosophy, and in 1878
Grant became principal, a post which he held till his death
in 1902.

Grant's was a masterful personality which impressed itself
deeply on whatever he took in hand. As an independent poli-
tician he was always liable at any moment to become a power

GEORGE MONRO GRANT
Reproduced by permission from the ' Life ' by I!'. L. Grant and C. F. Hamilton

THE GROWTH OF UNIVERSITY EDUCATION 391

in the public affairs of the Dominion or the province. As an
orator he was in the first rank of Canadians. He showed
himself one of the great men in the church, indefatigable as a
pastor and widely influential as a preacher and writer. But
his real life-work was devoted to Queen's, whose endowment he
raised, whose independence he saved, which he inspired with
his own spirit, and which is a real monument to one of the
greatest forces in his country's history. He kept together a
body of professors whose salaries were never increased, and
fired them to labour wholeheartedly for the college ; he
bound the students and the alumni together in a loyalty to
Queen's which inspired the poorest of them with the desire
to help her in her difficulties, and, as already said, he founded
at Queen's a tradition of immense power and vitality. The
witness of the Moseley commissioner who visited the college
in 1903 is perhaps as valuable as any other as an estimate
of Grant's work.

Its whole life and tone recall the old Scottish aca-
demical ideal of plain living and high thinking. Of all
the educational institutions I visited on the American
continent, none left on me so strong an impression of
doing high-class work with scanty resources. It is the
one university which has a real faculty of theology, the
course being as in Scotland post-graduate and involving
three years' study, after the four years of the Arts course.
It has no direct government grant like Toronto, no
millionaire patron like McGill, but has displayed a
striking power of attaching its students and securing
the loyal support of its constituents. It is essentially
a people's university. It possesses in Professor John
Watson the most distinguished representative of moral
philosophy on the continent, and boasts of being the
one American University in which Aristotle and Kant
are studied in the original languages.

Queen's, in fact, represents in the history of Ontario
education an aspect of all true education which has not yet
been enough developed here — the aspect of loyalty. With-
out loyalty no society can exist, and an educational institution
which is not also a society cannot do its full work. It is truel
that loyalty leads sometimes to the attitude that any means'

392 EDUCATION, SECONDARY AND UNIVERSITY

are justified for the end, and Grant, like Jowett of Balliol,
had some of the unscrupulousness which comes of intense
preoccupation with the welfare of a great institution. But
he understood that the real secret of power for an educational
centre lies in its capacity to influence its members, both
teachers and taught, by impressing upon them its own char-
acter. More perhaps in a young country even than in
an old is it important that a university or a college should
have a personality of its own, so that those who pass
through it should learn there what it means to belong to
a society and what are the privileges and responsibilities of
corporate life.

By an almost ironical coincidence Grant's career coincides
with the movement which first made university federation
workable. While he was developing at Kingston a college
rooted in local tradition, at Toronto a provincial university
was taking shape as a result of the transplanting of Victoria.
We have already referred to the tendency which was making
Toronto University the scene of an attempt to touch more
sides of national life than could be done by an arts college
alone, and also to the beginnings of financial embarrassment
in Ontario. These two tendencies met when the university
in 1883 applied to the legislature for more money to meet its
greatly increased expenses. The outlying colleges, moreover,
protested vigorously against any increase of the income of
Toronto drawn from the provincial revenue. The only way
to satisfy all parties was clearly to return to the projects of
the forties and to elaborate a scheme of federation. In 1874
Goldwin Smith at a Trinity College dinner had remarked
of Ontarian higher education that ' the observatory could
be found in one place, the observer in another, and the
telescope in a third.' From the time of his arrival at
Toronto hie had persistently urged the following of Oxford
and Cambridge precedents by forming a great university out
of a group of arts colleges. In 1884 the minister of Education,
G. W. Ross, summoned a meeting of the heads of Toronto
University, University College, Victoria, Queen's, Trinity,
St Michael's, M c Master, Wycliffe, Knox, Woodstock, and the
Congregational College ; and a sub-committee, in which

THE GROWTH OF UNIVERSITY EDUCATION 393

Dr Burwash was included, drew up a plan of federation pre-
paratory to the meeting. This plan embodied the main
questions at issue — what was to be the position of University
College, what the line between university and college subjects,
and what was to be done in regard to medical and legal
teaching. A series of discussions followed extending over three
years, and it appeared likely that nothing would be effected ;
but finally, in 1887 a federation act was passed, though none
of the colleges had yet agreed to accept it.

By this act the senate was reconstituted so as to represent'
the federating colleges. The minister of Education and all
the heads of collegeswere made ex-qfficio members,and another
representative of each college was also given a seat. For six
years to come, moreover, the graduates in arts of each college
were to elect one representative for every hundred graduates
on the university register in 1887. Convocation similarly wasi
to include the graduates in arts, law, and medicine of the feder-
ating colleges. The university and University College were
to continue as they had been before the act, under the same
conditions except that the university now became once again
a teaching body with power to create faculties in arts, law,
medicine, and engineering, and all its lectures were to be free
to the members of the colleges. The federating colleges were
required to give up, for as long as they chose to continue in
federation, their university powers. University College was
to teach Latin, Greek, ancient history, French, German,
English, oriental languages, and moral philosophy, so that, if
the federating colleges wished to hold their ground, they had
large requirements to live up to.

The theological colleges of Wycliffe, Knox, and St Michael's
accepted federation, from which, of course, they had every-
thing to gain. Attempts were made to constitute a faculty of
law, and the medical faculty was duly organized. Thus came
to an end the ' era of proprietary schools ' as it has been called,
during which the medical profession depended for its recruits
on medical schools affiliated to several of the colleges or under
purely private management, though it was not till 1903 that
the medical faculty of Trinity University was amalgamated
with that of Toronto.

394 EDUCATION, SECONDARY AND UNIVERSITY

The third and by far the most important result of the
federation act was the eventual acceptance of its terms in 1 890
by the University of Victoria, which then moved to Toronto
and took up its quarters in Queen's Park. The carrying out
of this movement was due in a very large measure to the
statesmanship of Dr Burwash, who had grasped more com-
pletely perhaps than any of his contemporaries what might
be made of a federated university of competing arts colleges.
The refusal of Queen's to accept the terms, though Grant had
seemed likely at one time to fall in with the scheme and
had actually been offered the presidency of the reconstituted
university, was a great disappointment to Victoria, and it
cannot be denied that the removal of the latter from Cobourg
left the field clearer for Queen's as the university of Eastern
Ontario. But it is easy to understand the motives of Grant,
who had just completed a set of new buildings, and who, when
it came to the point, must have realized intensely the draw-
backs and the loss inevitable to the transplanting of a
university. It is after all not easy to hold the balance true
between the advantage of two competing universities on the
one side and the expenses of reduplication of equipment on
the other. Before his death Grant had built up a school of
mining at Kingston and secured for it a government grant, and
he always claimed to the end that the future expansion of
the province made necessary a university in the east as well
as in the west.

A federated provincial university, then, was still rather
a project than a reality. And such, in spite of the events
of a quarter of a century, it still is. The main interest of
university history since 1887 lies in the efforts of Ontario
to bring into being what the act of 1887 had foreshadowed.
A federated provincial university implies, in the first place, as
we have seen, a union of arts colleges, with all the difficulties
and jealousies which such a union is bound to bring with it,
and all the advantages which competing educational insti-
tutions in close juxtaposition and healthy rivalry are bound
to generate. The first problem before those in whose hands
lay the future of federation was to substitute for jealousy and
suspicion mutual emulation and the free play of competition.

THE GROWTH OF UNIVERSITY EDUCATION 395

Until this could be done, the goal of federation would be, not
efficiency, but deadlock. In the second place, a federated
provincial university involves the proper adjustment of rela-
tions with the province, which is the university's constituency,
out of whose revenues the university is in part supported,
whose needs the university is bound to supply. That adjust-
ment must give the representatives of the people the means
of exercising a due measure of control over expenditure, and
at the same time must leave the academic body free to perform
its functions unhampered by political interference. The
college, the faculty, the university, the legislature, each must
find its proper sphere, and to that sphere consent to be
rigorously confined. The supreme need was a constitution
which should harmonize conflicting interests, define powers,
and win the support of those responsible for its working.

For such a constitution Toronto University had to wait
nearly twenty years. By 1906 drastic changes had become
inevitable. While Grant was raising Queen's to be one
of the best colleges on the continent, Toronto, in spite
of much excellent work in various departments, slowly
languished. In 1903, it is true, Trinity at last abandoned
the attitude of its founder, and, on carefully guarded
conditions giving the right of withdrawal, entered federa-
tion. Still, despite this notable addition to the resources
of the college system, federation, it seemed, could not be
worked smoothly. Dissensions among the teaching staff
increased rather than diminished. The senate became a
battle-ground of rival factions, with all the drawbacks of a
deliberative assembly which is immune from the discipline
of responsible parties. Dissatisfaction among the students
seemed likely in 1895 and again in 1905 to lead to a serious
rebellion. The distrust and apathy of the province showed
itself in a steady refusal to supply growing needs by an
increase of the government grant. The success of the
faculties of medicine and practical science only seemed to
emphasize the atrophy of the arts teaching, which, instead
of being stimulated by the mutual rivalry of the colleges,
was starved by their mutual jealousies. Twenty years of
the act of 1887 had made it abundantly clear that the

396 EDUCATION, SECONDARY AND UNIVERSITY

promise of federation was not to be fulfilled under the exist-
ing regime.

The reasons for the situation have already been suggested.
In the first place, the point of view of the denominational
college as represented by Victoria was inherently different
from and antagonistic to that of the university — just as
much so as it had been in the days of Baldwin, Strachan, and
Ryerson. Victoria had from the first to struggle against
attempts to suppress her arts faculty altogether and to turn
her into a purely theological college. This would, of course,
have been fatal to the spirit of true federation. It would have
restored to University College just that monopoly of arts
teaching in the university which the denominational colleges
had been founded, and still existed, to resist. It would have
made impossible the stimulus of diversity and the spirit of
competition in arts teaching which the college system is best
fitted to develop. In fact, the very attempt argued that the
partisans of University College had as yet no conception of
the real meaning of federation. They regarded it, that is to
say, merely as a prelude to the absorption of the constituent
colleges into a unitary system, not as a frank acceptance of
plurality.

Victoria, on her side, could not but see that the close
connection between University College and the university
endangered for her the benefits which she had a right to
expect in return for the sacrifice of her complete independence.
The fostering of one college by government support and the
identification of its special interests with those of the uni-
versity put its less-favoured rival at a grave disadvantage.
University College should surely be made to meet her com-
petitors on more equal terms. If federation for University
College came very near meaning the absorption of Victoria, for
Victoria it came very near meaning the disestablishment of
University College.

Such difficulties are incident to the working of all federa-
tions. What made them so dangerous here was the lack of
a central authority to check their developing into a deadlock.
The university in fact was palsied by an exaggerated form of
that division of power and responsibility which is the chief

THE GROWTH OF UNIVERSITY EDUCATION 397

defect of more than one federal constitution. If the attri-
butes of sovereignty are to be divided up between local
and central authorities, there is surely all the more reason
why the central authority should itself be concentrated and
indivisible. In the university, however, the very reverse was
true. The nominal head of the institution was the president.
For at least four reasons he was really powerless. In the first
place, he represented, not the university, but a party within
it. In the second, he was himself involved in teaching work,
and his professional duties as head of a department were alone
enough to occupy him. In the third place, he was dependent
upon the support of the minister of Education and hampered
by the intervention of the legislature. Appointments to the
staff were made by the lieutenant-governor in council, and the
revenue of the university was dependent on party votes. In
the fourth place, the senate's representative character and its
control over academic affairs gave it a great position. Prestige
and tradition had gathered round the office of its chairman,
the vice-chancellor. Interference from without and divided
authority within conspired to reduce university government
to impotence.

The attitude taken up by the commissioners of 1906
showed them to be inclined to consider that changes in the
central constitution would be enough to remedy these ills
without going on to remodel the basis of federation. On the
question of University College they definitely declared for
the status quo. That is to say, that in accordance with their
report, University College still retains the privilege of close
connection with the university. It has not like Victoria and
Trinity a separate chest : its position as pre-eminently
the provincial arts college is assured. It does not meet the
other colleges on equal terms, and were it not fof the generosity
of private benefactors those colleges would always be seriously
hampered in competition with the state institution. The
commissioners felt, however, that while excluding the free play
of competition and the principle of equal rights, they were
assuring to University College the power to keep up a stan-
dard of efficiency and equipment which would be of the
greatest value in stimulating the denominational colleges and

398 EDUCATION, SECONDARY AND UNIVERSITY

invigorating the whole institution. They therefore reserved
their more drastic proposals for the constitution of the
university.

Here, as before suggested, the concentration of responsi-
bility was their aim. This they determined to secure by
giving reality to the office of president. The president is now
the real head of the institution. To give him this position it
was necessary to remodel entirely both the academic and
financial systems of control. The senate rejected the worst
anomalies of the old system — it was an attempt to make an
organ of the central power out of the concentration of local
rivalries. Under the new system its effective functions are
all delegated to the various faculty councils which are
nominally its committees. Thus those details of academic
administration which belong to the internal economy of each
faculty are now dealt with by the authority of that faculty
and no longer impede and confuse the working of the central
authority. The senate as a whole is retained for traditional
reasons, without much real power, and the office of vice-
chancellor has been abolished. Thus the effective control
over local faculties falls into the hands of the president. He
is a member of each of the faculty councils and chairman of
the council of the faculty of arts. It is his business to see
that each faculty limits itself to its own sphere, and to recon-
cile or balance the interests of each as against the others.
Moreover, the academic authority of the president is assured
by the fact that all appointments to the staff are made on his
recommendation.

On the other side — that of administration — the president
is equally secure. The university now receives from the pro-
vince a permanent income drawn from the succession duties.
Thus it is no longer dependent for its ordinary needs on the
government in power. A non-political board of governors
— chiefly prominent business men — are now made responsible
to the legislature for university finances. Of this board the
president is a member, and his direction of university policy
depends, of course, for its success on the extent to which he
can secure the confidence of his fellow-members. Not the
least difficult of his duties is that of reconciling the ideals of

THE/GROWTH OF UNIVERSITY EDUCATION 399

economy and efficiency held by the governors with the
demands for equipment and staffing made by academic
bodies. At any rate he is fortunate in having to occupy
himself neither with politics on the one hand, nor with the
effective rivalry of a central representative assembly on the
other. While there is perhaps room for the obvious objec-
tion that too much depends on the quality of the president,
it must be allowed on the other hand that the position is now
worthy enough to attract men of first-rate power and ability.

Such was the main work of the commission of 1906. The
new system has not yet stood the test of time and is not yet
ripe for final judgment. Much, it is clear, yet remains to be
done. The position of the women students is anomalous and
unsatisfactory — their numbers are now large and they are
without adequate accommodation and government. There
will doubtless, too, be a development in the direction of more
residences for the men students — already Victoria is building
college residences of its own, and the removal of Trinity
College to Queen's Park will bring into full prominence both
a fully residential arts college and a women's residential
college with strong corporate spirit. More women teachers
will probably be appointed to the staff and given position
in the women's residences. Changes in the curricula in the
direction of higher standards, honour work of a more genuine
type, and further provision for research may also be expected.
Meanwhile new buildings go forward apace, and there is
about the whole institution an air of vigorous life. Every
year, it would seem, makes the university more truly a
Dominion institution.

It remains to refer to one or two aspects of this same pro-
vincial character of the university which could not con-
veniently be noticed before. The Faculty of Education, the
creation of which was recommended by the commission, and
which in 1911 moved into new and thoroughly adequate
buildings and was given the necessary field for practical
work by the starting in connection with it of a univer-
sity school, is as yet too young to be fairly judged. Its
position, as part of the university and at the same time as
feeder of the high and public schools, would seem to give

400 EDUCATION, SECONDARY AND UNIVERSITY

it the opportunity of becoming a most valuable link between
higher and lower education. Another faculty, that of
Forestry, is also in its infancy, but has already shown full
realization of the immense importance of its field of activity
in the life of the province ; and a third, that of Domestic
Science, is at present being equipped.

Among affiliated institutions, the Veterinary College and
the College of Dentistry are perhaps with one exception the
most important. The exception is the Agricultural College
at Guelph. This college dates from 1873, and apart from
its experimental work in agriculture and stock-raising —
which does not concern us here — has already an exceedingly
fine record of strictly educational work behind it. No in-
stitution in the province has realized so fully its obligation
not alone to its students, but also to the people as a whole ;
the success of its propaganda among the farmers has been
phenomenal. It supplies a great variety of courses, designed
to attract not only the thorough student, but also men from
the farm with but a few months' leisure ; it gives instruc-
tion to its graduating classes in arts as well as in agriculture,
and aims to develop in its residence a healthy corporate life.
The neighbouring Macdonald Institute for domestic science
teaching — generously endowed by its founder — is equally
efficient in its way, and an excellent type of a branch of
education which is perhaps the most distinctive, in the
excellence of its methods, of any in Canada.

It is indeed difficult not to feel that higher education in
Ontario has immense potentialities. Its past history, if it
has not been rich in achievements, has long been so in its
scope. It is in attempting too much rather than too little
that it has hitherto fallen short : it has arrived at complete-
ness rather through the extent of ground covered than through
the thoroughness of cultivation achieved. Uncultured homes
have helped to impede the public schools, inadequate primary
education has reacted on the high schools, and those again
on the university. Great opportunities in other careers
have depleted the numbers of first-rate teachers ; the poverty
of the country, both in men and in inherited wealth, and the
traditions of the continent have led to a great demand for

THE GROWTH OF UNIVERSITY EDUCATION 401

the education of women to fit them for wage-earning careers,
and this demand, partly from lack of means, partly from care-
lessness, has been inadequately met. The formation of that
setting of academic corporate life which is essential to true
education has been hampered by the absence of traditions
and endowments, and by the very desire to provide educa-
tion for all classes which necessitates day schools and the
minimum of architectural outlay. Thus education in the
non-technical sense has had to struggle against all the diffi-
culties incident to a young country, inclined, partly from
necessity and partly through lack of self-respect, to accept
low and utilitarian standards, and apt, as all young countries
are in a democratic age, to allow too wide a sphere to party
politics.

On the other hand, the struggles and experiments of the
past have so to speak developed the organs of education in
Ontario to an almost bewildering extent. Outside the regular
system of state schools, Upper Canada College with its
English traditions has served as a model for a group of schools
— St Andrew's, Ridley, Port Hope, Highfield — which is ~C.Q- « .
constantly increasing in number and lays considerable stress
on athletics. The academies have left successors, for example,
in the preparatory departments of St Michael's College and
Ottawa University, in Albert College at Belleville, which
helps to feed Victoria, in St Jerome's College at Berlin, the
Quaker School at Newmarket, and the Baptist College at
Woodstock. The education of girls is carried on in a number
of private schools, in Roman Catholic institutions like
Loretto Academy at Niagara Falls, St Joseph's Academy
at Toronto, and the Ursuline College at Chatham ; the
separate higher education of women is provided for in part
in two recently founded Women's Medical Colleges, in the
Macdonald Institute at Guelph, in the Domestic Science
Faculty of the University of Toronto. St Hilda's, Q«ee»'s W/»ftn«\j
Hall, and Annesley Hall provide residences for the women of
Trinity, University College, and Victoria respectively ; and
co-education rules in the universities (except for the Catholic
colleges) and in the government schools. In the Royal
Military College, Ontario has a type of institution which

402 EDUCATION, SECONDARY AND UNIVERSITY

gives a training in discipline of a quality very rare on this
continent, and military education which has won the approval
of those most competent to judge. The recent commission
to inquire into the possibilities of technical education has
been followed by a comprehensive report on the subject by
the superintendent of education. Besides the agricultural,
dental, and veterinary institutions, and the School of
Science, already at work, and various small attempts at
commercial and industrial education already begun, with
or without government support, there will doubtless soon
be provision made on a larger scale for the needs of the
country in this respect. In her provincial university Ontario
has obtained a peculiar element of strength from the com-
bination of centralization with emulation given by the
college system. Queen's, too, is the rival of Toronto, as
both have competitors outside the province. The college
system does not yet work with all the freedom and elasticity
that it should. It has been pointed out that a ' frankly
open ' system of honour lectures throughout the university
is really an essential corollary of competing colleges ; honour
students should be allowed, without payment of educational
fees, to follow the best teaching wheresoever it may be found.
Again, the colleges must inevitably aim to strengthen their
own esprit de corps by means of residences and common
dining-halls, just as the university is about to receive in the
new Student's Union a long-needed centre of its larger cor-
porate life. In the state-controlled schools, too, esprit de
corps would seem to require fostering, and more attention
should be given to the training of character. Ontario is
fortunate indeed in the possession of so broad and direct an
avenue from the lowest to the highest type of education
which is provided in the province. It is inevitable as time
goes on that that path will become steeper with the heighten-
ing of standards, but there seems no reason to fear that it
will not be as open as ever to those qualified to take advan-
tage of it.

MUNICIPAL HISTORY
1791-1867

VOL. XVIII

MUNICIPAL HISTORY
1791-1867

BEFORE THE UNION

THE history of municipal government in Ontario
dates from the arrival of the American loyalists
during and following the War of the Revolution.
During the period of autocratic rule under a governor and
council, extending from the proclamation of 1763 to the
introduction of representative assemblies under the Con-
stitutional Act of 1791, there was practically no municipal
government. It is true that various ordinances were passed
by the governor and council, dealing with special local ser-
vices of a municipal nature in the cities of Montreal, Quebec,
and Three Rivers. But these were under the direct control
of the central government, and, in any case, they did not
extend to the western settlements beyond Montreal, which
constituted the basis of the separate Province of Upper
Canada, now Ontario.

The majority of the loyalists and other settlers in Upper
Canada came from the colony of New York, or from the
adjoining colonies of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New
England. In these the New England type of local govern-
ment prevailed. This system the loyalists naturally desired
to establish in their new settlements in Canada.

There were, however, two quite distinct types of local
government, both of British origin, which had been intro-
duced and developed in the American colonies. These may
be designated as the New England and Southern types. The
New England colonies were settled chiefly by a middle class

405

406 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1791-1867

of more or less puritanic strain. The central characteristic
of puritanism is a decidedly independent tendency of thought
and action, whether in religious, social, economic, or political
matters. In Britain, though always a moral and social
power far beyond its numerical strength and also dominant
during the Cromwellian period, puritanism was commonly
overpowered by the aristocratic elements on the one hand
and the more plastic lower orders on the other. In the New
England colonies, however, both numerically and in other
respects, puritanism was the dominant factor, and naturally
expressed itself in a vigorous form of local self-government,
the central feature in which was the town meeting.

In the southern colonies, on the other hand, of which
Virginia may be taken as typical, there was a wider range
of social and intellectual types. There were aristocratic
elements with a large substratum of deferential lower orders
needing direction and suitable for service. There was also a
considerable middle class, though of a less strenuous puritanic
strain than that of the New England colonies. Unfortunately
for the spiritual and social features of the lower classes of
whites, the introduction of negro slavery, while tending to
relieve them of the more menial forms of manual labour, did
not elevate their social position or spiritual resources. Under
these circumstances, the superior white minority easily secured
the right to rule in local as well as in more general matters.
In the Virginian type of colony the old English court of quarter
sessions was a fitting organ of local administration as well as
of judicial proceedings.

According to their social, climatic, and geographical situa-
tion, the other American colonies exhibited various forms and
modifications of these two types of local institutions.

The local unit of the New England system was the town-
ship with its town meeting and popularly elected local officials,
who combined in themselves legislative, executive, and judicial
powers. The town had certain duties with reference to the
parish church, the relief of the poor, and the oversight of public
morals. The officers who discharged these duties were the
wardens, sometimes designated churchwardens, although
their duties were chiefly of a civil rather than of an ecclesi-

BEFORE THE UNION 407

astical nature. The town clerk was an important functionary,
who kept a record of the town meetings and was a general
authority on procedure and the laws and customs of the
parish. The constables guarded the peace of the town, con-
stituting a visible embodiment of the majesty of the law, while
being the chief organs of its pursuing vengeance. Among the
more active and important officials were the overseers of the
highways, who supervised the construction and maintenance
of the roads and utilized the statute labour tax to that end.
Other officers were the assessor and collector of taxes, fence-
viewers, and pound-keepers. For more purely legislative
service there were the selectmen, corresponding to our town-
ship councillors, having a general oversight of town matters,
with power to act in emergencies.

In New England, the court of quarter sessions, an ancient
and honourable institution in all the colonies, and having a
wider territory and jurisdiction than the town officers, confined
its activities mainly to judicial matters. However, the
regulations made by the selectmen required to be sanctioned
by the quarter sessions before becoming legally valid. The
quarter sessions also laid out the general plan of highways,
covering several townships, although the individual towns
constructed and maintained them. The magistrates also
granted and regulated licences for keeping public-houses.
Financially the court of quarter sessions levied certain rates
for the support of its own officers and functions, and appor-
tioned these rates to the several townships. The executive
officer of the court for the county was the sheriff, who was
appointed by the governor of the colony. For militia service
the colony was divided into shires with an appointed official
for each, known as the lieutenant, among whose duties was
that of summoning the militia.

In Virginia the county organization of the New England
colonies virtually discharged all the functions of local govern-
ment, including those of the township officials, thus avoiding
the democratic features of the New England system. The
chief officers of the county were appointed by the governor ;
among these was the lieutenant, corresponding to the lord
lieutenant of a county in England. There were also the

408 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1791-1867

county courts composed of the justices of the peace, but with
much fuller municipal authority than in New England. Their
chief executive official was the sheriff with his sergeants and
bailiffs. Inasmuch as the justices of the peace were all
appointed by the governor in council, the local administra-
tion of Virginia was very slightly dependent upon the direct
will of the people, and in this respect differed radically from
the New England type.

As the majority of the loyalists before settling in Canada
had been accustomed to some form of the New England type,
as already indicated, they naturally endeavoured to reproduce
it in the new Canadian settlements.

After the arrival of the loyalists in the western settlements,
a number of the officers who accompanied them were given
commissions as magistrates, in order that they might have the
power to preserve order and settle minor legal disputes with-
out recourse to the central authorities in Montreal, which was
at that time the administrative and judicial centre for the
western territory. In 1785 an ordinance was passed by the
governor and council of the Province of Quebec ' for granting
a limited civil power and jurisdiction to His Majesty's
justices of the peace in the remote parts of this province.'
This referred chiefly to the western districts beyond Montreal,
especially in the neighbourhood of Johnstown, on the upper
St Lawrence, Kingston, and Niagara, where the loyalists were
being settled after the close of the War of the Revolution.
In 1786 the recently appointed magistrates at Cataraqui
(Kingston) and New Oswegatchie (Prescott) sent their views
as to the needs of the western district to Sir John Johnson, the
superintendent of the district. In the Cataraqui memorial,
after urging the need for local courts and increased powers for
the magistrates, they continue :

The election, or appointment, of proper officers in the
several townships, to see that the necessary roads be
opened and kept in proper repair, we conceive would
be of great utility, by facilitating the communication
with all parts of the settlement. Humanity will not
allow us to omit mentioning the necessity of appointing
overseers of the poor, or the making of some kind of

BEFORE THE UNION 409

provision for persons of that description, who from age
or accident may be rendered helpless. And we conceive,
it would be proper that the persons appointed to this
charge, as well as the road masters, should be directed
to make regular reports of the state of their district to
the courts at their meetings, and be in all cases subject
to their control.

In this it will be observed that the magistrates, while
strongly urging the establishment of local government, leaned
to the side of the Virginia system as safeguarding their own
powers.

In response to the petitions of the magistrates and others
representing the western territory, an ordinance, of April 1787,
was passed making further provision for the administration
of the new settlements. This ordinance provided for the
creation of new administrative districts in the western country
and for the appointment of special officers with a combina-
tion of powers. In accordance with the ordinance, Lord
Dorchester issued a proclamation, dated July 24, 1788, creat-
ing four new districts in the western or ' Upper Country,' as
it was called. Starting from the western boundary of the
last French seigniory at Point Beaudet on Lake St Frances,
and extending to the Detroit River, the country was divided
into four districts, named in order Lunenburg, Mecklenburg,
Nassau, and Hesse. On the same date the following official
appointments were made for each of these districts : judges
of the court of common pleas, justices of the peace, a sheriff,
a clerk of the court of common pleas and of the sessions of the
peace, and coroners.

The courts of quarter sessions which were thus organized
began their sittings the following year. The first court for
the district of Mecklenburg was convened at Kingston on
April 14, 1789. The first court for the district of Lunenburg
was held at Osnabruck on June 15 of the same year.

The functions of the courts of quarter sessions were more
extensive than intensive. They were partly j udicial, chiefly in
connection with the maintenance of the peace and the settle-
ment of minor economic claims ; partly legislative, as in
regulating the perambulations of domestic animals and the

410 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1791-1867

conditions to be observed by those who held tavern licences ;
and partly administrative, as in appointing certain minor
officers and in laying out and superintending the highways.
Even so much of the new system as was thus authorized
proved unworkable on the basis of the French feudal laws and
institutions which had been re-established in Canada by the
Quebec Act. Hence little progress of a legal nature was
made until the Constitutional Act of 1791 was passed, which
enabled Upper Canada at least to transfer itself from French
to British laws and institutions.

It had been with great reluctance and many well-founded
misgivings as to the democratic tendencies of the future that
Lord Dorchester had consented to the granting of representa-
tive government in Canada under the Constitutional Act. /
He very naturally maintained that even the loyalists would
be more safely retained under the French feudalism of the
Bourbons than under the British system, the laws and in-
stitutions of which had proved so disastrous in the American
colonies. Finding it impossible, however, to persuade the
loyalists that devotion to the British sovereign and constitu-
tion would be fittingly rewarded by the renouncing of British
laws and institutions, Dorchester was fain to concede the v
Constitutional Act. In the details of the act, however, every
precaution had been taken to guard against the evil effects
which had followed in the revolted American colonies from a
too free indulgence in British institutions. Thus the greater
part of the act was occupied with provisions for the establish-
ment of a hereditary political aristocracy and an episcopal
state church. Undoubtedly the most dangerous of the
democratic tendencies brought from England and planted in
the American colonies were embodied in their municipal
institutions, especially the dangerous New England town.!/
meetings. Hence the tendency towards independent thought
and action in politics and religion was to be carefully guarded
against. Although there proved to be but few points on
which Dorchester and Simcoe could agree, they were at one
at least in their determination to obstruct and discourage the
tendency towards local self-government.

When the surveys of the lands in Western Canada, upon

BEFORE THE UNION 411

which the loyalists were to be settled, were being made, the
surveyors received express instructions that the blocks of
surveyed lands were not to be designated as townships, but <-
as royal seigniories. Moreover, the seigniories were to be
numbered and not named, as was customary in the case of
townships. In spite, however, of these and other well-devised
precautions, many of the loyalists did not even wait for the
passing of the Constitutional Act to authorize their efforts
in self-government, but at once set up in their new settlements
in Canada the very town meetings that were the special horror *.
of the Canadian authorities. They pointedly ignored also the
scheme for numbering the royal seigniories in which their
lands were granted, adopting instead the forbidden designa-^,
tion of ' township.' Moreover, they named their townships,
and in doing so demonstrated that they were thorough-going
loyalists, for they named the first township ' Kingston,' after
King George. The other townships were named — after the
king's numerous family — Ernestown, Adolphustown, Amelias-
burg, Sophiasburg, etc. Although filled with prophetic fears
as to the democratic future of the country, Lord Dorchester
ceased to contend against destiny, and did not take any active
steps to frustrate the premature efforts of the loyalists to
establish local or municipal institutions.

When, however, the Constitutional Act of 1791, by
dividing Upper from Lower Canada, made it possible to re-
store British laws and institutions and a free system of land
tenure in the upper province, the question at once arose as
to how far the inhabitants of that province were to be per-
mitted to reproduce the township and town meeting system of
local government which had prevailed in the New England
colonies. It fell to the lot of General Simcoe, as the first
lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, to launch the new
system of representative, though not responsible, government.
As a soldier and an officer who had fought against the j
American revolutionists, he was naturally unsympathetic
with anything savouring of democratic institutions. The
mental attitude of the rank and file of the loyalist settlers
puzzled him a good deal. He found that after standing by
the British cause through the revolutionary struggle, they still

412 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1791-1867

evinced democratic sentiments and an undue attachment
to town meetings, the election of township officers, and other
objectionable practices. After all, however, the majority of
these people were of the middle and lower classes and had
scarcely sufficient opportunities for realizing the dangerous
character of the views and practices in which they were in-
clined to indulge. Allowances might therefore be made for
such people, but Simcoe was quite dumbfounded when he
discovered that such men as the Hon. Richard Cartwright
and the Hon. Robert Hamilton not only seriously questioned,
but strongly opposed, his policy of establishing in the colony
an executive government of half-pay officers and minor
officials of aristocratic leanings strongly antagonistic to all
forms of democratic government. Cartwright, in particular,
has left on record his view that this form of close corporation
was certain in time to provoke a rising tide of opposition
throughout the colony, and if persisted in must end in
rebellion.

Simcoe soon discovered that the general spirit of the
country was opposed to his policy. Writing from Navy
Hall to the colonial secretary in 1792, he states that on his
trip from Montreal to Kingston, while the first provincial
election was in progress, he discovered that instead of favour-
ing the election of the half-pay officers whom he had put
forward as candidates, ' the prejudice ran in favour of men
of the lower order who kept but one table, that is who dined
in common with their own servants.' These symptoms,
however, instead of warning him against attempting to force
an aristocratic official government upon the province, only
caused him to redouble his efforts to eradicate from the
colony, so far as possible, all democratic tendencies.

The tendency to select men of the lower order as members
of the legislature in preference to the half-pay officers had
its natural sequence when the legislature met. The first
bill introduced was one ' to authorize town meetings for the
purpose of appointing divers parish officers.' Thus Simcoe
found his work laid out for him at the very threshold of his
career as a colonial governor. He was not, however, the
man to shirk a plain duty. He set himself resolutely to his

BEFORE THE UNION 413

task. He managed to get the town meeting bill effectively
shelved after it had passed its second reading. Two other
bills subsequently introduced during the first session, one
to authorize ' the justices of the peace to appoint annually
divers public officers ' and another to authorize ' the election
of divers public officers,' did not get through before the close
of the session.

In his report to the colonial secretary after the first
session of the legislature, Simcoe states that the lower house
' seemed to have a stronger attachment to the elective prin-
ciple in all town affairs than might be thought advisable.'
The following session the bill providing for town meetings
was again introduced. Although its passage could not be
prevented, it was so successfully diluted that it became quite
harmless as a measure of local self-government. Writing
at the close of the second session, Simcoe tells Secretary
Dundas that during the previous session he had managed
to put off the bill on town meetings as something that should
not be encouraged, but the alternative proposal ' to give the
nomination altogether to the magistrates was found to be a
distasteful measure.' In further explanation, he indicates
that many well-affected settlers were convinced that fence-
viewers, pound-keepers, and other petty officers to regulate
matters of local police would be more readily obeyed if elected
by the householders ; and especially that the collector of
taxes should be a person chosen by themselves. ' It was
therefore thought advisable not to withhold such a gratifi-
cation to which they had been accustomed, it being in itself
not unreasonable, and only to take place one day in the year.'

When we turn to the act embodying these special con-
cessions, we find that it merely permits the ratepayers to
elect certain executive town officers, whose duties, however,
were either carefully limited by the act or left to be regulated
by the justices of the peace in quarter sessions. Beyond
permission to fix the height of fences, the town meetings had
not legally any legislative functions, and the town officers
permitted to be chosen by the people were responsible, not
to those who elected them, but to the quarter sessions. By
an act of the third session of the legislature in 1794, a slight

414 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1791-1867

extension of the authority of the town meetings was granted,
in permitting them to fix the limits of times and seasons for
certain animals running at large ; but even this power was
afterwards curtailed.

The concession of town meetings in such a restricted form
proved to be much more effective discouragement of their
powers than if they had been denied altogether. For years
to come the court of quarter sessions remained the only vital
centre of municipal affairs. So little interest was taken in
the remnant of power allowed to the town meetings, that
in some townships they appear to have been neglected
altogether. At any rate, in 1806, an act was passed pro-
viding that where in any township no town meeting should
be held or township officers appointed, the court of quarter
sessions should appoint the necessary officers and duly fine
them should they decline the honour.

With a view to permanently neutralizing the democratic
tendencies of the people, Simcoe reported to the home govern-
ment that, ' in order to promote an aristocracy, most necessary
in this country, I have appointed lieutenants to the more
populous counties, which I mean to extend from time to
time, and have given them the recommendatory power for
the militia and magistrates, as is usual in England.' As
these magistrates were selected chiefly from the legislative
council, the movement would subsequently support the hold
upon the province of the governor's Family Compact. In
1795 the new colonial secretary, the Duke of Portland,
commends Simcoe's efforts to suppress the democratic spirit,
but doubts the wisdom of appointing lieutenants of counties,
as this might ultimately result in scattering the defensive
forces which should be concentrated at the seat of govern-
ment to check the influence of the popular element in the
assembly.

We find, then, that the municipal system permitted to be
developed in Upper Canada was not that of the town meeting
type, which the majority of the magistrates wished, but one
which, so far as permitted at all, was centred in the courts of
quarter sessions, whose members were appointed solely by
the governor in council and were responsible to the executive

BEFORE THE UNION 415

alone. This system having been formally established in
Upper Canada, continued with but slight alterations as the
essential basis of the municipal system of the province until
the union of the Canadas in 1841. At the same time, during
this period of half a century, a considerable effort was being
made to break through the autocratic limitations of the
system and to establish some form of local self-government.
This agitation was considered one of the most important
factors in the larger struggle for local government in Upper
Canada.

Such legislative and general administrative functions of
a local nature as were permitted to be exercised apart from
the central government of the province having been entrusted
to the magistrates in quarter sessions, the local town officers,
whether elected by the people or appointed by the quarter
sessions, were simply the officers of the magistrates. As
they had little or no initiative and were but slightly answer-
able to those who elected them, the positions were not as
a rule eagerly sought after. Indeed, it was necessary to
provide a penalty of forty shillings for those who declined
to act when elected.

Among the chief officials of the town or township was the
town clerk, who was required to make out a list of the in-
habitants of the township for the use of the magistrates and
to make a record of all official matters pertaining to the
township. Two assessors for each township were also
elected, but their duties were comparatively simple and
subject to the revision of the local justices. The township
collector recovered the taxes specified and turned them over
to the district treasurer. Other officials were the overseers
of the highways, not less than two or more than six in
number. Their duties also were strictly prescribed. They
acted also as fence-viewers, and the inhabitants were per-
mitted at the annual town meetings to determine what should
be the proper height of the fences as adequate protection to
the crops from the domestic animals allowed to run at large.
Another official whose duties were connected with these
important though purely domestic matters was the pound-
keeper, who was authorized to impound such domestic

416 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1791-1867

animals as were found at large in violation of prohibitions
against their being allowed to run, or such as, being per-
mitted to run, had trespassed on fields enclosed by adequate
fences. Lastly, there were the two town wardens to whose
custody was entrusted the property of the township to be
defended and answered for. As soon as a Church of England
was established in the township and a parson duly appointed,
he had the right to nominate one of the wardens, while the
people elected the other. In such cases they had the super-
vision of the church property, the care of the poor, etc.

The policy, adopted by Simcoe, of appointing lieutenants
of counties, not being encouraged by the home government,
was gradually allowed to lapse. While they continued, their
duties were chiefly confined to militia matters. We find,
however, that Governor Russell, who succeeded Simcoe, sent
a circular to the lieutenants of counties, in 1796, inviting them
to suggest to him the names of suitable persons for appoint-
ment as magistrates, this being in accordance with Simcoe's
original intention.

In order to provide the necessary ways and means to
enable the court of quarter sessions to carry on its multi-
farious duties, of which the municipal administration con-
stituted only a section, the first provincial assessment act
was passed in 1793. An outline of the expenditure to be
met from the district taxes is given in the preamble to the
act.

Whereas it is necessary to make provision for defray-
ing the expenses of building a court house and gaol,
and keeping the same in repair, for the payment of a
gaoler's salary, for the support and maintenance of
prisoners, for building and repairing houses of correc-
tion, for the construction and repair of bridges, for the
fees of a coroner and other officers, for the destroying of
bears and wolves, and other necessary charges within
the several Districts of this Province, therefore, etc.

The act required the assessor to classify the resident
householders in eight groups according to the value of the
real and personal property possessed by each, ranging from
^50, as the lowest amount to be taxed, to £4000 and upwards,

BEFORE THE UNION 417

as representing the highest class. When the lists had been
passed upon by two of the magistrates, they were transferred
to the collector, who was required to obtain from the persons
so listed taxes ranging from 2s. 6d. for the lowest class up
to 2Os. for the highest. The district treasurer, who was
appointed by the sessions, received the moneys transmitted
by the collectors and held them subject to the orders of the
quarter sessions.

After two years' experience of the working of the act and
of its capacity to furnish the funds required to meet the needs
of the district, the magistrates might prescribe what pro-
portion of a full rate as allowed by the act should be levied
for the following year. Thus they might declare a full rate,
a half or three-quarter rate as was deemed necessary. As
the magistrates themselves belonged to the class likely to
pay the heaviest rates, they were certainly not given to levy-
ing exorbitant taxes. The Canadians paid much lower rates
than their more democratic neighbours in the adjoining
republic. Modest, however, as were the local taxes levied,
inasmuch as they were required to be paid in money, which in
most districts was excessively scarce save during and shortly
after the period of the War of 1812, the settlers in many of
the outlying districts found it difficult enough to procure
the few shillings to meet the demands of the tax-collector.

The roadways were an all-important feature in a new
country of extensive dimensions covered by dense forests
and intersected by numerous streams and swamps. More-
over, the laying out of the province had been entrusted to
certain mathematically-minded persons with an eye to official
ease but without much practical foresight. For the sake of
simplicity in laying out and recording the lands and road-
ways, there were entailed upon the province several centuries
of great inconvenience and enormous expenditure in the con-
struction of roads and bridges. One of the chief consequences
was the discouragement of settlement in the more remote
districts and the retarded development, economically and
socially, of many parts of the province. Incidentally, a
country of great artistic possibilities was doomed, appa-
rently for all time, in the location of its highways, to be

4i8 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1791-1867

carved up into a dreary checker-board plan of roads and
farms. Thus did the early official mind, choosing the greater
but more remote of two evils, defy the physical geography
of the country and force generations of rural population to
drag up and down steep and dangerous hills, entailing the
costly bridging of rivers and streams, the crossing of well-
nigh bottomless bogs and swamps and the traversing of
elevated ridges, which, when cleared of trees, exposed the
unfortunate traveller to biting blasts in winter and scorching
sun in summer. In a few cases, where the more central
highways connecting distant parts of the province were
located in advance of the checker-board surveyor, a more
natural location was followed. These roads give some indi-
cation of the possibilities of beauty and comfort which a more
rational system of surveys would have permitted. And yet
it was found in the case of these through roads that the
natural physical contour of the country could not be followed
very closely, inasmuch as they were required to cross at right
angles many of the ravines and rivers which flowed into the
great lakes, whose shores these roadways followed. The
township and district roadways, however, were seldom subject
to these restrictions, and might have been laid out with a
view to convenience and cost of construction. These re-
quirements being satisfied, the artistic location of the road-
ways would have been secured as a matter of course.

As the result of the system adopted, nine-tenths of the
municipal history of the earlier districts of Ontario, and of
their civic finances, is the history of a struggle with the road
and bridge problem. A separate act relating to highways
was passed in 1792, replacing the old ordinance of the Pro-
vince of Quebec. This act provided that the justices of the
peace in their respective divisions were to be commissioners
of the highways. From these commissioners the overseers,
elected at the town meetings, took their instructions. The
act specifies with considerable detail the duties to be per-
formed by the commissioners and the services required of
the overseers. Purely local highways were supposed to be
built and maintained by a labour tax, commonly known as
statute labour.

BEFORE THE UNION 419

The system of local administration, one can hardly call it
local government, established under the three acts relating
to parish officers, assessments and roads, once started on its
career, though subject to numerous amendments from time
to time, and expanding with the growth of the country, re-
mained substantially the same in principle until the intro-
duction of the general representative system of district
councils after the reunion of the provinces in 1841.

Numerous changes of a more or less experimental nature
were made in the Assessment Act, one of the most important
being effected in 1802. Up to this time the assessors had
enjoyed a certain discretionary power in the classification of
the taxpayers, on the basis of the amount of their assessed
property. This, of course, permitted the assessors of in-
dividual townships to temper with undue mercy the assess-
ment of their fellow-townsmen, thus throwing the burden of
taxation upon adjoining townships. In the end, however,
this process was self-destructive. The new act classified at
a fixed valuation various forms of property, such as cultivated
and uncultivated lands, domestic animals, mills, stores,
taverns, etc. Henceforth, the assessors had simply to ascer-
tain the ownership of these various classes of property and
then mechanically apply the valuation specified in the act.
Having ascertained the total value of the assessable property
of the district, the magistrates levied such a rate as would
meet the fiscal requirements of the district. The maximum
annual rate was fixed at one penny in the pound. Owing to
the arbitrary classification and valuation of property under
this system, frequent changes were necessary in the Assess-
ment Act to preserve any approximately equitable system
of taxation.

In 1798 the amount of statute labour to be contributed for
the roads was proportioned to the assessment of property, and
ranged from six to twelve days. In 1804, the statute labour
tax proving entirely inadequate to the road requirements, a
system of provincial contributions towards the building and
maintaining of roads and bridges was entered upon, and this
was not permitted to flag. The provincial revenues were
derived from indirect taxes, chiefly the customs dues. Con-

VOL. XVIII K

420 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1791-1867

sequently, in point of both area and interests, the amounts
contributed by individuals and localities were quite obscured,
while the grants obtained from the provincial treasury were
large and visible. As already indicated, the expenses of road-
making were abnormally high in proportion to the benefits
received, and the system adopted did not tend to diminish
them. All local contributions towards roads were still under
the supervision of the magistrates, but the provincial grants
were expended under the supervision of special commissioners
appointed by the executive government of the province and
directly responsible to it. In the course of time there emerged
a third factor in the highway construction of the province in
the shape of joint-stock companies for the building and
maintenance of roads and bridges, for the use of which by
the public the companies were authorized to levy tolls.

In 1810 the supervision of the highways within the several
districts was permitted to be delegated by the justices of the
peace to special surveyors of highways, acting under the
general instruction of the quarter sessions. These surveyors
devoted their whole attention to roads and bridges, having at
their command the statute labour of the district, which was
still, however, under the immediate direction of the local
overseers elected by the town meetings. In addition to the
statute labour, the surveyors had at their disposal special
grants which were made in increasing numbers from the
general funds of the districts. As the province developed
and money became more plentiful, there was a tendency to
commute the statute labour tax by money payments. In 1819
we find the first act providing for the commuting of statute
labour at the rate of 33. gd. per day. This was afterwards
reduced to 2s. 6d. per day.

The most important developments in municipal govern-
ment naturally resulted from the establishment and growth
of towns and villages throughout the new settlements. The
needs of the urban centres began to differ considerably from
those of the rural districts, especially in matters of sanitation,
streets, local police, and facilities for dealing with education
and the relief of the poor. In 1801 the first legislative pro-
vision was made for specifically extending the general powers

BEFORE THE UNION 421

of the justices of the peace in order to enable them to deal
with special urban problems. In this year an act was passed
authorizing the court of quarter sessions of the Midland
district to establish and regulate a market in Kingston. The
following year the people of York (now Toronto), desiring to
enjoy the privileges of a market, applied directly to the
lieutenant-governor in council, who granted to the chief
justice and certain other trustees a plot of ground to be set
aside for the purposes of a market. In 1814 a regular market
was established in York by the quarter sessions, on
practically the same terms as prevailed in Kingston.

After 1 80 1 there followed a series of acts either directly
making special provisions for certain specifically named towns
or authorizing the quarter sessions to do so. Thus, in 1803,
a special act provided that swine should not be permitted to
run at large in the towns of York, Niagara, Queenstown,
Amherstburg, Sandwich, Kingston, and New Johnstown, these
being at that time the chief urban centres in Upper Canada.

As Kingston, although not the seat of government, was for
many years the chief commercial centre of Upper Canada, it
was but natural that there the more important urban problems
should first emerge and claim special treatment. While
Simcoe was still lieutenant-governor, the Hon. Richard
Cartwright, for many years chairman of the quarter sessions
of the Midland district, submitted to him a plan for incorpor-
ating the town of Kingston. The proposed corporation was
to consist of a certain number of persons, either appointed by
the executive government or elected by the people, or partly
one and partly the other. This corporation should have
power to regulate the police of the town under the following
heads : measures for preventing accidents by fire ; the times
and places for holding public markets ; determining the price
and weight of bread ; regulations for improving the streets
and keeping them clean ; regulating the fares of carters within
the limits. The corporation should also have power to
administer and dispose of the public domain, and the area of
their jurisdiction should be enlarged from time to time to
include the suburbs of the town as it increased.

This plan was a prophecy of actual future conditions,

422 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1791-1867

though the future was as yet very remote. Simcoe was im-
pressed with the idea, but wished to give it the customary
aristocratic term. He proposed to the home government
to erect the towns of Kingston and Niagara into cities, each
with a corporation consisting of a mayor and six aldermen,
to be justices of the peace, and a suitable number of common
councillors. This arrangement was of the standard British
type and was afterwards realized in Kingston and other
specially chartered Canadian towns and cities. Simcoe
recommended the members of his corporation ' to be originally
appointed by the Crown, and that the succession to vacant
seats might be made in such manner as to render the election
as little popular as possible, meaning such corporations to
tend to the support of the aristocracy of the country.' The
Duke of Portland, to whom Simcoe made report, discouraged
the project, suspecting that it might foster a taste for local
self-government. The people of Kingston, however, did not
permit the idea of a special corporation for the town to be
lost sight of. From time to time the matter came up for local
discussion, but up to 1812 the only concession was the special
act authorizing the establishment of a public market. Fire
protection and the regulation of buildings were especially
desired, and after a severe fire in Kingston, in the beginning of
1812, an agitation of special vigour arose with the object of
securing from the provincial magistrates a special charter or
act incorporating the town, giving authority to its municipal
council to pass such by-laws, rules, and regulations as might
be necessary for the general advantage of the community.

The outbreak of the war, however, prevented this and
many other measures from receiving any consideration. After
the peace the question was again agitated, the needs in the
meantime having considerably increased, especially in the
lines of fire protection, the improvement of the streets, and
the suppression of drunkenness and vice, the natural legacies
of war. Kingston failed to obtain a special charter of incor-
poration, but in 1816 a new departure was made in an act to
regulate the police within the town. This was afterwards
repeated for the benefit of other towns. Without affecting
the general system of municipal government under the quarter

BEFORE THE UNION 423

sessions, it gave to the magistrates the power ' to make, ordain,
constitute, and publish such prudential rules and regulations
as they may deem expedient, relative to paving, keeping in
repair, and improving the streets of the said town, regulating
slaughter-houses and nuisances, and also to enforce the said
town laws relative to horses, swine, or cattle of any kind
running at large in the said town ; relative to the inspection
of weights and measures, firemen and fire companies.' To
meet the special expenses of these local improvements, the
magistrates were authorized to levy a special tax upon the
ratepayers, in addition to the district taxes, but this was not
to exceed in the aggregate the very modest sum of £,100 a
year.

The magistrates immediately took advantage of their
new, though limited, powers, and before the end of 1816 had
published a set of fourteen rules and regulations which served
as a nucleus for future by-laws in several Upper Canada towns.
These regulations had reference to such matters as turnpiking
the streets, grading and paving the side-walks, preventing the
obstruction of the streets, prohibiting furious driving, pro-
viding for the extinguishing of fires and the regulation of
buildings as a safeguard against fires, and the regulation of
slaughter-houses and other nuisances.

During the following year, 1817, the provisions of the
Kingston act were extended to the towns of York, Sandwich,
and Amherstburg. From time to time other towns as they
increased in size and importance were granted similar
privileges with reference to markets and local police. In
1826 an act was passed carrying out the suggestions made in
Kingston before the War of 1812, with reference to the
establishment of voluntary fire companies, with special
privileges granted to efficient members.

After some experience with this police town system under
the jurisdiction of the quarter sessions, its administrative
inadequacy became increasingly apparent, resulting in a
renewal of the agitation for a regular system of municipal
self-government for the towns at least, under an independent
municipal corporation. Kingston again took the lead with
a set of eight resolutions passed at a public meeting, asking

424 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1791-1867

for the incorporation of the town with a council elected by the
ratepayers. An interesting feature of this petition was the
proposed system of indirect elections. The ratepayers were
to elect twenty-four electors, who in turn should elect seven
of their number to be councillors, the councillors to elect
one of their number to be mayor. The latter suggestion
for the election of a mayor was afterwards put in practice
in several cases. A bill embodying the Kingston proposal
was passed by the assembly, but, together with another of
more limited range applying to the town of Belleville, was
quietly strangled in the legislative council.

Notwithstanding these rebuffs, the agitation for municipal
self-government continued, being taken up by other towns in
the province. After several bills had been rejected by the
legislative council, the town of Brockville ultimately obtained,
in 1832, a limited measure of local self-government, marking
a new departure in the municipal history of Upper Canada.
By an act of that year the town was placed under the control
of the ' President and Board of Police of the town of Brock-
ville.' The town was divided into two wards, the house-
holders of each ward were to elect two members of the corpora-
tion, and the four thus chosen were to elect a fifth. These
five members constituted the board and were to elect one
of their number president of the board. The board was
authorized to deal with just those matters already referred
to as covered by the police regulations for the town of
Kingston. The board, however, was not allowed to deal
with the market, which was provided for by a special act of
the following session.

The principle of an elective board having been conceded
in the case of Brockville, could not be denied to other towns.
Hence the following session we find the town of Hamilton
granted a similar board of police. Yet the same privilege
was denied to Prescott and Cornwall by the simple expedient
of a pocket veto on the part of the legislative council. In the
following year, however, 1834, the towns of Belleville, Corn-
wall, Port Hope, and Prescott obtained acts of incorporation
similar to that of Hamilton. This year also the town of York
was elevated at one stroke from the humble grade of a police

BEFORE THE UNION 425

town, under the control of the quarter sessions, to the dignity
of a self-governing city with the name of Toronto. This un-
expectedly rapid movement in municipal development was
due to the temporary accession to power of the radical element
in the legislature. The most radical of the radicals, William
Lyon Mackenzie, became the first mayor of Toronto.

The city was divided into five wards, each ward to elect
two aldermen and two common councillors. These in turn
were to elect a mayor from the body of aldermen, thus realiz-
ing one feature of the Kingston scheme of indirect election.
The legislative powers of the common council were specified
at considerable length. They covered not only all the
municipal functions of the other town charters and of the
courts of quarter sessions, but a number of new powers now
for the first time specified. The rate of taxation was limited
to fourpence in the pound of the assessed property within the
city limits, and twopence in the pound within the suburbs
attached to the city. In 1837 the charter was amended to
provide for a special system of assessment for the city.
Various kinds of property liable for assessment were specified,
but in certain cases the valuation was left to the assessor,
while in others it was specifically determined. The rate of
taxation was raised from fourpence, which had proved in-
adequate, to the apparently extravagant rate of one shilling
and sixpence, the suburbs to be taxed at one-fourth the rate
of the city.

In 1837 Cobourg and Picton were incorporated. Though
Kingston had been the first to agitate for incorporation, it
remained under the jurisdiction of the quarter sessions until
1838, when it obtained a constitution practically the same
as that of Toronto, though denied the title of ' city.'

As already pointed out, the continuous pressure for an
enlarged range of local self-government was intimately re-
lated to the larger struggle for provincial self-government.
The division of opinion and of the contending forces was
practically the same on both issues. In 1835, the legislature
being for a brief period under the control of the radical element
in the country, its leaders took advantage of their oppor-
tunities to impeach the whole administration of the Family

426 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1791-1867

Compact, by producing the famous Report on Grievances.
They passed also a number of more or less radical but short-
lived measures. Among its other achievements was a fairly
radical change of the municipal system throughout the rural
districts. The act of 1835 repealed practically all of the
numerous previous acts relating to town meetings and the
powers and duties of the municipal officers. It also made
provision for the transfer of a large proportion of the admini-
strative powers of the courts of quarter sessions to an elective
body known as a board of commissioners. To this board
the various municipal officers, formerly amenable to the
quarter sessions, were made responsible. The legislative
range of the town meetings was enlarged and the whole
municipal system given quite a democratic turn.

The career of this measure was very brief. The legislative
council had limited its duration in any case to four years, but
it was repealed within three years. The legislature was soon
after dissolved, and with the strenuous assistance of the legis-
lative council and the executive government, including the
lieutenant-governor, the conservative forces once more pre-
vailed and a reactionary assembly was elected. This so
enraged the extreme section of the radical party that an
abortive rebellion was precipitated. When order was once
more restored, the radical wing of the legislature being dis-
credited and paralyzed, the municipal act of 1835 was repealed
in 1838. The board of commissioners was abolished and the
powers of the court of quarter sessions restored. The new
act definitely prescribed the duties of the respective town
officers and furnished the necessary local support for the
discharge of their duties. While not specifically enlarging
the boundaries of responsible government, this measure
specified with much greater detail than previously the duties
of the several officers under the control of the magistrates of
the quarter sessions. It added also a number of special
duties, as to the collecting of information for the magistrates,
and in several other respects rendered the rural municipal
officers more completely than ever mere instruments of
administration under the direction of the quarter sessions.

In most cases where there is a long and arduous contest

BEFORE THE UNION 427

over some new development of public liberty, there is a very
natural tendency, on the one hand, to exaggerate both the
evils of the existing system and the benefits of the reforms
contended for. On the other hand, regarding themselves
as the sole bulwark of stable institutions, and accepting as
inevitable the sweeping programme of changes advocated by
enthusiastic reformers, the forces of conservatism are unduly
fearful as to the destruction of the very foundations of law
and order should their opponents attain to power. The
reform forces, on their side, in order to emphasize the demand
for progressive measures, are apt to condemn without qualifi-
cation the existing order of things, promising the introduction
of sweeping changes should they be placed in power. On
attaining to power, however, the difficulties of breaking with
the past are found to be much greater than anticipated.
Thus the immediate changes introduced are seldom very
alarming. In Canada the conservative forces, ignoring the
democratic features of British political life, pictured the
British political system as one of aristocratic liberty, while
the democracy of the United States was represented as a
system of wild and lawless republicanism. With the aristo-
cratic British system were identified the conservative forces
of Canada, as the party of order and loyalty ; while, with the
American system, the reformers were identified, and were
thus regarded as ipso facto inclined to lawlessness and dis-
loyalty. Such representations correspondingly irritated those
so characterized.

This unfortunate political atmosphere quite beclouded
the whole discussion as to the reform of both the central and
municipal governments, until the arrival of Lord Durham
and his staff. Coming without prejudice as to extraneous
questions, and setting themselves immediately to a fair and
open-minded consideration of the difficulties into which the
Canadian provinces had fallen, they furnished, in Lord
Durham's Report, an analysis of the situation historically
and at the time, which furnished for the first time a solid
basis for the discussion of Canadian problems on their own
merits. Thenceforth, a Canadian might discuss constitu-
tional reform, whether in local or central government,

428

MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1791-1867

without being immediately designated as either a tyrant
or a traitor.

In Lord Durham's Report much attention was naturally
given to the subject of municipal government. It is main-
tained that

the establishment of a good system of municipal in-
stitutions throughout this Province is a matter of vital
importance. . . . The true principle of limiting popular
power is that apportionment of it in many different
depositaries, which has been adopted in all the most
free and stable States of the Union. . . . The establish-
ment of municipal institutions for the whole country
should be made a part of every colonial constitution.

Here we note a general tendency at that time, among the
advocates of an extension of popular power, to believe that,
by a system of checks and balances furnished by different
representative bodies, each within its own sphere, dealing
with the same subjects, popular power would control and
regulate itself without the intervention of any irresponsible
autocratic authority. In Canada, as elsewhere, actual ex-
perience was to prove that, although there was a vital
lement of truth in this conviction, yet the system did not
ork out as anticipated.

II
AFTER THE UNION

THE general principle of Lord Durham's Report, as
regards municipal institutions, was frankly adopted
by his successor, Lord Sydenham, to whose lot the
difficult task fell of bringing the principle into operation.
It was at first intended to carry out literally the suggestions
of the Durham Report, to provide for municipal institutions
in the colonial constitution. The object of this was to avoid
the necessity for prolonging in Canada the already embittered
contest as to the wisdom of admitting, as an essential part of
the government of the country, a definite system of local
self-government. This feature, however, of the Union Act
for the Canadas met with considerable opposition in the

AFTER THE UNION 429

British parliament, and to avoid endangering the fate of the
general measure it was ultimately dropped.

Although much disappointed, Lord Sydenham set himself
resolutely to the task of having the general principle of local
self-government embodied in an act of the united legislature.
Needless to say, this act could not hope to be very radical,
much less could it hope to satisfy the conflicting desires of
those, on the one hand, who advocated a large measure
of local self-government free from all control or interference
on the part of the central government ; and of those, on the
other, who maintained that the only safeguard against re-
publicanism and anarchy was the maintenance by the central
executive of complete control over the machinery of the
administration of local affairs. As Lord Sydenham said of
the act when safely piloted between Scylla and Charybdis to
the haven of the statute book, ' The Tories opposed the
measure because it gave too much power to the people ; the
Radicals, because it imposed checks on that power.'

The District Councils Act of 1841 was necessarily a com-
promise measure as regards administrative control, but it
introduced for the first time a comprehensive municipal
system for the rural districts of Upper Canada. A careful
investigation of its practical operation, by following the
minutes of typical district councils, should convince any
one that the restrictions upon the freedom of the district
councils which it involved were in most cases, for a time at
least, quite salutary. They furnished also a very necessary
means of education for both the central government and the
district councils. On the one hand, it forced the central
government to take a very special interest in municipal affairs,
particularly in the minor public works and educational re-
quirements of the several parts of the province. On the
other hand, it afforded in the earlier and inexperienced stages
of the district councils a salutary check upon incompetent
and unbusinesslike procedure and wasteful extravagance on
the part of certain councils. As the councils gained wisdom
and stability through experience, and as the central govern-
ment learned the needs and requirements of the country, it
was possible to greatly relax supervision over the details of

430 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1791-1867

the district work. Thus it was possible to transfer from the
provincial executive to the district councils the various
official appointments and practical control of expenditure,
at first so closely supervised by the central government.
Thus was prepared the way for the much more comprehen-
sive measure of local self-government known as the Baldwin
Act of 1849.

It is customary for many who have not studied the details
of the actual working of the district councils, and who have
not realized the necessity for a gradual educative approach
to successful popular government, to belittle the act of 1841,
in the light of the act of 1849. A close study of the facts,
however, should convince an unprejudiced student that the
measure of local autonomy granted in the act of 1849 would
never have had the measure of success which attended it
but for the educative and restraining experience furnished
by the act of 1841 and the intervening amendments. In
fact, as we shall find, the chief difficulties and dangers which
befell the municipal system under the act of 1849 were due
to the greater range of freedom which it granted to the
municipal councils established under it. When the abuse
of these liberties had brought several of the municipalities
to the verge of bankruptcy, many of those who had clamoured
for complete municipal independence were the first to de-
nounce those who had conceded to the municipalities the
liberty of abusing their own credit.

It is significant also that at the present day, when the
opportunities for serious blunders in municipal affairs are
more numerous and consequently more far-reaching in their
effects, the tendency is to revert from the unchecked freedom
and laxity of the system introduced in the act of 1849, to a
system of limitations and supervision on the part cf the pro-
vincial government which is much more in the spirit of the
act of 1841 than that of 1849.

,, The chief features of the District Councils Act of 1841
were that the people of the various districts into which the
rural sections of the province were divided should be repre-
sented by a district council, composed of a warden, to be
appointed by the crown, and a body of councillors, elected

AFTER THE UNION 431

by the ratepayers in their town meeting, one or two such
councillors being sent from each township. Where the
number of ratepayers in the township exceeded three hundred,
they were entitled to an extra representative. The coun-
cillors held office for three years, one-third of the total number >_•
retiring each year. The council was to hold four quarterly
sessions. The district clerk was selected by the governor
from three names submitted to him by the council, but the
treasurer, like the warden, was chosen by the governor alone.
The surveyor of the district, who had to hold a provincial
certificate of efficiency, was to be appointed by the warden
with the approval of the governor. The surveyor super-
vised all public works in the district and reported annually
to the council. The various councils might make by-laws
relating to ordinary municipal interests, especially the locat-
ing, building, and maintaining of highways, bridges, and other
public works. They were to raise money for defraying the
expenses of administering justice within each district, and
for the establishment and support of schools.

The system of taxation had to conform to the assessment
law then in force, and the rates levied could not exceed two-
pence in the pound. No public work might be undertaken
by the council before being reported upon by the district
surveyor, and if the estimated cost should exceed £300, before
being undertaken it had to be approved by the provincial
Board of Works. All by-laws passed by a district council \s
had to be submitted to the governor in council and might
be disallowed within thirty days. The governor in council ,
might dissolve a district council and call for a new election.
The powers of the council were not to interfere with the
rights of any incorporated city or town, but all municipal ^
powers exercised by the justices of the peace before the pass-
ing of the act were transferred to the district councils.

The establishment of these district councils did not
materially interfere with the township system under the Con-
solidated Act of 1838. The new system simply substituted :
the executive authority of the district council for the previous
authority of the justices of the peace. At the same time,
certain powers remained with the justices, as, for instance,

432 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1791-1867

the calling of town meetings, which are summoned on the re-
quisition of two justices of the peace. There was also a good
deal of debatable ground between the remaining functions
of the quarter sessions and the new powers of the district
councils. This gave rise to numerous disputes between the
magistrates and the district councils, more particularly with
reference to such matters as affected the administration of
justices.

The number of districts into which the province had been
previously divided was enlarged on the introduction of the
new system. The creation of new districts and the re-
adjustment of the boundaries of the older ones took place
from time to time, and the same system continued with refer-
ence to counties after the passing of the new act in 1849.

The government evidently exercised much discretion in
the selection of wardens for the various districts. While
there was considerable agitation for the introduction of a
more democratic system in the appointment of district
officers, there appears to have been very little complaint as
to the personnel of those selected by the government. Thus
the councillors of the district of Gore, in recording their
impressions of the working of the act at the close of its first
year, renewed their protest against the principle of the
appointment of wardens and other officers by the govern-
ment. At the same time they declared their complete con-
fidence in the warden who had been appointed by the
government. In the case of the treasurer of the district, the
government had simply continued the person previously hold-
ing that position under the quarter sessions. He proved to
be unworthy of the trust, and in the subsequent troubles
of the council with the treasurer, the warden of the district
led the movement for his exposure and dismissal, and finally
resigned his office as a protest against the temporizing of the
government in dealing with the matter. Experience proved
that when the right to select their own officers was granted
to the councils, though a number of the wardens appointed by
the government were retained in office for a short time, yet
the custom of changing the warden almost every year was
soon established. While this certainly indicated a more

AFTER THE UNION 433

democratic attitude, it did not improve either the dignity
or the executive efficiency of the councils.

The first wardens being, as a rule, men of superior educa- /
tion and of considerable experience in public affairs, were
instrumental in continuing the best traditions in the older
districts and in introducing in the newer ones dignified and
orderly rules of procedure. It was customary for the warden
to open the quarterly sessions of council with a formal address.
In this a survey was given of the executive administration
during the past quarter, including the extent to which the
by-laws which had been passed had been carried out, provided
they had not been vetoed by the central government. Ex-
perience proved that the central government intervened only
where the by-laws, in form or substance, were plainly ultra
vires. The warden's address also summarized any important
communications which had passed with the central govern-
ment, the district magistrates, or the officials of adjoining
districts. Finally, it outlined the measures recommended
for the consideration of council at the session then being
opened. The warden's address was commonly referred to a
special committee of council to be discussed, and the special
information or recommendations reported upon.

As a rule, there were standing committees on roads and
bridges, and on education, the two most important features
of duty devolving upon the council. The position of treasurer
was filled by the governor in council. Although the district
clerk was to be selected by the governor from three names
submitted by the council, yet in most cases the position of
clerk was given to the person receiving the highest vote on
the part of the councillors. The minor officers of the council
were directly appointed by it.

The chief work of the district councils consisted in sifting ,
and balancing the most urgent of the various petitions for
new roads and bridges, and the improving or repairing of
those already laid out or built. Many were the petitions
presented on these subjects, and the needs were very real in
all parts of the districts ; but the funds available under the
Assessment Act were very meagre, and there were many calls
upon them. Hence the relative merits of the various claims

434 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1791-1867

had to be carefully weighed. The next most important
matter for the consideration of the councils was that of
education. Petitions for laying out and creating school
districts were frequently presented for consideration. The
district council was constituted a board of education in order
that it might deal with the educational matters within its
jurisdiction. The petitions of the ratepayers for new schools
commonly recited that an additional school section was needed,
and their prayer was that such a section should be created,
the election of trustees authorized, and a local rate levied to
procure a site, build and equip a school and employ a teacher.
There were frequent petitions also to have the boundaries
of school districts readjusted by various divisions and com-
binations. Complaint was afterwards made by several super-
intendents of education that the educational interests of the
country were suffering from too great a subdivision of school
districts, resulting in inferior accommodation and the employ-
ment of ill-qualified teachers.

For the support of the schools, the provincial government
contributed annually to each district a sum equivalent to that
raised in the whole district for the support of schools. In
the distribution of the provincial grant, the amount assigned
to each school section did not necessarily correpond to the
amount raised by that section. The number of children
of school age was also considered.

In order to cope with the numerous requests for new roads
and the alteration and improvement of the old ones, the
councils might appoint road commissioners for the different
townships. Certain central or trunk highways passing
through several districts were provided for by the provincial
government under the control of special commissioners.
Memorials were frequently sent from the district councils to
the provincial government praying for the improvement of
these central highways, as also for the building and repairing
of the bridges upon them. Certain councils of the weaker
districts petitioned also for assistance from the provincial
treasury for their local highways.

Although the relations between the district councils and
the provincial government were quite as amicable under

AFTER THE UNION 435

the act of 1841 as under the system introduced in 1849, yet
there was undoubtedly a rising tide of democratic feeling
which chafed under the fact that the executive government
had certain rights of appointment and a revisionary power
over the proceedings of the councils. From time to time the
district councils undertook to express to the central govern-
ment the view of the district on matters of purely provincial
concern, such as the trade policies of the country, or the
relations of the colony to the home government.

Part of the trouble which arose between the district
councils and the magistrates of the quarter sessions was due
to the difficulty of determining with which body lay the right '
of expending certain district funds. All the moneys for the
support of justice, including the building of gaols and court-
houses, had to be raised by the district councils. In the Gore
district the annual revenue, for the first year of the new
system, amounted to about £4000, of which the justices of the
peace spent upwards of £1600. Even then the condition of
the gaol and court-house was a matter of grave scandal, fre-
quently commented upon by the justices and the grand jury.
Several district councils drew attention to the fact that, while <-•
they were required to find the money for the expenses of the
quarter sessions, they had no control over that expenditure.
They asked therefore that either they should be relieved of
the cost of the administration of justice, or that they should
have the necessary control over the funds provided. General
complaints were made also that the division courts, recently
established, were much more expensive to maintain, although
much less satisfactory in operation, than the old courts of
request, whose re-establishment was asked for.

At the close of the first year's experience with the new
municipal system, it was obvious that a number of minor
amendments were necessary in order to improve the working
of the act. The government announced its intention to intro-
duce certain amendments to both the District Councils Act
and the School Act. Political difficulties intervened, how-
ever, and nothing of consequence was attempted until 1846.
In addition to the objections already recorded as to the limita-
tions imposed upon the councils in the election of their officers

VOL. XVIII L

436 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1791-1867

and the control of the moneys raised by them, other objections
were taken to the inadequacy of the assessment law and the
limitations put upon the councils in voting money for public
works. If complete freedom were not to be permitted in this
latter matter, it was claimed that the councils should at least
have liberty to vote sums under £100 for public works without
a previous reference to the district surveyor or the governor
in council. Finally, a general protest was made against
clause 50 of the act, which prevented the members of council
from receiving any remuneration for their services. It was
proposed also by one or two councils that instead of meeting
four times a year such councils as preferred might meet twice
a year, in February and October.

As has been stated, much the greater part of the time and
attention of the district councils was taken up with roads,
bridges, and schools. The constant demand for construction
and repair of highways and bridges, and the limited means at
the disposal of the district councils, resulted in much cutting
and carving in the annual budget to enable as many as possible
of the urgent needs of the district to be met in some tolerable
measure. The worst of this hand-to-mouth system was that
much of the work done immediately fell into disrepair for lack
of systematic maintenance. In this connection certainly the
destruction of the poor was their poverty. The very lack of
means to do the work thoroughly and maintain it efficiently
caused a most alarming waste of such slender resources as
the municipalities had at their disposal.

Many of these resources, however, were not effectively
employed. The warden of the Bathurst district, in his open-
ing address before the council in 1848, referred in strong terms
to the wastefulness and inefficiency of the statute labour tax,
the permanent benefit of which to the highways was almost nil.
This was largely due to the inefficiency of its application under
the direction of the path-masters, who held office for so brief
a time that they acquired neither knowledge nor experience
in the art of making roads. There were, the warden claimed,
in his district about 40,000 days of statute labour provided
for. At the rate of commutation of 2s. 6d. per day, this would
amount to £5000, which was quite double the revenue of the

AFTER THE UNION 437

district for all purposes, and would have been amply sufficient
to meet the requirements of the district as to roads and
bridges.

As an indication of the actual revenue available in the
various districts, we may take as a typical example the Gore
district, with Hamilton as its centre. In 1843 the total
revenue amounted to £4353 or $17,412. Of this, $10,308 was
raised by a land tax of one penny per acre ; other ratable
property in the district furnished $7052. In addition to
these general taxes there was a special road tax of one-quarter
penny on the pound on all ratable property in the district,
which furnished $4340. In the Colborne district, of which
Peterboro was the centre, the total revenue at this time did
not amount to more than $6000. These were paltry sums
for the needs of large districts, and it is quite certain that the
very light direct taxation on which the Canadians long prided
themselves was a rather important factor in the backward
condition of the country for so many years. Under the new
system of greater freedom in municipal matters, we shall find
a number of the new municipalities running to the other
extreme in the matter of debts at least.

At this time certain of the more expensive bridges and new
roadways were financed by the issue of debentures. When
the roads or bridges were opened for traffic a series of tolls
was prescribed, calculated to furnish a revenue for the pay-
ment of interest and the establishment of a sinking fund to
pay off the debentures when they matured. The debentures
once paid off, the highway or bridge was thrown open to the
public free of tolls. In order to encourage the construction
of roads or bridges by private enterprise, it was customary
for the district councils to take stock in such companies as
were chartered by the provincial government to construct
roads and bridges which would be of advantage to the districts
concerned. Thus in 1847 the district of Gore passed a by-
law authorizing the district to take stock in the Guelph and
Dundas Road, whose construction was undertaken by a
private corporation.

Though the specially chartered cities and towns did not
come under the jurisdiction of the district councils, so far as

438 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1791-1867

their local administration was concerned, yet they were re-
quired to contribute a fair share towards the general expenses
of the district, consisting chiefly of the improvement of the
highways and the administration of justice. In the case of
the cities where separation from the district was more com-
plete, the contribution to the district funds was provided for
in the shape of a definite annual payment, instead of the
customary percentage levied upon the assessment.

In 1846, in response to the continued agitation for a more
democratic structure of the district councils, important changes
were made in the act. Thenceforth the wardens, clerks,
treasurers, and surveyors were to be appointed by the councils
instead of, as heretofore, either appointed or confirmed by
the governor in council. The councils were permitted also
to pay their members for their services as councillors. In
view of the rapidly increasing expenses connected with
criminal justice, it was provided that the greater part of these
expenses should be borne by the provincial government.

The School Act was also amended. Superintendents of
education, to be appointed by the district councils and in-
vested with very considerable administrative powers, were
provided for. To avoid confusion in terms, the local school
districts, into which each general district was divided, were
thereafter to be known as ' School Sections.'

Up to this time no provision had been made for any
uniform system for towns and cities. As already indicated,
individual acts had been passed from time to time incorporat-
ing this or that town or city, granting such civic constitutions,
with specified powers and privileges, provisions for taxation,
etc., as were petitioned for, or could be obtained from the
legislature at the time. Several acts, it is true, dealt with
special features for a number of towns named in them.

To dispose of the great number and variety of special acts
which had accumulated, and to provide a general municipal
system for both urban and rural municipalities, Robert
Baldwin had brought in a comprehensive measure in 1843.
This was the forerunner of his bill of 1849. The rupture of
the ministry with Lord Metcalfe, and the consequent change
of government, checked the movement for a time. Apart from

AFTER THE UNION 439

the act of 1846 amending the District Councils Act, and the
usual special acts dealing with individual towns, nothing of
importance was accomplished until the return to power of the
Baldwin ministry under Lord Elgin. Baldwin revived his
proposal for a general municipal act, and this eventually
became law in 1849.

The chief object of the act of 1849, as its preamble shows,
was not to introduce a quite new form of municipal govern-
ment, but to consolidate under one measure the municipal
system of the Province of Upper Canada. Thus the preamble,
in setting forth the scope and purpose of the measure, declares
that ' Whereas it will be of great public benefit and advantage
that provision should be made, by one general law, for the
erection of Municipal Corporations and the establishment of
Regulations of Police in and for the several Counties, Cities,
Towns, Townships, and Villages in Upper Canada, etc.'

At the same time the act undoubtedly extended to the
municipalities a very considerable element of freedom and
independence in dealing with their local affairs. This was
particularly true as regards the townships, which for the first
time were given a considerable range of legislative power,
formerly in the hands of the quarter sessions, and later of the
district councils. At the same time, with the general progress
of the country, new powers and privileges were extended to
the municipalities which were not previously required, or
only to a very limited extent and in quite rudimentary form.
Taking the various municipal units in their turn, the powers
and duties conferred upon them may be summarized as
follows :

Townships. — The inhabitants of each township, having
upwards of one hundred resident ratepayers, were incor-
porated as a municipality. The township might be divided
into rural wards for the purpose of electing township coun-
cillors, though as an alternative they might be elected at the
annual town meeting. There were to be five councillors
for each township. These were to elect from among them-
selves a town reeve, and, in townships containing five hundred
ratepayers or over, a deputy reeve as well. The town reeve
was to preside at all meetings of the councils, or, in his absence,

440 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1791-1867

the deputy reeve. The council appointed three assessors
and one collector. Township councils had power to make
by-laws for the following purposes : the purchase of such
real property as might be necessary ; the building of a town
hall, and the erection and support of common schools ; the
appointment of pound-keepers, fence-viewers, overseers of
the highways, or any other officers who might be necessary
to carry out the purposes of the act ; regulating the duties
of the township officers, and remunerating them ; the open-
ing of drains and watercourses ; the construction and main-
tenance of highways, streets, bridges, etc. ; controlling inns
and taverns ; restricting animals from running at large ;
destroying weeds ; and regulating shows and exhibitions ;
controlling and granting privileges to road and bridge com-
panies ; enforcing and applying statute labour ; borrowing
money for municipal purposes, under certain restrictions ;
and making general local regulations not inconsistent with
the laws of the province.

Counties. — As far as their original jurisdiction and struc-
ture was concerned, the county councils simply replaced the
district councils, retaining the powers not transferred to the
townships, incorporated villages, or towns. The municipal
council of each county was to consist of the reeves and deputy
reeves of the towns and townships included in it. The
county council should elect the county warden from the body
of councillors. The council should undertake to open, im-
prove, and maintain special county roads and bridges, though
it might also give grants to township roads. In addition
to the usual municipal powers, the county councils might
enact by-laws for such purposes as providing for grammar
schools for the county, regulating ferries, opening county
drains, granting licences to road and bridge companies, and
taking stock in them.

Police Villages. — The county council might, on petition
of the inhabitants of an unincorporated village, erect it into
a police village, and provide for the election of police trustees,
whose powers should extend to such matters as regulating
buildings and their contents, with a view to preventing fires,
and to adopting measures for the suppression of nuisances.

AFTER THE UNION 441

Incorporated Villages. — The inhabitants of certain specified
villages, or others afterwards to be authorized by the pro-
vincial secretary, should be a body corporate ; and, with
respect to the village council, the appointment of reeves and
other general powers should be on the same footing as in the
townships. They should, however, have additional authority
as to streets, side-walks, etc. ; the regulating of markets,
weights and measures ; the suppression of nuisances, and
the prevention of vice ; the control of taverns and licences ;
and the framing of regulations for the prevention of fares,
and for protecting the public health.

Towns. — Special corporate powers were given to fifteen
towns whose limits and divisions into wards were set forth
in Schedule B of the act, and to all future towns which might
from time to time be raised to that position by proclamation
of the governor. The corporate powers of a town were to be
exercised by a council to be composed of three councillors
from each ward. The mayor was to be elected by the coun-
cillors from among themselves. The mayor would act as
town magistrate unless, on petition to the crown, a special
police magistrate should be appointed. The town council
should appoint one of their number town reeve, and another
a deputy reeve, where the town contained more than five
hundred resident freeholders. These would represent the
town in the county council. The chief powers of the town
councils were to make by-laws for the usual purposes of minor
municipalities, and also for the lighting of the streets, for
assessing property for local improvements, and, quite gene-
rally, for undertaking whatever might be necessary for the
peace, welfare, safety, and good government of a town.

Cities. — Special corporate powers were granted to three
cities — Hamilton, Kingston, and Toronto — and to any others
that might be constituted from towns containing upwards
of 15,000, afterwards changed to 10,000, inhabitants. The
corporate powers were to be exercised through a council
consisting of a mayor, aldermen, and common councillors.
Each of the wards into which a city might be divided
should elect one alderman and two common councillors,
and these should elect one of the aldermen to be mayor.

442 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1791-1867

Each city constituted a separate county with a recorder's
court which took over the powers of the court of quarter
sessions. The city police magistrate and the recorder might
be the same person. The general functions of a city council
were to be the same as those of a town council, though
exercised on a larger scale and with a fuller organization
involving special powers.

A large portion of the act deals with powers and regula-
tions that are common to several forms of municipal corpora-
tion. Thus cities and towns might hold property for certain
special purposes not incident to the other corporations.
Every municipality was required to transmit to the governor
an annual statement of its debts, and, on petition of at least
one-third of any principal corporation, the governor in
council might appoint a commission to investigate its
financial affairs. Municipalities were prohibited from acting
as bankers, or from issuing any notes, bonds, or debentures to
pass as money. They were given authority to contract with
parties to build roads or bridges and take tolls on them, such
tolls to be regulated through a by-law of the corporation.

Although the act came into force in 1850, it required
extensive amendments during the first year of its operation
to adjust it to working conditions. Apart from the financial
features, to be dealt with presently, the general system laid
down in the act proved very satisfactory for the administra-
tion of local affairs, and was maintained in its general prin-
ciples down to Confederation, and even until comparatively
recent years. Apart from verbal and technical amendments,
the chief alterations in the act arose from the necessity for
new arrangements from time to time with reference to the
following matters : the formation of additional townships ;
the election of their first boards of councillors and other
officers ; the union and separation of counties and townships
as they increased in numbers, in population, and in strength ;
the creation of new towns and cities ; making provisions for
dividing and combining their financial responsibilities, in-
cluding buildings and public works ; and the appointment
of arbitrators to settle these matters where the municipalities
could not agree among themselves. Few particulars, how-

AFTER THE UNION 443

ever, of the underlying principles of the act were seriously
altered — at least not before Confederation.

By far the most important and far-reaching consequences
of the new system of municipal freedom were connected with
the financial operations of the municipalities. As already
indicated, in the special acts of incorporation for certain
road and bridge companies, the municipalities in which they
were operated were authorized to take stock in them, or
otherwise lend them financial support. In 1849, following
the general policy of incorporating all municipal activities
under single measures, the government brought under one
act the various powers hitherto granted in special acts for
assisting road, bridge, and other companies. Such was the
purpose of Act 12 Viet. cap. 84, authorizing the formation
of joint companies for the construction of roads and other
works in Upper Canada. The object of this act was to en-
courage the construction, by private companies, of plank, mac-
adamized, or gravel roads, as also of bridges, piers, wharves,
slides, and dams. General regulations were prescribed for
the formation of such companies, for their legal organization
and responsibilities, and for ensuring that they should carry
out the objects for which their capital was subscribed. Pro-
visions were also made for the inspection of the companies'
operations, for the regulation of the tolls to be charged, and
for the proper maintenance of the roads and other public
works after their construction. They were required to report
their financial position to the various municipalities within
or between which the works were carried on. These condi-
tions being complied with, it was lawful for any municipality
interested in the public works in question to take and hold
stock in the companies undertaking them. They might also
lend money to such companies, and the chief officer of the
municipality could act as its representative at the meetings,
or on the boards of the companies. For the purpose of taking
stock in such companies, or making loans to them, a munici-
pality might employ any of its unappropriated funds, and
the profits from these investments might be appropriated
for any municipal expenditure. Twenty-one years after the
roads, or other works constructed by such companies, were

444 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1791-1867

completed, they might be taken over by any municipality
at their current value, to be determined, if necessary, by
arbitrators appointed for the purpose.

The following year, the provisions of this act were enlarged
so as to cover companies constructing railroads and tram
lines. According to the preamble to this act, this was done
in order to encourage the investment of British capital in
the country. The next year, however, 1851, this act was
repealed, it being already the intention of the government
to provide for assistance from the municipalities to the rail-
roads in another manner.

Already, in 1848, the Hon. Francis Hincks had submitted
to his colleagues a scheme for enabling municipalities to
borrow money on the basis of an increased taxation, for the
promotion of public works. He appears to have favoured
the idea also of having the provincial government, with the
assistance of the credit of the imperial government, borrow
capital in England at the rate of four per cent, to be loaned
to the municipalities at six per cent, and to employ the differ-
ence in promoting immigration and the settlement of the
country. The inducement to the British government to lend
its credit was that the Canadian government would take over
the whole financial responsibility for promoting immigration.

Nothing definite came of this proposal at the time. After
the extension of the self-governing powers of the various
municipalities, there ensued a spirit of rivalry between the
cities and towns, and even the rural municipalities, for the
promotion of public works, such as railways, water and gas
works, street improvements, and the erection of more costly
public buildings. In 1850 the idea was firmly established
in the minds of the people that, with the building of railroads,
great prosperity was to be brought to every town, city, or
even rural district through which they passed. Steadily
improving business conditions, specially in the district from
Montreal westward to Lake Huron, encouraged this idea.
Many other railway projects were floated and received enthu-
siastic support from the towns and counties, and even the
townships through which they passed. Under the direction
of well-organized company promoters, backed by the cupidity

AFTER THE UNION 445

of real estate speculators, there resulted the borrowing by
the municipalities of much capital in Britain. This, in turn,
added materially to the opportunities for the employment
of labour, and the undertaking of many industrial enter-
prizes whose products for a time found a ready sale in the
country. The prosperity which was due to the expenditure
of millions in the building of the railroads was attributed to
the operation of the railroads.

It was observed, however, that the rates of interest which
the various municipalities had to pay for their loans were
usually quite high, certainly much higher and more irregular
than for the loans effected by the provincial government.
To meet this situation Hincks revived, in 1852, his previous
idea of enabling the urban and rural municipalities to borrow
funds for the promotion of public works, at lower rates than
were then available. This plan, which met with practically
universal support, was matured into the Consolidated Muni-
cipal Loan Fund Act. As described by Hincks himself : ' The
object of the Bill was to enable the various Municipal Councils
to borrow money in the London Market, through the instru-
mentality of the Government, on more favourable terms than
they could possibly do by their unassisted efforts.' The
purposes for which the borrowed money might be used are
set forth in the act as, ' to defray the expenses of building
or improving any gaol or court-house for the use of such
Municipality, or for acquiring, making, constructing, or
completing, or assisting in the making, construction, or
completion of any railroad, canal or harbour, or for the
improvement of any navigable river within or without
the Municipality.' The municipalities were thus distinctly
encouraged to go in for the public ownership and operation
of many public utilities, afterwards including waterworks,
gasworks, tram cars, etc.

The method by which the money was to be furnished was
by first consolidating under the management of the provincial
government the credit of the various municipalities of the
provinces. Upon this joint credit money might then be bor-
rowed from the London or other markets at reasonable rates.
An important factor in the plan was that the provincial

446 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1791-1867

government undertook to see that the various municipalities
promptly met their payments of interest and principal as they
fell due. To this end the government provided in the act
very strict conditions for the supervision of the amount of
the loans and the character of the enterprises in which they
were to be invested. Thus, the municipalities were required
to submit to the general ratepayers by-laws specifying the
objects to be secured or promoted by the loans, the amounts
of the loans, the interest and terms of repayment, etc. All
such by-laws were then submitted to the provincial govern-
ment for approval. After being approved, the inspector-
general, or minister of Finance, was authorized to issue, on
the credit of the Consolidated Municipal Loan Fund, deben-
tures to the extent of the loan, which could either be sold by
the municipality itself, or might be disposed of by the govern-
ment and the proceeds delivered to the municipality. It
was provided that the municipality should pay annually,
in addition to the specified interest, usually six per cent, a
two per cent contribution to a sinking fund which would
eventually pay off the principal. In the event of a munici-
pality not promptly meeting its obligations, provision was
made for the levying of the necessary rates under authority
of the sheriff.

This act was passed in 1852, when the period of pros-
perity resulting from the revival of trade, building of rail-
ways, and the beginning of a period of brisk speculation in
real estate, was just getting under way. It was industriously
worked during the period from 1852 to 1856, introducing
to the country some fifteen million dollars of British capital.
Municipal loans, independent of the Consolidated Loan Fund,
brought in several additional millions. The trunk lines of
railroads, fostered by the government, and the expenditures
of the provincial government itself on other public works,
brought many additional millions. All of which, regardless
of any future returns from these outlays, was quite sufficient
to account for the unusual prosperity of this period, not
paralleled in Canada before or since, except in our own day.
All the familiar symptoms of the present were there also.
Towns and cities were rapidly expanding, town lots were

AFTER THE UNION 447

selling far from the din of busy marts, while high wages, high
prices, high rents and increasing assessments marked the
upward trend of prosperity.

Fully three-fourths of the municipal borrowings were
devoted to the promotion of railroad companies. The interest
and dividends from these investments were confidently ex-
pected by the municipal authorities, not only to meet their
obligations towards the Municipal Loan Fund, but to furnish
considerable surplus revenue, which might be devoted to
non-revenue producing civic requirements. In the meantime,
the obligations which were being incurred were disguised from
the ratepayers by the simple device of meeting the interest
and sinking fund charges out of the new borrowings, instead
of out of the municipal taxes.

The provincial authorities contributed their share of re-
sponsibility for the movement by approving, with scarcely a
word of remonstrance, the various by-laws which were brought
before them for consideration.

In the earlier stages of its operation all parties, political
and other, approved of the Municipal Loan Fund Act, and
applauded its beneficent influence. Soon, however, the
Canadians, as others, were to find that the prosperity which
resulted from the expenditure of millions in the construction
of public works was a very different matter from the prosperity
which resulted from their profitable operation. When, owing
to a financial stringency in Europe, the stream of British
capital ceased to flow, in 1857, the Canadian fountains of
wealth also dried up suddenly. Several of the railroad
projects were not completed, and those which were in opera-
tion found that much of the business which would enable them
to even pay their operating expenses had yet to be created.
Municipal undertakings, in the way of street improvements,
waterworks, public buildings, etc., however serviceable they
might prove to be in the end, were not revenue producing,
and must, therefore, be financed from the municipal rates.
The immediate result was a more or less general financial
crisis in Canada during 1857, accompanied by a rude awaken-
ing to the actual condition in which a number of munici-
palities were placed. A number of these municipalities had

448 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1791-1867

obviously borrowed more than they could pay, and their
investments promised little aid. A few of them made no
effort to meet their obligations, but simply ceased their pay-
ments to the Municipal Loan Fund and calmly awaited
results. Being very leniently treated by the provincial
authorities, other municipalities which had been struggling
to maintain their credit followed the easy example set them
and defaulted also. Still others, who had borrowed from
British capitalists independently of the Municipal Loan Fund,
began to default likewise. Ultimately some of them resisted
the attempts of their British creditors to collect through the
prescribed methods of legal remedy, on which so much stress
had been laid as furnishing unquestionable security for all
obligations entered into by the Canadian municipalities.
Had the Canadian authorities insisted upon the first de-
faulters levying the necessary taxes to meet at least the
interest on their borrowings, the subsequent chain of disastrous
consequences for the credit of the municipalities and the
country generally would in all probability have been avoided.

In 1858 the value of municipal debentures had fallen very
considerably. They were being hawked about the London
market, however, as Canadian provincial securities. This
made it necessary for the provincial government to take action
towards protecting its own credit. To this end William
Cayley, the inspector-general, was authorized to sell regular
provincial stock, and with the proceeds to purchase municipal
debentures ; it being declared, however, that this action in
no way lessened the obligation of the municipalities ultimately
to redeem their debts.

A few of the more conscientious municipal authorities
courageously faced their civic obligations and paid off their
indebtedness. Others, as stated, began well, but soon
succumbed to the easy example of the initial defaulters.
Later they added their quota to the political pressure put
upon the government ; first, to make new and more favour-
able terms for the municipalities in distress, and, secondly,
when these terms were not respected, to shoulder the whole
burden of municipal debt upon the provincial treasury.

The protracted wrangling over this municipal indebted-

AFTER THE UNION 449

ness, whether within or without the pale of the Municipal
Loan Fund, the far-reaching consequences of the alarming
doctrines of repudiation boldly preached by some of the more
extreme representatives of the municipalities, the systematic
resistance to all attempts to collect, through the legal remedies
provided, the losses incurred by the original subscribers to
the railroad stocks of the country, and the numerous instances
of more or less fraudulent failures, where the creditors living
in Britain were unprotected by any equitable bankruptcy
laws, all combined to give Canadian credit such an un-
favourable reputation in the British money market, that a
whole generation of British moneylenders had to die out
before Canadian offerings could find a friendly reception at
the central money market of the world.

There can be no question that the original plan of Sir
Francis Hincks was thoroughly sound, and would have been
of very great benefit to the municipalities if moderately
employed. Under the restrictions of the Municipal Act of
1841, as amended in 1846, it could have been safely operated.
Under the greater freedom granted to the municipalities by
the act of 1849, it became much more difficult to manage,
although even then, in the hands of a strong administration
and a strong financier such as Sir Francis Hincks, it might
have been safely worked. But when Hincks left the country,
the office of inspector-general or minister of Finance fell into
the weak hands of Cayley, who allowed matters to drift so
far that when a more capable minister succeeded, in the person
of A. T. Gait, though bravely attempting to stem the tide
and to enforce the obligations incurred, he found it practically
impossible to enforce the legal remedies provided, without
destroying the government of which he was a member. Thus
was demonstrated what Sir Francis Hincks, in retrospect,
admitted to have been the weakest feature of the Loan Fund
Act ; namely, the placing of the responsibility for enforcing
payments by the municipalities upon the ministry of the day,
whose political life largely depended upon the very munici-
palities which they were required to coerce.

Another phase of the matter was strongly urged by such
critics as T, C. Keefer and the Hon. George Brown, who

450 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1791-1867

claimed that the regulative control of the government, in
sanctioning the by-laws of the various municipalities, was
used to favour those municipalities which supported the
government of the day and against those which returned
members of the opposition. This is simply the obverse of
the shield presented by Sir Francis Hincks.

In 1854, when the operation of the act was extended to
Lower Canada, the rapidity with which loans were being
negotiated led to the placing of a limit upon the total amount
of the Loan Fund ; the limit being three million pounds
sterling, or about fifteen million dollars, divided equally
between Upper and Lower Canada. In 1859 the full amount
of three million pounds had been borrowed at six per cent.
The municipalities were expected to pay annually six per cent
interest and two per cent towards the sinking fund for the
ultimate redemption of the capital. At this time only two
municipalities were fully meeting their obligations to the
fund.

An act was passed in 1859 making a compromise with the
municipalities, by which thereafter they should pay five per
cent annually on their total obligations instead of eight per
cent, as was the original requirement. However, a number
of the more reckless municipalities, finding that their invest-
ments had been particularly unfortunate, and knowing that
their defaulting on the previous basis brought no unfortunate
results, simply continued their non-paying attitude under the
new arrangement. Representatives of these same munici-
palities organized an agitation for the formal transfer of their
obligations to the provincial treasury. The injustice of this
policy was, of course, quite obvious, since it meant that the
responsible and frugal municipalities, which had not rushed
into reckless speculations, were now to be required to pay the
gambling debts of their defaulting neighbours. As before,
the example of the defaulting municipalities was too strong
for those which were struggling to meet their obligations under
the compromise of 1859 ; hence, that arrangement also fell
through, further advertising the weakness of the provincial
government, and rendering the general situation more hope-
less than ever. Between 1860 and Confederation only

AFTER THE UNION 451

$519,000 was received from the municipalities of Upper
Canada, on a debt of over six millions of principal and nearly
as much of interest.

Unfortunately the full effects of the Municipal Loan Fund
experience upon the general financial responsibility of the
municipalities did not end with itself — Facilis descensus
Averni ; their obligations to the Loan Fund having been
repudiated, the transition was easy to the repudiation of
debts in other directions. Hence there was a general tend-
ency to the repudiation of financial obligations to British
and other creditors, contracted independently of the Loan
Fund. More than that, by an act of 1849 a number of
roads, bridges, and other public works constructed by the
province were allowed to be purchased by the municipalities
at a valuation to be agreed upon between the municipalities
and province. A number of such purchases had taken place,
but several municipalities, with the example before them of
the Municipal Loan Fund transactions, completely defaulted
on the payments due to the .province, and many of these
obligations have never been liquidated.

The final settlement of the Municipal Loan Fund muddle
was not effected until 1873, when Upper Canada had become
the separate Province of Ontario. The details belong to the
period after Confederation, but, for the sake of continuity,
an outline of the settlement may be given. It was effected
by the Hon. Oliver Mowat, who adopted as a basis the
arrangement of 1859. In effecting the settlement, conditions
had to be taken as they stood, and compromise was indis-
pensable. In estimating the obligations which were still to
be enforced against the municipalities, regard was had to the
character of the investments made, and the permanent benefits
derived by the municipalities ; also the extent to which sub-
sequent measures of the central government had affected the
values of the original investments of the municipalities. This
applied more particularly to the railroad investments. On
these and similar grounds most of the municipal debts were
greatly reduced and some were wiped out altogether. Then
the claims of those municipalities which had paid off their
indebtedness in whole or in part, or had never incurred any

VOL. XVIII M

452 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1791-1867

obligations in the Municipal Loan Fund, were considered.
Corresponding allowances were made to such municipalities,
these taking the form of credits which were to be expended
on public works of permanent benefit to the municipalities
in question. On this basis new debentures were issued by the
municipalities having balances to pay, and these were trans-
ferred to municipalities having credits to receive, so far as
they would cover them, the balance being paid by the pro-
vincial government.

Thus was brought to a close a very interesting and in-
structive municipal experience, illustrating several principles
which had quite escaped the minds of those who framed the
Municipal Act of 1849. Robert Baldwin and his colleagues,
under the influence of the prevailing conceptions about
responsible government, framed that measure in the confident
belief that by granting complete freedom and responsibility
to the various municipalities, wisdom, foresight, efficiency, and
economy would be illustrated in all their actions. Experience
speedily demonstrated, however, that a fleeting body of
municipal representatives, though directly depending upon
the votes of the general body of citizens, is subject to various
influences both private and corporate, which are capable of
producing quite as unfortunate results as a more permanent
body with a less democratic backing. Under repeated evi-
dence of these unfortunate consequences of complete local
freedom, the tendency of modern legislation has been to
impose external checks and safeguards for the protection of
the property, health, and liberty of the municipal citizen.
Such a movement appears to command the support of
Canadian citizens, who are no less democratic in spirit than
those who previously carried local autonomy to its logical
extreme.

MUNICIPAL HISTORY
1867-1913

THE first statutes of Canada contained acts relating
to the municipal government of those portions of
the country having a sufficient number of inhabitants
to require it. Development, however, was slow until 1841,
when the Districts Councils Act was passed. Under this act
the government retained the right to appoint the wardens,
clerks, and treasurers and approve of by-laws. This was
followed by a considerable agitation for an extension of
principles of responsible government. The result was the
passing of the Municipal Act of 1849 providing for the in-
corporation of local municipalities. This has been termed
the magna charta of municipal institutions, not only of
Ontario but of the newer provinces of Canada. Although
amended at nearly every session of parliament, changes have
been chiefly in the direction of amplification and detail.

When the Ontario legislature met in 1868, the municipal
corporations of the province consisted of 36 counties, 399
townships, and 104 cities, towns, and villages, all working
under the powers conferred by the act respecting municipal
institutions in Upper Canada. Under provincial control the
general municipal development of the province has exceeded
the highest anticipation of its originators. In no quarter of
the world are there institutions of a similar kind so admir-
ably adapted to the wants, intelligence, and genius of the
people. In reference to this Sir Charles Dilke, in his
Problems of Greater Britain, says : ' The system of local
government adopted in Ontario may be looked upon as
nearly perfect, and certainly the best in the whole world."

455

456 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1867-1913

MUNICIPAL DIVISIONS

.Counties. — Counties were intended to be formed by pro-
clamation of the lieutenant-governor, to consist of new town-
ships not within the limits of any incorporated county.
Under the present law new counties can be organized only
under the authority of special acts of the legislature. There
are in all thirty-eight county corporations, two of which were
constituted since Confederation — the provisional county of
Haliburton in 1874, composed of townships within the limits
of the incorporated counties of Peterborough and Victoria ;
and the county of Dufferin, constituted, in 1875, out °f town-
ships previously within the limits of Grey, Simcoe, and
Wellington. The county of Haliburton never completed its
organization and is still connected with the county of Victoria
for the purposes of the administration of justice. All the
other counties were formed previous to 1853. There are four
county corporations composed of a union of counties — Leeds
and Grenville, Northumberland and Durham, Prescott and
Russell, Stormont, Dundas, and Glengarry. In these unions
the county in which the court-house is situated is known as
the senior county. The proceedings for the separation of a
junior county from a senior county is now a subject for special
legislation, the provisions of the general law in reference
thereto having been repealed in 1909.

Townships. — In the organized counties, townships or
unions of townships are already constituted to the number
of 428, containing from 20,000 to 80,000 acres each. Town-
ships outside of this area may, by proclamation, be annexed
to any adjacent county. Junior townships in a union may, by
by-law of the county council, become separated when they
have one hundred resident freeholders and tenants on the
assessment roll. In districts, the inhabitants of any town-
ship having a population of one hundred persons may become
a township municipality. Organization meetings for this
purpose are called by the district judge or stipendiary
magistrate on petition of not less than thirty inhabitants. In
the districts, 760 townships have been surveyed, nearly all of

GOVERNING BODIES 457

which are six miles square, but only 109 township munici-
palities have been organized.

Cities, Towns, and Villages. — An unincorporated village
and suburbs, having a population of 750 within an area of
not more than 500 acres, may be incorporated by the county
council as a village. The law in this respect has not always
been the same, as the largest village territory, L'Orignal, in
the county of Prescott, covers 4050 acres. When the popula-
tion reaches 2000, the lieutenant-governor in council may, by
proclamation, erect a village into a town, and when it has a
population of 15,000 a town may be proclaimed a city. The
incorporation of towns and cities is usually effected by special
legislation. The area of towns varies from 6000 to 400 acres,
suggesting that the special circumstances connected with each
incorporation have to be considered. There are in all 272
towns and villages and 20 cities in the province, of which 3
cities, 36 towns, and 4 villages are situated in the northern
districts.

GOVERNING BODIES

County Councils. — County councils as originally consti-
tuted were composed of reeves and deputy reeves for each
five hundred voters in a local municipality. Under this
system they gradually became so unwieldy that it was diffi-
cult to transact business expeditiously, and the expense of
holding meetings was heavy. In some cases the represen-
tation in a county council of small incorporated munici-
palities was out of all proportion to their interests in county
taxation. The question of county council reform was con-
sidered by the legislature for a number of years. In 1886
three bills relating to the subject were introduced in the
legislature. In 1896 a new constitution for county councils
was adopted, in which the main idea was that every member
should be representative of the whole county. The act re-
duced the size of county councils generally by changing the
basis of representation from that of local municipalities to
districts, into which all the counties were divided by a com-
mission composed of county judges ; the number of districts

458 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1867-1913

in each county varying from four to nine was determined by
population, assessed value, and extent of territory ; two
members elected from each for two years formed the county
board.

Under the old system a man's conduct in the local council,
with which the people were best acquainted, was the main
factor in his re-election. Under the new system there was
a separate nomination day for the election of candidates for
the county council, when the ratepayers had an opportunity
to consider directly the duties and the expenditures of the
county council. The change proved to be satisfactory, ex-
cept in counties where it was found impossible to form all the
districts out of adjoining municipalities. The more important
objection was that the separation of the county council
from the local municipal councils lessened the importance
attached to the reeveships. The original system, moreover,
permitted members of the various local councils to come
together and bring their joint experiences to bear on the
problems of municipal administration. In this way, no
doubt, development of township government was greatly
assisted. Many local municipalities were without a resident
representative, and it is not surprising that considerable oppo-
sition developed from those who were unable to secure election
in the districts.

Owing to continual opposition, an optional system was
provided in 1903 whereby a majority of the councils of the
local municipalities in a county could decide on the abolition
of the districts and the formation of county councils com-
posed of reeves and mayors with voting power on financial
questions in proportion to equalized assessment of the muni-
cipality represented. Before any county had adopted this,
there was a change of government and a return, in 1907,
to the original system of councils composed of reeves and
deputy reeves, the number of deputy reeves being reduced
by providing that one should be elected for each thousand
voters instead of five hundred as formerly.

Township Councils. — Township councils, as originally
constituted, consisted of five members elected annually by
general vote or by wards, the reeve and deputy reeve, if any,

GOVERNING BODIES 459

being chosen by the council. This system continued until
the act of 1866 was passed, providing for the election of
reeves, deputy reeves, and councillors by general vote. In
1873 there was a return to the ward system ; the reeve,
however, continued to be elected by general vote, the deputy
reeves being selected by the council for each five hundred
names of qualified voters in the township. This system was
continued until 1898, when it was provided that the election
of reeves and councillors should be by general vote. In
1906, when the county council system was changed, the elec-
tion in townships in organized counties of not more than
three deputy reeves by general vote was authorized, one to
be elected for each one thousand names of persons on the
voters' list qualified to vote at municipal elections.

Village Councils. — Village councils have always been com-
posed of five members. Previous to 1866 the reeves were
chosen by the councils. Since that date the reeves and
deputies have been elected as such by general vote.

Town Councils. — The constitution of town councils has
been frequently the subject of legislative experiment. Under
the act of 1849 a town council consisted of three councillors
from each ward, who, at their first meeting, elected from
among themselves the mayor, the reeve, and also (if there
were five hundred resident freeholders and householders on
the collector's roll) a deputy reeve. By the act of 1858 the
election of the mayor was taken from the council and entrusted
to the ratepayers. In 1866 the number of town councillors
was reduced to two for each ward in towns having five wards,
but was left at three for each ward in towns of less than five
wards, and it was provided that but one councillor should
retire annually in each ward ; the representation of the town
in the county council was increased by the addition of a
deputy reeve for every five hundred persons appearing on
the last revised assessment roll. The right to elect the reeve
and deputy reeve was, by the same act, transferred from the
council to the ratepayers, and the right to elect the mayor
from the ratepayers to the council.

In the first session after Confederation (1867) the number
of councillors for each ward was increased to three in all

460 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1867-1913

cases, the proviso that only one of these should retire annually
being retained ; but this proviso was struck out two years
later, and in 1871 the number of councillors was reduced to
two for each ward in towns having five or more wards. In
1873 the right of electing the mayor was again taken from
the town council and given back to the municipal electors,
in whom it has ever since been vested.

In 1898 ward elections in towns of not more than five
thousand population were abolished, and for at least two
years the mayor and six councillors were to be elected by
general vote. At the expiration of this term the electors
had the option of continuing the same or deciding that one-
half of the council should be elected by wards. In the larger
towns where there were more than five wards, two coun-
cillors were to be elected for each ; and where there were less
than five wards, this number was increased to three, with the
proviso that it might be decreased to two if the electors so
decided. In 1903 the council of any town of more than five
thousand population was authorized to provide that the
councils be composed of a mayor and not less than six alder-
men, one to be elected for each one thousand of population,
with the option of returning to the ward system after two
elections, if the electors so decided.

In the districts where there is now no provision for the
incorporation of villages, the council of a small town consists
of the mayor and six councillors, or, when the population is
more than five thousand, the number of councillors is in-
creased to nine. Towns in the organized counties that are
not separated from the county for municipal purposes, in
addition to the other members of the council, are required
to elect a reeve and a deputy reeve for each one thousand
names on the voters' list. The reeves and deputies, limited
to three, are members of the council and are the town's
representatives in the county councils.

Notwithstanding the varied constitutions provided for
the 123 town councils of the province, 112 councils have but
six members, I has seven, I has eight, 5 have nine, 2 have
ten, and 2 have twelve. County council representatives are
elected in eighty-four towns.

A town with at least five thousand population may, by

GOVERNING BODIES 461

by-law approved by the electors, withdraw from the juris-
diction of the council of the county in which it is situated ;
previous to 1900 all towns had this privilege. This relieves
them from taxation for county purposes, but renders them
liable for administration of justice and other services rendered
by the county. Seven Ontario towns are in this position.

City Councils. — City councils were at first composed of
one alderman and two councillors for each ward, the mayor
being chosen from among the aldermen. A second alder-
man for each ward was soon added and the right to elect a
mayor was transferred to the municipal electors. The act
of 1866 abolished the office of councillor, increased the number
of aldermen to three for each ward, and restored to the council
the right of choosing its own mayor. This system of select-
ing a mayor was abolished in 1873. Except as varied by an
occasional act, this was the constitution of city councils until
1903, when provision was made for reducing the number of
aldermen to two for each ward, subject to the approval of
the electors. The councils of cities with less than fifteen
thousand population were at the same time authorized to
provide by by-law for a council composed of a mayor and one
alderman for each one thousand of population, and in cities
with over fifteen thousand population the optional principle of
having the aldermen elected by general vote was introduced.

Boards of Control. — The exigencies of municipal administra-
tion in the city of Toronto led to an innovation in the general
law providing for a cabinet or board of control to administer
the affairs of the city in connection with the council.

The board, as at first constituted in 1896, consisted of
the mayor and three aldermen appointed by the council, who
could be removed at any time on a two-thirds vote and others
appointed. The salary of aldermen on the board was limited
to seven hundred dollars, and it was their duty to prepare
estimates, award contracts, inspect works, nominate and
dismiss officers and fix their duties.

Three years later the law was made applicable to all cities
of over forty-five thousand population, except Hamilton,
with a salary limit of four hundred dollars. In 1900 the
number of controllers to be appointed was increased to four,
and in 1903 the salary limit in cities of one hundred thousand

462 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1867-1913

was increased to one thousand dollars, and a change was
made providing that candidates for the position of controller
were to be elected by the city at large. A system of cumu-
lative voting was at first adopted. This, however, was
changed in favour of one vote for each controller in 1905,
when the salary limit was again increased to two thousand
five hundred dollars. Candidates for the position of controller
were limited to those who had two years' experience as alder-
men, a restriction that was removed in 1906 and the qualifica-
tion for the position of controller made the same as for mayor.

The board of control system was in 1909 extended to all
cities between one hundred thousand and forty-five thousand
population, subject to the approval of vote of the electors.

The act of 1913 gives the council authority to vary the
recommendations of the boards in certain cases on a two-
thirds vote.

The city of Ottawa adopted the system in 1907, Hamilton
in 1910, and London, the one other city with a sufficient popu-
lation, elected a board of control for the first time in 1914.
That the system works well is evidenced by the action of
the ratepayers of Ottawa, who in 1911 voted for a continu-
ance of the system.

- The principal duties of the board, as distinguished from
those of the council, are : to prepare estimates and certify
the same to the council ; to award contracts and report to
the council, which may amend the same on a two-thirds vote ;
to inspect, and to report to the council, on municipal works,
at least monthly ; to nominate all heads of departments
and sub-departments, and recommend their salaries, and
suspend or dismiss the same, and to report. By a majority
vote the council may refer back matters for further considera-
tion. All the members, including the mayor, are elected
for one year only.

Under a board of control organization the work of the
committees of the council is largely eliminated. In Ottawa
they have already been abolished. The council, however, is
the safety valve without which the board of control would,
in time, come in for unfair criticism, as the details of their work
would not be known to as many as at present. As an advisory
board the council is a necessity.

GOVERNING BODIES
The salaries paid are :

463

Mayor

Controllers

Toronto

$7500

$2500

Ottawa

2500

IOOO

Hamilton .

22OO

I2OO

London

3000

IOOO

Term of Office. — When city and town councils were first
established the members were elected for two or three years,
one-half or one-third to retire each year according to the
number elected for each ward. This was continued until
1869, when it was decided that members of all councils should
be elected annually. In 1906 the legislature authorized an
optional system of election for two years, when assented to
by vote of the electors. The demand for this change was
not general, as few, if any, municipalities have taken advan-
tage of it. There are but two exceptions to the general law.
The city of Kingston returned, in 1907, to the old system of
election of three aldermen for each ward for three years, to
retire in rotation. In 1908 the city of Peterborough was
authorized to elect aldermen for two years, half to retire
annually ; the elections of 1909 were by general vote. In
the following year a return to the ward system was approved
by the electors. Two aldermen were elected for each ward
in January 1911, the one receiving the larger number of votes
being elected for a two-years term.

Police Villages. — There is an intermediate condition of
populous localities in townships known as police villages,
organized originally to enforce regulations for the prevention
of fires, the storing of gunpowder, and the abatement of
nuisances. Since Confederation they have developed rapidly
in communities desiring the conveniences a village may pro-
vide without the expenses or liabilities of a separate munici-
pality, no fewer than one hundred and seventeen being in exist-
ence in 1913. The jurisdiction of the officers of the township
is not interfered with. The treasurer pays the orders of the
police trustees out of their special funds, and the clerks
perform the same duties as before the village was formed.

464 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1867-1913

Where a locality has a population of one hundred and fifty
in an area of not more than five hundred acres, a majority of
the freeholders may petition the county council to erect the
locality into a police village. This gives the inhabitants the
right to elect three persons, known as police trustees, whose
business it is to improve the highways of the village, to make
contracts for the supply of light, heat, or power, to enforce
regulations for prevention of fires and abatement of nuisances,
and generally to exercise many of the powers conferred on
village corporations. Provision is made for incorporation
when a police village has a population of not less than five
hundred. This continues the organization, makes the village
liable to the township for actions for damages caused by the
non-repair of highways, and extends the powers of village
corporations for water, light, heat, and power works.

QUALIFICATION OF MEMBERS OF COUNCILS

The qualification for election to a municipal council is
about the same as for electors. Candidates are required to be
British subjects and twenty-one years of age. That men only
are entitled to be elected was first expressed in the Municipal
Act of 1873, although this was clearly implied in, and accepted
as the meaning of, the previous act. A specified property assess-
ment has always been necessary. Residence in the county if
not in the municipality was at first required, but at present
residence within two miles of the municipality is sufficient.

At Confederation the values necessary to qualify
candidates were :

In townships $400 freehold or $800 leasehold
„ villages 600 ,, „ 1200 „
„ towns 800 „ ,, 1600 „

„ cities 4000 „ „ 8000 „

It was necessary that persons elected should be rated on
the assessment roll for these amounts. In 1873 this was
changed by providing that candidates elected were entitled
to qualify if they were sufficiently rated for part freehold and
part leasehold property.

There appears to have been some dissatisfaction with the
high qualification required in cities, as the amounts were re-

QUALIFICATION OF MEMBERS OF COUNCILS 465

duced to one thousand five hundred dollars freehold and three
thousand dollars leasehold. Another important change was
made in 1880, when it was required that the qualification
values should be over and above all liens and encumbrances
affecting the same, the amount entered on the assessment
roll to be the value from which the deductions should be made.
The question at once arose as to a tenant's qualification on
property that has been mortgaged by his landlord, and it was
decided by the courts to refer only to encumbrances created by
the owner of the leasehold interest.

This led up to a further amendment in 1883 providing
that assessment for freehold to four thousand dollars should
be sufficient in any municipality whether encumbered or not.
This amount was reduced in 1892 to two thousand dollars,
when the qualification values in all urban communities were
fixed as at present :

Villages $200 freehold, $400 leasehold
Towns 600 „ 1 200 ,,
Cities 1000 ,, 2000 ,,

Some allowance was necessary owing to the low values of
property in the unorganized districts where the qualification
was at this time fixed for townships at $200 freehold and $400
leasehold, and for cities and towns at $400 freehold and $800
leasehold. In 1903 the amounts required in these townships
were still further reduced to $100 freehold and $200 leasehold.

The fact that members of councils were sometimes slow to
pay their taxes was the reason for a clause in the act of 1909
providing that candidates could not qualify in respect to
property on which there were any arrears of taxes, and the
Municipal Act of 1913 goes still further by making liability
for any arrears of taxes a disqualification.

There are certain specified officials, hotel-keepers, and
those having contracts with or claims against the municipality
who are disqualified from holding office, and others who are
exempt ; the difference being that a person disqualified can-
not hold office, but a person exempt, even though qualified,
need not. The one is incapacity or disability, the other a
privilege. A qualified person duly elected, who refuses to
accept office, may be summarily convicted and punished.

466 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1867-1913

THE MUNICIPAL FRANCHISE

The municipal franchise in Ontario has always been
enjoyed by the male owners or tenants residing in the munici-
pality who were twenty-one years of age and British subjects,
rated on the assessment roll for specified real property values,
which are graded for different classes of municipalities. In
1866 the real property qualification for a vote at municipal
elections was to be rated on the last revised assessment roll-
in cities for $600, towns $400, villages $300, townships $100,
on which all taxes had been paid before December 16 of the
year in which they were levied. Voters were allowed to vote
once in each ward or electoral district. The only change in
these values was made in 1873, when the qualifying amount
for a vote in urban municipalities was reduced to cities to
$400, in towns to $300, and in villages to $200, and the dis-
qualification for non-payment of taxes removed until reim-
posed by a by-law of the council of any municipality. In the
following year the franchise was extended to all who were
entered on the assessment roll for income amounting to $400
and who resided in the municipality continuously from the
completion of the roll to the date of election.

Following the example of England, where the ballot was
adopted at both parliamentary and municipal elections in
1872, the system of open voting in vogue was changed and
voting by ballot was required at all elections after January
1875. In the following year the same system was applied to
the voting on a by-law.

The Provincial Voters' Lists Act, passed in 1876, was
adapted to municipal elections in the following year, and the
municipal franchise was extended to the sons of farmers who
owned twenty acres or more of land rated at an amount suffi-
cient to givethe necessaryqualification to each. The sons were
required to have resided on the farm for eight months during
the year previous to the completion of the assessment roll.

Under the Voters' Lists Act it is necessary that a municipal
voter's name should be entered in the printed list as finally
revised before he is entitled to vote. In 1884 the right to
vote was extended to widows or unmarried women who are

ASSESSMENT AND TAXATION 467

owners of real property rated on the assessment roll for the
qualifying amounts. A few years later (1892) the qualifica-
tion of voters in towns with less than three thousand popula-
tion was reduced to $200 and in villages to $100.

ASSESSMENT AND TAXATION

The Ontario law relating to municipal taxation is the
result of gradual development. In 1793, during the first
session of the second legislature of Upper Canada, an act was
passed ' to authorize and direct the levying and collecting of
assessment rates in every district within this Province.' This
provided for the appointment of assessors and the valuation of
real and personal property. The taxes were levied by the
justices in quarter session. When the present system of
municipal institutions was established, the authority to levy
taxes was transferred to the municipal councils. The original
system was continued for many years with very little change.
An agitation, however, gradually arose for a more equitable
basis, and in 1878 the legislature appointed a special com-
mittee to consider and take evidence on the subject of
municipal taxation and exemptions. Ten years later the
report of a municipal commission contained an extended
reference to taxation. The only important change from the
basis of taxation first established was made at this time, the
live stock and implements of the farmer being exempted
from assessment as personal property. The effect of an
active agitation for some reform in the assessment of personal
property resulted in the appointment in 1900 of a commission
to consider the whole question. Its report, together with a
consolidation of the assessment laws of the province, was
presented in 1902. This showed that ninety-five per cent of
the municipal taxation of the province was levied on the
assessed value of lands and buildings, and that in townships
practically the whole tax was derived from this source. The
commission recommended that the main basis or incidence of
taxation be the same, the actual value of lands and buildings,
personal property, machinery of all kinds to be exempt.
New sources of municipal revenue were suggested to be levied
on the actual value of lands and buildings occupied for busi-

VOL. XVIII N

468 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1867-1913

ness or residence purposes. The legislature did not approve
of the residence tax, but adopted the principle of a special
business tax. This includes a tax on business of all kinds,
based on the value of the property occupied for business
purposes, the tax to be levied in the same manner as other
taxes, and for this purpose the business properties were
classified and their values increased from twenty-five per
cent to one hundred and fifty per cent as follows :

A. Distiller 150 per cent

B. Brewer ... •• 75 ....
Malting house . . . . 60 ,, ,,

C. Wholesale merchant . . . . 75 ....
Insurance company „

Loan company . . . . . ,,
Trust „ .....,,

Express ,, .....,,

Land ,, .....,,

Bank or other financial business . . ,,

D. Manufacturers . . . . . 60 ,,
GG. Millers producing less than 50 bbls of

flour per day . . • • 35 ..

E. Departmental store or a retail merchant

dealing in more than five branches
of retail trade or business in the
same premises or in separate de-
partment of premises under one
roof, or in connected premises where

the assessed value exceeds $20,000 . 50 „

Coal, wood, or lumber dealer . . ,, ,,
Coal dealers in cities with over 100,000

population . . . 30 ,,

Lithographer . 50 „

Printer and publisher . . . . „ ,,

FF. Publishers of newspapers in cities . • 35 ..

,, ,, „ in towns, etc. . 25 ,,

E. Liquor dealer . . . . 50 ,,

F. Barrister and solicitor , „

Notary public .....,,,,

Conveyancer . . . . . ,, ,,

Physician and surgeon . . . . ,, ,,

Oculist ..... „ „

Aurist . . . . • ,, ,,

469
50 per cent

30
35

ASSESSMENT AND TAXATION

F. Medical electrician ....
Dentist and veterinarian

Engineer and surveyor ....

Architect ......

Financial and commercial agency .

Where a person belonging to clause F
uses land partly for the purposes of his busi-
ness and partly as a residence, the rate of
business assessment is 50 per cent of the
value of the land occupied or used by
him.

G. Retail merchants in cities of 50,000 popu-

lation ......

Retail merchants in cities of 10,000 popu-
lation ......

Retail merchants in other places
H. Photographer .....

Theatre ......

Concert hall .....

Skating rink .....

Places of amusement ....

Boarding and livery stable or the letting

of vehicles for hire
Restaurant .....

Eating house .....

Places of public entertainment

Licensed hotels .....

Other business .....

I. Telegraph company ....

Telephone company ....

Electric railway .....

Tramway ......

Street railway .....

Transmission of oil . . . .

,, ,, water ....

,, ,, steam ....

„ „ heat ....

gas .

,, „ electricity

For light, heat, or power 25 per cent of value of
land (not being a highway, road, street, lane, or public
place or water or private right of way), exclusive of the
value of any machinery, plant, or appliances connected
therewith.

470 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1867-1913

I (a) . Clubs in which meals or spirituous liquors

are furnished to members . . 25 per cent

Where any person carries on more than one kind of
business the rate is that for the chief or predominat-
ing business.

To relieve small businesses the act provides that where
the amount of business assessment is under $250,
it is to be assessed for $100 only.

Where land other than that referred to in clause F is
used partly for business and residence, the portion
occupied for business purposes only is considered.

There is no business tax for operating vessel property
or a steam railway or a farm, garden, or nursery.

The basis for the imposition of the tax is definite and its
amount is easily ascertained. It is applied to all professions,
trades, and businesses with a definite location. It is not
claimed that this tax is equitable in every respect. The per-
centages were determined largely by the proportion of per-
sonalty tax formerly paid by each class of business. This was
inaccurate, and the existing tax perpetuates the inaccuracy.
The business tax eliminates all opportunities for evasion and
dishonesty and is simple and inexpensive in administration.
It increases revenue by not allowing any one to escape taxa-
tion.

INCOME ASSESSMENT

Under the old acts income was included in the term
' personal property.' As now defined, all income derived
either within or without the province by any person resident
therein is liable to taxation. This includes the income from
mines and gas or oil wells, the minimum assessment on the
latter being twenty dollars per year.

INCOME EXEMPTIONS

In 1869 the assessment exemptions included income from
farm, real estate, capital liable to assessment, and personal
earnings to $400. In 1887 the exemption of personal
earnings had been increased to $700 and $400 income from
other sources provided it did not exceed $1000. Ten years

INCOME EXEMPTIONS 471

later this was changed and no person was allowed more than
$700 exemption. The gradual increase in cost of living
brought about a further consideration of the question, and
in 1903 personal earnings were exempt to $1000 and other
income to $400. The following year the personal earnings
income of assessed householders only in cities of 10,000
population was exempt to the extent of $1000 and in other
municipalities to $700. The exemption of non-householders'
income being limited to $400 was referred to as an attempt to
tax bachelors.

The principle of the business tax was introduced at this
time and all income derived from business paying the tax
was exempt. In 1906 the personal earnings exemption of
$1000 was extended to towns of 5000 population and over,
and the exemption of non-householders in this class of
municipalities was increased to $600. In 1910 these ex-
emptions were again increased to $1200 and $900 respectively
in all cities and towns. The principal reason given for this
discrimination was that the cost of living in the larger urban
communities was more expensive.

The particular income exemptions included in the present
act are : income from surplus funds of any registered friendly
society ; official income of governor-general and lieutenant-
governor ; income of officers of army and navy and pensions
from the imperial treasury ; income of a farmer from his
farm ; income from stock in any incorporated company, the
income of which is liable to assessment ; income from stock
or share in a toll road.

In Cities and Towns. — Income from personal earnings :
assessed householder or head of family, $1500 ; non- house-
holder, $600.

In Townships and Villages. — Income from personal earn-
ings : assessed householder or head of family, $1200 ; non-
householder, $400.

Income from other than personal earnings to $400 are
exempt when income from all sources does not exceed that
amount.

Income from mines is taxed under the Supplementary
Revenue Act for provincial purposes, and as a result one-half

472 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1867-1913

is exempt in the town of Cobalt and two-thirds in other
municipalities.

PROPERTY EXEMPTIONS

Most of the property exemptions at present in force were
taken from the act of 1869, the additions being seminaries
of learning, public parks, and machinery used for manufac-
turing and farming. The full list includes : crown property,
places of worship, churchyards, burying-grounds ; buildings
and grounds of educational institutions, but not if otherwise
occupied ; seminaries of learning maintained for philan-
thropic, religious, or educational purposes, the whole profits
from which are devoted or applied to such purposes only ;
municipal buildings and public hospitals receiving govern-
ment aid ; roads and public squares ; the property of any
county or municipality, but not when occupied by any person
as tenant or lessee ; public parks, prisons, industrial farms,
poor-houses, etc.; property used by children's immigra-
tion and aid societies ; public libraries and the property of
agricultural and horticultural societies ; machinery used for
manufacturing or farming, but not the fixed machinery used
or required for the supply of motive power, or the machinery
of a street railway or a company having permission to use
the streets for the supply of water, heat, light, power, trans-
portation, or other service.

The structures, rails, poles, ties, etc., on the right of way
of a railway are exempt from assessment. The province,
however, collects from sixty to twenty dollars per mile of
track, a portion of which is distributed among the municipa-
lities in proportion to population.

The Assessment Act of Ontario contains the most modern
ideas in reference to municipal taxation. The most important
features in addition to the business assessment are the reduc-
tion of income exemption in the case of those who are not
householders, the specific assessment value per mile for tele-
graph and telephone companies in townships, and assessment
based on gross receipts in urban municipalities and police
villages — the assessment of land including buildings at actual

PROPERTY EXEMPTIONS

473

value. The taxable values of the province have increased
very rapidly under its administration.

Land and buildings ... 50 per cent

Business assessment over personal

property values . . . 122 ,, ,,

Income ..... 250 ,, ,,

Total income in values of 1904

compared with 1911 . 56 ,, ,,

Notwithstanding this, the average rate of taxation remains
about the same, the councils having increased their annual
levies over ten million of dollars in seven years.

STATISTICS OF ASSESSMENT AND TAXATION
FROM REPORTS BUREAU OF INDUSTRIES

Land and
Buildings

Personal
Property

Income

Average Rate
of Taxation for
all Purposes

1886

Rural ....
Towns and villages
Cities ....

Total .

424,356,317
78,521,775

129,231,595

27,289,098
7,384,126
16,925,710

452,230
2,172,192
8,047,616

97 mills
19 ,,
I9'i „

632,109,687

51,598,934

10,672,038

1896

Rural ....
Towns and villages
Cities ....

Total .

444,056,842
1 1 1,050,720
221,941,541

2,792,097
8,338,270
16,963,651

268,444
1,886,057
7,620,01 1

9'6 ,,
20-3 „
2i'4 ,,

I4'9 „

777,049,103

28,094,018

9,774,512

1904

Rural ....
Towns and villages
Cities ....

Total .

477,209,517
122,386,118
260,094,014

2,324,830
10,298,311

24,748,458

259,315
1,577,489
7,207,607

"7i „
24-08 „

22-95 „
I7'I7 „

859,689,649

37,371,599

9,044,411

1906

Business
Assessment

Rural ....
Towns and villages
Cities ....

Total .

581,969,656
145,376,781
296,239,305

4,877,833
17,414,919
37,201,566

1,378,261

4,399,275
14,647,092

10-86 „
22-81 „
22-46 „

16-33 „

1,023,585,742

59,494,318

20,424,628

474

MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1867-1913

ASSESSMENT EXEMPTIONS AND TAXATION FOR 1911

Assessment

Townships

Villages and
Towns

Cities

Total

Real property (taxable and

exempt) :

(i) Exclusive of buildings .
(2) Buildings .
Assessed for municipal and

454,383,029
182,648,747

65,757,956
157,692,958

257,557,333
330,532,209

777,698,318
670,873,914

school rates :

(i) Real property

618,763,659

191,274,303

493,009,320

1,303,047,282

(2) Business assessment .

4,894,593

19,454,830

58,287,678

82,637,101

(3) Income

7,483,354

5,018,116

I9,l8l,264

31,682,734

Assessed for school rates

only :

(i) Real property

2,804,906

4,315,610

12,714,820

19,835,336

(2) Business assessment .

699,000

1,252,057

2,356,955

4,308,012

Total assessment for school

rates

631,141,606

215,747,249

570,478,262

1,417,367,117

Net amount liable for muni-

cipal rates ....

627,637,700

210,179,582

555,406,487

1,393,223,769

Real property exempt from

taxation or liable for local

improvements only .

18,268,117

32,176,611

95,080,222

145,524,950

Total real property ex- ( 191 1

21,073,023

36,492,221

107,795,042

165,360,286

empt from municipal -I 1910

19,819,342

34,517,121

96,228,789

150,565,252

rates (.1909

18,046,950

30,951,155

85,833,547

134,831,652

Taxes levied for all school

purposes ....

3,147,487

1,865,997

3,799,410

8,812,894

Taxes levied for municipal

purposes, local improve-

ment rates, dog taxes,

statute labour commuted,

etc

4,824,848

3,580,928

9,144,655

17,550,431

Total taxes levied in 1911 .

7,972,335

5,446,925

12,944,065

26,363,325

Average rate of taxation for

all purposes

12-63

25-25

22 mills

18-60

Taxation per head of popula-

tion :

$ c.

9 c.

$ c.

School I19"

3 10

3 Si

4 7o

3 74

\igio

2 88

3 22

4 45

3 47

Municipal . {|9»

4 74
4 47

6 72
6 36

II 30
10 76

7 44
6 96

The reduction in personal property assessment of rural
municipalities in 1896 was caused by the exemption of live
stock and implements of farmers.

The large increase in the income assessment of rural and
town municipalities as shown in 1911 is due to the income

MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP 475

from mines in the township of Coleman, $6,061,679, and in
the town of Cobalt, $1,038,205.

MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP

One of the most important features in connection with
the municipal institutions of Ontario is the extent to which
the municipal ownership idea has been developed in urban
communities. Public opinion was at first opposed to the
councils having anything to do with enterprises that could
be carried on by private individuals. It was thought that
the main highways could not be kept up under municipal
management, and an elaborate system of toll roads under
company or individual management was the result. The
condition in which some of the roads were kept awakened
public interest, and, as population increased, the roads
gradually came under the control of the councils.

When municipal institutions were introduced, provision
was made for regulating the use of the streets by gas and
water companies. Cities and towns were given the same
powers as companies, but before exercising them they were
required to consider the purchase of the plants of companies
already operating therein. Few municipalities exercised
their rights in this respect previous to Confederation, with
the result that the purchase of the vested interests of com-
panies has been a handicap in the development of many a
progressive community.

The establishment of waterworks in a few of the larger
cities and towns led to the passing of a municipal waterworks
act in 1882 and a similar light and heat act in the following
year, to which all of the powers necessary for municipal owner-
ship were fully set forth with provision for management by
the council or a commission, as the council might determine.
A great impetus was thereby given to the establishment of
these utilities in urban municipalities. The management of
the companies already established came in for considerable
criticism, and they were forced to secure further legislation
to protect their vested interests. This provided that before
municipalities could establish gas, electric, or water works,

476 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1867-1913

the rights of the' existing company should be purchased. The
introduction of electricity for lighting purposes, owing to the
low cost of installation and distribution, was rapidly taken
advantage of by all classes of urban municipalities. The
municipal ownership idea was greatly encouraged in 1909,
when councils were deprived of the right to grant franchises
to public utility companies without securing the assent of
the electors. The provincial reports show that in 1911 seven
towns and cities were operating gas plants and about one
hundred and twenty-five were supplying electric light and
water.

The recognition of the telephone as a municipal necessity
was evidenced in the passing of the Ontario Telephone Act
in 1912, which gives municipalities authority to construct,
maintain, and operate telephone systems, and to purchase,
expropriate, or lease any telephone system already estab-
lished. Previous to this, three progressive western towns
— Port Arthur, Fort William, and Kenora — profiting by the
experience of their sister municipalities in the east, had,
under the authority of special legislation, successfully solved
the problem of telephone management. Some forty town-
ships have taken advantage of the act of 1912 and are now
developing telephone systems. The province generally is
served by the Bell Company, while in rural districts co-opera-
tive companies or lines under individual management have
been in favour, the trunk line service for long distance being
supplied through connection with the exchanges of the larger
company.

Transportation facilities are also included in the list of
public utilities. Seven electric railway systems are owned
by municipalities, one of which is operated by a company
under lease. In addition to these, controlling interests in
steam railways have been assumed at different times, and
while two cities have retained their interests, the roads are
operated under lease by one of the larger companies.

The municipalities of the province have been liberal in
their grants to assist in the construction of railways, over ten
million dollars having been voted since Confederation, an
amount greater than has been paid in provincial subsidies.

MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP 477

The development of electrical energy at Niagara Falls for
commercial purposes attracted considerable attention, and
in 1903 the provincial government passed an act authorizing
municipal corporations to co-operate to secure ' the acquisi-
tion, construction, maintenance, and operation of all necessary
works, plants, machinery, and appliances for the develop-
ment, generation, transmission, distribution, and supply of
electrical or other power for their own corporate use as well
as for public uses and purposes.' The municipalities co-
operating were to appoint commissioners and an electrical
engineer to report on the matter. Under this act the muni-
cipalities of Toronto, London, Brantford, Stratford, Wood-
stock, Ingersoll, and Guelph arranged for the appointment
of a commission consisting of C. W. B. Snider of St Jacobs,
P. W. Ellis of Toronto, W. F. Cockshutt of Brantford, R. A.
Fessenden, electrical engineer of Washington, and the Hon.
Adam Beck. Ross and Holgate of Montreal were appointed
to investigate the engineering aspect of the question. This
commission reported in March 1906 to the municipalities
concerned. The report stated that eleven other munici-
palities were interested, and that to all eighteen municipalities,
which included St Thomas on the west and Toronto on the
east, the transmission of power from Niagara Falls could be
made under the most advantageous conditions.

In the matter of the development of industrial possi-
bilities the commission were enthusiastic :

The municipalities represented by your Commis-
sioners are pre-eminently manufacturing and industrial
communities. They are equipped by nature to excel.
They enjoy a high degree of proficiency in the manufac-
turing arts. The overflow of their aggressive and self-
reliant enterprise has pushed their products into many
lands. The barriers of cheap labour and other natural
conditions which might have kept them out, have been
overcome. From the greatest economic leverage that
Niagara power — unloaded by corporation tribute — will
give, an incalculable stimulus to the productive and
competitive efficiency and enterprise of their manufac-
tures will be derived. The economic conditions will not
only, in obedience to natural law, beget an increasing

478 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1867-1913

activity, but they will also attract to the district the
enterprise of others. As a result, therefore, of such
development as is herein considered, a great stimulus
to the manufacturing activity may confidently be ex-
pected. If, however, all the municipalities that are
capable of being efficiently served by a Niagara Falls
development were to combine and carry out an under-
taking corresponding to their needs and prospects, it
would exercise an influence upon their future that can-
not be estimated and that the past industrial history
of Ontario affords no parallel to.

The Ontario government in the meantime had appointed
an official commission of inquiry of which the Hon. Adam
Beck was chairman, and in 1906 an act was passed to provide
for the transmission of electrical power to municipalities.
This determined that the policy of the government would
be to erect transmission lines and deliver power, the munici-
palities to assume the whole of the expense under agreements
to pay a fixed sum per horse-power per year to be reduced
as the consumption on the various transmission lines in-
creased. The management of the undertaking was to be in
charge of a commission of three under the name of the Hydro-
Electric Power Commission of Ontario.

This commission issued three reports during 1906, and
as all of these favoured the idea of securing electrical energy
from power generated at Niagara Falls and at other points
in the province, it is not surprising that a number of meetings
were held by representatives of municipalities interested for
the purpose of securing the fullest information. The result
was the formation of the Western Ontario Municipal Power
Union, the object of which was to secure the co-operation of
all municipalities in obtaining the purchase and transmission
of electrical power.

In January 1907 propositions for the supply of electrical
power were submitted to the ratepayers of seventeen of the
chief industrial centres, all of which gave a substantial
majority in favour of cheaper power. The commission has
arranged to supply municipalities as far west as Windsor, a
distance of two hundred and fifty miles ; and as fast as suffi-
cient consumers can be secured to warrant the erection of

MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP 479

additional transmission lines, municipalities desiring power
within that radius of Niagara Falls will receive attention.
Arrangements are also being made to secure power at points
in the eastern and northern sections of Ontario, so that the
whole province may be supplied, and where this cannot be
procured the commission will undertake its development.

The necessity for uniformity of installation and equip-
ment resulted in the adoption by the commission of regula-
tions to which all municipalities using hydro-electric power
are required to conform. The commission was also authorized
to make regulations pertaining to the installation and use
of electrical power by all municipalities, companies, or indi-
viduals, and order such changes as in their opinion may be
necessary for the safety of the public or workmen or for the
protection of property against fire or otherwise.

The rates chargeable by a municipal corporation, company,
or individual for the supply of electrical power or energy are
now subject to the approval and control of the power com-
mission, which also prescribes the system in which the books
and accounts of municipal corporations or commissions shall
be kept. Provision is also made for the appointment of
inspectors to enforce the regulations.

Under an act respecting the public construction and
operation of electric railways passed in 1913, municipalities
may arrange with the power commission for the location,
construction, equipment, and management of lines of electric
railways. Another act passed in the same year authorizes
the election of one or more public utility commissions with
all the powers, rights, and privileges of municipal corpora-
tions, and makes the election of such a commission compulsory
in all cities and towns that have entered into a contract
with the Hydro-Electric Power Commission. These commis-
sions are to consist of three or five members, of whom the
head of the council is a member ex officio — one-half of the
elective members to retire annually.

This summarizes the development that has attended the
introduction of the municipal ownership idea in Ontario.
The future success of these undertakings will depend on the
men who direct and control them. Given public men with

48o MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1867-1913

high ideals of municipal management, with broad and com-
prehensive views, with business training, the municipal move-
ment will continue in its prosperous career and will justify
the conclusions long ago arrived at : namely, that all those
undertakings which are in the nature of necessities or mono-
polies and require the use of public streets should be owned
and operated by the municipalities in the interests of the
public generally.

MUNICIPAL BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS

One of the special features of the development of municipal
management in urban communities is the multiplication of
commissions. The members of councils are not remunerated,
although they devote considerable time to municipal duties.
Ordinary municipal organization has not always been suffi-
cient to attend to details of every phase of development in
towns and cities, the result being that important duties have
been from time to time transferred to special boards and
commissions, the members of which are either appointed or
elected with terms of office so arranged that only a portion
of the members retire annually.

Water and Light Commissions. — The management of
municipal waterworks, lighting and heating plants may be
undertaken by a committee of the council, or these duties
may be transferred by by-law, assented to by the electors of
the municipality, to a commission consisting of not less than
three or more than five members, of whom the head of the
council shall, ex qfficio, be one, and the remainder shall be
elected annually at the same time and in the same manner as
the head of the council. When a vacancy occurs, the council
is authorized to appoint a commissioner to hold office during
the remainder of the term for which his predecessor was
appointed. The duty of the commissioners is to report
annually to the council and make application to that body for
moneys required in respect to such work. All rents and rates
collected, less disbursements, shall quarterly, or as the council
may direct, be paid over by the commissioners to the municipal
treasurer for the credit of the separate works account.

MUNICIPAL BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS 481

Public Libraries. — In cities, towns, and villages, councils
may, on petition, submit a by-law providing for the establish-
ment of a public library. When the by-law has been approved,
the general management, regulation, and control of the library
and rooms in connection therewith shall be vested in and
exercised by the public library board, to be composed of the
mayor of the city or town or the reeve of the village and three
other persons appointed by the council, three appointed by
the public school board, and two appointed by the separate
school board, where one exists. The members appointed hold
office for three or two years and retire in rotation. Members
of the appointing committee are not eligible for appointment
as members of the board. For the purpose of providing for
the expenses of the board, the council is required to levy a
special rate not exceeding one half-mill on the dollar for
public library purposes. In cities of over one thousand the
rate is limited to one-quarter of a mill. If additional money
is required, the board makes application to the council, which
may grant it on a two-thirds vote of the members, or the
question may be submitted to a vote of the electors.

Park Boards. — Councils of municipalities may establish
and maintain parks and, if a majority of the ratepayers so
decide, the Public Parks Act may be adopted, after which
the general management, regulation, and control of all exist-
ing parks and avenues, and all properties both real and
personal applicable to the maintenance of parks belonging to
the municipality, shall be vested in and exercised by a board
to be called the Board of Park Management, the board to be
composed of the mayor of the city or town, or reeve of the
village or township, and six other persons who shall be
residents of the municipality but not members of the council,
to be appointed by the council on the nomination of the mayor
or reeve, the members to hold office for three years and to
retire in rotation. The park board has the power to acquire
by purchase, lease, or otherwise the lands, rights, and privileges
needful for park purposes. The board is required to report
annually to the council and submit an estimate of their re-
quirements. It is the duty of the council to levy annually
a rate of one half-mill on the dollar for the expenses of the

482 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1867-1913

board, and to raise by debentures sums required for the
purpose of purchasing lands and privileges necessary for park
purposes.

Police Commissions. — In all cities control of the police
force is in the hands of the mayor, county judge, and police
magistrate. In towns and villages control of the police force
is the duty of the council. In every town having a police
magistrate the council may constitute a board of police com-
missioners as in cities, but the council of the town may at any
time by by-law dissolve and put an end to the board and
assume their duties. In addition to the management of the
police force in cities, these boards license and regulate second-
hand and junk shops, livery stables, cabs, etc., and also super-
vise and issue licences and permits to auctioneers, bill-posters,
places of amusement, ferries, hawkers and pedlars, intelligence
offices, milk vendors, plumbers, electrical workers, transient
traders, and meeting-houses.

ONTARIO RAILWAY AND MUNICIPAL BOARD

When in 1906 it was announced that the provincial govern-
ment had decided to appoint a railway and municipal board
to take the place of the railway committee of the executive
council, it met with general approval. For some years
previous the matter had been suggested in a general way in
and out of the legislature by those who were in favour of
an organization similar to the Local Government Board of
England. While the board was not promoted to bring this
about, subsequent development has shown that it may ulti-
mately be looked to for an expert supervision of municipal
activities. The board, which has the powers of a court of
record, is composed of three members, appointed by the
lieutenant-governor, who hold office during pleasure, one of
whom is designated as chairman. It is evidently intended
that the chairman shall be a lawyer, as his opinion on a
question of law prevails.

The board has all the powers vested in it by the Railway
Act of 1906, which includes the approval of location, com-
pletion, equipment of railways, and adjustment of disputes

ONTARIO RAILWAY AND MUNICIPAL BOARD 483

with employees. The only appeal allowed from the board
is as to jurisdiction or upon a question of law. The Assess-
ment Act requires appeals from courts of revision to be made
to the board when large amounts are involved. Under the
Municipal Act, by-laws for the alteration of boundaries or
annexation to a city or town may be submitted to the board
for approval, and by-laws relating to finance, debentures,
etc., and public utilities may be confirmed. Telegraph,
telephone, and electric light, heat and power companies were
required to adopt the- board's orders as to installation and
equipment for safety of life and property, a responsibility
that has now been assumed by the Hydro-Electric Com-
mission. The board may be required to report on proposed
changes in the railway law and private acts relating to
municipal corporations or railways. It may also superintend
the book-keeping of public utilities and require annual returns
and statements. In cases of disputes between the manage-
ment and railway employees the board may arbitrate and
endeavour to settle the same. The board was also author-
ized to fix the standard of construction and installation of
municipal telephone systems. This was the programme set
for the board when the members entered upon their duties,
and it is not surprising that they have found a considerable
staff of assistants necessary, including street railway and
telephone experts.

The duties and responsibilities of the board have been
constantly increasing, and every year new matters are
referred to it. It has been authorized to report on the
sufficiency of rates charged by public utilities, whether too
high or too low to pay debt, interest, cost of operation, and
maintenance, to approve of the equipment of the cars on street
railways, and, under the Municipal Securities Act, to certify
to the validity of issues of municipal debentures. It has
authority to extend the time for the issue of debentures and
approve of by-laws changing the rates of interest on these
securities. The equipment, route, and service of street rail-
ways have been placed within its jurisdiction, as have all
matters pertaining to telephone companies, their installation
rates, and exchange of business. When local improvements

VOL. XVIII O

484 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1867-1913

costing over $50,000 are objected to, an appeal may be made
to the board. Under the Survey and Plans Act, plans of
subdivisions within five miles of cities of fifty thousand
population are subject to its approval.

The legislature has connected the board with so many
matters since it was organized that in publishing a list of
the several acts under which it exercises jurisdiction the
following note was appended : ' The above list is prepared
to facilitate reference to legislation and does not purport
to be exhaustive.'

The annual reports of the board give full particulars of
their decisions and complete statistics of the public utility
and other similar corporations of the province. Up to the
end of the year 1912, 1556 formal applications had been made
to the board. The amount of revenue collected in law stamps
on orders made by the board indicates in a general way the
growing importance of that body. In 1906 the amount was
$134.50 ; in 1907, $703 ; in 1908, $1640 ; in 1909, $2484 ;
in 1910, $2177; in 1911, $2279; in 1912, $3487. Under
the Municipal Securities Act, debentures aggregating over
$5,600,000 have been validated since 1908.

The chairman of the board is paid an annual salary of
$6900 and the associate members $4000 each. The total
expenses of the board and its staff is a charge on the railway
mileage tax collected by the province under the provisions of
the supplementary Revenue Act of 1906.

HIGHWAY IMPROVEMENT

The maintenance of highways is always an important
question in a growing community. Toll road companies,
statute labour, county and local municipal corporations were
the sources formerly depended upon for the betterment of
all the highways of the province. The tendencies of pro-
vincial legislation have always been in favour of equalization
by gradually placing more of the responsibility on the counties
for the construction and maintenance of bridges and such
roads as they would assume. Many of the toll roads when
made free became county roads.

HIGHWAY IMPROVEMENT 485

There was for years a spirit of unrest in connection with
the administration of the Statute Labour Law and a general
agitation for larger expenditures for the improvement of
highways. This resulted in the organization of the Ontario
Good Roads Association in 1894, which had for its guiding
spirit the late Andrew Pattullo, then editor of the Sentinel
Review of Woodstock, and afterwards member of the legisla-
ture. A campaign of education was inaugurated, Farmers'
Institute speakers were designated to introduce the question,
and public meetings held in different parts of the province.
So numerous were the demands on the resources of the
association, that the government, at its request in 1896,
appointed A. W. Campbell, C.E., as provincial highway
commissioner.

Campbell, who had made a study of the question from
both a technical and popular point of view, was one of the
few speakers capable of creating an interest in the subject
under all circumstances, and under his direction public
interest became more active. The press of the province was
of the greatest assistance and public meetings were held
in a majority of the municipalities. The statute labour
system was attacked and the use of machinery specially
adapted to the construction and improvement of roads was
advocated. In the eastern counties a good-roads train with
the most improved machinery, in charge of James Sheppard
of Queenston, assisted by giving practical demonstrations in
the modern methods of road-making.

In 1900, after six years' work, many of the townships
had abolished statute labour, and road-graders and other
machinery were coming into use. The result, however, was
far from satisfactory. Pattullo, who was then a member of
the legislature, took up the question with his ever-increasing
interest and enthusiasm.

Highway Improvement Act.— In 1901 the Highway Im-
provement Act was passed providing for a provincial appro-
priation of one million dollars to assist the organized counties
in the work of road improvement to the extent of one-third
of their expenditures under the provisions of the act. This
sum, which looked large, was to be divided on the basis of

486 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1867-1913

acreage, and on the average provided for $26,000 for each
county. It was not expected that this grant would solve the
problem to a greater extent than to interest county authorities
in the construction of model highways of a better class, and
through them to educate the people up to the benefits to be
derived from the expenditures necessary to secure better roads.
In working out the act, this fact appears to have been lost
sight of. The important question with the county councillors
was always the designation of roads for improvement within
their particular municipality. In most cases the road mileage
assumed was too large. The cost of maintenance was often
overlooked and is now an important question.

When the Highway Improvement Act was passed, county
roads were to be found in Hastings and Wellington as a result
of the abolition of tolls in previous years. These counties
have since received some consideration towards placing them
in the same position as others in reference to their road
expenditures.

The results of nineteen years of development of the move-
ment for better roads may be said to be evidenced : in the
abolition of statute labour in many townships ; the adoption
of the Highway Improvement Act in twenty counties in which
3771 miles of highway were assumed for improvement; the
expenditure of $3,393,507 in the improvement of county
roads, one-third of which was paid by the province ; and the
appropriation by the province, in 1912, of an additional
million dollars for the purposes of the Highway Improvement
Act.

It is not possible to say how many miles of the roads
assumed have been improved. Experimental work was
necessary before county authorities appreciated fully the
problems they were endeavouring to solve. In many cases
the initial work done was temporary, and at the present time
can hardly be classified as satisfactory construction. A con-
siderable sum has been expended on bridges, machinery, and
grants to villages and towns. The county of York and the
city of Toronto are jointly interested with the province in a
special arrangement for the improvement of the principal
roads leading to the city. The York Highway Commission

HIGHWAY IMPROVEMENT 487

is doing the best and most expensive work yet undertaken.
Its experience will be of the greatest benefit in years to come,
as the question of subsequent maintenance is being largely
considered in the first cost of the roads in its charge.

The highway legislation passed by the legislature in 1912
provided for an appropriation of five million dollars to be
expended in the construction of roads in the northern districts
of the province, and for the construction by the province in
each county of sample or experimental roads of a more ex-
pensive class than the counties have undertaken, concrete
being used to a considerable extent on all of them.

Federal Aid.— The idea of federal aid for good roads,
included by R. L. Borden in his platform for the general
elections in 1911, was well received. Municipal authorities
generally were led to believe that the financial assistance
they were looking for would be forthcoming. The bill intro-
duced by the Hon. Francis Cochrane in the House of Com-
mons provided : for a grant or annual subsidy for highways ;
for the approval of specifications ; for agreements with the
provinces in reference thereto ; for the construction and im-
provement of highways by Dominion authorities.

The bill was deficient in one important respect, viz. it did
not specify the total amount the federal government proposed
to expend for highway improvement. The estimates for
1912 and 1913 included appropriations of one million dollars
for the purposes of the bill. The Senate, however, did not
approve of the bill because it did not include the basis of
apportionment to the provinces. The failure of the govern-
ment to put through a measure of federal aid satisfactory to
all has had the effect of postponing the adoption of the
Highway Improvement Act in many counties. Most of the
local authorities contemplating the taking up of new schemes
under the Ontario Highway Improvement Act are waiting
to see what becomes of the Dominion government's highway
bill, and to what extent federal aid will be available.

Following up its decision to expend a large amount in the
improvement of highways in the districts, the provincial
government took into consideration the needs of the organized
sections of the province. The increase in the use of motor

488 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1867-1913

vehicles and the effect of that traffic, together with a growing
desire for better highways than were being constructed, led
up to an announcement of the government's intention to
expend upwards of ten million dollars for highway improve-
ment and the appointment of a commission to prepare a plan
of road construction for the province.

The plan the commission will submit to the government
is expected to indicate a widening out in road improvement
in two important directions, in addition to present county
construction. With the assistance of a federal grant a start
upon a system of provincial highways of permanent con-
struction will be possible. The development of township and
county roads during the next few years will make the con-
struction of main highways a necessity in order to bring the
farmers' products within easy reach of the cities and towns.
These highways will link together the big cities of the pro-
vince, which will be brought into co-operation in construction.

Fully as important is the question of maintenance, and
there is not a doubt but that the commission will recommend
the extension of the principle of government assistance to the
upkeep of highways. At present the government encourages
a county to embark upon the building of a county roads'
system, but, once constructed, little further interest has been
taken in them. The result has been that some counties which
drew heavily upon their resources to build roads have not been
able to keep them in proper repair. Previous to the govern-
ment's decision to appoint a commission, action along the line
of encouraging maintenance was contemplated.

THE LOCAL IMPROVEMENT SYSTEM

The principle upon which ordinary municipal taxes are
assessed and levied is that which was laid down in 1776 by
Adam Smith, viz. that ' the subjects of every state ought
to contribute to the expense of the government as nearly
as possible in proportion to their respective abilities.' The
Assessment Act provided that all municipal taxes shall be
levied equally upon the whole ratable property, real and
personal, in a municipality according to the assessed value of

THE LOCAL IMPROVEMENT SYSTEM 489

such property. This, however, did not include rates or taxes
paid under the local improvement system, the fundamental
principle of which is : ' The right of the local authority to
assess and levy upon the owners of real estate specially bene-
fited by the construction of a local work a share at least of the
benefit thus conferred.'

The foundation of the local improvement procedure in
Ontario was adopted in the act of 1859 : from that date to
1882 benefit was the only criterion of assessability. In the
latter year locality became in certain cases the test, the rates
being imposed ' upon the real property fronting or abutting
upon the street or place whereon or wherein the work was
done ' ; and in 1883 this rule was made applicable in all cases.
In 1885 this was changed so that property benefited might
be included in assessment for the cost of bridges, culverts,
embankments, or the opening up or extension of streets. In
1888 the restriction of the assessment to abutting property
was removed in the case of sewers of large capacity. In 1896
the principle of benefit as in force prior to 1882 was again
adopted.

Alterations have been made in the method of apportion-
ing the amount to be assessed. By the act of 1866 a rate on
assessed values exclusive of improvements was the only one
authorized. In 1 88 1 a further change was made, by which
the respective frontages of the lots determined the sum to be
levied. This is the general principle of the present law.

In 1866 the only method of initiating a local improvement
work was by petition. In 1871 councils were authorized to
initiate the work when they were prepared to pay one-half
the cost. In 1880 this liability was removed provided the
local improvement system had been adopted by general by-
law. In 1890 the initiation of work for sanitary reasons was
permitted when recommended by the local board of health.
Up to 1868 the local improvement sections were applicable
to cities only. In that year they were extended to towns, to
villages in 1871, and to townships in 1887.

The works that could be undertaken were first limited to
sewers, side-walks, and street improvement, sweeping and
watering. In 1871 bridges were included, in 1880 the

490 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1867-1913

deepening of streams and drainage work, in 1890 culverts
and embankments, and in 1892 water and light mains. This
system of making municipal improvements is a popular one ;
it appeals to ratepayers desirous of bettering the condition
of their surroundings. It has been adopted in nearly all the
urban municipalities of the province, and in townships where
urban conditions exist.

There is considerable variation in the portion of the cost,
if any, assumed by the municipality. In some, the property
fronting on the work pays the whole cost ; in others, the
municipality assumes a percentage, and constructs all street
intersections and a portion of the excessive frontage on corner
lots. These particulars, which apply to the whole munici-
pality, should be finally determined by by-law before local
improvement works are undertaken.

Power to construct a work on a two-thirds vote of the
council was first granted in 1890 to a city only and was con-
fined to plank side- walks. In 1901 it was extended to towns
and in 1902 to villages, and enlarged to include a side- walk of
plank, gravel, cinders, or a combination with tar and sand ;
in the following year side-walks of cement, concrete, or brick
were added. In 1906 every kind of side-walk was included
and the necessary vote changed to two-thirds of the members
of a council present at a regular meeting. In 1911 the power
was extended to include a curbing, pavement, side-walk,
hedge, and the opening, widening, extending, grading, divert-
ing, or otherwise improving a street.

Generally speaking, the system has found favour. Councils
take advantage of it to undertake works that are desirable
in the public interest. In the case of expensive work, parties
objecting to the action of the council may have the matter
considered by the Ontario Railway and Municipal Board.

PUBLIC HEALTH

In 1849 a central board of health was established by the
parliaments of Upper and Lower Canada and the first regu-
lations issued from Montreal in June of that year in connec-
tion with the suppression of a virulent epidemic of cholera.

PUBLIC HEALTH 491

When the epidemic subsided, the central board remained in-
active until 1866, when the cholera returned, and an act was
passed to continue in force in Upper Canada the regulations
issued from Montreal. These were enforced by a central
board at the seat of government in Ottawa.

In 1873 and 1877 the provincial legislature passed acts
respecting the public health in which provision was made
for a provincial board and members of councils were desig-
nated health officers. In cases of epidemics the lieutenant-
governor could, by proclamation, require a council to appoint
a board of health consisting of three persons. Very little
interest was taken in this legislation, and seven years later a
new act was passed requiring councils to appoint boards of
health annually. These were to be composed of the reeve,
clerk, and three ratepayers in townships, villages, and towns
under four thousand population, and of the mayors and eight
ratepayers in the larger towns and cities. The appointment
of medical health officers and sanitary inspectors was not
compulsory. In the following year, 1885, a council was re-
quired to appoint a medical health officer when so requested
by the provincial board. Ten years later the members in
cities and towns were reduced to six, and continuity of pro-
cedure in boards of health was ensured by requiring one-
third of the appointed members to retire annually. The
powers of the provincial board were extended to the super-
vision and approval of plans for waterworks and sewers.
Although medical health officers and sanitary inspectors were
included in the organization of the local boards in most of
the municipalities, their appointment was not made com-
pulsory until 1911.

In 1912, owing to the growing interest in public health
matters, a new act was found to be necessary. This changed
the constitution of the local boards of the larger towns and
cities to the mayor, medical health officer, and three rate-
payers, and in all other municipalities one ratepayer. The
necessity for central control or supervision was emphasized
by providing for the appointment of seven medical officers
of health to devqte their whole time to supervising the sanitary
work of the respective districts into which the province was

492 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1867-1913

divided. The headquarters of these officers are London,
Palmerston, Hamilton, Peterborough, Kingston, North Bay,
and Fort William. With the exception of the two for New
Ontario, the salaries and expenses of these new officials will be
paid by the groups of counties in each district. The medical
health officer is a member and the chief executive officer
of the local board. With a view to having some permanency
in this office, it is provided that he shall not be dismissed
except for cause and with the approval of the provincial
board. Among other things the act requires that the indi-
gent sick and injured must be cared for by the municipality,
and, as the medical officer is paid a salary, he attends to this
duty. The whole question of communicable disease, its noti-
fication, quarantine, and disinfection, is specially dealt with,
and, for the first time in the history of the province, notifica-
tion of tuberculosis is required. The question of nuisances
and offensive trades and their control receives attention.
Provision is made for the inspection of lodging-houses, and
the air space required for occupants is raised from four
hundred to six hundred cubic feet. The medical health
officer is authorized to close and placard a house unfit for
habitation. The supervision of water supply and sewage
disposal is continued, and the care of ice supplies and inspec-
tion of meat is fully dealt with.

The Vaccination Act provides that infants shall be vacci-
nated within three months, and all residents when required
by proclamation, unless they have been vaccinated within
seven years.

From the new system of district officers of health, com-
bined with independent local health officers, a good deal of
improvement in the sanitary condition of the province is
expected.

MUNICIPAL LEGISLATION

Municipal councils exercise authority by virtue of the
powers conferred in the general provincial laws, which in
Ontario are largely an expansion of the principles laid down
in the Municipal (Baldwin) Act of 1849. The result of such

ENTERTAINMENT AND PUBLICITY 493

restriction is that municipalities often apply to the legisla-
ture for consideration or authority to exercise special powers.
These applications result in what are known as ' Private Bills '
relating to almost every phase of municipal progress and
mismanagement, large numbers of which are passed at each
session.

Special legislation in the interests of large cities may also
be found in the general acts, framed so as to apply in future
to other corporations, which may by the growth of popula-
tion come within their application. This very often pro-
vides for nothing more than the old problems of local govern-
ment so intensified in cities that they become essentially
new problems.

Notwithstanding the large amount of municipal legisla-
tion and the care with which it is enacted, every session of
the legislature produces some new development calculated to
improve the best system of local government.

ENTERTAINMENT AND PUBLICITY

The traditions of the past were somewhat disturbed in
1891 when expenditures by cities for the entertainment of
distinguished guests were authorized, and again in 1897,
when the commercial tendencies of municipalities were re-
cognized by providing for the expense of diffusing information
respecting the advantages of a municipality as a manufac-
turing, business, educational, or residential centre, or holiday
resort. This led to considerable competition between the
cities and towns with a view to industrial expansion, and
publicity departments established in the larger cities are now
presided over by a commission of industries.

The active campaign for settlers in the North-West pro-
vinces, fostered by land companies and the Canadian Immi-
gration department, had an ever-decreasing effect on popula-
tion and land values in the rural districts. Lambton was
the first county to recognize the necessity for the adoption
of modern methods by the formation in 1910 of a county
publicity association for the purpose of diffusing informa-
tion respecting its advantages as an agricultural centre.

494 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1867-1913

The legislature approved of this and authorized special
grants to the extent of one-third of county expenditures for
this purpose. A large number of counties are already
organized, and their efforts are having the desired effect on
land values and the system of selecting and distributing
immigrants.

The system of placing trained experts, representatives
of the Agricultural department, in each county to assist in
the introduction of improved methods of farming, fruit-
raising, etc., has been well received. County councils are
required to contribute a portion of the expense. This co-
operation, combined with the awakening that is sure to result
from publicity campaigns already inaugurated, should bring
about conditions most beneficial to rural communities.

THE BONUS SYSTEM

In 1884 councils were authorized to bonus manufactur-
ing industries to the extent of exemption from taxation for
ten years. Three years later they received permission to
grant a bonus when a by-law was approved by ratepayers
on a two-fifths vote. This introduced a system of what has
been called ' ruinous competition ' between the cities and
towns of the province for industries, which were peddled
around in order to get the competing communities to bid
against one another. Five years' experience was sufficient,
and in 1892 the act was repealed. After this the only in-
ducement a council could offer a manufacturer was exemp-
tion from taxation. This did not deter the more ambitious
municipalities, who soon ascertained that by means of special
acts they could continue to grant as large sums by way of
bonus as formerly. This was a practical evasion of the
general law. The old system, which had been abolished by
reason of the many evils attached to it, was found to have
been better than that of placing the responsibility on the
legislature.

In 1900 the bonus sections were re-enacted and by-laws
thereunder were required to be assented to by two-thirds of the
ratepayers entitled to vote, or where only one-fifth voted

CARE OF THE POOR 495

against a by-law, a three-fifths majority was sufficient. These
sections are at present (1914) in force, but the by-laws require
the approval of three-fourths of the members of the council
and two-thirds of the votes cast. No bonus can be granted
when a similar industry is located in a municipality or to
a business that is located elsewhere in the province. The
business of securing industries is now well organized in most
cities and towns. The bonus idea is giving way in favour of
loans to manufacturers for a term of years. This is better
from an economic point of view.

CARE OF THE POOR

The care of the poor in Ontario has always devolved upon
citizens who are charitably disposed and upon the municipal
authorities. In some of the larger urban communities
voluntary organizations devote their energies to outside relief
and care of the unfortunate in institutions of various kinds,
some of which are supported by municipal grants and grants
from the provincial treasurer apportioned on a per diem
basis. The number of institutions of this class has increased
from 38 in 1877 to 161 in 1912, classified as follows : 76
hospitals, 37 refuges, 31 orphanages, 3 homes for incurables,
3 convalescent homes, 2 Magdalen asylums, and 9 sanatoria
for consumptives. The cost of maintenance of patients in
hospitals when they are unable to pay is charged to the
municipality to which they belong.

In rural districts the care of the poor was originally the
duty of the councils of the local municipalities and consider-
able sums were expended on outdoor relief. This has been
largely assumed by the county councils through the establish-
ment of houses of industry and refuge.

Houses of Industry. — Previous to Confederation the
legislative authorities decided that the helpless and friendless
poor should be provided for by indoor relief in industrial
homes.

The act of 1866 was mandatory in tone, a limit of two
years being allowed within which county councils were to
secure land, build houses of industry, make regulations,

496

MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1867-1913

appoint officers, and provide for the maintenance of the
institutions. One of the first acts of the legislature of Ontario
after Confederation was to make the establishment of these
institutions optional. In 1888 a general act for their establish-
ment was authorized, and in 1890 they were encouraged by
provincial grants to the extent of four thousand dollars each,
but not to exceed one-quarter of the amount actually expended
by the counties in the purchase of land and erection of houses
of industry thereon. Provision was also made for inspection
of houses of industry by the provincial inspector of asylums
and public charities.

In 1903 the legislature made it compulsory for counties to
erect houses of industry either separately or in conjunction
with adjoining counties. There are at present thirty-one
houses of industry in the province with farms of from forty-
five to one hundred acres attached. The largest number of
inmates, over one hundred, is to be found in Waterloo, the
average being fifty-five.

The expenditures by the municipalities of the province
for the support of the poor and public charities have been
growing rapidly.

1886

1910

Cities ....
Counties
Villages and towns .
Townships

$81,566
46,326
34,5io
64,916

$599,233
242,404

55,771
57,043

$227,318

$954,451

The increases that would naturally show in the expenditures
of villages, towns, and townships are included in the amounts
paid by counties under the house of industry system.

The passing of the act respecting neglected children and
children's aid societies made counties and cities in which
the children last resided for one year responsible for their
maintenance when committed to their care pending investiga-
tion or until they are provided with foster homes. These

MUNICIPAL ACCOUNTS AND AUDITS 497

societies have been formed in every city and county and are
doing splendid work for the protection of children, and as a
result no child between the ages of two and sixteen years has
been legally an inmate of a house of industry since 1895.
One of the main objects of these societies is to avoid in-
stitutionalizing of children.

The indigent insane are cared for in the provincial asylums
when it is dangerous for them to be at large or when it is
thought that they may be amenable to treatment. Many
harmless insane are cared for in houses of industry and other
institutions, and arrangements are being made to transfer
the accumulation of this class of inmates from the asylums
to institutions maintained by the municipalities.

MUNICIPAL ACCOUNTS AND AUDITS

Up to 1897 the accounts of municipalities generally were
audited by two auditors, one of whom was nominated by the
head of the council. These were annual appointments.
Toronto alone had the right to appoint auditors who held
office during pleasure ; other cities and towns had authority
to submit their accounts to one auditor whose duties were
regulated by by-law of the council. There were many
irregularities in treasurers' accounts and a great lack of
uniformity in the system of books in which they were kept.
The auditing of accounts was a farce in many municipalities.
In many cases, where a special investigation was held and
errors or defalcations discovered, the accounts had been found
correct and certified by the annual auditors. In 1897, under
the authority of an act to make better provision for keeping
and auditing municipal and school accounts, a provincial
municipal auditor was appointed with authority to frame
rules respecting the following matters : the number and
forms of books of account to be kept by the treasurers of
county, city, township, town, and village municipalities and
of police villages respectively ; the system of book-keeping
to be adopted by all municipal treasurers or by the treasurers
of any class of municipalities, and by the treasurers of all or
of any class of school boards ; the manner in which books of

498 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1867-1913

account, vouchers, receipts, moneys, and securities of muni-
cipalities and school boards shall be kept ; the audit and
examination of accounts and moneys of municipal corpora-
tions and of school moneys by municipal and school auditors
respectively, or by the provincial municipal auditor, or by
any person appointed by him for that purpose.

Books of account were accordingly prepared and approved
by the lieutenant-governor in council, after which it was the
duty of the municipal treasurers to use them, if the system of
books and accounts in use was not satisfactory to the pro-
vincial auditor. The analytical cash-books then issued went
into general use in all municipalities except cities with over
fifteen thousand population, to which the regulation did not
apply. This brought about considerable improvement and
uniformity.

The procedure necessary to procure a special examination,
inspection, and audit of a treasurer's accounts was simplified.
These may now be held by the provincial auditor on his own
motion, or whenever requested by two members of a council,
or on the written requisition of thirty ratepayers resident in
the municipality.

In previous investigations the defalcations reported were
largely in connection with the payment of taxes to the
treasurer and his failure to keep municipal moneys in a
separate bank account. The new act provided that a council
could direct that moneys payable to the municipality for
taxes be paid into a chartered bank, and a treasurer of a
municipality or of a school board was required to keep the
moneys held by him in a separate bank account kept in his
name as treasurer of the municipality or board.

In 1898 heads of municipalities were deprived of the right
to nominate one of the auditors, and all councils were
authorized, if they so desired, to appoint one auditor only
and to define his duties. This favoured continuity and
experience.

A large number of special audits have been held under
the supervision of the provincial auditor. One of the principal
difficulties has been to secure competent auditors ; in addition
to this, the appointees are usually limited to friends or sup-

MUNICIPAL STATISTICS 499

porters of the political party in power. Another difficulty is
that while the municipal auditor may make rules and regula-
tions, he has no means of ascertaining whether or not those
rules are observed. He should have authority to compel local
officials to furnish him with such information or returns as
he may require.

The accounts of municipalities should not only show the
disposition of moneys received and to whom paid, but they
should be kept according to a uniform system of classification.
This would be most valuable for the purpose of comparison
within the municipality and throughout the province.

MUNICIPAL STATISTICS

As a result of a report in 1881 of a royal commission on
agriculture, a provincial bureau of industries was established
in 1882 for the purpose of collecting, tabulating, and publish-
ing industrial information for public purposes. In 1887 the
activities of the bureau were extended to statistics relating to
the assessment, taxation, and finances of municipalities.

1. The clerk of every municipality is required to furnish
to the secretary of the Ontario Bureau of Industries, at
Toronto, who is attached to the department of Agriculture,
any information asked for from the assessment and the col-
lection rolls.

2. The auditors are required to send to the same official
a copy of their certified audit at the time of its completion.

3. The treasurer is required to make a return once a
year of the financial transactions of the year, such as
the receipts and expenditures, the assets and liabilities,
on such forms as the secretary of the bureau provides for
that purpose.

These returns are received and examined as far as possible,
and, if incomplete, or if they require further explanation, are
amended and corrected by correspondence. When satis-
factory, these statements are published in tabulated form as
one of the reports of the bureau. These reports now cover
the years 1886 to 1910. As a result of these returns there
has been a partial supervision of municipal accounts by the

VOL. XVIII P

500 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1867-1913

officers of the bureau with a view to making the returns as
complete and reliable as possible.

The municipal records have been gradually improved so
that the required statistics may be easily obtained. The
classification of accounts in the approved municipal cash-
books was arranged to facilitate the preparation of financial
returns to the bureau. The results for twenty-five years are
now available.

The statistics relating to assessment and taxation, which
appear elsewhere, directed attention to a very large increase
in property values.

The financial features of the reports show the very great
development that has been going on in the municipal business
of the province. This is best emphasized by a comparison
of the expenditures of 1886 with those of 1910, the increase
being in

Townships . . . 4,946,902 or 95 per cent
Towns and villages . . 10,671,553 ,, 306 ,, „
Cities .... 29,522,281 „ 383 „ „
Counties .... 2,176,786 ,, 87 „ „
All municipalities . 47,317,522 „ 247 „ „

A reference to the following comparative survey shows
that the largest increases are in connection with roads, streets,
public utilities, and education, and that, while these are
enormous, the financial management has been conservative,
the percentage of increase in the accumulation of assets and
liabilities or vice versa being in

Townships . . assets . . 33 per cent

Towns and villages . . liabilities . 10 ,, ,,

Cities . . . liabilities . 33 ,, ,,

Counties . . assets . . 41 „ „

All municipalities . . assets . . 14

MUNICIPAL STATISTICS

501

SURVEY OF TOWNSHIP RECEIPTS AND DISBURSEMENTS,
ASSETS AND LIABILITIES, 1886 AND 1910

Schedule

1886

I9ZO

RECEIPTS

Balance from previous year ....

385,132

858,240

Ordinary municipal revenue :

Municipal and school taxes ....

4,383,179

7,507,613

Licences, fees, rents, fines, etc.

47,675

58,173

Refund of moneys loaned or invested, including

special deposits and interest ....

204,321

248,721

Loans :

Money borrowed for current expenses

335,8o6

1,420,505

Money borrowed on debentures

For school purposes . . \
„ all other purposes . . /

278,193

1,000,226

Miscellaneous

235,256

380,513

Totals

5,869,562

11,473,991

DISBURSEMENTS

Expenses of municipal government :
Allowances, salaries, and commissions

$
264,119

$
392,151

Other expenses of municipal government .

101,286

202,314

Construction works :

Roads and bridges . . . . \
Buildings and other works . . . J

719,215

1,813,465

Drainage works

251,215

697,509

Support of poor and other charities

64,916

57,043

County treasurer for levy ....

1,088,648

1,595,723

Payments on account of schools and education

1,872,844

Sinking funds and other investments .

180,960

I92'o99

Loans repaid :

Debentures redeemed (principal)

252,329

500,859

Interest on loans, advances and debentures

152,506

231,373

Refund of moneys borrowed for current

•233 OO6

1,337,809

Miscellaneous

154,692

245,786

Totals

5,435,736

10,382,638

ASSETS

Cash in treasury

433,826

Taxes in arrears

1,171,743

1,741,160

Sinking funds and other investments in stocks,

mortgages, debentures, etc, including special

deposits

1,598,943

1,229,688

Land, buildings, and other property .

330,887

770,661

Miscellaneous

145,536

1,978,559

Totals

3,680,935

6,811,421

502

MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1867-1913

SURVEY OF TOWNSHIP RECEIPTS AND DISBURSEMENTS,
ASSETS AND LIABILITIES, 1886 AND 1910— continued

Schedule

1886

1910

LIABILITIES
County levies .....

374,176

341,782

Local school rates
Debentures outstanding (principal)
For aid to railways . . . . "\
„ school purposes ....
„ all other purposes J
Loans for current expenses and interest on same

193,800

3,153,646

127,974
355,076

458,970

4,505,496

726,549
366,310

Totals

4,204,672

6,399,107

SURVEY OF TOWN AND VILLAGE RECEIPTS AND DISBURSE-
MENTS, ASSETS AND LIABILITIES, 1886 AND 1910

Schedule

1886

1910

RECEIPTS

Balance from previous year ....
Ordinary municipal revenue :

176,005

415,125

Municipal and school taxes ....

1,701,742

4,931,170

Licences, fees, rents, fines, etc. . . "I
Water rates, etc J

144,890

1,719,562

Refund of moneys loaned or invested, including

special deposits (principal and interest) .

137,071

746,743

Loans :

Money borrowed for current expenses

923,161

3,888,517

Money borrowed on debentures

For school purposes . . \
„ all other purposes . . /

534,511

2,414,293

Miscellaneous .......

88 172

4.20.2^3

UU)* / ^

** V) JJ

Totals

3,705,552

14,544,643

DISBURSEMENTS

Expenses of municipal government :

Allowances, salaries, and commissions

126,715

268,367

Lighting of streets, water supply, and fire

161 078

»22 QOB

J.v*»y/u

°j^tyzo

MUNICIPAL STATISTICS

503

SURVEY OF TOWN AND VILLAGE RECEIPTS AND DISBURSE-
MENTS, ASSETS AND LIABILITIES, 1886 AND 1910— continued

Schedule

1886

IQIO

DISBURSEMENTS — continued

Other expenses of municipal government .

88,058

817,699

Construction works :

Streets, bridges, and parks ....

438,389

1,245,507

Buildings and other works ....

133,978

1,491,099

Support of the poor and other charities

34,510

55,771

Administration of justice, including police

service

42,595

164,680

County treasurer for levy

121,142

258,247

Payments on account of schools and education .

638,8I3

1,979,405

Sinking fund and other investments .

146,799

898,935

Loans repaid :

Debentures redeemed (principal)

250,546

960,189

Interest on loans, advances, and debentures

278,555

1,144,938

Refund of moneys borrowed for current

80? 841

3 6 so 02 1

Miscellaneous

JIT1

214,586

*J, 3 7,

377,272

Totals

3>482,505

14,154,058

ASSETS

Cash in treasury

223,047

390,585

Taxes in arrears

529,251

1,130,938

Sinking funds and other investments in stocks,

mortgages, debentures, etc., including special

deposits
Land, buildings, and other property .

955,843
3,528,945

3,959,132
16,454,781

Miscellaneous

304,213

3,600,618

Totals

5,541,299

25,536,054

LIABILITIES

yi/r-s^A

C2 6ol

Local scnool rates

H^r, jy^>
113,585

}4|UW1

322,541

Debentures outstanding (principal)

For aid to railways \

„ school purposes ....

4,795,540

23,782,393

„ all other purposes J

Loans for current expenses and interest due

on same

387,933

1,855,177

Miscellaneous

245,640

2,222,844

Totals

5,587,034

28,235,556

504

MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1867-1913

SURVEY OF CITY RECEIPTS AND DISBURSEMENTS, ASSETS
AND LIABILITIES, 1886 AND 1910

Schedule

1886

I9SO

RECEIPTS

Balance from previous year ....

234,368

1,305,758

Ordinary municipal revenue :

Municipal and school taxes

2,775,762

11,604,678

Liquor licences ~|

Other licences

132,214

370,496

Fees, rents, tolls, fines, etc. . . . J

Water rates, electric light, or gas rates, etc.

817,629

4,054,848

Interest on bank deposits, sinking fund,

and other investments and dividends on

stocks

103,402

627,052

Subsidies and refunds :

From government (except for loans and

schools)

20,696

58,809

Refund of moneys loaned or invested (in-

cluding sinking funds and special deposits)

385,728

5,940,064

Loans :

Money borrowed for current expenses

2,135,808

5,833,810

Money borrowed on debentures

For school purposes . . \
„ all other purposes . . /

899,010

7,253,334

Miscellaneous

393,057

712,500

Totals

7,897,674

37,761,349

DISBURSEMENTS

Expenses of municipal government :

Allowances, salaries, and commissions

124,344

476,137

Printing, advertising, postage, stationery .

29,750

96,136

Insurance, heating, light, and care of buildings

2i,354

271,424

Law costs (including salaries)

i9,47i

85,617

Lighting of streets . . . . \
Water supply and fire protection . . J

561,681

2,087,440

Election of members of council . . \
Other expenses of municipal government J

34,388

1,316,016

Construction works :

Streets, bridges, and parks ....

1,099,602

4,800,057

Waterworks, sewers, and electric light plant \
Buildings and other property . . J

337,578

5,190,116

Board of Health (including salaries) .

94,556

245,874

Support of poor and other charities .

81,566

599,233

Administration of justice, police service, etc.

385,468

1,129,543

Payments on account of schools and education .

613,369

3,820,662

Investments and deposits :

Sinking fund, investments, and deposits \
Other investment and special deposits /

523,728

7,253,334

MUNICIPAL STATISTICS

505

SURVEY OF CITY RECEIPTS AND DISBURSEMENTS, ASSETS
AND LIABILITIES, 1886 AND 1910— continued

Schedule

1886

IQIO

DISBURSEMENTS — continued

Loans and interest :
Debentures redeemed (principal) .
Interest or discount on loans, etc.
Refund of moneys borrowed for current
expenses
Discount on debentures sold . . . \
Miscellaneous J

$
152,836
1,061,908

2,073,869
484,342

$
2,420,953
3,034,180

4,145,439
1,045,992

Totals

7,699,810

38,018,153

ASSETS

Cash in treasury
Taxes in arrears
Sinking funds and other investments in mort-
gages, debentures, stocks, etc. (including
special deposits)
Land, buildings, etc "j

$
197,864

1,164,319
2,780,681

I C 421 Q36

$
539,258
2,"4,359

18,214,030

,17 278 T?8

Other property (cemetery, fire halls, etc.) . J
Miscellaneous

2,448,412

15,884,915

Totals

22,013,212

84,030,900

LIABILITIES

Local school rates unpaid
Debentures outstanding (principal)
Aid to railways "\
Schools
Local improvements ....
Municipal works
All other objects J
Loans for current expenses and interest due on
same
Miscellaneous

$
77,064

18,469,933

I,027,8l6
I,34S.78l

t
19,001

76,501,342

3,980,515
6,422,674

Totals

20,920,594

86,923,532

506

MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1867-1913

SURVEY OF COUNTY RECEIPTS AND DISBURSEMENTS,
ASSETS AND LIABILITIES, 1886 AND 1910

Schedule

1886

1910

RECEIPTS

Balance from previous year ....

286,903

280,664

Ordinary municipal revenue :

Rates from local municipalities .

1,245,154

1,926,075

Licences ")

Fees, rents, tolls, fines, etc. .

57,220

50,845

Surplus fees from registrar . . . J

Interest on deposits and dividends on invest-

ments

31,912

17,238

Loans :

Money borrowed for current expenses

400,645

1,314,890

Money borrowed on debentures .

128,192

383,000

Non-resident taxes collected ....

112,117

35,652

Towns or cities separated from county, for

114,000

112,288

Subsidies and refunds :

Ml 77

Refund of moneys loaned or invested .

109,081

52,092

Received from government :

For school purposes

148,555

457,187

„ administration of justice and

other purposes ....

127,070

130,584

Miscellaneous

42,680

227,521

Totals

2,804,519

4,988,036

DISBURSEMENTS

Expenses of municipal government :

Attendance at meetings of council and com-

mittees

54,569

77,491

Allowances, salaries, and commissions

96,969

88,525

Printing, postage, and stationery

22,722

32,770

Insurance, heating, lighting, and care of

00 226

c8 256

Law costs (including salaries) . . \
Other expenses J

y^}t,*.\j

23,731

J°»^jll

33,559

Construction works :

Roads and bridges

225,104

893,320

Buildings and other works ....

78,098

141,853

Support of the poor and other charities.

46,326

242,404

Administration of justice, gaol maintenance, etc.

386,588

429,120

Grants to schools and other payments for educa-

tion .........

363 6d. C

QT-5 37Q

Sinking funds and other investments, including

ytjjY~"*j
i7c 8?8

v o, j/y
06 033

Loans and interest :

* / 3)u/"

VU»VJJ

Debentures redeemed (principal)

210,364

141,152

AIDS TO MUNICIPAL DEVELOPMENT 507

SURVEY OF COUNTY RECEIPTS AND DISBURSEMENTS,
ASSETS AND LIABILITIES, 1886 AND 1910— continued

Schedule

1886

1910

DISBURSEMENTS — continued

Interest or discounts on loans, etc.

222,651

131,296

Refund of moneys borrowed for current

sRc C2fi

Non-resident taxes paid local municipalities

109,428

32,405

Totals

2,507,948

4,684,734

ASSETS

•

Rates due from local municipalities .
Sinking funds and other investments, special

649,771

479,838

deposits, etc. .......

878,977

A62.3QI

Land, buildings, furniture, etc

2,770,367

4,323,858

Totals

4,741,730

5,960,750

LIABILITIES

School grants unpaid

43,488

22,932

Debentures outstanding (principal)

Aid to railways \
Schools and other objects . . . /

3>505,744

2,781,115

Loans for current expenses and interest due on

same

324,798

676,026

Local municipalities for non-resident taxes col-

lected

30,344

11,705

Totals

4,054,280

3,624,235

AIDS TO MUNICIPAL DEVELOPMENT

The investigation of municipal problems with a view to
the betterment of conditions has at all times been of the
greatest importance. The Province of Ontario has not been
behind in this respect, and, following the custom of other
governments, has usually placed this responsibility on com-

508 MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1867-1913

missions appointed by the lieutenant-governor in council.
The reports of these special bodies have been valuable,
and while their recommendations may not always have
been accepted, they contained a great deal of informa-
tion of the greatest interest to members of the legislature
and others.

The Royal Commission on Agriculture recommended in
1 88 1, among other things, the formation of the bureau of
Industries, which was afterwards entrusted with the collection
of municipal statistics. The Municipal Commission of 1888
placed an outline of the municipal systems of various countries
in convenient form and compared the more important features
with those of Ontario. The Drainage Commission of 1893
was followed by a revision of the drainage laws and the enact-
ment of the Ditches and Watercourses Act, a most valuable
aid in the settlement of local drainage disputes. The Toll
Road Commission of 1895 dealt with those relics of municipal
mismanagement, and its report included suggestions for the
purchase of the roads then in existence. The Tax Com-
mission of 1898 included in its report the systems of assess-
ment and taxation in other countries, and the report of a
similar commission appointed in 1901 was followed by the
adoption of the present law. A select committee on municipal
ownership in 1904 set forth particulars of municipal owner-
ship laws in other countries and showed the extent to which
the idea had developed in Ontario. The Hydro-Electric
Commission reports resulted in the conservation of electric
power development for the municipalities of the province.
The Railway Tax Commission of 1905 reported a large
amount of well-considered information and recommended
radical changes in the system of railway taxation for pro-
vincial and municipal purposes. The recently appointed
Highway Commission will no doubt suggest plans, ways, and
means for the permanent improvement of the highways of
the province.

The Ontario Municipal Association, organized at Hamilton
in 1899, has since been most active in considering the needs
of municipalities generally, and has been the means of bring-
ing about much progressive legislation. The University of

AIDS TO MUNICIPAL DEVELOPMENT 509

Toronto studies in political science, published from time to
time, have been most valuable in directing attention to
municipal affairs. All these, combined with the critical but
progressive attitude of the provincial press, have done much to
improve municipal conditions.

The newer provinces, recognizing the lack of co-operation
on the part of the various provincial authorities in Ontario
having to do with municipal affairs, included in their organiza-
tion a sub-department of Municipal Affairs in charge of an
efficient deputy minister. The result has been most beneficial
in directing municipal development along right lines. There
would appear to be the greatest necessity for the establish-
ment of a similar department in Ontario if local government
problems are to receive the attention necessary to keep the
municipalities abreast of the rapid progress that is being made
elsewhere.

One of the tendencies of present-day legislation is to
surround both the legislative and administrative powers of
municipal councils with a wise measure of central control.

The supervising authorities have been shown to be : the
bureau of Industries, the provincial inspection of county
houses of industry, etc., the provincial Board of Health,
the provincial highway commissioner, the Hydro-Electric
Power Commission, the Railway and Municipal Board,
the provincial auditor, and the Education department,
which reserves the right to approve of the dismissal of
public school inspectors after they have been appointed by
the councils.

In the matter of returns relating to statistics, the same
information may be demanded by several authorities, and
the control of systems of book-keeping would appear to
require consideration. The Railway and Municipal Board
under their act and the Public Utilities Act have authority
over books and accounts of public utilities. The Power
Commission have a similar authority to which the Municipal
Board cannot object. The provincial municipal auditor,
however, has a general authority to determine the system of
book-keeping to be adopted in all municipalities.

The continual investigation of municipal progress else-

5io MUNICIPAL HISTORY, 1867-1913

where, the adaptation of the best ideas to Ontario conditions
and the necessity for co-ordination throughout, all combine
in favour of the idea that a department of Municipal Affairs
will greatly encourage future development and progressive
legislation.

THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM

JUDICIAL DEVELOPMENT, 1774-1913

ONTARIO is now in its fourth stage of constitutional
development and is just entering upon its fourth
stage of judicial development.,* The first periods
of the two developments coincide, and extend from the
Quebec Act of 1774 to the Constitutional Act of 1791. The
second constitutional period extends from 1791 to the Act
of Union in 1841 ; the third from 1841 to Confederation in
1867; and the fourth from that date to the present time, v
.The second judicial period extends from 1791 to the passing
of the Judicature Act in 1880 ; the third from the time of
the Judicature Act to January I, 1913, when the Law Reform
Act of 1909 came into force.< j The Constitutional Act of
1791 is sometimes regarded as the starting-point of the
history of judicial institutions in Ontario ; but while it is
true that a new beginning was made at that time, it is neces-
sary, to render the present outline complete, to trace the
development of justice from the first years of British rule.

FIRST JUDICIAL PERIOD, 1774-91

The proclamation of George in and the ordinances passed
prior to the Quebec Act refer only to a small portion of the
present province, only, in fact, to that portion which lies
east of a line drawn from the most south-easterly point of
Lake Nipissing to a point where the 45th parallel of north
latitude crosses the St Lawrence River. For practical pur-
poses this is negligible, not only because of the small extent

513

514 THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM

of the province involved, but also because down to the year
1774 Ontario was almost uninhabited, and the judicial insti-
tutions established immediately after the Conquest were not
extended to any part of the present province.

gL/The Quebec Act (14 Geo. in, cap. 83) included the whole
I of Ontario as it at present exists. It provided that by the
proclamation of November 6, 1763, the commission under
which the government of the Province of Quebec was admin-
istered, all the ordinances made by the governor and council,
and all commissions to judges and other officers should be
revoked May I, 1775. <vThis statute also provided that in
all matters of controversy in the courts respecting property
and civil rights resort was to be had to the laws of Canada
for the rule for the decision of the same, and that all causes
should be determined agreeably to the said laws and customs
until varied or altered by ordinances passed in the province
by the governor by and with the advice and consent of the
legislative council. It was also provided that nothing in
the said act should prevent His Majesty from erecting, con-
stituting, and appointing, by letters patent, courts of criminal,
civil, and ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the province and
appointing judges and officers thereof. 4

4The pr«visi»ns respecting the establishment of courts and
the administration of the law set out in the instructions to
Governor Carleton in 1775 are as follows :

12. The Establishment of Courts, and a proper Mode
of administering Civil and Criminal Justice throughout
the whole Extent of Our Province, according to the
Principles declared in the said Act^for making more
effectual Provision for the Government thereof,' demand
the greatest Care and Circumspection ; for, as on the
one hand it is Our Gracious purpose, conformable to
the Spirit and Intention of the said Act of Parliament,
that our Canadian Subjects should have the benefit and
use of their own Laws, Usages, and Customs in all Con-
troversies respecting Titles of Land, and the Tenure, de-
scent, Alienation, Incumbrances, and Settlement of Real
Estates, and the distribution of the personal property of
Persons dying intestate ; so on the other hand, it will
be the duty of the Legislative Council to consider well

JUDICIAL DEVELOPMENT

in framing such Ordinances, as may be necessary for
the Establishment of Courts of Justice, and for the
better Administration of Justice, whether the Laws of
England may not be, if not altogether, at least in part,
the Rule for the decision in all Cases of personal Actions /
grounded upon Debts, Promises, Contracts, and Agree- /
ments, whether of a Mercantile or other Nature ; and
also of Wrongs proper to be compensated in damages ;
and more especially where Our natural-born Subjects
of Great Britain, Ireland or Our other Plantations resid-
ing at Quebec, or who may resort thither, or have
Credits, or Property within the same, may happen to
be either Plaintiff or defendant in any civil Suit of such
a nature.

I3f^5ecurity to personal Liberty is a fundamental
Principle of Justice in all free Governments, and the
making due provision for that purpose is an object the
Legislature of Quebec ought never to lose sight of ; nor
can they follow a better Example than that, which the
Common Law of this Kingdom hath set in the Provision
made for a Writ of Habeas Corpus, which is the Right
of every British Subject in this Kingdom, is

14. With regard to the Nature and number of the
Courts of Justice, which it may be proper to establish,
either for the whole Province at large, or separately for
its dependencies, and the times and places for holding the
said Courts, no certain Rule can be laid down in a Case,
in which the Judgement must in many Respects at least
be altogether guided by Circumstances of local Con-
venience and Consideration.

i^tAn General it may be proper, that there should be
a Superior or Supreme Court of criminal Justice and
Jurisdiction for the Cognizance of all Pleas of the Crown,
and for the Trial of all manner of Offences whatsoever,
to be held before the Chief Justice for the time being
at such times and places, as shall be most convenient
for the due and speedy Administration of Justice, and
the preventing long Imprisonments ; the said Court to
be called and known by the name of the Court .of King's.
Bench y/That. for the more orderly estabTIsEment and
Regulation of Courts of Civil Jurisdiction, the Province
of Quebec, as limited and bounded by the aforesaid Act
of Parliament ' for making more effectual Provision for
the Government of the Province of Quebec in North

VOL. XVIII Q

5i6 THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM

America,' be divided into two Districts by the names
of Quebec and Montreal, each district to be limited
and bounded in such manner, as shall be thought best
adapted to the Object of the Jurisdiction to be estab-
lished therein ;/i That there be established in each of the
said Districts a Court of Common PleasVto be held at N
such times and places, as shall be judged most con-
venient, and to have full Power, Jurisdiction and
Authority to hear and determine all Civil_Suits and
Actions cognizable by the Court of Comm6n"Pleas in
Westminster Hall, according to the Rules prescribed
by the said Act of Parliament ' for making more effectual
Provision for the Government of the Province of Quebec
in North America ' ; and according to such Laws and
Ordinances, as shall from time to time be enacted by
the Legislature of the said Province in manner therein
directed ; &That there be th£ee^ Judges_jn_ea£h_af_the
said Courts of Common Pleas, that is to say, two of
Our natural-born Subjects of Great Britain, Ireland, or
Our other Plantations, and one Canadian<f and also one
Sheriff appointed for each district ; That besides the
foregoing Courts of Criminal and Civil Jurisdiction for
the Province at large, there be, also an Inferior Court of
CrimiaaLand- Ci vtl Jjjrisdjctionjn each of~trTe~DTstncts of
thelllinois, St Vincenne7~Detroit, Missilimakinac, and
'Gaspee, by the Names of the 'Court^of King's Bench for\
•> such district, to be held at such tinies, as~sTiaITBe1EHought \
most convenient, with Authority to hear and determine
in all Matters of Criminal Nature according to the Laws
of England, and the Laws of the Province hereafter to
be made and passed ; and in all Civil matters accord-
ing to the Rules prescribed by the aforesaid Act of
Parliament ' for making more effectual Provision for
the Government of Quebec in North America ' ; That
each of the said Courts shall consist of one Judge, being
a natural-born Subject of Great Britain, Ireland, or
Our other Plantations, and of one other Person, being
a Canadian, by the name of Assistant or Assessor, to
give advice to the Judge in any Matter, when it may be
necessary ; but to have no authority or Power to attest
or issue any Process, or to give any Vote in any order,
Judgement or decree ; That the said Judges, so to be
appointed, as aforesaid, for each District, shall have the
same Power and Authority in Criminal Cases, as is

JUDICIAL DEVELOPMENT 517

vested in the Chief Justice of Our said Province ; and
also the same Power and Authority in Civil Cases, as
any other Judge of Common Pleas within our said Pro-
vince, excepting only that, in cases of Treason, Minder,
or otherjCaEitaJLEfiibllifis. the said Judges~shall have no
otEer Authority, than that of Arrest and Commitment
to the Gaols of Quebec, or of Montreal, where alone
Offenders in such Cases shall be tried before Our Chief
Justice ; That a Sheriff be appointed in each of the said1
Districts for the Execution of Civil and Criminal Process ;
That the Governor and Council (of which, in the absence
of the Governor and Lieutenant Governor, the Chief
Justice is to be President) shall be a Court of Civil
./Jurisdiction for the hearing and determining all Appeals
/from the Judgement of the other Courts, where the
Lmatter in dispute is above the value of Ten Pounds ;
That any Five of the said Council, with the Governor,
Lieut. Governor, or Chief Justice, shall constitute a
Court for that purpose ; and that their Judgement shall
be final in all Cases not exceeding the Value of
''£500 sterling, in which Cases an Appeal from their
Judgement is to be admitted to Us in Our Privy Council.
It is however Our Will and Pleasure, that no Appeal
be allowed, unless security be first duly given by the
Appellant, that he will effectually prosecute the same,
and answer the Condemnation, as also pay such Costs
and Damages, as shall be awarded by Us, in case the
Sentence be affirmed ; Provided nevertheless, where
the matter in question relates to the taking or demand-
ing any Duty payable to Us, or to any Fee of Office, or
annual Rents, or other such Ifke matter or thing, where
the Rights in future may be bound, in all such Cases
appeal to Us in Our Privy Council is to be admitted,
tho' the immediate sum or value appealed for be of less
value. — And it is Our further Will and Pleasure, that
in all Cases where Appeals are admitted unto Us in
Our Privy Council, execution be suspended until the
final determination of such Appeal, unless good and
sufficient security be given by the Appellee to make
ample restitution of all that the Appellant shall have
lost by means of such decree or judgement, in case,
upon the determination of such Appeal, such decree or
judgement should be reversed, and restitution awarded to
the Appellant. Appeals unto Us in Our Privy Council

518 THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM

are also to be admitted in all cases of Fines imposed for
misdemeanors ; Provided the fines, so imposed, amount
to, or exceed the sum of £100 sterling, the Appellant first
giving good Security, that he will effectually prosecute
the same and answer the Condemnation, if the sentence,
by which such Fine was imposed in Quebec, be affirmed.
16. It is Our Will and Pleasure, that all Commissions
to be granted by you to any person or persons to be
judges or justices of the peace, or other necessary Officers,
be granted during pleasure only.1

4-The first ordinance of the Province of Quebec relating to
the establishment of civil courts was that passed on February
25» :777> whereby the province was divided into the two
districts of Montreal and Quebec, and a Court of Common
Pleas was established for each district. •*•• Procedure with
respect to financial litigation differed considerably according
to the sum of money involved in the dispute. In cases where
less than £10 sterling was involved, one judge constituted
a competent court from which there was no appeal. In
matters wherein more than £10 sterling was in question, two
judges were necessary and there was an appeal to the governor
in council, five members thereof, with the governor, lieutenant-
governor or chief justice, constituting a quorum ; and in cases
in which the value in dispute exceeded £500 there was an
appeal to His Majesty in His Privy Council. Another
ordinance of the same date established the procedure in the
Court of Common Pleas, and enacted that in the proof of all
facts concerning commercial matters recourse should be had
in all the courts of civil jurisdiction in the province to the
rules and evidence laid down by English law. This ordinance
1 also contained provisions respecting the procedure down to
judgment and execution.

C/By an ordinance of March 4, 1777, the Court of King's
Bench was established for the cognizance of all pleas of the ,
crown and for the trial of all manner of offences whatsoever.1/
It also provided that this court should be held before the
chief justice of the province or commissioners appointed for
executing the office of chief justice, and that the court should

1 Constitutional Documents, 1739-91, Shortt and Doughty, 1907, p. 422 et seq.

JUDICIAL DEVELOPMENT •

hear and determine the pleas of the crown and all manner of
offences whatsoever according to the laws of England and
the ordinances of the governor and legislative council of the
province. Terms of the court were also provided. This'
ordinance provided further for the issue of commissions of*
oyer and terminer and gaol delivery, and for the establish-
ment of a Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace, ,
to be presided over by commissioners of the peace, sitting
at Quebec and Montreal.

Whereas it is expedient and agreeable to Our Royal
Will and Pleasure that Our Subjects Inhabitants of
Our Province of Quebec, under your Government,
should have and enjoy every Benefit and Security
resulting to them from a speedy and effectual Distri-
bution of Law and Justice, according to the principles
of the British Constitution, as far as the same can be
adapted to their peculiar Circumstances and Situation.
And Whereas according to the practice of the Courts
of Civil and Criminal Judicature, as constituted by the
Ordinances now in force, the Official Duty of the Chief
Justice of Our said Province is confined to Causes of
a Criminal Nature only except in Cases of Appeal, where
he sits in common with the rest of our Council. In
consideration hereof, and to prevent (as far as in Us lies)
the Frequency of Appeals, It is Our Will and Pleasure
and you are hereby strictly enjoined and required, by
and with the Advice and Consent of Our Council in
their Legislative Capacity assembled, to frame an
Ordinance to be passed for the purposes of explaining
and amending the Ordinances before mentioned by
directing and enacting that the Chief Justice shall

' preside and be made a jyTpmhor of tVif> rnnriurtf-Cfvmfnon

_P-lea»rand as such shall sit in the said Court fourjimes
iiTEKFyeaf at Quebec, andjbwjce.in the year at Montreal,
at the latter place immediately after, or before the present
Circuit Business, as shall be deemed most convenient,
that notwithstanding his having given his Opinion
in the Court below he shall sit and give his Opinion
in the Court of Appeal, that such Court of Appeal shall
consist of four persons besides the Chief Justice to be
nominated by the Governor or Commander in Chief for
the time being from among the Members of our Council,

520 THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM

and approved and confirmed by Us, together with the
Judges of the Court of that District from whence the
Appeal does not come, the Lieutenant-Governor of
Our Province not to be one ; That of these persons five
to be a Quorum for the Dispatch of Business, the Chief
Justice or the Person or one of the Persons officiating
in that Capacity always to be one ; and that the said
Court of Appeal be confined to examine Errors of Law
only taking the Facts, as stated in the Transcript trans-
mitted by the Court where such Cause shall have been
determined, and without going into New Evidence, or
re-examining the Evidence before taken.1

These ordinances, amended in unimportant respects, con-
tinued in force down to the passing of the act of 1791.

^'By an ordinance dated April 21, 1785, trial by jury was
introduced. This ordinance provided that in suits at law
and actions in the Court of Common Pleas grounded on debts,
promises, contracts, and agreements of a mercantile nature
only, between merchant and merchant and trader and trader,
k> reputed and understood according to law, and also of
personal wrongs proper tcj be compensated in damages, a
jury might be demanded. <{ The ordinance provided for the
method of summoning jurors, amended some of the pro-
visions of the ordinance of February 25, 1777, respecting
procedure, and devised certain exemptions from execution.

The instructions issued to Lord Dorchester, in 1786,
except in so far as they have regard to the circumstances
varied by the enactment of the ordinances above referred to,
cover largely the same ground as those issued to him as
Governor Carleton on January 3, 1775.

The growing differences that arose from the enforcement
of the old French law are evidenced by an ordinance of April
30, 1787, for the amendment of the ordinances respecting
the procedure before the courts, it being provided that if the
judgment in the action was upon the law, custom, or usage of
the province, the same was to be stated upon the record.
The same rule was made applicable to the Court of Appeals —
that is, to the governor and council — as well as to the Court
of Common Pleas.

1 Constitutional Documents, 1739-91, Shortt and Doughty, 1907, pp. 477-8.

JUDICIAL DEVELOPMENT 521

By letters patent, dated July 24, 1788, the number of
districts in the province was increased, those in the present
Province of Ontario being as follows :

1. District of Lunenburg, bounded on the east by
the eastern limit of a tract known by the name of
Lancaster drawn northerly and southerly, and on the
west by a north and south line intersecting the mouth
of the River Gananoque, then called the Thames, above
the rifts of the St Lawrence.

2. District of Mecklenburg, extending from the
western limit of the District of Lunenburg as far westerly
as to a north and south line intersecting the mouth of a
river now called the Trent, discharging itself from the
west into the head of the Bay of Quinte.

3. District of Nassau, extending from the western
limit of the District of Mecklenburg westerly to a north
and south line intersecting the extreme projection of
Long Point into Lake Erie.

4. The District of Hesse, comprising all the residue
of the province and the western or inland parts thereof
of the entire breadth thereof from the southerly to the
northerly boundaries.

The judges of the courts of these districts were forthwith
appointed as follows: Lunenburg, John McDonell, January
7, 1790 ; Mecklenburg, Richard Cartwright, jun., October 16,
1788 ; Nassau, Peter Pawling and Nathaniel Petit, October
24, 1788 ; Hesse, William Dummer Powell, February 2, 1789.

By an ordinance that appeared in the Quebec Gazette on
May 7, 1789, the procedure of the courts was further amended,
and special provisions were enacted with respect to the new
districts above mentioned. So the judicial system of the
province stood at the time of the enactment of the Constitu-
tional Act of 1 79 1.1

SECOND JUDICIAL PERIOD, 1791-1880 \<juLl<«-^&**0

:'s By the Constitutional Act of 1791 the Province of Quebec
was divided into two provinces, the Province of Upper

1 31 Geo. in, cap. 31.

"} '

Car

522 THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM

Canada and the Province of Lower Canada, with a legislative
council and an assembly, and power to make laws for the
peace, welfare, and good government of the provinces respec-
tively? such laws not being repugnant to the act, and assented
to by the king, or in the king's name by the governor or
lieutenant-governor of the province from time to time
appointed to administer the government thereof.

It was provided by section 33 of the act that all laws,
statutes, and ordinances in force at the time of the enactment
should so remain until expressly repealed, or except as varied
by the act itself or by the statutes of the provinces.

Section 34 constitutes the judicial machinery of the two
Panadas :

And whereas by an Ordinance passed in the Province
of Quebec, the Governor and Council of the said Pro-
vince -were constituted a Court of Civil, Jurisdiction,
for hearing and determining Appeals in certain Cases
therein specified, be it further enacted by the authority
aforesaid, That the Governor, or Lieu tenant-Governor,
or Person administering the Government of each of
the said Provinces respectively, together with such
executive Council as shall be appointed by His Majesty
for the Affairs of such Province shall be a Court of Civil
Jurisdiction within each of the said Provinces respec-
tively, for hearing and determining Appeals within the
same, in the like Cases, and in the like Manner and
Form, and subject to such Appeal therefrom, as such
Appeals might before the passing of this Act have been
heard and determined by the Governor and Council of
the Province of Quebec ; but subject nevertheless to
such further or other Provisions as may be made in
this Behalf, by any Act of the Legislative Council and
Assembly of either of the said Provinces respectively,
assented to by His Majesty, His Heirs or Successors.

The Constitutional Act of 1791 was brought into force
on December 26, 1791, by royal proclamation dated Novem-
ber 1 8, 1791. John Graves Simcoe was appointed lieutenant-
governor of Upper Canada by commission under the royal
sign manual, dated September 12, 1791. Simcoe arrived at
Kingston on July 8, 1792. The commission directed that

JUDICIAL DEVELOPMENT 523

the lieutenant-governor should ' exercise and perform all
and singular the powers and directions contained in Our
Commission to Our said Captain General and Governor in
Chief1 according to such instructions as he hath already
received from Us and such further orders and instructions •
as he or you shall hereafter receive.'

<Ji,By the first act passed by the legislature of Upper Canada
that assembled at Niagara on September 17, 1792, it was
decreed that from and after the passing of that act resort^
should be had in all matters of controversy relative to
property and civil rights to the laws of England as the
rule for the decision of the same\and by the second act it
was provided that from and after December i, 1792, all and
every issue or issues of fact which should be joined in any
action, real, personal, or mixed, and brought in any of His
Majesty's Courts of Justice, should be tried and determined
by theV unanimous verdict of twelve jurors, duly sworn
for the trial of such issue or issues, which jurors .should be
summoned and taken conformably to the law and custom
of England. Jfr-

By cap. '4 the summary proceedings ^of the Courts of
Common Plea in actions involving less than the value of £10
sterling were abolished, and an act was passed for the more
easy and speedy recovery of small debts, and this act re-
mained in force until repealed by 3 Will. IV, cap. i.

By cap. 8 of the statutes of the second session of the
first parliament, passed on July 9, I7937"a Court 'of Probate
for the province was established, and authority was conferred
upon the governor to institute by commission, under the
Great Seal of the province, a Surrogate Court in each district.
These districts were therein named the eastern, midland,
home, and western districts. There was an appeal from the
judgments of the Surrogate Court to the judge of the Court
of Probate. c4

By cap. 2 of the statutes of the third session, passed on

\July 9, I79<£a Court of King's Bench, was_e3tabMshed^_and. it

Vras constituted a Court of Record of original jurisdiction,

with all such powers and authorities as by the law of England

1 The reference is to the instructions given to Carleton.

524 THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM

are incident to a Superior Court of civil and criminal jurisdic-
tion. •/• It was enacted that this court

may and shall nold plea in all and all manner of actions/
causes or suits, as well criminal as civil, real, personal
and mixed, arising, happening or being' wrSiin tfteTsaid,
Province * andymay and shall proceed in such actions',
causes or suits, by such process and course as shall tend,
with justice and dispatch, to determine the same1'; and
may and shall hear and determine all issues of law; and
shall also hear, and by and with an inquest of good
and lawful men, determine all issues of fact that may
be joined in any such action, cause or suit, as aforesaid,
and judgment thereon give, and execution thereof award,
in as full and ample a manner as can or may be done
in His Majesty's Courts of King's Bench, Common
Bench, or in matters which regard the King's revenue,
by the Court of Exchequer in England v"and that His
Majesty's Chief Justice of this Province, together with
two Puisne Justices, shall preside in the said Court,
which Court shall be holden in a place, certain, that is,
in the city, town or place where the Governor or
Lieutenant-Governor shall usually reside ; and until
such place be fixed, the said Court shall be holden at
the last place of meeting of the Legislative Council and
Assembly.

was provided by section 3 that the governor, lieutenant-
governor, or person administering the government of the
province, or the chief justice of the province, together with
any two or more members of the executive council should
compose a Court of Appeal for hearing and determining all
such appeals from judgment or sentences as might lawfully
be brought before them. Appeals were limited to masters in
which the amount in controversy exceeded £100, or that
related to the taking of annual rent or other customary fee or
like demand, or to matters in which future rights were affected.
Further appeal was provided to His Majesty in His Privy
Council in cases in which the amount in dispute exceeded
£500. <A

The Hon. William Osggp.de was appointed the first chief
justice of Upper Canada by commission under the royal
sign manual, dated December i, 1791.

JUDICIAL DEVELOPMENT 525

0/The first provision with respect to the criminal law appears

in one of the statutes of 1800 (40 Geo. in). Under the

Quebec Act provision was made for the introduction of the

criminal law of England as it stood in 1774, and after the

passing of the Constitutional Act that act prevailed until

'the passing of the act just mentioned, which declared that the

/criminal law of England as it stood on September 17, 1792,

should be the criminal law of the province./

C/The third section of this act of 1800 provides that where
| under the law of England punishment of burning in the hand
I is inflicted upon any person convicted of felony with the
I Benefit of Clergy, a moderate fine may be inflicted, or that the
I offender may be publicly or privately whipped, and that
female offenders should be so whipped only in the presence
i of females. Where the penalty under the English law was
' transportation, banishment from the province was sub-
\stituted. By 41 Geo. Ill, cap. 9 (1801), the Court of King's
Bench was extended in order better to suit the requirements of
the province. 4 By 54 Geo. in, cap. 13 (1814), provision was
made for County Courts. This statute, however, was re-
pealed by 55 Geo. in, cap. 2. These provisions related more
particularly to writs of capias and exigent. ABy 2 Geo. rv,
cap. 2 (1822), the former statutes respecting district courts,
courts of request, and the statutes relating to the collection
of small claims were repealed, and there were established in
each of the districts within^ the province, courts of record
known as District Courts. /The jurisdiction of these courts
in matters of contract was limited to those having in dispute
from forty shillings to fifteen pounds and — when the amount
was liquidated or ascertained — to forty pounds ; and in
matters of tort respecting personal chattels it was limited to
those in which the damages to be recovered did not exceed
fifteen pounds. It was also provided that titles to lands
should not be brought into question in proceedings before
these courts. Periods of sitting and terms of courts were
established, and procedure, tables_pf fees, and all matters of ',
that nature were provided for .T This statute was the basis
of the subsequent legislation that has developed the Division I
Court system of the province.^ The details of the act, method

526 THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM

of procedure, and the distribution of the districts throughout
the province were frequently changed.

| £/A very important statute in the history of the courts of
the province is 4 Will, iv, cap. 2, an act to render the judges
in the Court of King's Bench in this province independent of
the crown .^The operative particular of the first section is as
follows :

That the Judges of His Majesty's Court of King's
Bench for this Province shall hold their offices during
their_gjQQd_behaviour, notwithstanding the Commissions
which have been heretofore granted to them, or either
of them, may specify that the office is to be held during
the pleasure of His Majesty; and that from and after
the passing of this Act, the Commissions to the Judges
of the said Court shall be made to them respectively
V- to hold during their good behaviour ; and that the
Commissions of Judges of the said Court, for the time
being, shall be, continue and remain, in full force during
their good behaviour, notwithstanding the demise of
His Majesty, or any of His Heirs and Successors, any
law, usage or practice, to the contrary thereof in any
wise notwithstanding : Provided always, that it may be
lawful for the Governor, Lieutenant-Goyernor or Person
administering the Government of this Province, to
remove any Judge or Judges of the said Court, upon
the address of the Legislative Council and Assembly ;
and in case any Judge so removed shall think him-
self aggrieved thereby, it shall and may be lawful
for him, within six months, to appeal to His Majesty
in His Privy Council, and such a motion shall not be
final until determined by His Majesty in His Privy
Council.

It was also provided that upon the death or resignation of
a judge, the governor or administrator might by commission,
under the Great Seal of the province, appoint a person to
hold the office of judge until His Majesty's pleasure should be
known, this appointment to be superseded by the issue of a
commission under the Great Seal of the province upon the
appointment to the office by His Majesty.

By 7 Will, rv, cap. i, the judges of the Court of King's
Bench were increased'so that this court should consist of the

JUDICIAL DEVELOPMENT 527

\ chief justice and four puisne judges. Other provisions were •-
\ made by this statute for the salaries of the judges, respecting
the terms and sittings of the court, and for the issuing of
Commissions of Assize and Nisi Prius twice in each year to
each district of the province.

0uThe establishment of a Court of Chancery had been under
discussion for many years.-fr We fmclljie first reference to the
subject in the Journals of the House for the year 1802, when
a draft bill to establish a Court of Chancery was introduced.
It was concluded that there was no pressing necessity for such
a court at that time. Other difficulties were afterwards en-
countered an<fno legislative action was taken until the year

M 1837, when a Court of Chancery for the province was finally
established.1 The court was styled the Court of Chancery
of the Province of Upper Canada ; the governor, lieutenant-
governor, or person administering the government of the
province, was chancellor ; and, for the better administering of
justice in the said court, the judicial powers thereof, both legal
and equitable, had to be exercised by a judge to he called and
known as the vice-chancellor of Upper Canada.'* By section 2
of the statute jurisdiction was conferred upon the court as
follows : ,

And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, --\

That the said Court^shall have jurisdiction, and possess
the like power and authority as by the laws of England
are possessed by the Court of Chancery in England, in
respect of the matters hereinafter enumerated, that is
to say ; in all cases of fraud ; in all matters relating to
trusts ; in all matters relating to executors and admini-
strators ; in all matters relating to mortgages ; in
dower ; in all matters relating to infants, idiots and
lunatics, and their estates, except wRere" special provi-
sion hath been or may hereafter be made with respect
to them or either of them by any law of this Province ;
in all matters relating to awards ; to compel the specific
performance of agreements ; to compel the discovery of
concealed papers or evidence, or such as may be wrong-
fully withheld from the party claiming the benefit of the
same ; to prevent multiplicity of suits and to stay proceed -

1 7 Will, iv, cap. 2.

528 THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM

ings in a Court of Law, prosecuted against equity and
good conscience ; to decree the issue of Letters Patent
from the Crown to rightful claimants ; to institute pro-
ceedings for the repeal of Letters Patent erroneously
or improvidently issued ; to stay waste ; in all cases of
accident ; all cases of account ; and all cases relating
to copartnership : Provided always nevertheless, that
nothing in this Act contained shall extend to supersede
or interfere with the authority of the Commissioners
appointed under the laws of this Province for ascertain-
ing the titles of any person claiming lands as the heir,
devisee or assignee, of the original nominee of the Crown,
in cases where no patent has issued for such lands, or
claiming title under such heir, devisee or assignee.

Jurisdiction was further given in cases of alimony.
Authority to settle and declare the form of process, and to
define the practice to be observed, to regulate the amount of
fees and disbursements to be taxed to parties, their counsel
and solicitors, and officers, and to make rules and regulations
respecting the practice of the court, was conferred upon
the chancellor. Further provisions were made respecting
evidence, the rules of decision and investment of moneys. A
registrar, two masters, an accountant and a sergeant-at-arms
were to be appointed by the governor.

By 7 Will, rv, cap. 3 (1837), authority was conferred upon
the judges of the Court of King's Bench to make rules at any
time within five years after the passing of the act with re-
spect to practice and pleadings before the court. By section
10 of the act the wager of law was abolished. The statute
is lengthy and contains many provisions for the practical
advancement of justice.

;/By 12 Viet, cap-jSj^i&jX)), the office of chancellor of Upper
Canada was created and a vice-chancellor was added to the
court, the bench then consisting of the chancellor and two
vice-chancellors. Jurisdiction was given to the court to
try the validity of wills, whether affecting real or personal
estate, or to pronounce wills to be void for fraud or undue
influence.^

By 9 Viet. cap. 10 (1846), it was recited that under the

f>4f '*h\/f,laws of England the custody and care of idiots and persons of

^NTTO

JUDICIAL DEVELOPMENT 529

unsound mind and their property does not by right belong to
or form part of the jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery, but
is conferred upon the lord chancellor by a commission from
the crown. Doubts had arisen as to whether this jurisdiction
was conferred upon the Court of Chancery in Upper Canada,
and it was enacted that it was intended that the Court of
Chancery should have a like jurisdiction as given to the lord
chancellor in England with respect to these subjects..^ — •

By 12 Viet. cap. 63 (1849); uie Court of Error and Appeal
was established. This court was composed of the judges of
the Queen's Bench, the Court of Chancery and the Common
Pleas, sitting together at the city of Toronto, and the chief
justice of the Court of Queen's Bench was made president
thereof. The court was given an appellate, civil, and criminal
jurisdiction, and appeal was declared to lie from all judgments
of the Court of Queen's Bench, the Court of Chancery and
Common Pleas. {/-The appellate was required to give security
to the extent of £,100, and upon effecting the security, obtained
stay of execution in the original cause except under certain
conditions. Provision was made for the enactment of rules.
The registrar for the Court of Chancery was made clerk of

, the court. OBy this statute, also, the Court of Common Pleas
was established, consisting of a chief justice and two puisne
judges. The chief justice was given rank next to the
chancellor, tj A change was also made in the establishment
of the Court of Queen's Bench, which thereafter consisted of a
chief justice and two puisne judges, and it was provided that
two of the puisne judges of the Queen's Bench were to be
transferred to the Court of Common Pleas, the jurisdiction
of which was made the same as that of the Queen's Bench.

L/fLOne of the greatest steps in the development of justice in
the Province of Ontario was the introduction of the Common
Law Procedure Act, I856.1 This statute follows very closely
the English Common Law Procedure Acts of 1852 and 1854.
This was a most comprehensive statute. It unified the

1 practice of the Courts of Common Law, regulated the pro-
cedure before the courts, and accomplished much in wiping
out the old forms of procedure and practice that had grown

1 19 Viet. cap. 3.

530 THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM

through centuries in England and had been adopted in Upper
Canada without modification.^ X ^^<

dJn 1857, by 20 Viet. cap. 56, the jurisdiction of the Court"
of Chancery was extended and the procedure of the court
simplified. The extension of jurisdiction conferred upon that
court the authority, as already possessed by the Court of
Chancery in England, to administer justice in all cases in
which there was no adequate remedy at law. Jurisdiction
was also given in cases of alimony, injunctions against waste,
and for the making of declarations in clear cases of lunacy
__^without commission, ff

It should be noted in passing that these statutes extending
the jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery were construed as
introducing the statute^ law of England relating to these
subjects, and resort must be had to these latter statutes for a
complete study of the jurisdiction of the court in Upper
Canada.

By two statutes of the year 1860 the jurisdiction of the
county courts was extended to actions of ejectment where the
yearly value did not exceed $200, where the tenancy had
expired, or had been determined by a notice to quit, or where
the rent was in arrear for sixty days.il. Provision was also
made for the removal of cases from the County Court to the
Superior Courts. (\

j£xThe jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery was further
extended in 1865 by 28 Viet. cap. 17, so that it should have
the same jurisdiction as the Court of Chancery in England
in regard to leases and sales of settled estates and in enabling
minors to make binding settlements on marriage6 Equitable
jurisdiction in matters of revenue, such as the Court of
Exchequer in England possessed, was also given.~$
fy By the Law Reform Act of I8681 extensive changes were
made in the jurisdiction and practice of the county courts, and
the recorders' courts, established by 29-30 Viet. cap. 57 for
the principal cities of the province, were abolished.-/'-'
/Y*f A step towards the fusion of the superior courts and the
establishment of a uniform system of jurisprudence was
brought about by 36 Viet. cap. 8 — ' An Act for the better

1 32 Viet. cap. 6.

JUDICIAL DEVELOPMENT 531

administration of Justice in the Courts of Ontario.' The
' Courts of Law and Equity were as far as possible made
auxiliary to one another.^ A purely money demand could
be sued for at law, although the plaintiff's right to recover was
an equitable one only, and a demurrer on the ground that the
proper remedy was in the Court of Chancery only was dis-
allowed. It was also enacted that for the purpose of causing
complete and final justice in all actions at law, the court could
make such order or decree as the equitable right of the parties
required. Provision was also made for the transfer to the
Court of Chancery of actions at law that raised equitable
questions which could not be dealt with by a court of law,
so as to do complete justice to the parties.
£/By 37 Viet. cap. 7 (Administration of Justice Act, 1874),
the Court of Error and Appeal was in effect established as a
court independent of the judges of the superior courts by the
creation of three justices of the Court of Error and Appeal,
who, together with the chief justice of Ontario, constituted
the new court. Provision, however, was made that in cases
of the absence of any of the justices a judge of the superior
courts could sit in this court, provided that he did not sit in
appeal in a case in which he had taken part in the hearing
in the court below.

It was by this statute that the sittings of judges in weekly
court were first established, and all matters except motions
for a new trial or appeals from a judgment of a single judge
were directed to be heard and disposed of in the first instance
by a single judge, subject to the right of a second hearing by
the full court.

An interchange of judges between the courts was provided
for when necessary, and a judge of the Court of Chancery
was enabled to hold assize, and a judge of the Common Law
Courts to hold a sitting of the Court of Chancery.

By 39 Viet. cap. 7 (1876), an act to carry into effect
certain suggestions made by the commissions for consolidating
the statutes and for other amendments of the law, substantial
changes were made. -^ The office of the registrar of the Court
of Chancery was authorized, and the Court of Error and
Appeal, in which the registrar of the Court of Chancery had

VOL. XVIII R

532 THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM

hitherto acted ex qfficio as registrar, received its own officer,
appointed by the lieutenant-governor. rt/Appeals from the
County Courts were directed to the Court of Error and •
Appeal, now styled the .Court of Appeal, and not to the
Superior Courts of Law. A/

In 1877 it was enacted that when a vacancy occurred in
the office of chief justice of the Court of Queen's Bench,
the chief justice of the Court of Appeal should be called chief
justice of Ontario.

In 1878 a further advance towards the merging of the
courts was made by a statute directing that on the first day of
term, and thereafter from time to time, the chief justices of
the Courts of Queen's Bench and of the Common Pleas should
meet, examine the lists of pending motions, appeals, and other
proceedings, and transfer such as should be necessary to
equalize the business of other courts.

f+ The fusion of the courts and the steady advance of
equitable doctrine and rules which had been brought about
by legislation in the preceding years was consummated by
the Judicature Act in the year iSSi.1 By this statute the .
Court of Appeal and the superior courts of Queen's Bench,
Chancery, and Common Pleas were merged in the Supreme
Court of Judicature for Ontario. This single court was
divided into two permanent divisions, the Court of Appeal
for Ontario and the High Court of Justice for Ontario. The
former courts of Queen's Bench, Chancery, and Common
Pleas were thereafter known and styled as the Queen's JJJmch
Division, the Chancery Division, and the Common Pleas
Division of the High Court of Justice. The Court of Appeal
consisted of the chief justice of Ontario and three judges of
appeal. 6'! The divisions of the High Court of Justice were
each presided over by a chief justice, except in the case of
the Chancery division, which was presided over by the chan-
cellor, with two additional judges in each division. C The
jurisdiction of the divisions of the High Court was not
changed. These were deemed to have the jurisdiction thatJ y
they possessed immediately prior to this enactment ; in fact/
the statute expressly provided that these divisions were to

1 44 Viet. cap. 5.

JUDICIAL DEVELOPMENT 533

be a continuation of the courtp respectively, under the name
of the High Court of Justice.f^The jurisdiction of the Court .
of Appeal was also continued the same as before the enactment.* ,
The statute followed, even in detail, the Imperial Judicature'
Act's of 36-37 Viet. cap. 66 (1873), 38-39 Viet. cap. 77 (1875),
39-40 Viet. cap. 59 (1876), 40-41 Viet. cap. 9 (1877), 42-43
Viet. cap. 78 (1879).

a-The changes introduced by this act in the laws adminis-
tered by the courts and their practice were sweeping and
revolutionary. The scope of this article scarcely admits of
a detailed enumeration of the changes, which may be summed
up in the last clause relating thereto, which provided that
' generally in all matters not hereinbefore particularly men-
tioned, in which there is any conflict or variance between the
rules of equity and the rules of common law with reference
to the same matter, the rules of equity shall prevail.' .$-

In the practice before the courts the change was quite
as great, although in many respects the old forms of pleading
and special demurrers were modified and modernized by the
Common Law Procedure Acts.^*The practice and pleading
were still further simplified. With the exception of some
extraordinary remedies, such as by writ of mandamus, injunc-
tion and quo warranto, all proceedings were commenced by
a writ of summons issued in the office of the clerk of the >:
process at Osgoode Hall, Toronto, or in the office of the
deputy registrar or clerk of the crown and pleas, to suit the
convenience of litigants. At the outset it was optional with
the plaintiff to choose in which division he should carry on
his litigation ; subsequently, for the purpose of equalizing
the business of the courts, writs were directed to be issued
alternately in the common law divisions, and later on they
were issued alternately in the three divisions. After appear-
ance was entered by the defendant, following the service of
the writ, the action proceeded with the filing of a statement
of claim setting out in simple language the facts of the case
upon which the plaintiff relied and the relief that he sought.
This was answered by a statement of defence, setting out in
simple language the defendant's version of the facts, and the
defence upon which he relied. The issue was then joined

534 THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM

by a reply, if necessary, and the action was ready to be
tried.

In the sketch of judicial development in Ontario down to
this date no reference has been made to the terms of court
or to the times of sittings of the judges for trials of actions.
The subject is interesting, and forms a connecting link between
the new and the older systems. It is sufficient, however,
to state that the former terms of court were Hilary, Easter,
Trinity, and Michaelmas.

THIRD JUDICIAL PERIOD, 1880-1913 'J^oJ^^"

After the passing of the Judicature Act the judges
assembled from time to time with the president of the High
Court of Justice, the senior of the chief justices and the
chancellor, and fixed the times for holding the assizes and
sittings of the court, the trials of action with and without a
jury, and all actions assigned to the Chancery division for
each county and district of the province. <^ln the county of
York assizes were held four times a year, as were also sittings
for trial of actions without a jury and for cases assigned to
the Chancery division. In other counties sittings were
fixed to suit the circumstances, according to the amount of
business, and sittings for trial of actions were held in each
county at least twice a year. Under this system of distri-
buting business, assizes and courts of oyer and terminer were
held by the judges of the common law divisions. This
system, however, was superseded, and the judges of all the
divisions, without distinction, held trials of criminal cases
as well as civil. In the county of York, sittings for trial
of actions without a jury were practically continuous,
except during vacation, and jury actions were held to suit
the necessities of each of the counties. *S

OIn civil cases an appeal lay to a divisional court for a
new trial, or to set aside the judgment. After the act of
1880 the divisional courts of each of the divisions sat four
times a year for the purpose of hearing all cases that were
entered. q Cases were argued before the divisional court of
the division in which the action was entered. This was

JUDICIAL DEVELOPMENT

535

later changed so that, although the divisional courts were
nominally maintained, all practical division between them *
was abolishedT" A divisional court sat every two weeks for ^
the purpose of hearing all cases that were set down, and such
cases were heard by the divisional court then sitting, irrespec-
tive of the division in which the case was entered. There was
a further appeal from a divisional court to the Court of
Appeal in all cases in which the amount involved amounted
to more than $200, or where an annual or periodic payment
was involved.

The Court of Appeal sat three times a year for the hear- .
ing of appeals. Down to the year 1899, in all cases set down
before this court it was required to have the pleadings and
all the evidence and exhibits in the court of original jurisdic-
tion printed. Subsequently, typewritten copies were per-
mitted. There is an appeal to the Supreme Court in cases
where the title to real estate or interest therein is involved,
where the validity of a patent is affected, where the matter
in controversy exceeds in value $1000 exclusive of costs,
where the matter relates to an annual rent, customary fee
or duty, or a demand of a general or public nature affecting
future rights, and where leave to appeal is granted by the
Court of Appeal or the Supreme Court of Canada. There
is also an appeal direct to the Judicial Committee of the
Privy Council of the United Kingdom where the matter in
controversy exceeds in value $4000, or where it relates to an
annual rent or other subjects similar to those wherein the
appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada is limited.

If during the course of an action, such, for instance, as
between partners, or for administration, it was determined
that the question in dispute involved the taking of accounts
or an assessment of damages, or if, after trial, it was found
that a lengthy inquiry was necessary for taking accounts or
assessing damages, the court could refer the whole matter to
a master or referee. For this purpose the master in.orH i n a ry, .
and special referees at the city of Toronto had jurisdiction
at the city of Toronto, and local masters and referees in the
various counties had jurisdiction in the respective counties.
They were empowered to examine, if necessary, the parties

536 THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM

and witnesses, and to require all parties to produce books
and writings necessary for the proper determination of the
action. On the conclusion of his inquiry the master or
referee reported to the court, and the matter then came up
for a confirmatory report and judgment before a judge in
court. Proceedings by way of appeal could then be taken
as in the case of the trial of an action.

For the purpose of determining matters of practice,
regularity of proceedings, and other necessary steps in actions,
the master in chambers had jurisdiction to entertain motions
by parties to actions in such matters. An appeal lay from
this officer to a judge in chambers, from him to a divisional
court, and then to the Court of Appeal. The master in
chambers also had jurisdiction to enter judgment in cases
where it was apparent that defences were entered merely
for the purpose of delay ; and, in fact, all steps in the action,
from the point of view of practice and procedure, were
subject to his review, with an appeal from his decision as
above indicated.

In counties other than York, a local judge of the High
Court, usually the senior county court judge, had a limited
jurisdiction, extending to the granting of temporary injunc-
tions and mandatory orders, which were subsequently return-
able before a judge of the High Court at Toronto. He also
had a limited jurisdiction in practice cases, with an appeal to
a judge in chambers at Toronto. After final judgment, which
was recorded in the office of the officer entering the same,
writs of execution were issued to the sheriff of such county
of the province as the plaintiff or other party issuing might
desire, for the purpose of levying upon the goods or lands of
the debtor, and the sheriff was thereupon authorized to enter
into possession of such personal property as he might find,
and, after the expiration of one year, of offering for sale the
real estate of the debtor.

AAn addition to periodical sittings of the Court of Appeal
and Divisional Court, and the holding of assizes and trial of
actions in the various counties, a judge sits at Osgoode Hall
in chambers and in court for the purpose of hearing such
matters as may be up on appeal to the master in chambers by

JUDICIAL DEVELOPMENT 537

a judge of the local court for the administration of the estates
of infants and lunatics, the winding up of joint-stock com-
panies, and many other matters. Similarly, in court on
applications for injunctions, mandatory orders, motions for
judgments, to hear special cases, to confirm reports of masters
and referees, and many other similar proceedings, there is
an appeal from a judge so sitting to a divisional court. Al-
though changes have been made in the statutes of the court
with respect to appeals, the practice laid down by the Judi-
cature Act prevails at the present time^By statute of the
year 1885 an additional judge was added to the Chancery
division. In 1898 an additional judge was added to the.
Court of Appeal, so that the court then consisted of the chief J
justice of Ontario and four justices of appeal.
C\s&Y statute of the year 1903 a new division named the
Exchequer Division of the High Court of Justice was created,
consisting of a chief justice of the exchequer division and
two justices. Subsequently two additional judges were
attached to the High Court and not assigned to any par-
ticular division, so that at the present time the Supreme^
Court of Judicature for Ontario consists of the chief justice
of Ontario, four justices of appeal, the chief justice of the
Queen's Bench and two puisne judges, the chancellor of
Ontario and two puisne judges, the chief justice of the |
Common Pleas and two puisne judges, the chief justice of i
the exchequer division and two puisne judges, and the two '
unassigned judges above mentioned. . '"

Soon after the passing of the Judicature Act the number
of interlocutory applications were found to have largely
increased. These applications were followed by appeals, in
many cases two and three in number. The right to appeal
from a trial judge to a divisional court, the Court of Appeal
and the Supreme Court of Canada, gave many opportunities
for adding to the cost of litigation and the delay of the suitor.
In the last decade of the last century the subject almost
became a political issue and was a matter of constant refer-
ence in the newspapers. (Tin 1904 the controversy resulted
in an amendment to the Judicature Act for the purpose
of limiting the number of appeals.^ It was laid down by

538 THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM

Q*r

4 Edw. vn, cap. 1 1, that a judgment or decision of a divisional
court should be final, and that with certain exceptions there
should be no further appeal, save only at the instance of the
crown. jLThe exceptions were mainly as follows :

(1) Where the judgment or decision of the divisional
court was not unanimous ;

(2) Where the matter in controversy exceeded $1000,
exclusive of costs ;

(3) Where the matter involved the validity of a copy-
right, trade mark, or patent ;

(4) Where the validity of an act of parliament or
legislation of the Province of Ontario was questioned ;

(5) Where the judgment of the divisional court in-
volved a question of law or practice in which there had
been conflicting decisions in divisional courts, and leave
to appeal was obtained ;

(6) Where the judgment or decision was in fact a
matter of practice or procedure, but affected ultimate
rights of the parties to the extent of $1000 ;

(7) Where there were special reasons for trying the
case as exceptional ; and finally,

(8) In all cases in which an appeal would lie from the •
Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

' As intimated above, the constitution of the courts and
the system of practice existed until December 31, 1912(1 By
the Law Reform Act of 1909* the constitution of the court
was completely altered.' ;•• This act was reserved to come into
force on proclamation, and the proclamation was issued on
July 4, 1912, bringing the act into force on January i, 1913.
£>By this statute the Supreme Court of Ontario is established.
It is divided into two branches or divisions, designated re-
spectively the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of
Ontario and the High Court Division of the Supreme Court
of Ontario. The old Court of Appeal is now known as the
Appellate Division, and it is provided that it is not to be
deemed a new court but a continuance of the Court of Appeal.
The former High Court of Justice for Ontario is designated^
the High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Ontario,
and is not deemed a new court but a continuation of the

1 9 Edw. vu, cap. 28.

JUDICIAL DEVELOPMENT 539 (*

former court. The former divisional courts are abolished by \

the act.^The chief justice of Ontario, the chancellor and
the chief justices of divisions retain their rank and titles,
except the justice of the exchequer division, who is here-
after to be designated chief justice of the Exchequer. It
is also provided that when vacancies occur in the office of
chancellor or of chief justice, except that of chief justice
of Ontario, the office shall be abolished, and thereafter in
addition to the chief justice of Ontario there shall be but
one chief justice, who is to bear the title and be designated
chief justice of the High Court. The rank of the existing
chief justices and chancellor is maintained until these
offices are abolished, when the justices of the court shall
rank as follows : the chief justice of Ontario, the chief
justice of the High Court, and the others according to
seniority of appointment.

It is provided that there are to be as many divisional
courts as are necessary for the dispatch of business, but there
shall be at all times at least two, consisting of five judges each.
The first divisional court is to consist of the chief justice of
Ontario and the other judges of the existing Court of Appeal.
The second is to be composed of judges selected for that
purpose for the current year by the judges of the Supreme
Court, and thereafter in the month of December in each
year the judges of the Supreme Court are to meet and select
judges of the second divisional court for the ensuing year.

Additional divisional appellate courts are similarly pro-
vided for, and in case of absence, or when otherwise occasion
may require, judges may be interchanged. Provision is made
for monthly sittingsA One of the most important results of
this legislation is the limitation of the number of appeals.
The divisional courts of the High Court of Justice being
abolished, there can be only one appeal from the decision of
a judge — to the appellate division. .£,

540 THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM

II
COUNTY COURTS

county system originated in 38 Geo. HI, cap. 5
(1798), whereby the province was divided into
counties, the limits established being those that at
present prevail, with the exception that from time to time, as
the province became surveyed and settled, new counties were
addedrt' Later, districts were established in the unorganized
portions of Northern Ontario. At the present time there are
thjrtyjjthree_counjties, three unions of two counties and one
union of three counties, and riinfl jptrinfs in the province. As
in the case of the Superior Courts, a complete history of the
county courts would necessitate a study of the ordinances
prior to the passing of the Constitutional Act and the various
statutes since that time, and this is beyond the scope of the
present article. ,^. The county courts as such, however, were
established by 12 Viet. cap. 78 (1849), and the jurisdiction of
the courts since that time has been repeatedly extended.
The development of practice in the courts follows closely the
changes wrought by the Common Law Procedure Act and the
Judicature Act. I The jurisdiction of the court as it at present
exists is denned by the County Court Act of 1910. Section 22
of the act, limiting the jurisdiction of county courts, is as
follows :

22. (i) The County and District Courts shall have
jurisdiction in :

(a) Actions arising out of contract, expressed or
implied, where the sum claimed does not exceed $8op ;

(&) Personal actions, except actions for criminal
conversation and actions for libel, where the sum
claimed does not exceed $500 ;

i sum claimed does not exceecTT&soo, unless the title to

the land is in question, and in that case also where

the value of the land does not exceed $500, and the

sum claimed does not exceed that amount ;

COUNTY COURTS 541

(d) Actions for the obstruction of or interference
with a right of way or other easement where the sum
claimed does not exceed $500, unless the title to the

« right or easement is in question, and in that case also
where the value of the land over which the right or
easement is claimed does not exceed that amount.

(e) Actions for the recovery of progerty, real or
• personal, including actions of replevin and actions of

detinue, where the value of the property does not exceed
$500 ;

(/) Actions for the enforcement by foreclosure or
sale or for the redemption of tnortgages, charges or liens,
with or without a claim for delivery of possession or
payment or both, where the sum claimed to be due
does not exceed $500 ; i Geo. v, cap. 17, 48.

(g) PartDtgrship actions where the joint stock or
capital of the partnership does not exceed in amount
or value $2000 ;

(h) Actions by legatees under a will for the recovery
or delivery of money or property bequeathed to them
where the legacy does not exceed in value or amount
$500, and the estate of the testator does not exceed
in value $2000 ;

(i) All other actions for equitable relief where the
subject matter involved does not exceed in value or
amount $500 ; and

(.;') Actions and contestations for the determination
of the right of creditors to rank upon insolvent estates
where the claim of the creditor does not exceed $500.

(2) Where a defendant intends to dispute the juris-
diction of the Court on the ground that the action,
though otherwise within the proper competence of the
Court, is not within it because of the amount claimed
or of the value of the property in question or of the
amount or value of the subject matter involved, or, in
the cases mentioned in clauses (g) and (h) of subsec-
tion (i), because the joint stock or capital of the partner-
ship exceeds in amount or value $2000, or the estate
of the testator exceeds in value $2000, he shall in his
appearance state that he disputes the jurisdiction of
the Court and the ground upon which he relies for dis-
puting it ; and, in default of his so doing, unless other-
wise ordered by the Court or a Judge, the question of

542 THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM

jurisdiction shall not afterwards be raised or the juris-
diction be brought in question.

(3) Where the notice mentioned in the next preced-
ing subsection is given, the plaintiff may on praecipe
require all papers and proceedings in the action to be
transmitted to the proper office of the High Court in
the county or district in which the action was brought,
and it shall be the duty of the Clerk of the County or
District Court forthwith to transmit the same to such
office. Appeals /to the County Court are to a divisional
court of the Appellate Division.

"Ill

THE DIVISION COURTS

the earliest times a special court has existed for
the enforcement and collection of small claims.
Before the Constitutional Act of 1791 the Court of
Common Pleas exercised this jurisdiction. After the abolition
of this court in 1792, this jurisdiction was exercised by courts
under various names. The Division Courts as such were first
established by 4-5 Viet. cap. 3. Under this act the justices of
the peace of each district of Upper Canada were empowered
at the first general quarter session held after the passing of the
act to divide each district into six divisions, for the purposes of
' the acti'-^he judges of the district courts were directed to
preside over the courts, and in each division there was directed ,
to be a clerk and bailiff appointed by the district judge. C- This
legislation passed through many changes and amendments,
and the jurisdiction and practice of these courts are now
embodied in 10 Edw. vn, cap. 32. q The jurisdiction of
these courts is limited as follows :

61. The court shall no£ have jurisdiction in any of the
following cases :

(a) An action for the recovery of land or an action
in which the right or title to any corporeal or incor-
poreal hereditaments, or any toll, custom or franchise
comes in question ;

(6) An action in which the validity of any devise,

THE DIVISION COURTS 543

bequest or limitation under any will or settlement
is disputed ;

(c) An action for malicious prosecution, libel, slander,
criminal conversation, seduction or breach of promise
of marriage ;

(d) An action against a justice of the peace for any-
thing done by him in the execution of his office, if he
objects thereto. R.S.O. 1897, c. 60, s. 71.

(e) An action upon a judgment or order of the High
Court or a County Court where execution may issue
upon or in respect thereof. 61 Viet. c. 15, s. 9.

62. (i) Save as otherwise provided by this act, the
court shall have jurisdiction in :

v (a) A personal action where the amount claimed
does not exceed $60" ;

(b) A personal action if all the parties consent
thereto in writing, and the amount claimed does not
exceed $100 ;

v (c) An action on a claim or demand of debt, account
or breach of contract, or covenant, or money demand,
whether payable in money or otherwise, where the
amount or balance claimed does not exceed $100 ;
provided that in the case of an unsettled account the
whole account does not exceed $600 ;

(d) An action for the recovery of a debt or money
demand where the amount claimed, exclusive of in-
terest, whether the interest is payable by contract or
as damages, does not exceed $200 and the amount
claimed is

(i) Ascertained by the signature of the defendant
or of the person whom as executor or
administrator he represents, or —
(ii) The balance of an amount not exceeding
$200, which amount is so ascertained, or —
(iii) The balance of an amount so ascertained
which did not exceed $400 and the plaintiff
abandons the excess over $200.

An amount shall not be deemed to be so ascer-
tained where it is necessary for the plaintiff to give
other and extrinsic evidence beyond the production of
a document and proof of the signature to it. The
jurisdiction conferred by this clause shall apply to
claims and proceedings against an absconding debtor.

544 THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM

(e) An action or contestation for the determina-
tion of the right of a creditor to rank upon an in-
solvent estate where the claim of the creditor does not
exceed $60.

(2) Claims combining

(a) Causes of action in respect of which the juris-
diction is by the foregoing subsection of this section
limited to $60, hereinafter referred to as class (a) •

(b) Causes of action in respect of which the juris-
diction is by the said subsection limited to $100,
hereinafter referred to as class (b) ;

(c) Causes of action in respect of which the juris-
diction is by the said subsection limited to $200,
hereinafter referred to as class- (c),

may be joined in one action ; provided that the whole
amount claimed in respect of class (a) does not exceed
$60 ; and that the whole amount claimed in respect
of classes (a) and (b) combined, or in respect of class
(b), where no claim is made in respect of class (a), does
not exceed $100, and that the whole amount claimed
in respect of classes (a) and (c) or (b) and (c) combined,
does not exceed $200, and that in respect of classes (b)
and (c) combined, the whole amount claimed in respect
of class (b) does not exceed $100.

It is also provided that an action may be entered and
tried (a) in the court for the division in which the cause of
action arose, or in which the defendant, or any one of several
defendants, resides or carries on business at the time the action
is brought ; or (b) in the court the place of sitting whereof is
the nearest to the residence of the defendant.
^CThe act makes provision for the collection of small debts
in the simplest and most economical manner .< On the account
to be collected being lodged with the clerk of the court, a
summons is issued and served by the bailiff. The case then
comes on for trial at the sitting of the court held after the time
limited for the defendant filing his dispute. Sittings of the
court are held as often as is necessary to dispose of the cases
usually up for trial. A sitting must, however, be held at,
least every two months, and in some divisions they are held
every week. There is a provision in the act that when the
defendant has no goods that may be levied upon by the bailiff,

SURROGATE COURTS 545

the plaintiff may have the defendant summoned before the
judge for examination with respect to his property or other
means of paying the judgment, and the judge may make an
order for payment by instalments, and in default of payment
the defendant may be committed to gaol for a period not
exceeding thirty days.

\ For the purposes of the act each county and district is
divided. In all there are three hundred and thirty-nine
divisions of the province.

The clerks and bailiffs are appointed by the lieutenant-
governor in council, and the performance of their duties is
under the supervision of the inspector of division courts, an
official of the department of the attorney-general of the
province.

IV
SURROGATE COURTS

Y 33 Geo. m. cap. 8 (1793), a Court of Probate was
established.//^The provision of the statute is as
follows :

That there be constituted and established and there
is hereby constituted and established a Court, with full
power and authority to issue process and hold cognizance
of all matters relative to the granting of probates, and
committing letters of administration, and to grant pro-
bates of wins and commit letters of administration of
the goods of persons dying intestate having personal
estate, rights and credits within this Province, to be
called and known by the name of the Court of Probate
of the Province of Upper Canada.

It was also provided that the lieutenant-governor or person

administering the government should preside in the court, and

authority was given to appoint a surrogate judge for each U

district of the province for the issue of probates and letters of \

administration.

£, Since that time, by various amendments and changes,

surrogate courts have been established in each county and

546 THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM

district J/ It is usual for the senior judge of the county court
to act as the surrogate judge. The appointment of judges
of these courts is, however, within the authority of the
lieutenant-governor in council of the province.

The jurisdiction of the courts is limited by section 20 of
the act as follows :

(a) To issue process and hold cognizance of all matters
'ifit

relating to the granting probate of wills and letters of
administration, and to grant probate of wills and letters
of administration of the property of persons dying in-
testate and to revoke the same ; and

(&) To hear and determine all questions, causes and
suits in relation to such matters, and to all matters and
causes testamentary.

0-Where there is a contention as to the grant of probate or
administration, the contention may be referred to and deter-
mined by the High Court, if both parties are agreeable ;
and where the property of the deceased exceeds $2000 in value,
the contention may be transferred to the High Court by order
of a judge of that court. J^

THE LAW SOCIETY

A DESCRIPTION of the legal system of the Province of
Ontario would not be complete without reference to
the Law Society of Upper Canada. This body was
established in the year 1797^ by 37 Geo. in, cap. 13. The first
two sections of this statute are as follows :

BE it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty,
by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative
Council and Assembly of the Province of Upper Canada,
constituted and assembled by virtue of and under the
authority of an Act passed in the Parliament of Great
Britain, intituled, ' An Act to repeal certain parts of an
Act passed in the fourteenth year of His Majesty's
reign, intituled, " An Act for making more effectual pro-
vision for the -Government of the Province of Quebec,

* c-

"«• -

THE LAW SOCIETY 547

in North America," and to make further provision for
the Government of the said Province,' and by the
authority of the same, That from and after the passing
of this Act, it shall and may be lawful for the persons
now admitted to practise in the Law, and practising at
the Bar of any of His Majesty's Courts of this Province,
$ ' ' to form themselves into a Society, to be called the Law
, f /» Society of Upper Canada, as well for the establishing of
order amongst themselves, as for the purpose of securing
to the Province and the profession a learned and honour- -4J1- ,?<='• ft

able body, to assist their fellow subjects as occasion
may require, and to support and maintain the Constitu- ^^ o 3 ^

tion of the said Province. ^ i > £ , x '

']7fa AND BE IT FURTHER ENACTED BY THE AUTHORITY *

AFORESAID, that the said Society shall, and is hereby /t £•

authorized, to form a body of rules and regulations

for its own government, under the inspection of the y '

Judges of the Province for the time being, as Visitors v/i ' , /To

of the said Society, and to appoint the six senior T

members, or more, of the present practitioners, and

the six senior members, or more, for the time being, ,

in all times to come (whereof His Majesty's Attorney 417 Vi<?

General and Solicitor General, for the time being,

shall be, and be considered to be, two), as Governors

or Benchers of the said Society, and also to appoint a

Librarian and a Treasurer.

In the fifth section of the statute it was provided that no
person other than ' the present practitioners and those after-
wards mentioned shall be permitted ta practise at the Bar qf >•
any of His Majesty's Courts in the Province unless such person
shall have been entered into the said Society as a student of
the Laws.' Prior to the year 1857 the Courts of Law and
Equity exercised the power of admitting attorneys and
solicitors to practise, and of supervising their service as
articled clerks. In that year the duties of examining and .
certifying to the courts as to the fitness and capacity of
those seeking admission to the profession were transferred
to the Law Society. In the year 1889 the Law School was i
established, and all persons admitted to the bar were required
to attend lectures thereat and pass prescribed examinations.
At no time were the divisions of barrister and attorney com-

VOL. XVIII S

548 THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM

pletely separated. Prior to the year 1889 separate examina-
tions were provided for those qualifying to pass as barristers
and solicitors, but it was the usual practice for all members
of the bar to be qualified in both capacities. Since that time
all distinction has been abolished, and candidates having
passed the qualifying examination of the Law School are
admitted by the court on presentation of certificate, and to
practise upon taking the oath of allegiance and the oath of a
solicitor and on signing the roll.

The controlling body of the society, the benchers, consists
of honorary and elected members, the honorary members
being present and former ministers of justice and the present
and former attorneys-general of the Province of Ontario,
retired judges and benchers who have been elected by the
members of the society at four quinquennial elections, and
thirty members elected by the members of the society. The
bench is presided over by its chief officer, styled the treasurer.

The society maintains a law library at Osgoode Hall which
contains about 100,000 volumes and is one of the most com-
plete in existence. The society also promotes and subsidizes
libraries in all the county towns, and these are under the direct
control of county law associations.

Provision for the publication of reports of the decisions
of the courts was first made in the year 1823 by 4 Geo. rv,
cap. 3. This statute was repealed in the year 1840, and the
publication of the reports was committed to the Law Society
of Upper Canada. The immediate control of the reporting
is in the hands of a committee of the Law Society, and the
reports are compiled subject to the control of an editor and a
staff of reporters.

HISTORY OF FARMING

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE

FROM the most southern point of Ontario on Lake Erie,
near the 42nd parallel of latitude, to Moose Factory
on James Bay, the distance is about 750 miles.
From the eastern boundary on the Ottawa and St Lawrence
Rivers to Kenora at the Manitoba boundary, the distance is
about 1000 miles. The area lying within these extremes
is about 220,000 square miles. In 1912 a northern addition
of over 100,000 square miles was made to the surface area of
the province, but it is doubtful whether the agricultural lands
will thereby be increased. Of this large area about 25,000,000
acres are occupied and assessed, including farm lands and
town and city sites. It will be seen, therefore, that only a
small fraction of the province has, as yet, been occupied.
Practically all the occupied area lies south of a line drawn
through Montreal, Ottawa, and Sault Ste Marie, and it forms
part of the great productive zone of the continent.

The next point to be noted is the irregularity of the
boundary-line, the greater portion of which is water — Lakes
Superior, Huron, Erie, Ontario, the St Lawrence River, the
Ottawa River, James Bay, and Hudson Bay. The modifying
effect of great bodies of water must be considered in studying
the agricultural possibilities of Ontario.

Across this great area of irregular outline there passes a
branch of the Archaean rocks running in a north-western
direction and forming a watershed, which turns some of the
streams to Hudson Bay and the others to the St Lawrence
system. An undulating surface has resulted, more or less
filled with lakes, and almost lavishly supplied with streams,
which are of prime importance for agricultural life and of

£51

552 HISTORY OF FARMING

incalculable value for commercial purposes. To these old
rocks which form the backbone of the province may be traced
the origin of the large stretches of rich soil with which the
province abounds.

An examination of the map, and even a limited knowledge
of the geological history of the province, will lead to the con-
clusion that in Ontario there must be a wide range in the
nature and composition of the soils and a great variety in the
climatic conditions. These conditions exist, and they result
in a varied natural production. In the extreme south-
western section plants of a semi-tropical nature were to
be found in the early days in luxurious growth ; while in
the extreme north, spruce, somewhat stunted in size and
toughened in fibre, are still to be found in vast forests.

It is with the southern section, that lying south of the
Laurentian rocks, that our story is mainly concerned, for the
occupation and exploitation of the northland is a matter only
of recent date. Nature provided conditions for a diversified
agriculture. It is to such a land that for over a hundred
years people of different nationalities, with their varied train-
ings and inclinations, have been coming to make their homes.
We may expect, therefore, to find a great diversity in the
agricultural growth of various sections, due partly to the
variety of natural conditions and partly to the varied agri-
cultural training of the settlers in their homelands.
t

EARLY SETTLEMENT, 1783-1816

Originally this province was covered with forest, varied
and extensive, and was valued only for its game. The hunter
and trapper was the pioneer. To protect and assist him,
fortified posts were constructed at commanding points along
the great waterways. In the immediate vicinity of these
posts agriculture, crude in its nature and restricted in its area,
had its beginning.

It was into this wooded wilderness that the United Empire
Loyalists, numbering in all approximately ten thousand
people, came in the latter part of the eighteenth century.1

1 See ' Pioneer Settlements ' in this section.

EARLY SETTLEMENT 553

They were a people of varied origins — Highland Scottish,
German, Dutch, Irish Palatine, French Huguenot, English.
Most of them had lived on farms in New York State, and
therefore brought with them some knowledge and experience
that stood them in good stead in their arduous work of making
new homes in a land that was heavily wooded. In the year
1783 prospectors were sent into Western Quebec, the region
lying west of the Ottawa River, and selections were made for
them .in four districts — along the St Lawrence, opposite Fort
Oswegatchie ; around the Bay of Quinte, above Fort
Cataraqui ; in the Niagara peninsula, opposite Fort Niagara ;
and in the south-western section, within reach of Fort Detroit.
Two reasons determined these locations ; first, the necessity
of being located on the water-front, as lake and river were the
only highways available ; and, secondly, the advisability of
being within the protection of a fortified post. The depend-
ence of the settlers upon the military will be realized when we
remember that they had neither implements nor seed grain.
In fact, they were dependent at first upon the government
stores for their food. It is difficult at the present time to
realize the hardships and appreciate the conditions under
which these United Empire Loyalist settlers began life in
the forest of 1784.

Having been assigned their lots and supplied with a few
implements, they began their work of making small clearings
and the erection of rude log-houses and barns. Among the
stumps they sowed the small quantities of wheat, oats, and
potatoes that were furnished from the government stores.
Cattle were for many years few in number, and the settler,
to supply his family with food and clothing, was compelled
to add hunting and trapping to his occupation of felling the
trees.

Gradually the clearings became larger and the area sown
increased in size. The trails were improved and took on the
semblance of roads, but the waterways continued to be the
principal avenues of communication. In each of the four
districts the government erected mills to grind the grain for
the settlers. These were known as the King's Mills. Water-
power mills were located near Kingston, at Gananoque, at

554 HISTORY OF FARMING

Napanee, and on the Niagara River. The mill on the Detroit
was run by wind power. An important event in the early
years was when the head of the family set out for the mill with
his bag of wheat on his back or in his canoe, and returned in
two or three days, perhaps in a week, with a small supply of
flour. In the early days there was no wheat for export. The
question then may be asked, was there anything to market ?
Yes ; as the development went on, the settlers found a market
for two surplus products, timber and potash. The larger
pine trees were hewn into timber and floated down the streams
to some convenient point where they were collected into
rafts, which were taken down the St Lawrence to Montreal
and Quebec. Black salt or crude potash was obtained by
concentrating the ashes that resulted from burning the brush
and trees that were not suitable for timber. •

For the first thirty years of the new settlements the chief
concern of the people was the clearing of their land, the in-
creasing of their field crops, and the improving of their homes
and furnishings. It was slow going, and had it not been for
government assistance, progress, and even maintenance of
life, would have been impossible. That was the heroic age of
Upper Canada, the period of foundation-laying in the province.
Farming was the main occupation, and men, women, and
children shared the burdens in the forest, in the field, and in
the home. Roads were few and poorly built, except the three
great military roads planned by Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe
running east, west, and north from the town of York. Social
intercourse was of a limited nature. Here and there a school
was formed when a competent teacher could be secured.
Church services were held once a month, on which occasions
the missionary preacher rode into the district on horseback.
Perhaps once or twice in the summer the weary postman, with
his pack on his back, arrived at the isolated farmhouse to
leave a letter, on which heavy toll had to be collected.

Progress was slow in those days, but after thirty years
fair hop* of an agricultural country was beginning to dawn
upon the people when the War of 1812 broke out. By this
time the population of the province had increased to about
eighty thousand. During this first thirty years very little

EARLY SETTLEMENT 555

had been done in the way of stimulating public interest
in agricultural work. Conditions were not favourable to
organization. The ' town meeting ' was concerned mainly
with the question of the height of fences and regulations as
to stock running at large. One attempt, however, was made
which should be noted. Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe took
charge of affairs early in 1792, and, immediately after the close
of the first session of the legislature at Newark (Niagara) in
the autumn of that year, organized an agricultural society
at the headquarters which met occasionally to discuss agri-
cultural questions. There are no records to show whether
social intercourse or practical agricultural matters formed the
main business. The struggle for existence was too exacting
and the conditions were not yet favourable for organization to
advance general agricultural matters.

When the War of 1812 broke out the clearings of the
/original settlers had been extended, and some of the loyalists
/still lived, grown grey with time and hardened by the rough
/ life of the backwoods. Their sons, many of whom had faint
I recollection of their early homes across the line, had grown
up in an atmosphere of strictest loyalty to the British crown,
'] and had put in long years in clearing the farms on which they
lived and adding such comforts to their houses, that to them,
perhaps as to no other generation, their homes meant every-
thing in life. The summons came to help to defend those
homes and their province. For three years the agricultural
growth received a severe check. Fathers and sons took their
turn in going to the front. The cultivation of the fields, the
sowing and the harvesting of the crops, fell largely to the lot
of the mothers and the daughters left at home. But they
were equal to it. In those days the women were trained to
help in the work of the fields. They did men's work willingly
and well. In many cases they had to continue their heroic
work after the close of the war, until their surviving boys were
grown to years of manhood, for many husbands and sons went
to the front never to return.

556 HISTORY OF FARMING

A PERIOD OF EXPANSION, 1816-46

The close of the war saw a province that had been checked
at a time of vigorous growth now more or less impoverished,
and, in some sections, devastated. This was, however, but
the gloomy outlook before a period of rapid expansion. In
1816, on the close of the Napoleonic wars in Europe, large
numbers of troops were disbanded, and for these new homes
and new occupations had to be found. Then began the first
emigration from Britain overseas to Upper Canada. All
over the British Isles little groups were forming of old soldiers
reunited to their families. A few household furnishings were
packed, a supply of provisions laid in,a sailing vessel chartered,
and the trek began across the Atlantic. The emigrants sailed
from many ports of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Some-
times the trip was made in three or four weeks ; but often,
through contrary winds or rough weather, three or four
months passed before the vessel sailed up the St Lawrence and
landed the newcomers at Montreal. Hardly half of their
difficulties were then overcome or half of their dangers passed.
If they were to find their new locations by land, they must
walk or travel by slow ox-cart ; if they journeyed by water,
they must make their way up the St Lawrence by open boat,
surmounting the many rapids in succession, poling the boats,
pulling against the stream, at times helping to carry heavy
loads over the portages. Their new homes in the backwoods
were in townships in the rear of those settled by the loyalists,
or in unoccupied areas lying on the lake-fronts between the
four districts referred to as having been taken up by the
loyalists. Then began the settlements along the north shore
of Lake Ontario and of Lake Erie, and the population moved
forward steadily. I n 1 8 1 6 the total population of the province
was approximately 100,000 ; by 1826, according to returns
made to the government, it had increased to 166,000 ; in
1836 it was 374,000, and in 1841 it was 456,000. The great
majority of these people, of course, lived upon the land, the
towns being comparatively small, and the villages were com-
posed largely of people engaged in agricultural work.

A PERIOD OF EXPANSION 557

This peaceful British invasion contributed a new element
to the province and added still further to the variety of the
people. In one township could be found a group of English
settlers, most of whom came from a southern county of
England, near by a township peopled by Scottish Low-
landers, and not far away a colony of north of Ireland
farmers, or perhaps a settlement composed entirely of people
from the vicinity of Cork or Limerick.

These British settlers brought new lines of life, new plans
for houses and barns, new methods of cultivation, new
varieties of seed, and, what was perhaps of most influence
upon the agricultural life of the province, new kinds of live
stock. Even to this day can be seen traces of the differences
in construction of buildings introduced by the different
nationalities that came as pioneers into the various sections
of the province — the French Canadian constructed his build-
ings with long, steep roofs ; the Englishman followed his
home plan of many small, low outbuildings with doors some-
what rounded at the top ; the German and Dutch settler
built big barns with their capacious mows. These latter
have become the type now generally followed, the main
improvement in later years being the raising of the frames
upon stone foundations so as to provide accommodation
for live stock in the basement. It would be interesting and
profitable to study carefully the different localities to deter-
mine what elements have contributed to the peculiar agricul-
tural characteristics of the present day. In this connection
the language also might be investigated. For instance, to
the early Dutch farmers of Upper Canada we owe such
common words as ' stoop,' ' bush,' ' boss,' ' span.' To the
early British settler these were foreign words. When the
oversea settlers came up the St Lawrence they were trans-
ported from Montreal either by ' bateau ' or by ' Durham
boat.' 1

Special reference must be made to the live stock intro-
duced by the British settlers. This was one of the most
important elements in the expansion and permanent develop-
ment of the agriculture of the province. The British Isles

1 See ' Shipping and Canals ' in section v. pp. 489-90.

558 HISTORY OF FARMING

have long been noted for their pure-bred stock. In no other
part of the world have so many varieties been originated and
improved. In horses, there are the Clydesdale, the Shire,
the Thoroughbred, and the Hackney ; in cattle, Shorthorns,
Herefords, Ayrshires, Devon, and the dairy breeds of Jersey
and Guernsey ; in sheep, Southdowns, Shropshires, Leicesters ;
in swine, Berkshires and Yorkshires. Many other breeds
might be added to these. Poultry and dogs also might be
referred to. The Britisher has been noted for his love of
live stock. He has been trained to their care, his agricul-
tural methods have been ordered to provide food suitable
for their wants, and he has been careful to observe the lines
of breeding so as to improve their quality. In the earliest
period of the settlement of the province live stock was not
numerous and the quality was not of the best. Whatever
was to be found on the farms came mainly from the United
States and was of inferior type. The means of bringing in
horses, cattle, and sheep were limited. The result was that
field work at that time was largely done by hand labour.
Hunting and fishing helped to supply the table with the food
that to-day we obtain from the butcher. When the Britisher
came across the Atlantic he brought to Upper Canada his
love for live stock and his knowledge how to breed and care
for the same. The result was seen in the rapid increase in
the number of horses, cattle, sheep, and swine, and the placing
of the agriculture of the province on a firm basis for future
growth.

By 1830 the population had grown to about 213,000,
practically all located on the land. In that year there were
only five towns of 1000 or over : namely, Kingston, 3587 ;
York (Toronto), 2860 ; London, (including the township),
2415 ; Hamilton (including the township), 2013 ; and Brock-
ville, 1130. The returns to the government show that of
the 4,018,385 acres occupied 773,727 were under cultiva-
tion. On the farms were to be found 30,776 horses, 33,517
oxen, 80,892 milch cows, and 32,537 young cattle. It is
interesting to note that oxen, so useful in clearing land and
in doing heavy work, were more numerous than horses.
Oxen were hardier than horses ; they could forage for them-

A PERIOD OF EXPANSION 559

selves and live on rough food, and when disabled could be
converted into food. They thus played a very important
part in the pioneer life. There were no improved farm
implements in those days : the plough, the spade, the hoe,
the fork, the sickle, the hook, the cradle, and the rake —
implements that had been the husbandman's equipment for
centuries — completed the list. With these the farmer culti-
vated his lands and gathered his crops. With two stout
hickory poles, joined together at the end with tough leather
thongs, a flail was made with which he threshed out his grain
on the floor of his barn.

The earliest pioneers raised some flax, and from the fibre
made coarse linen fabrics, supplementing these by skins of
wild animals and the hides of cattle. With the introduc-
tion of sheep by the British settlers wool became an important
product, and homespun garments provided additional cloth-
ing for all the members of the family. Seeds of various fruit
trees were planted, and by 1830 the products of these seed-
lings supplemented the wild plums and cherries of the woods
and the wild raspberries that sprang up in abundance in the
clearings and slashes. By this time every farm had one or
more milch cows and the farmer's table was supplied with
fresh milk, butter, and home-made cheese. As the first half-
century of the province was drawing to its close, some of the
comforts of home life began to be realized by the farming
community. The isolation of the former period disappeared
as roads of communication were opened up and extended.

^ Here and there societies were formed for the exhibition
of the products of the farm and for friendly competitions.
So important were these societies becoming in the life of the
whole community that in 1830 the government gave them
recognition and provided an annual grant to assist them in
their work. This is an important event in agricultural
history, for it marks the beginning of government assistance
to the agricultural industry. Between 1820 and 1830 pro-
bably not more than half a dozen agricultural societies were
organized. Some records of such were preserved at York,
Kingston, and in the Newcastle district. From the record
of the County of Northumberland Agricultural Society it is

56o HISTORY OF FARMING

learned that its first show was held in the public square of
the village of Colborne on October 19, 1828, when premiums
were awarded amounting in all to seventy-seven dollars.
There were fourteen prizes for live stock, two prizes for cheese,
two for field rollers, and two for essays on the culture of
wheat. The first prize essay, for which the winner received
five dollars, was printed for distribution. The prize list was
limited in range, but it shows how this new settlement,
formed largely by British settlers since 1816, was giving par-
ticular attention to the encouragement of live stock. A
short quotation from the prize essay as to the best method
of clearing the land for wheat should be found of interest.

As a great part of our County is yet in a wilderness
state and quite a share of the wheat brought to our
markets is reared on new land, I deem it important that
our enterprising young men who are clearing away the
forest should know how to profit by their hard labor.
Let the underwood be cut in the autumn before the
leaves fall, and the large timber in the winter or early in
the spring. This will insure a good burn, which is the
first thing requisite for a good crop. Do your logging
in the month of June, and if you wish to make money,
do it before you burn your brush and save the ashes ;
these will more than half pay you for clearing the land :
and by burning at this season you will attract a drove
of cattle about you that will destroy all sprouts which
may be growing ; do not leave more than four trees on
an acre and girdle these in the full moon of March and
they will never leaf again ; thus you may have your
land prepared for the seed before harvest.

The act of 1830 provided a grant of ^100 for a society in
each district, upon condition that the members subscribed
and paid in at least £50, and in the case of a society being
organized in each county the amount was to be equally
divided among the societies. The condition of making the
grant was set forth in the act as follows : ' When any Agri-
cultural Society, for the purpose of importing valuable live
stock, grain, grass seeds, useful implements or whatever else
might conduce to the improvement of agriculture in this
Province,' etc.

A PERIOD OF EXPANSION 561

As a result of this substantial assistance by the govern-
ment, agricultural societies increased in number, and their
influence, in assisting in the improvement of the live stock
and the bringing of new implements to the attention of
farmers, was most marked.

Horses, sheep, and milch cows increased rapidly. Pure-
bred cattle now began to receive some attention. The first
record of importation is the bringing of a Shorthorn bull and
a cow from New York State in 1831 by Robert Arnold of
St Catharines. In 1833 Rowland Wingfield, an Englishman
farming near Guelph, brought a small herd of choice animals
across the ocean, landed them at Montreal, took them to
Hamilton by way of the Ottawa River, the Rideau Canal,
and Lake Ontario, and then drove them on foot to Wellington
County. The Hon. Adam Fergusson of Woodhill followed
two or three years later with a similar importation.

The first Ayrshire cattle can be traced back to the Scottish
settlers who arrived during this period. These emigrants had
provided their own food for the voyage to Canada, and in
some cases brought a good milch cow to provide fresh milk
on the voyage. She would be disposed of on landing, at
Montreal or in the eastern part of Upper Canada. This
accounts for the early predominance of Ayrshires in Eastern
Ontario. Thus to the period 1830-45 belongs the first founda- *
tion of the pure-bred stock industry.

It was in this period also that the first signs appear of ,
improved farm implements and labour-saving machinery.
Ploughs of improved pattern, lighter and more effective,
were being made. Land rollers and harrows made in the
factory began to take the place of the home-made articles.
Crude threshing machines, clover-seed cleaners, root-cutters,
and a simple but heavy form of hay-rake came into use. The
mowing machine and the reaper were making their appear-
ance in Great Britain and the United States, but they had
not yet reached Upper Canada.

The organization of agricultural societies in the various
districts, and the great impetus given to the keeping of good
stock, led in 1843 to the suggestion that a provincial organiza-
tion would be of benefit to the farming industry. In the

562 HISTORY OF FARMING

neighbouring State of New York a similar organization had
been in existence since 1832 and successful State fairs had
been held, which some of the more prominent farmers of
Upper Canada had visited. An agricultural paper called
the British American Cultivator had been established in
York, and through this paper, in letters and editorials, the
idea of a provincial association was advocated. For three
years the discussion proceeded, until finally, in 1846, there
was organized the Provincial Agricultural Association and
Board of Agriculture for Canada West, composed of dele-
gates from the various district societies. The result was
that the first provincial exhibition was held in Toronto on
October 2 1 and 22 of that year. The old Government House
at the south-western corner of King Street and Simcoe
Street, then empty, was used for the exhibits, and the stock
and implements were displayed in the adjoining grounds.
The Canada Company gave a contribution of $200, eight
local societies made donations, about $280 was secured as
gate money, and 297 members paid subscriptions. Premiums
were paid to the amount of $880, the bulk of which went to
live stock ; books, which cost about $270, were given as
prizes ; and there was left a cash balance on hand of $400.
A ploughing match was held, and on the evening of the first
day a grand banquet was given, attended by the officers and
directors and by some of the leading citizens of Toronto.
Among the speakers at this banquet were Chief Justice
Robinson and Egerton Ryerson, superintendent of education.

ORGANIZED AGRICULTURE, 1846-67

The organization of this provincial association fittingly
introduces another era in agricultural growth. It is to be
noted that this provincial organization was a self-created
body ; it drew at first no government funds direct. It
commended itself to the people, for on July 28, 1847, the
provincial parliament in session at Montreal passed an act
incorporating it under the name of the Agricultural Asso-
ciation of Upper Canada, and in the charter named as
members a number of the leading citizens of the province.

ORGANIZED AGRICULTURE 563

It was governed by a board of directors, two of whom were
chosen annually by each district agricultural society. The
objects set forth were the improvement of farm stock and
produce, the improvement of agricultural implements, and
the encouragement of domestic manufactures, of useful in-
ventions applicable to agricultural or domestic purposes, and
of every branch of rural and domestic economy. Out of
this provincial association came all the further agricultural
organizations of a provincial nature, and ultimately, some
forty years later, the Ontario department of Agriculture.

The second provincial exhibition was held at Hamilton
in 1847, and Lord Elgin, the governor-general, was in attend-
ance. He was also a generous patron, for his name appears
as a donor of $100. The address which he delivered at the
banquet has been preserved in the published records and is
copiously marked with cheers and loud applause.

The third exhibition was held at Cobourg in 1848. The
official report of the exhibits indicates that pure-bred stock
was rapidly increasing and improving in quality ; but the
most significant paragraph is that dealing with implements,
and this is well worth quoting in full.

Of implements of Canada make, the Show was deficient;
and we were much indebted to our American neighbours
for their valuable aid on this occasion. A large number
of ploughs, straw-cutters, drills, cornshellers, churns,
etc., etc., were brought over by Messrs Briggs & Co. of
Rochester, Mr Emery of Albany, and a large manufac-
turing firm near Boston. Mr Bell of Toronto exhibited
his excellent plough, straw-cutter, and reaping machine.
The first prize for the latter article was awarded to
Mr Helm of Cobourg for the recent improvements
which he has effected. Mr Clark of Paris exhibited his
one-horse thrashing-mill, which attracted much atten-
tion.

At the fourth exhibition, held at Kingston in 1849, the
show of implements was much more extensive, and comment
was made on the improvement of articles of home manufac-
ture. At this meeting Professor J. F. W. Johnson, of Edin-
burgh, who was making a tour of North America, was present.

VOL. XVIII T

564 HISTORY OF FARMING

The address of the president, Henry Ruttan of Cobourg, is
a most valuable reference article descriptive of the agricul-
tural progress of the province from the first settlements in
1783 to the time of the exhibition. Ruttan was a loyalist's
son; and, from his own personal knowledge, he described the
old plough that was given by the government to each of the
first settlers.

It consisted of a small iron socket, whose point entered
by means of a dove-tailed aperture into the heel of the
coulter, which formed the principal part of the plough,
and was in shape similar to the letter L, the shank of
which went through the wooden beam, and the foot
formed the point which was sharpened for operation.
One handle and a plank split from the side of a winding
block of timber, which did duty for the mould-board,
completed the implement. Besides provisions for a year,
I think each family had issued to them a plough-share
and coulter, a set of dragg-teeth, a log chain, an axe, a
saw, a hammer, a bill hook and a grubbing hoe, a pair of
hand-irons and a cross-cut saw amongst several families,
and a few other articles.

He then refers to the large number of implements then
being pressed upon the farmers, until ' they have almost
become a nuisance to the farmer who desires to purchase a
really useful article.' All of which indicates that a distinc-
tive feature of the period beginning with 1846 was the intro-
duction and rapid extension of improved farm machinery.

A few words as to the reaping machine, which contributed
more than any other modern implement to the development
of agriculture in the past century, may not be out of place.
Various attempts had been made at producing a machine to
supersede the sickle, the scythe, and the cradle before the Rev.
Patrick Bell, in 1826, presented his machine to the Highland
Agricultural Society of Scotland for its examination. Bell's
machine was fairly successful, and one was then in operation
on the farm of his brother, Inch-Michael, in the Carse of
Gowrie. One set of knives was fixed, another set worked
above and across these like the blades of a pair of scissors.
The grain fell on an endless cloth which carried and deposited

ORGANIZED AGRICULTURE 565

the heads at the side of the machine. A horse pushed it
forward and kept all parts in motion. It was simple, and, we
are told, harvested twelve acres in a day. This was in 1826.
In the New York Farmer and American Gardener's Magazine
for 1834 maY De found the descriptions and illustrations of
Obed Hussey's grain-cutter and Cyrus H. M°Cormick's
' improved reaping-machine.' The question has been raised
as to whether either of these United States inventions owed
anything to the earlier production of Patrick Bell. It was,
of course, the improved United States reaping machines that
found their way into Upper Canada shortly after the organiza-
tion of the Provincial Agricultural Association. Our interest
in this matter is quickened by the fact that the Rev. Patrick
Bell, when a young man, was for some time a tutor in the
family of a well-to-do farmer in the county of Wellington,
and there is a tradition that while there he carried on
some experiments in the origination of his machine. The
suggestion of a ' mysterious visitor ' from the United States
to the place where he was experimenting is probably mere
conjecture.

This period, 1846 to 1867, was one of rapid growth in
population. The free-grant land policy of the government
was a great attraction for tens of thousands of people in the
British Isles, who were impelled by social unrest, failure of
crops, and general stagnation in the manufacturing in-
dustries to seek new homes across the sea. In the twenty
years referred to the population more than doubled, and the
improved lands of the province increased fourfold. The
numbers of cattle and sheep about doubled, and the wheat
production increased about threefold.

Towards the latter part of the period a new agricultural
industry came into existence — the manufacture of cheese in
factories. It was in New York State that the idea of co-
operation in the manufacture of cheese was first attempted.
There, as in Canada West, it had been the practice to make
at home from time to time a quantity of soft cheese, which,
of course, would be of variable quality. To save labour, a
proposition was made to collect the milk from several farms
and have the cheese made at one central farm. The success

566 HISTORY OF FARMING

of this method soon became known and small factories were
established. In 1863 Harvey Farrington came from New
York State to Canada West and established a factory in
the county of Oxford, about the same time that a similar
factory was established in the county of Missisquoi, Quebec.
Shortly afterwards factories were built in Hastings County,
and near Brockville, in Leeds County. Thus began an
industry that had a slow advance for some fifteen years, but
from 1880 spread rapidly, until the manufacture of cheese in
factories became one of the leading provincial industries.
The system followed is a slight modification of the Cheddar
system, which takes its name from one of the most beautiful
vales in the west of England. Its rapid progress has been
due to the • following circumstances : Ontario, with her rich
grasses, clear skies, and clean springs and streams, is well
adapted to dairying ; large numbers of her farmers came from
dairy districts in the mother country ; the co-operative
method of manufacture tends to produce a marketable article
that can be shipped and that improves with proper storage ;
Great Britain has proved a fine market for such an article ;
and the industry has for over thirty years received the special
help and careful supervision and direction of the provincial
and Dominion governments.

During this period we note the voluntary organization of
the Ontario Fruit-Growers' Association, a fact which alone
would suggest that the production of fruit must have been
making progress. The early French settlers along the Detroit
River had planted pear trees or grown them from seed, and a
few of these sturdy, stalwart trees, over a century old, still
stand and bear some fruit. Mrs Simcoe, in her Journal,
July 2, 1793, states : ' We have thirty large May Duke cherry
trees behind the house and three standard peach trees which
supplied us last Autumn for tarts and desserts during six
weeks, besides the numbers the young men eat.' This was at
Niagara. The records of the agricultural exhibitions indicate
that there was a gradual extension of fruit-growing. Im-
portations of new varieties were made, Rochester, in New
York State, apparently being the chief place from which
nursery stock was obtained. Here and there through the

ORGANIZED AGRICULTURE 567

province gentlemen having some leisure and the skill to
experiment were beginning to take an interest in their gardens
and to produce new varieties. On January 19, 1859, a few
persons met in the board-room of the Mechanics' Hall at
Hamilton and organized a fruit-growers' association for
Upper Canada. Judge Campbell was elected president ;
Dr Hurlbert, first vice-president ; George Leslie, second vice-
president ; Arthur Harvey, secretary. The members of this
association introduced new varieties and reported on their
success. They were particularly active in producing such
new varieties as were peculiarly suitable to the climate. For
nine years they maintained their organization and carried on
their work unaided and unrecognized officially.

To this period belongs also the first attempts at special
instruction in agriculture and the beginning of an agricultural
press. Both are intimately connected with the association,
already referred to, that had been organized in 1846 by some
of the most progressive citizens.

For four years the Provincial Association carried on its
work and established itself as a part of the agricultural life
of Canada West. In 1850 the government stepped in and
established a board of agriculture as the executive of the
association. Its objects were set out by statute and funds
were to be provided for its maintenance. The new lines of
work allotted to it were to collect agricultural statistics,
prepare crop reports, gather information of general value and
to present the same to the legislature for publication, and
to co-operate with the provincial university in the teaching
of agriculture and the carrying on of an experimental or
illustrative farm. Professor George Buckland was appointed
to the chair of agriculture in the university in January 1851
and an experimental farm on a small scale was laid out on
the university grounds. Professor Buckland acted also as
secretary to the board until 1858, when he resigned and was
succeeded by Hugh C. Thomson. He continued his work for
some years at the university, and was an active participant in
all agricultural matters up to the time of his death in 1885.

Provision having been made for agricultural instruction
at the university, the board in 1859 decided to establish a

568 HISTORY OF FARMING

course in veterinary science, and at once got into com-
munication with Professor Dick of the Veterinary College
at Edinburgh, Scotland. In 1862 a school was opened in
Toronto under the direction of Professor Andrew Smith,
recently arrived from Edinburgh.

The British American Cultivator was established in 1841 by
Eastwood and Co. and W. G. Edmundson, with the latter as
editor. It gave place in 1849 to the Canadian Agriculturist, a
monthly journal edited and owned by George Buckland and
William McDougall. This was the official organ of the board
till the year 1864, when George Brown began the publication
of the Canada Farmer with the Rev. W. F. Clark as editor-
in-chief and D. W. Beadle as horticultural editor. The board
at once recognized it, accepted it as their representative, and
the Canadian Agriculturist ceased publication in December
1863.

The half-century of British immigration, 1816 to 1867, had
wrought a wonderful change. From a little over a hundred
thousand the population had grown to a million and a half ;
towns and cities had sprung into existence ; commercial
enterprises had taken shape ; the construction of railways
had been undertaken ; trade had developed along new lines ;
the standards of living had materially changed ; and great
questions, national and international, had stirred the people
and aroused at times the bitterest political strife. The
changed standards of living can best be illustrated by an
extract from an address delivered in 1849 by Sheriff Jluttan.
Referring to the earlier period, he said :

Our food was coarse but wholesome. With the excep-
tion of three or four pounds of green tea a year for a
family, which cost us three bushels of wheat per pound,
we raised everything we ate. We manufactured our own
clothes and purchased nothing except now and then a
black silk handkerchief or some trifling article of foreign
manufacture of the kind. We lived simply, yet comfort-
ably— envied no one, for no one was better off than his
neighbour. Until within the last thirty years, one hun-
dred bushels of wheat, at 2s. 6d. per bushel, was quite
sufficient to give in exchange for all the articles of for-
eign manufacture consumed by a large family. . . . The

THE GROWTH OF SCIENTIFIC FARMING 569

old-fashioned home-made cloth has given way to the
fine broadcloth coat ; the linsey-woolsey dresses of
females have disappeared and English and French silks
been substituted ; the nice clean-scoured floors of the
farmers' houses have been covered by Brussels carpets ;
the spinning wheel and loom have been superseded by
the piano ; and in short, a complete revolution in all our
domestic habits and manners has taken place — the con-
sequences of which are the accumulation of an enormous
debt upon our shoulders and its natural concomitant,
political strife.

Students of Canadian history will at once recall the story
of the Rebellion of 1837, the struggle for constitutional govern-
ment, the investigation by Lord Durham, the repeal of the
preferential wheat duties in England, the agitation for
Canadian independence, and other great questions that so
seriously disturbed the peace of the Canadian people. They
were the ' growing pains ' of a progressive people. The
Crimean War, in 1854-56, gave an important though
temporary boom to Canadian farm products. Reciprocity
with the United States from 1855 to 1866 offered a profitable
market that had been closed for many years. Then came the
close of the great civil war in the United States and the
opening up of the cheap, fertile prairie lands of the Middle
West to the hundreds of thousands of farmers set free from
military service. This westward movement was joined by
many farmers from Ontario ; there was a disastrous com-
petition in products, and an era of agricultural depression
set in just before Confederation. It was because of these
difficulties that Confederation became a possibility and a
necessity. The new political era introduced a new agri-
cultural period, which began under conditions that were
perhaps as unfavourable and as unpromising as had been
experienced for over half a century.

THE GROWTH OF SCIENTIFIC FARMING, 1867-88

The period that we shall now deal with begins with Con-
federation in 1867 and extends to 1888, when a provincial

570

HISTORY OF FARMING

minister of Agriculture was appointed for the first time and
an independent department organized.

From 1792 to 1841 what is now Ontario was known as
Upper Canada ; from 1841 to 1867 it was part of the United
Province of Canada, being known as Canada West to distin-
guish it from Quebec or Canada East. In 1867, however, it
resumed its former status as a separate province, but with
the new name of Ontario. In the formation of the govern-
ment of the province agriculture was placed under the care
of a commissioner, who, however, held another portfolio in
the cabinet. John Carling was appointed commissioner of
Public Works and also commissioner of Agriculture. On
taking office Carling found the following agricultural
organizations of the province ready to co-operate with the
government : sixty-three district agricultural societies, each
having one or more branch township societies under its care,
and all receiving annual government grants of slightly over
$50,000 ; a provincial board of agriculture, with its educa-
tional and exhibition work ; and a fruit-growers' association,
now for the first time taken under government direction and
given financial assistance.

One extract from the commissioner's first report will serve
to show the condition of agriculture in Ontario when the
Dominion was born. ' It is an encouraging fact that during
the last year in particular mowers and reapers and labour-
saving implements have not only increased in the older
districts, but have found their way into new ones, and into
places where they were before practically unknown. This
beneficial result has, no doubt, mainly arisen from the diffi-
culty, or rather in some cases impossibility, of getting labour
at any price.' It would appear, therefore, that the question
of shortage of farm labour, so much complained of in recent
years, has been a live one for forty years and more.

In the second report of the commissioner (1869) special
attention was directed to the question of agricultural educa-
tion, and the suggestion was made that the agricultural de-
partment of the university and the veterinary college might
give some instruction to the teachers at the normal school.
In the following year, however, an advanced step was taken.

THE GROWTH OF SCIENTIFIC FARMING 571

It was noted that Dr Ryerson was in sympathy with special
agricultural teaching and had himself prepared and published
a text-book on agriculture. The suggestion was made that
the time had arrived for a school of practical science. At the
same time Ryerson had appointed the Rev. W. F. Clark, the
editor of the Canada Farmer, to visit the Agricultural depart-
ment at Washington and a few of the agricultural colleges of
the United States, and to collect such practical information
as would aid in commencing something of an analogous
character in Ontario. It will thus be seen that the two
branches of technical training — the School of Practical Science
and the Agricultural College — were really twin institutions,
originating, in the year 1870, in the dual department of Public
Works and Agriculture. These institutions were the outcome
of the correlation of city and country industries, which were
under the fostering care of the Agriculture and Arts Associa-
tion, as the old provincial organization was now known. The
School of Practical Science, it may be noted, is now incorpor-
ated with the provincial university, and the Agricultural
College is affiliated with it.

There were at that time two outstanding agricultural
colleges in the United States, that of Massachusetts and that
of Michigan. These were visited, and, based upon the work
done at these institutions, a comprehensive and suggestive
report was compiled. Immediate action was taken upon the
recommendations of this report, and a tract of land, six
hundred acres in extent, was purchased at Mimico, seven miles
west of Toronto. Before work could be commenced, however,
the life of the legislature closed and a new government came
into office in 1871 with Archibald McKellar as commissioner
of Agriculture and Arts. New governments feel called upon
to promote new measures. There were rumours and sug-
gestions that the soil of the Mimico farm was productive
of thistles and better adapted to brick-making than to the
raising of crops. Also the location was so close to Toronto
that it was feared that the attractions of the city would tend
to make the students discontented with country life. For
various reasons a change of location was deemed desirable,
and a committee of farmer members of the legislature was

572 HISTORY OF FARMING

appointed. Professor Miles, of the Michigan Agricultural
College, was engaged to give expert advice ; other locations
were examined, and finally Moreton Lodge Farm, near
Guelph, was purchased. After some preliminary difficulties,
involving the assistance of a sheriff or bailiff, possession was
obtained, and the first class for instruction in agricultural
science and practice, consisting of thirty-one pupils in all, was
opened on June i, 1874, with William Johnston as rector
or principal. Thus was established the Ontario School of
Agriculture, now known as the Ontario Agricultural College.
Its annual enrolment has grown to over fifteen hundred, and
it is now recognized as the best-equipped and most successful
institution of its kind in the British Empire. Its development
along practical lines and its recognition as a potent factor in
provincial growth were largely due to Dr James Mills, who was
appointed president of the college in 1879, and filled that
position until January 1904, when he was appointed to the
Dominion Board of Railway Commissioners. Under his
direction farmers' institutes were established in Ontario in
1884. Dr Mills was succeeded by Dr G. C. Creelman as
president.

The next important step in agricultural advancement was
the appointment in 1880 of the Ontario Agricultural Com-
mission ' to inquire into the agricultural resources of the
Province of Ontario, the progress and condition of agriculture
therein and matters connected therewith.' The commission
consisted of S. C. Wood, then commissioner of Agriculture
(chairman), Alfred H. Dymorid (secretary), and sixteen
other persons representative of the various agricultural
interests, including the president and ex-president of the
Agricultural and Arts Association, Professor William Brown
of the Agricultural College, the master of the Dominion
Grange, the president of the Entomological Society, and two
members of the legislature, Thomas Ballantyne and John
Dryden. In 1913 there were but two survivors of this im-
portant commission, J. B. Aylesworth of Newburg, Ont.,
and Dr William Saunders, who, after over twenty years'
service as director of the Dominion Experimental Farms, had
resigned office in 1911.

THE GROWTH OF SCIENTIFIC FARMING 573

All parts of the province were visited and information
was gathered from the leading farmers along the lines laid
down in the royal commission. In 1881 the report was issued
in five volumes. It was without doubt the most valuable
commission report ever issued in Ontario, if not in all Canada.
Part of it was reissued a second and a third time, and for
years it formed the Ontario farmer's library. Even to this
day it is a valuable work of reference, containing as it does
a vast amount of practical information and forming an in-
valuable source of agricultural history.

The first outcome of this report was the establishment, in
1882, by the government of the Ontario bureau of Industries,
an organization for the collection and publication of statistics
in connection with agriculture and allied industries. Archibald
Blue, who now occupies the position of chief officer of the
census and statistics branch of the Dominion service, was
appointed the first secretary of the bureau.

Agriculture continued to expand, and associations for the
protection and encouragement of special lines increased in
number and in importance. Thus there were no fewer than
three vigorous associations interested in dairying : the Dairy-
men's Association of Eastern Ontario, and the Dairymen's
Association of Western Ontario, which were particularly
interested in the cheese industry, and the Ontario Creameries
Association, which was interested in butter manufacture.
There were poultry associations, a beekeepers' association,
and several live stock associations. From time to time the
suggestion was made that the work of these associations,
and that of the Agriculture and Arts Association and of the
bureau of Industries, should be co-ordinated, and a strong
department of Agriculture organized under a minister of
Agriculture holding a distinct portfolio in the Ontario
cabinet. Provision for this was made by the legislature in
1888, and in that year Charles Drury was appointed the first
minister of Agriculture. The bureau of Industries was
taken as the nucleus of the department, and Archibald Blue,
the secretary, was appointed deputy minister.

We have referred to the reaction that took place in Ontario
agriculture after the close of the American Civil War and the

574

HISTORY OF FARMING

abrogation of the reciprocity treaty. The high prices of the
Crimean War period had long since disappeared, the market
to the south had been narrowed, and the Western States
were pouring into the East the cheap grain products of a
rich virgin soil. Agricultural degression hung over the
province for years. Gradually, however, through the early
eighties the farmers began to recover their former prosperous
condition, sending increasing shipments of barley, sheep,
horses, eggs, and other commodities to the cities of the
Eastern States, so that at the close of the period to which
we are referring agricultural conditions were of a favourable
and prosperous nature.

THE MODERN PERIOD, 1888-1912

In 1888 a new period in Ontario's agricultural history
begins. The working forces of agriculture were being linked
together in the new department of Agriculture. Charles
Drury, the first minister of Agriculture, held office until
1890, being succeeded by John Dryden, who continued in
charge of the department until 1905, when a conservative
government took the place of the liberal government that
had been in power since 1871.

Two factors immediately began to play a most important
part in the agricultural situation : the opening up of the
north-western lands by the completion of the Canadian
Pacific Railway in 1 886, and the enactment, on October 6,
1890, of the McKinley high tariff by the United States. The
former attracted Ontario's surplus population, and made it
no longer profitable or desirable to grow wheat in the pro-
vince for export ; the latter closed the doors to the export
of barley, live stock, butter, and eggs. The situation was
desperate ; agriculture was passing through a period of most
trying experience. Any other industry than that of agricul-
ture would have been bankrupted. The only hope of the
Ontario farmer now was in the British market. The sales
of one Ontario product, factory cheese, had been steadily
increasing in the great consuming districts of England and
Scotland, and there was reason to believe that other products

THE MODERN PERIOD 575

might be sold to equal advantage. Dairying was the one
line of agricultural work that helped to tide over the situation
in the early nineties. The methods that had succeeded in
building up the cheese industry must be applied to other
lines, and all the organized forces must be co-ordinated in
carrying this out. This was work for a department of Agri-
culture, and the minister of Agriculture, John Dryden, who
guided and directed this co-operation of forces and made
plans for the future growth and expansion of agricultural
work, was an imperialist indeed who, in days of depression
and difficulty, directed forces and devised plans that not only
helped the agricultural classes to recover their prosperity,
but also made for the strengthening of imperial ties and the
working out of national greatness.

The British market presented new conditions, new
demands. The North- West could send her raw products in
the shape of wheat ; Ontario must send finished products —
beef, bacon, cheese, butter, fruit, eggs, and poultry — these
and similar products could be marketed in large quantities
if only they could be supplied of right quality. Transporta-
tion of the right kind was a prime necessity. Lumber, wheat,
and other rough products could be handled without diffi-
culty, but perishable goods demanded special accommoda-
tion. This was a matter belonging to the government of
Canada, and to it the Dominion department of Agriculture
at once began to give attention. The production of the
goods for shipment was a matter for provincial direction.
Gradually the farmers of the province adapted themselves
to the new conditions and after a time recovered their lost
ground. General prosperity came in sight again about 1895.
For several years after this the output of beef, bacon, and
cheese increased steadily, and the gains made in the British
market more than offset the loss of the United States market.
It was during the five years after 1890 that the farmers
suffered so severely while adjusting their work to the new
conditions. With these expanding lines of British trade
products, the values of stock, implements, and buildings made
steady advance, and in 1901 the total value of all farm pro-
perty in the province crossed the billion dollar mark. Since

576

HISTORY OF FARMING

that year the annual increase in total farm values has been
approximately forty million dollars. The following state-
ment of total farm values in Ontario, as compiled by the
Ontario bureau of Industries, the statistical branch of the
department of Agriculture, is very suggestive :

Total Farm Values

1885
1886
1887
1888
1889
1890
1891
1892

1893
1894

$958,159.740

989,497,9m
975,292,214
981,368,094
982,210,664
970,927,035
971,886,068

979,977,244
970,361,070

954,395,507

1895
1896
1897
1898
1899
1900
1901
1902
1906
1909

$931,989,574
910,291,623

905,093,613

923,022,420

947,513,360

974,814,931

1,001,323,296

1,044,894,332

1,189,119,120

1,241,019,109

From the above table it will be seen that the closing of the
United States markets in 1890 was followed by a deprecia-
tion in general farm values which lasted until 1898, when the
upward movement that has continued ever since set in.

And now let us see how the population was changing, as
to its distribution between rural and urban, during these
years. First, we shall give the assessed population.

1884
1885
1890

1895
1900

1905
1909

Rural

1,117,880
1,126,554

1,109,013
1,094,246

1,059,379
1,049,240

Urban
636,187
658,406
800,041

848,377

919,614

1,042,881

1,240,198

The Canadian Pacific Railway opened up the wheat lands
of the West in 1886. At that time the rural population was
nearly double the urban ; in 1905 they were about equal ;
and six years later the urban population of Ontario exceeded
the rural.

THE MODERN PERIOD 577

The Dominion census figures are as follows :

Rural Urban

igil . . . 1,194,785 . . . 1,328,489

1901 • • 1,246,969 . . . 935.978

Increase . . . . 392,511

Decrease . . 52,184 . . .

It will thus be seen that during the past twenty-five
years there has been a steady increase in the consumers of
food products in Ontario and a slight decrease in the pro-
ducers of the same. The surplus population of the farms
has gone to the towns and cities of Ontario and to the western
provinces. Now for a moment let us follow these people to
the West. Many of them have gone on the land to produce
wheat. Wheat for the European market has been their
principal product, therefore they in turn have become con-
sumers of large quantities of food that they do not them-
selves produce but must obtain from farmers elsewhere.
But not all who have gone West have become farmers. The
Dominion census of 1911 gives the following statement of
population for the provinces and districts west of Lake
Superior :

Rural Urban

I9II . , . I,059,68l . . 68l,2l6

1901 . . 446,050 . . I99467

Increase . . 613,631 . . 481,749

The western provinces are generally considered to be almost
purely agricultural, and yet the percentage increase of urban
population has been nearly double the percentage increase
of rural population. And this rapidly growing urban popula-
tion also has demanded food products. Their own farmers
grow wheat and oats and barley. British Columbia produces
fruit for her own people and some surplus for the prairie pro-
, vinces. There is some stock-raising, but the rapid extension
of wheat areas has interfered with the great stock ranches.
From out of the Great West, therefore, there has come an
increasing demand for many food products. Add to this the
growing home market in Ontario, and, keeping in mind that

578 HISTORY OF FARMING

the West can grow wheat more cheaply than Ontario, it will
be understood why of recent years the Ontario farmer has
been compelled to give up the production of wheat for export.
His line of successful and profitable work has been in produc-
ing to supply the demands of his own growing home market,
and the demands of the rapidly increasing people of the West,
both rural and urban, and also to share in the insatiable
market of Great Britain. Another element of more recent
origin has been the small but very profitable market of
Northern Ontario, where lumbering, mining, and railroad
construction have been so active in the past five or six years.
The result of all this has been a great increase in fruit pro-
duction. Old orchards have been revived and new orchards
have been set out. The extension of the canning industry also
is most noticeable, and has occasioned the production of fruits
and vegetables in enormous quantities. Special crops such
as tobacco, beans, and sugar beets are being grown in counties
where soil and climatic conditions are favourable. The pro-
duction of poultry and eggs is also receiving more attention
each succeeding year. The growth of cities is creating an
increasing demand for milk, and the production of factory-
made butter and cheese is also increasing, as the following
figures for Ontario from the Dominion census prove :

Butter Cheese

1900 . . . 7.559,542 lb. • 131,967,612 lb.

1910 . . . I3,699ii53 -, • 157.631,883 „
For the past ten or twelve years the farmers of Ontario
have been slowly adjusting their work to the new situation,
and the transition is continuing. While in some sections
farms are being enlarged so as to permit the more extensive
use of labour-saving machinery and the more economical
handling of live stock, in other sections, particularly in
counties adjacent to the Great Lakes, large farms are being
cut up into smaller holdings and intensive production of fruits
and vegetables is now the practice. This, of course, results
•* in a steady increase in land values and is followed by an
increase in rural population. The farmers of Ontario are
putting forth every effort to meet the demands for food
products. The one great difficulty that they have encoun-

THE MODERN PERIOD 579

tered has been the scarcity of farm labour. Men have come
from Europe by the tens of thousands, but they have been
drawn largely to the growing towns and cities by the high
wages offered in industrial lines ; and the West, the ' Golden
West ' as it is sometimes called, has proved an even stronger
attraction. It seems rarely to occur to the new arrival that
the average farm in Ontario could produce more than a
quarter section of prairie land. Signs, however, point to an
increase in rural population, through the spread of intensive
agriculture.

Before referring to the methods of instruction and assist-
ance provided for the developing of this new agriculture
in Ontario, reference should be made to one thing that is
generally overlooked by those who periodically discover this
rapid urban increase, and who moralize most gloomily upon
a movement that is to be found in nearly every progressive
country of the civilized world. In the days of early settle-
ment the farmer and his family supplied nearly all their
own wants. The farmer produced all his own food ; he
killed his own stock, salted his pork, and smoked his hams.
His wife was expert in spinning and weaving, and plaited
the straw hats for the family. The journeyman shoemaker
dropped in and fitted out the family with boots. The great
city industries were then unknown. The farmer's wife in
those days was perhaps the most expert master of trades
ever known. She could spin and weave, make a carpet or
a rug, dye yarns and clothes, and make a straw hat or a birch
broom. Butter, cheese, and maple sugar were products of
her skill, as well as bread, soap, canned fruits, and home-
made wine. In those days the farm was a miniature factory
or combination of factories. Many, in fact most, of these
industries have gradually moved out of the farm home and
have been concentrated in great factories ; and the pedlar
with his pack has disappeared under a shower of catalogues
from the departmental city store. In other words, a large
portion of work once done upon the farm and at the country
cross-roads has been transferred to the town and city, and
this, in some part, explains the modern movement citywards
— there has been a transference from country to city not

VOL. xvin u

580

HISTORY OF FARMING

only of people but also of industries. Whether this has been
in the interests of the people is another question, but the
process is still going on, and what further changes may take
place it is difficult to determine and unwise to forecast.

And now let us see what agencies and organizations have
been used in the development of the special lines of agricul-
ture since the creation of the department in 1888. We have
stated that the Agriculture and Arts Association had been
for many years the directing force in provincial agricultural
organization. It held an annual provincial exhibition ; it
issued the diplomas to the graduates of the Ontario Veter-
inary College ; and it controlled the various live stock
associations that were interested in the registration of stock.
Shortly after 1888 legislation was enacted transferring the
work to the department of Agriculture. The place for hold-
ing the provincial exhibition was changed from year to year.
In 1879 a charter was obtained by special act for the Toronto
Industrial Exhibition, the basis of which was the Toronto
Electoral Agricultural Society. Out of this came the annual
Toronto Exhibition, now known as the Canadian National Ex-
hibition, and the governmental exhibition was discontinued.

The Ontario Veterinary College was a privately owned
institution, though the diplomas were issued by the Agricul-
ture and Arts Association. The royal commission appointed
in 1905 to investigate the University of Toronto recom-
mended the taking over of this association by the govern-
ment, and as a result it passed under the control of the
department of Agriculture in 1908, and was affiliated with
the University of Toronto. Since that time the diploma of
Veterinary Surgeon (V.S.) has been issued by the minister
of Agriculture, and a supplementary degree of Bachelor of
Veterinary Science (B.V.Sc.) has been granted by the uni-
versity. The taking over of this institution by the govern-
ment, the resuming by the province of its original prerogative,
was accompanied by an enlargement of the course, an extension
from two years to three years in the period of instruction, and
a strengthening of the faculty. The herd-books or pedigree
record books were, in most cases, Canadian, and it was telt
that they should be located at the capital of the Dominion.

THE MODERN PERIOD 581

These have therefore been transferred to Ottawa and are
now conducted under Dominion regulations.

The Ontario bureau of Industries was the basis of organiza-
tion of the department. As other work was added the
department grew in size and importance, and the various
branches were instituted until there developed a well-organized
department having the following subdivisions :

The Agricultural College,

The Veterinary College,

The Agricultural and Horticultural Societies Branch,

The Live Stock Branch,

The Farmers' and Women's Institutes Branch,

The Dairy Branch,

The Fruit Branch,

The Statistical Branch,

The Immigration and Colonization Branch.

Each branch is in charge of a special officer. In addition to
the above there is a lot of miscellaneous work, which as it
develops will probably be organized into separate branches,
such as farm forestry, district representatives, etc.

John Dryden was in 1905 succeeded as minister of
Agriculture by Nelson Monteith, who in 1908 was succeeded
by J. S. Duff. Under their care the department has grown
and expanded, and through their recommendations, year by
year, increasing amounts of money have been obtained for the
extension of agricultural instruction and the more thorough
working out of plans inaugurated in the earlier years of depart-
mental organization.

The history of agricultural work in Ontario in recent years
may be put under two heads — expansion of the various
organizations and extension of their operations, and the
development of what may be called ' field work.' Farmers'
institutes and women's institutes have multiplied ; agri-
cultural societies now cover the entire province ; local horse
associations, poultry associations, and beekeepers' associa-
tions have been encouraged ; winter fairs for live stock have
been established at Guelph and Ottawa ; dairy instructors
have been increased in number and efficiency ; short courses
in live stock, seed improvement, fruit work, and dairying have

582

HISTORY OF FARMING

been held ; and farm drainage has received practical en-
couragement. Perhaps the most important advance of late
years has resulted through the appointment of what are known
as district representatives. In co-operation with the depart-
ment of Education, graduates of the Agricultural College have
been permanently located in the various counties to study the
agricultural conditions and to initiate and direct any move-
ment that would assist in developing the agricultural work.
These graduates organize short courses at various centres,
conduct classes in high schools, assist the farmers in procuring
the best seed, advise as to new lines of work, assist in drainage,
supervise the care of orchards — in short, they carry the work
of the Agricultural College and of the various branches of
the department right to the farmer, and give that impetus to
better farming which can come only from personal contact.
The growth of the district representative system has been
remarkable : it was begun in seven counties in 1907, by 1910
fifteen counties had representatives, and in 1914 no fewer than
thirty-eight counties were so equipped. At first the farmers
distrusted and even somewhat opposed the movement, but
the district representative soon proved himself so helpful that
the government has found it difficult to comply with the
numerous requests for these apostles of scientific farming.
Approximately $125,000 is spent each year on the work by
the provincial government, in addition to the $500 granted
annually by the county to each district office. The result of
all this is that new and more profitable lines of farming are
being undertaken, specializing in production is being encour-
aged, and Ontario agriculture is advancing rapidly along the
lines to which the soils, the climate, and the people are
adapted. A study of the history of Ontario agriculture
shows many changes in the past hundred years, but at no
time has there been so important and so interesting a de-
velopment as that which took place in the opening decade
of the twentieth century.

FOREST RESOURCES AND
FORESTRY

FOREST RESOURCES AND FORESTRY

TIMBER AS A REVENUE-PRODUCER

THE timber of Ontario has been a steady revenue-
producer, and, since at least two-thirds of the area
within the province is destined to remain under
woods, it is essential to its continued prosperity that the
government apply as soon as possible such management
to this resource as will maintain its productive condition — in
other words, that it apply the practice of forestry.

But notwithstanding the great and evident importance of
this asset of the province, it cannot be said that it has received
treatment such as would ensure its permanence. Although
feeble attempts at improved methods of treatment have been
made for some time, the history of these attempts, if measured
by accomplishment, is still brief and inconclusive and not in
proportion to the length of time during which they have been
in progress.

The value of this resource as a revenue-maker will appear
when it is considered that since Confederation the revenue
derived from the timber limits by dues, ground rent, and
bonus payments has aggregated over forty million dollars.
Each year the returns from timber limits form by far the J
largest single item of provincial revenue ; in 1910 they con-
I tributed over twenty-seven per cent of the actual direct
^ revenues.

It is only within the last thirty to forty years that, with the
development of industrial life, this resource has assumed such
importance. In 1827 only $360 came to the treasury from
this source, and forty years later it furnished only $150,000
to the public revenue. But for the decade ending 1910 the
revenue has grown to a yearly average of one and three-
ess

586 FOREST RESOURCES AND FORESTRY

quarter million dollars. Indeed, Ontario has been Canada's
greatest lumber producer for many years, some twenty-five
billion feet of white pine alone having been manufactured
from its forests since Confederation. In 1910 the total lumber
cut of Ontario aggregated over one and one-half billion feet
B.M. (1,642,191 M ft.), nearly two-fifths of the whole pro-
duction of Canada and worth thirty million dollars. The
province supplied eighty-five per cent of the white pine cut,
nearly all of the red pine, nearly half the hemlock, and over
two-thirds of the hardwoods manufactured in Canada. In
addition to this the province produced over one-third of the
lath, one-tenth of the shingles, and over one-third of the
pulp manufactured in Canada in that year, besides ties, poles,
cooperage stock, etc.

If we contemplate that Prussia, with a crown forest area
of probably less than one-tenth the area of Ontario's forest
resources, derives an annual revenue of at least seven times
that of Ontario — and that not from capital stock, as in
Ontario, but from yearly increment — the potentialities of
these resources may be realized.

THE FOREST AREA

A brief physiographic description of the forest area and
an account of the development of the lumber industry from
early times will assist in securing an appreciation of the
present conditions of this revenue and of the propriety of
efforts at reform in its administration.

While, geologically, Ontario may be subdivided into two
sections — the Laurentian plateau region and the St Lawrence
valley — from a forestry standpoint the division is best made
into four regions, climate influencing the differentiation into
forest types.

The lowlands of the St Lawrence consist of beds of sand-
stone, shale, and limestone of palaeozoic age, overlaid with
heavy deposits of glacial drift. This region is divisible into
three sloping plains. The most easterly comprises the tri-
angular area between the Ottawa and St Lawrence Rivers,
east of Kingston. The second division forms a plainlike

THE FOREST AREA 587

area, rising from Lake Ontario to an escarpment running from
Kingston westerly to Midland ; the western limit of this area
is formed by the Niagara escarpment from the Niagara
peninsula to the Indian peninsula of Bruce County. West of
this escarpment the country between Lake Huron and Lake
Erie forms the third division.

This last area — the peninsula portion of the St Lawrence
system — enjoying a climate milder than any other part of
Eastern Canada and excelling in fertile soils, supports, or did
support, a rich hardwood forest, with only here and there small
admixtures of coniferous species. Here we find, floristically,
an extension of the hardwood flora of the south, characterized
by oak, hickory, ash, walnut, and butternut, besides elm
and maple, and also a number of other species such as tulip-
tree, chestnut, sycamore, and sassafras, which find their
northern limit here.

The two easterly divisions from the point of view of forest
types may be classed together. They are characterized by
drift of poorer quality than the peninsula and a somewhat
more rigorous climate. In consequence, the hardwood type
of forest is reduced in variety, the species mentioned above
as finding their northern limit in the peninsula being ruled
out by the climatic change, and the coniferous admixture
becoming more frequent.

This St Lawrence region is the seat of agriculture in
Ontario, and practically all the commercial timber is cut
away to give room to farms, farmers' wood-lots alone re-
maining.

North of the St Lawrence lowlands there extends, sur-
rounding Hudson Bay, the Lauren tian plateau, the oldest
land of the province. This is a rocky country, characterized
by uniformity of physical features, countless lakes, rivers, and
muskegs, alternating with low hills and plateaus of exposed
igneous rock. From the forester's point of view this country
is bounded on the north by the height-of-land. Here is
located the true commercial forest area of Ontario, a country
fit mainly for forest use. Although most variably forested,
there is still a hardwood basis in which maple, elm, basswood,
paper birch, beech, red oak, yellow birch, ash, balm of Gilead,

588 FOREST RESOURCES AND FORESTRY

besides the ever-present aspen on burned areas, play a part.
Of the conifers, balsam fir and white spruce are numerically
the most prominent, and, in the swamps, the almost useless
black spruce is conspicuous, with the more valuable white
cedar and tamarac, according to the character of the swamp.
The most valuable timber trees of this region and those which
determine its commercial character, white pine, red pine, and
hemlock, occur much more localized, mainly along the waters
and on the better-drained sandy hills. On the poorer sands
and gravelly soils the inferior jack pine covers the ground.
This forest region, then, must not be considered as having
had at any time a solid growth of valuable timber on it, the
valuable areas being dispersed throughout a large area of
inferior character.

Beyond the height-of-land the fourth division, the
northern or subarctic forest, begins. Although white and
red pine are still found overlapping along the upper river-
courses in scattered stands of inferior quality, and although
aspen, balm of Gilead, and paper birch are frequent accompani-
ments and sometimes sole occupants of the soil, the general
type is a spruce forest, the white and black spruces being the
predominant species. With a climate still more rigorous than
that of the plateau region, and with still less topographic
differentiation, not only is a reduction experienced in the
number of species — besides the above five, only the jack
pine, balsam fir, and tamarac being found — but reduction of
development of individuals and of the forest as a whole.

This region was explored in 1900 by ten survey parties
sent out by the department of Crown Lands. The explora-
tion made known the existence of a vast agricultural area of
twenty-five hundred square miles, but little can be expected
of this northern forest for saw-mill use. Much of the country
was found burned over, the timber small and fit only for pulp
and fuel.

The distribution of Ontario's one hundred and twenty-six
million acres (eighty million of which are still unsurveyed)-
among these four forest types gives thirty million acres to the
two lowland sections, fifty million to the southern type, and
forty-six million to the subarctic forest.

FORESTRY REGULATIONS 589

Of the original forests of Ontario of commercial character
the bulk is gone. For the first half of the nineteenth century
lumbering operations were confined to the Ottawa and Trent
waters. Before 1860 little had been cut in the country
directly east of Georgian Bay, but between 1860 and 1870
lumbering operators pushed north through Addington,
Hastings, Haliburton, and Muskoka, and along the shores of
Georgian Bay. ' Between 1870 and 1885, operations had
reached Lake Nipissing from the east, south and west, and
were active in many places along the north shore of Lake
Huron from the French River to Sault Ste Marie, extending
inland for a distance of forty miles.' Since 1885 they have
extended into all the newer districts.

FORESTRY REGULATIONS BEFORE CONFEDERATION

During the French regime in Canada the timber resources
were regarded as of little importance. Beyond the reserva-
tion to the crown of timber suitable for naval and military
purposes, there were no forest regulations with a view towards
the restriction of cutting or the securing of revenue.

At the beginning of the British occupancy of the colony
the authorities likewise regarded the timber resources from
the standpoint of their suitability for naval purposes, but with
more regard for conservation of the supply. Prior to 1826
the only persons authorized to cut timber were the Royal
Navy Dockyard contractors and their licensees. This
monopoly naturally led to the development of illegitimate
lumbering operations by unlicensed lumbermen. The un-
fairness of the method led to the adoption in 1 826 of a system
under which any one who chose could select a territory and
remove the timber on payment of a low scale of rates to the
crown, the dues being collected on the arrival of the rafts at
Quebec. In the following year licences were granted to cut
export timber not fit for navy use. All licences were for a
specified quantity, and usually held good for one year only.
These regulations were the first steps taken to make the forest
a source of revenue.

The system gave an impetus to lumbering, and the

590 FOREST RESOURCES AND FORESTRY

financial policy of the mother country, in protecting colonial
trade by heavy duties on importations from Baltic ports, led
to a rapid development of the square timber trade, especially
from 1803 to 1829, though several years and the investigations
of several commissions were required to overcome the English
prejudice against the use of white pine, a material very
different from the Baltic pine to which the trade was ac-
customed. Later the duties were reduced, and in iSd&jhey
were entirely abrogated, but the colonial timber trade held
its own.

The executive system of these early times was noted for
its laxity of administration, and abuses developed in con-
nection with the disposal of the crown lands which seriously
retarded the settlement and development of the country, and
in fact were a factor in the discontent leading to the Rebellion
of 1837. The main abuse was the granting of public lands in
large blocks to individuals or companies who had no intention
of settling upon or improving them, but who held them for
speculative purposes. From 1791 to 1804 large grants were
made gratuitously to individuals of favoured classes, and in
the latter year a scale of fees was introduced upon payment
of which almost any one could obtain a grant. According to
Lord Durham's Report, ' from 1763 to 1825, during which
period the population had grown slowly up to 150,000, the
quantity of land granted by the Crown was upwards of
13,000,000 acres, while during the thirteen subsequent years,
in which the population increased from 150,000 to 400,000, the
quantity disposed of, including the sale of the Clergy Reserves,
was under 600,000 acres.'

These extensive alienations, far beyond the needs of
settlement, were often of lands covered with valuable timber.
j Lumbermen soon learned that it was cheaper to buy land in
;a glutted market for the sake of timber merely than to pay
for a licence to cut, and the forest revenue diminished accord-
ingly. Contrary to the explicit instructions of the home
government, much of the area covered by these grants was
not adapted for agriculture, and when stripped by the lumber-
men was useless till the forest should be reproduced.

The outbreak of 1837 was followed by the Act of Union in

FORESTRY REGULATIONS 591

1840 and the institution of responsible government. Even
under this system the rulers, believing the forest resources of
the province practically inexhaustible, showed no thought of
preserving the forests as a source of future supply. The
regulations of the Crown Lands department stimulated pro-
duction by requiring the manufacture of a large quantity of
timber on every limit regardless of market conditions or the
convenience of the operator, on penalty of forfeiture of his
limit. In addition, the tenure was very uncertain, and the
dues being so much per stick regardless of size, the most reck-
less lumbering methods were in vogue.

This unstable and frequently ruinous condition led to the
appointment of a special commission in 1849 to investigate
the causes. As a result of the commission's two reports the
first enactment of the Canadian legislature regarding timber
licences — the Crown Timber Act of 1849 — came into existence.
This formed the starting-point for the present licence system,
embodying as it did the principle of renewal. Its provisions
rectified many of the abuses already mentioned, and by
practically assuring a yearly renewal of licence, it gave a
much-needed stability and permanence to the lumberman's
interest in his limit. Another change was made in 1851 by
the imposition of a ground rent, which was to increase in
geometric ratio, to prevent the monopolization of undeveloped
limits.

During these years the trade in sawn lumber with the
Eastern States had been steadily growing. The economic
waste involved in the square timber trade was already being
realized, leading to a decline in this trade which was further
accentuated when, through the reciprocity treaty with the
United States in 1854, the market for lumber became more
profitable.

Gradually, as the value of timber from a commercial point
of view received recognition, there developed a policy of
selecting the most merchantable timbers for purposes of public
revenue under a licence system, and subsequently turning
over the land to the individual settler in small holdings. In
this way the lumberman acted as the precursor of the settler,
and it was recognized that his industry was a temporary

592 FOREST RESOURCES AND FORESTRY

one. But now the lumberman was pushing north into country
so little suited to farming that settlement could not follow.
In these regions the government renewed the licences from
year to year, and the time of their expiry became very in-
definite. The permanency of the lumbering interest was also
endangered by several evils that had been steadily increasing.
The regulation that lands that were sold during the year were
withdrawn from the timber limits before the next renewal of
the licence, the settler getting the pine, put a premium on
the locating of well -timbered lots within the lumberman's
limits, with no regard to their suitability for farming purposes.
The conditions of sale were so liberal that advantage was
frequently taken of them to obtain possession of the land by
partial payment, for the sole purpose of exploiting the timber
and then abandoning the lot. The lumbermen complained
bitterly of this fraudulent cutting of timber by squatters and
pseudo-settlers, whom they also charged as responsible for
the many disastrous fires.

The constant clash of interests finally drew attention to
the necessity for a distinction in the administration of non-
agricultural as compared with agricultural lands. In fact,
so much advance had been made in public opinion that the
commissioner of Crown Lands in his annual report for 1 866
advocated a strict discrimination between agricultural and
non-agricultural lands, and the setting apart of the latter as
permanent forest reserves on which settlement was to be pro-
hibited. But this essential forestry principle was lost for
many years in the political storm preceding Confederation
and under the pressure of more immediately important issues.
Indeed, the desire to attract settlers led in 1868 to the passage
of the Free Grants and Homestead Act, which provided for
the giving away as free grants to actual settlers practically all
the immense territory lying between the Ottawa River and
Georgian Bay, although, as we have seen, little of the area is
fit for agriculture.

It is worthy of mention that previous to Confederation
12,000 square miles of Ontario's best pine timber had been
placed under licence at nominal prices. This timber was on
land tributary to Ottawa, Trent, and Georgian Bay waters —

FOREST PRESERVATION 593

Laurentian country which should never have been denuded.
Within the next five years 5500 square miles more had been
licensed, almost one-half the amount which has been disposed
of since Confederation. In these sales the auction system,
first foreshadowed in 1842 and extended in 1851, was adopted.

FOREST PRESERVATION SINCE CONFEDERATION

The. question of forest preservation, which had dropped
into the background with the advent of Confederation issues,
once more began to occupy the minds of public men. Appreci-
ating the growing importance of the subject, a committee of
members of the Ontario Fruit -Growers' Association was
appointed by the commissioner of Agriculture to represent
the province at the first American forestry congress held in
Cincinnati from April 25 to 29, 1882, and at a second session
in the following August in Montreal. The delegates sub-
mitted a voluminous report, closing with fifteen recommenda-
tions, chief among which were : that non-agricultural lands
be not sold ; that a diameter limit of fourteen inches down
to which trees may be cut be imposed ; that lighting of fires
in the woods in summer be prohibited ; that encouragement
be given to planting by tax exemptions and bonus ; that
instruction in forestry be given in the Ontario Agricultural
College ; and that as soon as practicable the management of
the public forests be assumed by the government and all
woods operations conducted under the supervision of a chief
forester. Over thirty years have elapsed since this report
was submitted, but it has apparently not yet been considered
practicable to put many of these recommendations into
practice. The nearest approach to anything like conservation
was the passing of the Ontario Tree Planting Act in 1883.
This act provided for payment of a bonus for trees planted
along highways and farm boundaries, and in the nature of it
could have little effect on forest renewal or preservation. In
the nine years 1886 to 1894 the bonuses totalled less than
$5000, possibly 75,000 trees being set out. Recognition of
the futility of the principle of the act led to its repeal in 1896.

In 1883, too, the government created the office of clerk of

594 FOREST RESOURCES AND FORESTRY

Forestry, R. W. Phipps being the first incumbent. The work
was entirely educational in function, and the annual publica-
tions of the clerk aimed ' to circulate information in a popular
form with a view to preserve such portions of forest as are
necessary for future supplies of timber, and for that still more
important result which the forest secures, namely, the great
climatic and agricultural benefit derived from regular supplies
of moisture.' It is curious that throughout these reports
planting is constantly urged, and that not for timber supplies
but on account of the unfavourable climatic effects of de-
forestation in settled Southern Ontario. The frequent dis-
cussion of the results of forestry practice in other countries,
of the ravages by forest fires, of the diminishing of supplies, of
the clearing of watersheds, of the non-classification of land,
and of the folly of allowing settlers to clear the Laurentian
Shield, shows that Phipps realized the importance of the
forestry problem. It cannot be said that these reports were
of a high order or of much value, being written by a litterateur
rather than by a practical man.

In 1885 the observance of Arbour Day in the public
schools was instituted to foster an appreciation of the im-
portance of trees.

The same year is memorable for the institution of Ontario's
fire-ranging system. An ' Act to Preserve the Forest from
Destruction by Fire ' had been passed in 1878, but had re-
mained a dead letter owing to lack of machinery to enforce
it. The system, devised by Aubrey White (now deputy
minister of Lands, Forests, and Mines), was one of patrol
during the summer months on both licensed and unlicensed
timber lands, rangers being employed to extinguish incipient
fires and enforce the fire laws. The patrol on licensed lands
was optional with the licensee, and one-half the cost of this
service was to be borne by him. In the first year there
were 37 rangers employed at a cost of $8000. Since
then, as the benefits of the system have been realized, the
number of rangers and the cost of service have steadily in-
creased, so that in 1910 there were 925 rangers on duty at a
seasonal cost of $300,000. In that year the government
discontinued bearing its share of the cost of protecting the

FOREST PRESERVATION 595

licensed areas, a fiscal measure which is to be regretted, since
the lumbermen seldom have much interest in the oncoming
crop. Recent legislation has authorized the government to
place fire-rangers along railway lines under construction, and
also on constructed lines where advisable, the railway com-
panies bearing the cost.

A considerable interval elapsed between the death of
Phipps and the appointment of his successor, the Hon. C. F.
Fraser, who held the office for a very short period and issued
no reports between 1891 and 1895. The office, which at first
was attached to the department of Agriculture, was in 1895
transferred to the department of Crown Lands, with the
appointment of Thomas Southworth to the position. This
change was a recognition of the increasing importance of the
subject of forestry, the end in view being the establishment of
a bureau of Forestry in the department entrusted with the
administration of the crown forest domain.

Southworth devoted himself to the task of securing the
wise and far-sighted policy of establishing forest reserves in
regions not suitable for agricultural use as sources of future
supply. Already in 1893 the first step in that direction had
been taken by the setting apart of Algonquin National Park
in the district of Nipissing as ' a public park and forest
reservation, fish and game preserve, health resort and pleasure
ground, for the people of the province.' The whole area of
1733 square miles had either been lumbered or was under
licence for pine. In 1910 the remaining rights of licensees
in the park and also in 150 square miles of adjoining territory
were extinguished at a cost of $290,000, and the latter area
added to the park. In 1894 an area of some 2000 acres in
Kent County was set aside as Rondeau Park, to preserve a
sample of the magnificent hardwood growth that had covered
the peninsula.

In June 1897, at the instance of the clerk of Forestry, a
royal commission was appointed to investigate and report on
the subject of ' restoring and preserving the growth of white
pine and other timber trees upon lands in the province which
are not adapted for agricultural purposes or for settlement.'
The members of the commission, after much travelling in the

VOL. XVIII X

596 FOREST RESOURCES AND FORESTRY

woods to familiarize themselves with conditions, presented a
preliminary report in December, recommending, among other
things, that fire-ranging be made compulsory on limit-holders,
that limits un worked for two years be made forest reserves,
that the government take power to withdraw from sale or
location and set aside as permanent crown forest reserves areas
of territory unsuitable for settlement but adapted for growing
timber.

In accordance with this latter important recommenda-
tion the legislature in 1898 passed the Forest Reserves Act
empowering the government to set apart from time to time
permanent reserves from which all settlement is excluded.

The first reserve formed under the new act was the Eastern
Forest reserve of 100 square miles in the counties of Adding-
ton and Frontenac, created in 1899 by extinguishing the
old licences. In the following year the Sibley reserve of
similar area on the north shore of Lake Superior was set aside,
and in 1901 the important Timagami reserve of 2200 square
miles. While the first two reserves had been lumbered over,
the territory included in the Timagami reserve had never
been under licence. Two years later 3000 square miles in
Algoma district, called the Missisauga reserve, were placed
under the act and 3700 square miles added to the Timagami
reserve. In 1905 the reserves were further increased by the
creation of the Nipigon reserve, covering 7300 square miles
of territory. At present (1913) there are altogether eight
reserves and two parks containing an area of some twelve
million acres. Besides the fact that they contain consider-
able quantities of timber, it is to be noted that the larger
reserves are situated on the height-of-land that forms the
most important watershed of the province. It is estimated
that so far there has been withdrawn from agricultural settle-
ment only one-sixth of the land that will eventually comprise
Ontario's permanent reserves. These reserves will form a
territory, largely contiguous, stretching across the middle of
the province from east to west, with rich agricultural sections
lying south and north of it. In these reserves the only step
yet taken towards forest management consists in the system
of fire patrol. As already stated, the development of

FOREST PRESERVATION 597

Ontario's forest policy is largely due to the efforts of Thomas
Southworth.

The colonization work having been added to the bureau of
Forestry in 1899, increasing its work, and the need of expert
knowledge beginning to be felt in the bureau, in August 1904
Dr Judson F. Clark, a technically trained man, was added to
the staff as provincial forester. In the same year a further
advance was made in the adoption by the department of
Agriculture of the policy of growing planting stock at the
Ontario Agricultural College to assist farmers desirous of
improving their wood-lots or planting up waste areas on their
farms. This action resulted (as a consequence of a coal strike
in the United States) from representations made by the
Ontario Experimental Union regarding the need of farm
forestry for fuel supply. Since then a trained forester has
been attached to the college in charge of this branch and as a
lecturer on farm forestry.

The movement towards the development of a forest
management of the reserves failed to gain headway, and in
1905, for reasons which do not appear on the surface, the
bureau of Forestry was transferred back to the department
of Agriculture, which does not control any timber lands.
The provincial forester, finding his usefulness gone, re-
signed, and finally, in 1907, the bureau was restricted to the
colonization work alone and the forestry side deliberately
abandoned. But in 1912 the government appointed E. J.
Zavitz as provincial forester.

Since 1907 the only suggestion of governmental interest
in forestry has been the inauguration by the department of
Agriculture of the policy of purchasing and reforesting waste
lands in the older agricultural section of the province. A
small beginning has been made by the purchase of twelve
hundred acres and by a plantation of a hundred and fifty
acres in Norfolk County. The Guelph nursery has also been
moved there for convenience.

In 1906 an act was passed empowering municipalities to
exempt woodlands from taxation, but so burdened with im-
practicable conditions that no results can be expected.

In 1907, acting upon the report of the royal commission

598 FOREST RESOURCES AND FORESTRY

of the University of Toronto, the Ontario government estab-
lished a faculty of forestry in the university, but so far there
has been no co-operation between the university authorities
and the department of Lands.

The timber regulations were, it is true, periodically re-
vised, but not with any view to the securing of conservative
treatment of the resources. Fiscal interests alone have been
considered. From a nominal charge of fifty cents per thousand
feet and fifty cents a mile ground rent before Confederation,
the rates have been advanced from time to time till now
(for 1910-20) the annual ground rent is five dollars per mile,
licence dues for pine two dollars per thousand feet (the old
licences were one dollar and fifty cents), and dues on square
timber five cents per cubic foot. Since 1897 all pine, hemlock,
and spruce, and since 1900 all pulpwood cut on crown lands,
must be manufactured in Canada. Since 1904 all sales have
been by bonus bid per thousand feet in addition to the ordinary
dues, the timber to be removed within a given time. This
latter regulation is not in the best interests of forestry.

PRESENT STATE OF FOREST WEALTH

Of the total land area of the province (one hundred and
twenty-six million acres) twenty-four million acres have been
alienated and thirteen million are under licence, leaving eighty-
nine million acres unlicensed. The present stand of pine on
both licensed and unlicensed territory has been officially esti-
mated at twenty billion feet. With an annual cut of over
eight hundred million feet of white pine, the end of the supply
is in sight. Of the productive forest area of Ontario destined
to remain in woods (approximately eighty-five million acres,
or two-thirds of the province) somewhat over one-half lies
north of the height-of-land and is accordingly of pulpwood
character, the vaguely estimated quantity being some three
hundred million cords ; the remainder, lying to the south,
burned over in many regions at different times, is timbered
mainly with second growth of all ages.

The scant supply of forest products with the exception
of pulpwood is evident. Even in the case of the latter much

PRESENT STATE OF FOREST WEALTH 599

of it is inaccessible, to say nothing of the distance from
centres of consumption and the fact that the rivers where it
abounds flow mostly north.

The supply of timber has been greatly lessened by disas-
trous fires. Even in the early days large tracts were thus
destroyed. About 1845 vast areas were burned over west
of Lake Superior, many of them still remaining desolate.
About ten years later a very extensive fire burned along the
height-of-land from Lake Timiskaming to Michipicoten.
In 1871 a fierce fire swept over an area of more than two
thousand square miles along the north shore from Lake
Nipissing to Port Arthur, completing the chain of desolation
across the province. Even with the installation of the fire-
ranging system in 1885 and its steady expansion, fires have
continued to burn up the forest wealth. The fires of 1891
and 1896 devastated more than two thousand miles of
country in Southern Algoma. The destruction apparently
must continue until a better code of ethics is developed by
an educational campaign in the public at large. The greatest
need to-day is a realization of the value of the young growing
crop, and every effort should be put forth to ensure it against
devastating fires. Until the fire risk is reduced, forestry can
make little headway.

Ontario is unique in having such large areas (over one
hundred million acres) still the property of the crown, the
principle in dealing with timber land since earliest times
having been to sell only the timber. This condition of affairs
greatly simplifies the forestry problem in the facility with
which changes of treatment may be introduced. But as yet
the forests are viewed solely as a source of current revenue,
not as capital, and the rights of the people and of posterity
are sacrificed.

THE FISHERIES OF ONTARIO

THE COMMERCIAL FISHES

FOR a considerable portion of the nineteenth century
there was a tremendous falling off in the supply of
some of the most valuable fishes of the province,
notably in that of whitefish ; while the salmon — the true
Salmo solar — once so abundant in Lake Ontario and in many
of the streams flowing into it, disappeared entirely from those
waters between a quarter and a half a century ago. There
is still frequent mention in magazines and newspapers and
even in provincial government reports of the so-called
' salmon ' of the Rideau lakes, but this is only another in-
stance of the misleading character of the vernacular names
of certain fishes, so aptly illustrated by Edward E. Prince,
commissioner of Fisheries for the Dominion, in a paper
appended to his report for the year 1900 ; the fish in question
being simply a variety of the Great Lake trout (Salvelinus
namaycush) .

Three-quarters of a century ago the Atlantic salmon
ascended the St Lawrence in vast numbers and swarmed in
all its tributaries. Following both shores of Lake Ontario,
it ascended all the smaller streams that fall into it. These
streams afforded suitable spawning grounds for the mature
fish and favourable nurseries for the fry during their period
of river life. In 1869 Whitcher and Yenning of the federal
department of Fisheries gave the following account of the
fishery wealth of Wilmot's Creek, a small stream traversing
the township of Clarke in the county of Durham, and dis-
charging, about forty miles east of Toronto, into Lake Ontario ;
and this history has been repeated in almost every stream of
the province flowing into Lake Ontario and the St Lawrence
River.

604 THE FISHERIES OF ONTARIO

In early times it was famous for salmon, great numbers
of which frequented it every autumn for the purpose
of spawning. They were so plentiful forty years ago
that men killed them with clubs and pitchforks, women
seined them with flannel petticoats, and settlers bought
and paid for farms and built houses from the sale of
salmon. Later they were taken by nets and spears, over
a thousand being often caught in the course of one night.
Concurrently with such annual slaughter, manufactories
and farming along the banks had obstructed, fouled,
and changed the creek from its natural state, and made
it less capable of affording shelter and spawning grounds.
The yearly decreasing numbers at length succumbed
to the destruction practised upon them each season
from the time of entering the creek, until nearly the last
straggler had been speared, netted or killed.

Of the former abundance of the whitefish in the Great
Lakes the early French voyageurs have left many records.
La Hontan reported that he saw Indians fishing at the Straits
of Mackinaw with nets made from the bark of trees, and that
by this crude means they succeeded in obtaining an abund-
ance of fish. Another voyageur, passing from the waters of
the Detroit River into the upper end of Lake Erie with a
military escort, said that sturgeons were so thick upon their
spawning-beds that the soldiers killed them with their swords.
Within the memory of men still living, the whitefish in Lakes
Erie and Ontario existed in shoals so extraordinarily large as
to be scarcely credible to the younger generation of to-day.

In Lake Ontario in 1869 and 1870 whitefish were so
numerous that they were~~used to manure the farm lands.
One of the witnesses examined by the Dominion Fisheries
Commission of 1893 testified that he had known as many as
90,000 whitefish to be taken in one haul of a seine at Welling-
ton Beach. Three such hauls would have exceeded the
average annual catch of all the Canadian waters of Lake
Ontario for a period of years extending from 1892 to 1906
inclusive. This average has recently been shown to have
been only slightly in excess of 250,000 pounds. The more
recent improvement, however, in the catch of whitefish is so
marked that had the calculation above referred to been made

THE COMMERCIAL FISHES 605

to cover the four following years, the showing would have
been materially different, as the average annual product for
the last nineteen years has been in excess of 475,000 pounds.
This, it is quite true, is an enormous falling off from the
former bountiful supply of this fish, but it shows at least that
the steady decrease in the supply does not continue. It has
fortunately been arrested — principally owing, it is believed,
to fish-cultural operations — and this to such an extent that
the Canadian waters of Lake Ontario produced 795,797 lb.
of whitefish in 1908, 1,153,347 m :9O9. and 649,109 in 1910;
or an average for those three years of 866,084 lb. per year.

The whitefish catch of the entire province for the same
three years does not appear to justify the remark that the
steady decrease so noticeable some few years ago in the pro-
duction of this fish is still continuing. In 1908 the catch
of whitefish in Ontario was 4,826,643 lb., in 1909 it was
6,266,658 lb., and in 1910 it was 4,501,434 lb., an average
for the three years of 5,198,245 lb. In 1911 it dropped to
4,163,000 lb., but in 1912 it was 5,889,700 lb. These
figures certainly compare most favourably with the total
of 3,588,000 lb. of whitefish taken in 1872, and that of
3,290,600 lb. representing the entire provincial catch of the
same fish in 1873.

One of the most valuable fisheries of the province at
the present time is that of the Great Lake trout, which in
1912 yielded a catch to the value of over $592,000. This
fish is not only found in the Great Lakes, but also in all the
large inland bodies of water in the province ; and in these
latter, and especially in Lake Nipigon and in the Rideau
system of lakes, it is much prized as a sporting fish by fisher-
men interested in deep-water trolling for heavy game fish ;
for the ' laker,' as it is sometimes called, has often been taken
over thirty pounds in weight, and sometimes up to sixty.
It has even been known, in some northern waters, to take a
fly shortly after the breaking up of the ice ; so has the white-
fish, though perhaps less frequently.

W. W. Holden, one of the provincial inspectors of Fisheries,
claims that the lake-trout is holding its own, or nearly so.
Two new hatcheries were built in the province and operated

606 THE FISHERIES OF ONTARIO

for the first time in 1911 — one at Southampton, the other at
Port Arthur, both of which make a speciality of lake-trout,
of which, with ordinary good luck, they should add twenty
or thirty millions of young fry annually to the average number
planted in the province in previous years.

The value of the lake-herring catch in Ontario ranks
next to that of the trout. In 1912 it was placed at $853,394
by the Dominion Fisheries department. Pickerel and pike
yielded a catch valued at $266,561 and $197,856 respectively,
and following them in importance came perch, catfish, stur-
geon, carp, and other coarse fish. The sturgeon fisheries
have diminished to an alarming degree. Carp, on the other
hand, have shown a remarkable increase, especially in Lake
Erie ; and a rapid rise of this fish in popular favour is re-
ported. Only a few years ago it was considered a nuisance
by a large portion of the community, the department of
Fisheries having had numerous applications for bonuses for
its destruction. It has now become quite a commercial
factor in the fish business.

Where the decrease in the supply of fish is the most
marked, the authorities differ as to the main causes for the
falling off. The provincial officers have openly placed the
responsibility for much of this decrease upon the federal
authorities because of their interference with the close seasons.
One of the federal inspectors, on the other hand, asserts that
the west end of Lake Superior is almost depleted of white-
fish and trout as a result of overfishing with pound and gill
nets, and another expresses the opinion that the cause of a
gradual decrease in the commercial fisheries reported by him,
both in quantity and size of fish, is the great number of
licences of all kinds issued by the provincial government.

But for over forty years the fisheries of Ontario have
shown a steady annual increase in value. In 1870 they were
valued at $264,982 ; in the following year they produced
$193,524, and in 1872, $267,633. Not till 1881 did these
fisheries attain a value of over half a million dollars. In
1883 they were valued at $1,027,033, and since that year
they have never fallen below the million dollar mark. Twice
in the last decade of the nineteenth century they exceeded

THE SPORTING FISHES 607

two millions of dollars in annual value. They did the same
in 1908, 1909, 1910, 1911, and 1912, the last years for which
we have any complete returns. In 1912 they reached the
highest value ever attained by them — $2,842,877.

Nearly four thousand men are employed in one capacity
or another in the commercial fisheries of Ontario, while the
capital invested in fishing tugs and smacks, sail and gasoline
boats, nets and lines of various kinds, freezers, smoke- and
ice-houses, etc., is estimated at $1,808,424.

THE SPORTING FISHES

Both directly and indirectly, the angling in Ontario waters
is a considerable source of wealth to the province. It is
estimated that from 20,000 to 25,000 non-resident anglers visit
the province annually. The non-resident angler's licence
costs two dollars annually, and a higher rate is charged for
fishing in specially preserved waters such as those of the
Nipigon. In this and other rivers flowing from the north
into Lake Superior, the so-called American brook-trout
(Salvelinus fontinalis) grows to a large size. Fabulous stories
have been told of the weight and dimensions of specimens
taken in Nipigon waters ; undoubtedly fish of over eight
pounds in weight have been caught there, and five and
six pound trout are killed in the river by anglers every
season. The Steel, the Michipicoten, and White' Rivers offer
trout fishing second only to that of the Nipigon. It is in
these and other streams of the Thunder Bay and Algoma
districts that the best trout fishing of Ontario is to be had,
though there are many good trout streams left in the basin
of the Ottawa and in the Algonquin National Park, and the
present writer has had excellent sport in some of the upper
trout waters of certain feeders of the Montreal River. Many
of the former brook-trout waters of the province, in conse-
quence of forest destruction and the pollution of streams,
have become more or less deserted by this splendid sporting
fish ; and many more have been ruined by excessive fishing
and by poaching.

Trolling for lake-trout (Salvelinus namaycush) is excellent

6o8

THE FISHERIES OF ONTARIO

in Lake Nipigon, as well as in the Rideau lakes. Lake
Nipigon has furnished to the angler several of these fish
exceeding thirty pounds in weight. One visiting angler has
a record of one hundred and forty-eight pounds of trout as a
result of three hours' fishing in this lake — his catch including
two fish of thirty-two and thirty pounds respectively.

The practical disappearance of the brook-trout from
many of its previous haunts places the small-mouth black
bass at the head, so far as importance is concerned, of the
sporting fishes of Ontario. Its game qualities, when hooked,
are not to be despised, but as a surface feeder it is less gamy
than the trout and is more often caught on a troll or baited
hook than by the clean-cut sport of fly-casting. Its powers
of resistance are great, and its leaps out of the water at the
end of the angler's line are often as exciting as those of a
grilse fresh run from the sea. Specimens running from one
to three and a half pounds are by no means uncommon, while
in the most highly favoured waters fish of six and seven
pounds often reward the angler's skill. It is found in the
majority of the Great Lakes, but not very extensively in
the Algoma district, except in certain waters of the Rainy
River region. It has been introduced with considerable
success into several lakes in the Algonquin National Park.
Unlike the brook-trout, it is more plentiful in southern than
in northern waters, the most famous places for the sport of
bass fishing in the province being found chiefly in the Muskoka
district, the Kawartha lakes, the Rideau lakes, and Bay of
Quinte country. Gravenhurst, Sparrow, Muskoka, Rousseau,
and Joseph Lakes have been noted for the good bass fishing
furnished by them, while many anglers are annually attracted
by the sport offered by the bass of the Georgian Bay district,
in Stony and Rice Lakes in the neighbourhood of Peter-
borough, and in the French River.

The large-mouth black bass is usually taken by bait cast-
ing or trolling, and while it is often found in the same waters
as its close congener the small-mouth variety, with which it
is often confused, its favourite habitat is in the ' drowned
lands ' adjacent to the Rideau lakes.

The maskinonge, so called from the Indian mashk (differ-

THE SPORTING FISHES 609

ing from) and kinonge (pike), and often improperly called
mascalonge, lunge or muskellunge, is one of the gamest fishes
of the continent, and like the salmon and the lake-trout is
prized by anglers as much for the immense size that it attains
as for its game qualities when hooked. There is no better
fishing to be had for maskinonge than that among the Thou-
sand Islands of the St Lawrence, and adjacent to Stanley
Island near the boundary-line of the Province of Quebec. It
is common in Lake Erie, in Georgian Bay, in the Trent and
French Rivers and their tributaries, and in some of the
Muskoka lakes. The maskinonge has been known to attain
a weight of a hundred pounds, and there are records every
year of fish of thirty-five and forty pounds weight being taken
by anglers.

The so-called sporting fishes are not the only ones to
claim the angler's attention in Ontario, many disciples of
Walton in the province being perfectly satisfied, even as was
the gentle ' Izaak ' himself, to linger in the beauty spots of
Nature, a-fishing for the humble perch or carp or chub,
which abound in almost every part of the province.

MINES AND MINING

VOL. XVIII

MINES AND MINING

ONTARIO'S MINERAL INDUSTRY1

ONTARIO'S mineral industry has two characteristic
features — rapid growth and variety of products.
Moreover, while the production per capita is not
large when compared with that of some other countries,
Ontario practically controls the markets of the world in
connection with certain products, especially nickel and cobalt.
The province also has the world's greatest silver-producing
area. Then such minerals as corundum and mica, that are
mined in comparatively few countries, are produced here in
important quantities.

Formerly the non-metallic products surpassed in value
those of the metallic kinds. In 1905, for the first time, the
metalliferous substances took the lead, and each year since
then the difference has increased, until in 1910 the proportion
of the whole furnished by the metals was seventy-two per
cent. The most rapid growth in recent years among the
metals has been in silver, then come pig-iron, nickel, and
copper. Owing to the discovery of Porcupine and other
gold - bearing areas, the production of gold has rapidly
increased. Among the non-metallic substances Portland
cement shows rapid growth ; the output of natural gas

1 In order to make this article less technical, geological descriptions have as
far as possible been avoided. A sketch of the geology of the whole Dominion,
by R. W. Brock, director of the Geological Survey of Canada, will be found in
section v of this work.

The chief sources of information drawn upon in the preparation of the article
are the following : Report of the Royal Commission on the Mineral Resources of
Ontario, 1890 ; Reports, Ontario Bureau of Mines, 1891-1913 ; Reports, Geological
Survey of Canada ; Journal of the Canadian Mining Institute.

613

614 MINES AND MINING

has increased ; there has also been a somewhat constant
growth in connection with such non-metallic materials as
brick, gypsum, talc, and so forth. The supply of petro-
leum, on the other hand, has been declining during late
years.

Of the aggregate production the larger items in 1913 show
the following comparative percentages : silver, 31 ; pig-iron,
:6'4 ; nickel, 9*9 ; copper, 3^5 ; Portland cement, 7*7 ; brick,
8 ; natural gas, 4*5 ; petroleum, o'7. These products account
for about eighty-two per cent of the value of the total pro-
duction, the remaining eighteen per cent being contributed
by over twenty other articles of smaller output. Metals rose
in value from $10,201,010 in 1905 to $37,508,955 in 1913 ;
and non-metals from $7,653,286 to $15,491,002. The value
of the mineral output in 1913 was 9'6 per cent greater
than that of 1912, and 26*2 per cent greater than that
of 1911.

Taking the mineral production of the Dominion of
Canada as given by the Dominion department of Mines
for 1912, the production of Ontario is shown to have been
nearly thirty-eight per cent of the whole.1 In metals only,
the increased yield of silver and nickel during late years has
placed Ontario in the position of producing more than all
the other provinces put together. In 1912 Ontario's mines
provided for sixty-two per cent of the total metalliferous
production of Canada.

The following table shows the progress or the reverse
made in the various branches of the mining industry in the
province during the last seven years.

1 The methods of computation of mineral statistics employed by the depart-
ment of Mines, Ottawa, and the bureau of Mines, Ontario, differ essentially in
that the former bases the value of the metallic production on the selling price of
the refined metals, while the latter values them at their selling price at the point
of production. The difference is confined to the metallic substances, the non-
metallic products being valued by both at the place and in the form produced.
On the basis employed by the department of Mines, Ontario's production in 1912
had a value of $51,985,876.

ONTARIO'S MINERAL INDUSTRY

MINERAL PRODUCTION, 1906 TO 1910'

615

Product

1906

.908

IQtO

1912

I9>3

Metallic :
Gold
Silver
Platinum )

$
66,193
3,689,286

1 6^2

9
6o,337
9,136,830

68,498
15,481,322

$
2,114,086
17,671,918
80,736

4,558,518
16,580,114

Palladium )
Cobalt ....
Copper ....
Nickel .....
Iron ore ....
Pig-iron ....
Pig-lead

80,704
960,813

3,839,419
301,032

4,554,247

Q-I cno

111,118
1,071,140
1,866,059
574,839
4,390,839

' I
54,699
1,374,103
4,005,961
S'3,721
6,975,418

H7,235
3i5>78i
1,584,310
4,736,460
238,884
8,054,369

I 2QO

420,386
1,840,492
5,250,803
424,072
8,719,892

Zinc ore ....

6,000

5,76o

Less value Ontario iron ore
smelted into pig-rron

13,596,846
243,776

17,211,162
456,176

28,479,482
317,804

34,945,069
145,326

37,794,277
285,322

Net metallic production .
Non-metallic :

13,353,070

16,754,986

28,161,678
3^o

34,799,743

37,508,955

Arsenic ....
Brick, common .
„ paving .
,, pressed
Building and crushed stone
Carbide of calcium

15,858
2,157,000
45,000

337,795
660,000
162,780
6 ooo

40,373
1,575,875
6i,554
485,819
530,041
147,150

70,709
2,374,287
70,648
458,596
761,126
184,323

79,297
3,178,250
221,986
634,169

953,839
120,000

64,146
3,283,894
243,H9
871,291

i,"7,i53
123,100

„ Portland
Corundum ....
Feldspar ....

2,381,014
262,448
43,849

2,417,769

n,437
20,300

3,144,343
171,994
47,5i8

I c

3,365,659
233,212
28,916

4,105,455
137,036
73,338

Graphite ....
Gypsum ....
Iron pyrites
Lime .....
Mica
Natural gas
Peat fuel ....
Petroleum (crude)
Phosphate of lime

15,000
6,605

40,583
496,785
69,041
533,446
900
761,546

i, 600
20,778
69,980
448,596
73,586
988,616
900

703,773
7,048

55,637
17,825

98,353
474,531
85,294
1,491,239
1,284
368,153

65,076
50,246
71,043
381,672

57,384
2,268,022
725

344,537

93,054
92,627
171,687
390,600
55,264
2,428,881
i,75o
398,051

Pottery ....
Quartz ....
Salt

65,000
65,765
367,738

50,310
52,830
488,330

51,485
87,424
414,978

52,445
179,576
450,251

52,875
130,860
474,372

22Q O6?

Sewer pipe ....
Sodalite ....
Talc
Tile, drain ....

279,620
6,000
3,030
252,500

344,260

3,048
338,658

357,o87

46^592
318,456

464,627

'oi',358
279,579

600,297

100,480
251,705

Total non-metallic pro-
duction
Add metallic production .

9,035,303
13,353,070

8,882,631
16,754,986

11,152,217
28,161,678

13,541,869
34,799,743

15,491,002
37,508,955

Total production

22,388,373

25,637,617

39,313,895

48,341,612

52,999,957

1 The statistical tables in this article are taken from the Annual Reports of the Ontario Bureau
of Mines,

6i6

MINES AND MINING

The value of the output for preceding periods of five years
since the establishment of the bureau of Mines is as follows :
1891— $4,705,673 ; 1896— $5,235,003 ; 1901— $11,831,086.

The quantity and value of the entire mineral production
of Ontario cannot now be ascertained with exactness. If
computed on the basis of prices of refined mineral, the
aggregate of the metals alone would considerably exceed three
hundred millions of dollars. On the basis of computation
employed in Ontario, viz. the value of the product at the
place of production, the aggregate for the metals to the end
of 1913 is approximately as follows :

TOTAL PRODUCTION OF METALS IN ONTARIO

Product

Value

Gold

Silver .......

Platinum and Palladium (statistics incomplete)

Cobalt .......

Nickel

Copper .......

Iron ore . . . . .

Pig-iron .......

Lead .......

Zinc ore .......

Total

9,293,231
113,756,403

290,755
1,492,527

46,263,566

19,080,023

7,148,457

65,965,993

117,290

92,410

263,500,655

II
THE HISTORY OF MINING IN ONTARIO

THE history of mining operations in the province falls
naturally into three periods : (i) 1800 to 1845, during
which period several small blast-furnaces for the smelt-
ing of iron ore were built ; (2) 1845 to 1890, in which dis-
coveries of copper, nickel, silver, gold, and other ores and
minerals were made ; (3) 1890 to the present time (1913).

THE HISTORY OF MINING IN ONTARIO 617

The last period began with the publication of the report of
the royal commission on the mineral resources. The bureau
of Mines was established in 1891, and the period has witnessed
great progress in the mineral industry.

EARLY MINING, 1800-45

The first mining undertaken in Ontario was in connection
with the iron industry. About the year 1800 an iron furnace
was erected at the falls on the Gananoque River in the town-
ship of Lansdowne, Leeds County. The ore being of inferior
quality, the enterprise was abandoned after two years' trial.
Thirteen years later a second blast-furnace was established
on the shore of Lake Erie, at Normandale in Charlotteville
Township, Norfolk County. This furnace, under the first
operator, was not a commercial success. In 1820 it was taken
over by other parties. The raw material used was bog iron
ore found within a range of twelve miles from the furnace,
the daily consumption being about nine tons, which yielded
an average of three tons of pig-iron of excellent quality for
foundry work. The fuel employed was charcoal. The pig-
iron was made into various kinds of castings, especially potash
kettles and stoves. These were shipped to ports along the
lake shore and taken into the interior by teams to find a retail
market. It is said shipments were made even as far west as
to Chicago. The furnace was shut down in 1847 owing to
scarcity of fuel and ore. During the period of its operation
it is said to have made a fortune for its owners.

In 1820 steps were taken to make iron at Marmora in
Hastings County. A furnace which was erected there had the
ill fortune to ruin or financially cripple three or four suc-
cessive owners in the course of forty years. Most of the ore
for this furnace came from the Blairton mine on Crow Lake.
In 1831 another furnace to smelt bog iron ore was erected in
the Lake Erie district, township of Gosfield, Essex County.
It met with but little success, and ceased operations in 1838.
In 1836 or 1837 a second furnace was erected in Hastings
County to smelt iron ore with charcoal. This was at the
village of Madoc. Although smelting was carried on for

618 MINES AND MINING

several years the enterprise was not a success. With the
exception of the attempts that were made to establish an iron
industry, there was no activity in the sale of mineral lands or
in prospecting for minerals till I845.1

In 1842 W. E. Logan (afterwards Sir William) was ap-
pointed provincial geologist of the united provinces of Upper
and Lower Canada (Ontario and Quebec). He was not only
one of the leading geologists of his time in so far as pure science
was concerned, but he was also well qualified as an economic
geologist. Entering on his work with enthusiasm, it was not
long until he had aroused interest in the mineral resources of
the province.2 This is shown by the fact that applications
soon began to be made to the government for licences to ex-
plore lands on the Ontario shores of Lakes Superior and Huron.
Thirty -one applications were made in 1845, thirty of which
were for locations on Lake Superior.3 In 1846 the number
increased to one hundred on Lake Superior and thirty-three
on Lake Huron.

The records show that public land sold in the province
for mining purposes during the forty-four years, 1845 to the
close of 1888, was 709,335 acres. The size of locations in
early years was in striking contrast to the size of those at
present granted. The regulations fixed the limit of a loca-
tion at five miles in length by two miles in breadth, or 6400
acres, under which the Montreal Company acquired 170,156
acres at 42 % cents per acre, and the Quebec and Lake
Superior Company 19,200 acres at 80 cents per acre.4 The

1 What appears to be a pretty complete list of the minerals, with their localities,
known in Ontario (Upper Canada) in 1825, is given in a book published in Boston
in that year — A Catalogue of A merican Minerals with their Localities, by Samuel
Robinson. The list is prepared especially for the use of collectors. No attempt
is made to distinguish occurrences of economic importance from those that are
of purely scientific or popular interest.

* Logan's report on the progress of the geological survey of the province in
1843 draws attention to the similarity of the Ontario shore of Lake Superior to
that of Michigan, where the copper deposits were arousing much interest.

3 The first tract to be applied for in the upper lake region was that of Spar
Island, July I, 1845.

4 On April 7, 1846, an order-in-council fixed the extent of a mining tract
or location at one mile in front by five miles in depth ; and on the i8th of the
same month, upon the petition of parties interested in mining explorations, the
limit was extended to two miles in front by five in depth.

MINING IN ONTARIO

(1) NICKEL-COPPER SMELTER AT COPPKR CLIFF

(2) LOADING PIG-IRON I!Y MAGNET AT PORT ARTHUR

THE HISTORY OF MINING IN ONTARIO 619

unit of size of locations at present is forty acres. Much of
the land on the north shore of Lake Superior taken up under
these early regulations has been tied up ever since, compara-
tively little work having been done.

It does not appear that any mining laws or regulations
were adopted in the province previous to 1845, the first
season of exploration and discovery in the Lake Superior
region. For the first year each case requiring executive
action was dealt with by order-in-council as it arose. From
this time onward various changes have been made in the
mining laws. A study of the acts and regulations in force
at various periods is of interest chiefly in showing that the
same discussions were held in the early days concerning the
regulations as during more recent times. There have been
various regulations as to royalties, and, as previously stated,
as to size of locations, discovery of mineral, and so forth.

DISCOVERIES OF ORES AND OTHER MINERALS

The rise of the metal-mining industry, with the excep-
tion ot iron already discussed, is shown in the following notes
on the discoveries of important mineral areas.

After iron, copper was the first metal in connection with
which serious attempts at mining were made. As stated
elsewhere in this article,1 veins of copper ore were discovered
in 1847 at what was afterwards known as Bruce Mines. In
1866 gold was found in important quantities in Madoc Town-
ship, Hastings County. Although for years silver had been
known to occur in the vicinity of Thunder Bay on Lake
Superior, it was not until 1868 that the important discovery
of the Silver Islet vein was made. The discovery of the first
important vein of gold in North-Western Ontario was made
in 1870 at what came to be known as the Huronian Mine,
near Lake Shebandowan. The precious metal is said to have
been discovered on Rainy Lake in 1877 and on the Lake of
the Woods in 1878. To the west of Port Arthur the Rabbit
and Silver Mountain areas, which had an important produc-
tion of silver for some years, were discovered in 1882. There

1 Seep. 621.

620 MINES AND MINING

were numerous discoveries of gold in other localities, the
metal having been worked at many places between the
Quebec boundary on the east and the Manitoba boundary
on the west. For instance, proceeding westward from the
district in South-Eastern Ontario embracing the counties of
Frontenac, Hastings, and Peterborough, where the metal
was first discovered, gold-mining has been carried on at
Parry Sound, Wahnapitae, and in other areas in the vicinity
of Sudbury ; at the Ophir Mine, north of Thessalon on
Lake Huron ; in the Michipicoten district much develop-
ment work was done a few years ago ; along the main line
of the Canadian Pacific Railway a number of properties
have been developed near the shore of Lake Superior ;
the Huronian Mine in Moss Township west of Port Arthur
has already been mentioned ; then there are the Sturgeon
Lake area and those on the Seine River, Rainy Lake, and
Lake of the Woods. The most recent gold area to be
developed, that of Porcupine in the north-eastern part of
the province, will be referred to again. Other localities in
which the metal has been discovered in North- Eastern Ontario
are Timagami, Swastika, and Abitibi. The Sudbury nickel-
copper deposits were discovered during the building of the
Canadian Pacific Railway in 1882. Then another epoch-
making discovery was that of the Cobalt silver area, made
during the building of the Ontario government railway, the
Timiskaming and Northern Ontario, in 1903. In 1899 work
began on the Helen Mine in Michipicoten, the greatest iron
deposit yet opened in the province.

The following gives the dates at which some of the most
important non-metallic mineral deposits of the province
attracted attention.

In 1859 or 1860 the first attempt was made at utilizing
Canadian petroleum. The oil first used was that which
found its way to the surface at Oil Springs, Lambton County.
Later, surface wells, from forty to sixty feet in depth, were
dug. The first drilling in compact rock was done about 1861.
From the table of production given on another page,1 it will
be seen that the output has diminished during recent years.

1 See p. 635.

THE HISTORY OF MINING IN ONTARIO 621

Natural gas was discovered in drilling for oil in the Port
Colborne district in 1866. At that time the value of gas,
either as a fuel or as an illuminating material, was not
recognized. It was not until twenty years later that active
drilling operations were undertaken in this and the Essex
County field.

Phosphate (apatite) was discovered in considerable quan-
tity in Ontario before the middle of the last century, and
certain occurrences were described in the Geological Survey
report for 1848. Shortly afterwards the mineral was mined
in the counties of Lanark and Leeds. It is said the first
work was done on a deposit in the township of Burgess in
1855 or 1856. Owing to competition of foreign mines, phos-
phate-mining has practically ceased in the province. One
of the first plants erected to treat rock carrying graphite, or
plumbago, was that at Oliver's Ferry, Lanark County, built
about 1872. The discovery of corundum in the northern
part of Hastings County in 1896 added another important
non-metallic mineral to the list of Ontario's products. It
is scarcely necessary to review the history of the discovery
of other minerals in the province. Indeed, little is known of
the early working of some of the minerals.

EARLY COPPER-MINING

The discovery of copper deposits on what afterwards came
to be known as Bruce Mines, on the north shore of Lake
Huron, was made as a result of the prospecting activity
begun in 1845. It would appear, from what have been
called Indian diggings, that native copper, or the occurrences
of the metal in metallic form, on both shores of Lake Superior,
was known. in very remote times. These diggings have been
found at Cape Mamainse on the Ontario side, and at Isle
Royale on the Michigan side, of the boundary. These occur-
rences are mentioned in the writings of early Jesuits, and in
1770 an attempt at mining was made. In 1841 the charac-
teristics of the since famous deposits on the south shore were
described by Dr Douglas Houghton, then state geologist of
Michigan. The Indian title to the area embracing these

622 MINES AND MINING

native copper deposits was extinguished in 1843. Immedi-
ately numerous applications were made for tracts of mineral
land. This activity on the Michigan side of Lake Superior,
together with the attention which Logan directed to the
north shores of Lake Huron and Lake Superior, resulted, as
we have already stated, in prospecting being seriously under-
taken on the Ontario side of the lake. In 1847 rich copper
veins were discovered at what came to be known as Bruce
Mines. In the three following years development work on
these deposits was energetically prosecuted. Mining was
carried on without much success till 1864 or 1865, the veins
not proving so good in depth as at the surface. Since then
the mines have been worked for periods of greater or less
duration, but are now practically dismantled. It is said that
the value of copper produced at Bruce Mines since mining
began has amounted to about three and a half million dollars.
It should be remembered, however, that copper sold at a
much higher price during the years of activity at Bruce
Alines than during recent years.

EARLY SILVER-MINING

The best known silver-mine worked in Ontario previous
to the discovery of Cobalt was that of Silver Islet. The islet
is in what was known as the Woods location, which was
applied for in November 1845. The location is on the south
side of the promontory of Thunder Cape, and consisted of
over fifteen thousand acres in land and water lots. The islet
itself was originally a rugged rock only eighty or ninety feet
in diameter. At the time the patent was granted for the
Woods location, all the mines of gold and silver in the pro-
vince were reserved to the crown. It was probably owing
to this reservation that the Montreal Mining Company, who
purchased the location from the first owner, made no effort
to work or even to explore the property for twelve years
after having secured the grant from the crown. The first
systematic exploration was made in the summer of 1868,
after the legislature of Ontario had passed an act which gave
the owners of all private lands in a mining division the right

THE HISTORY OF MINING IN ONTARIO 623

to mine for gold and silver on their own lands, subject to a
royalty of from two to ten per cent as fixed from time to time
by order-in-council. By an act of the following year all
royalties were repealed and all reservations of gold and silver
in any patent already issued were made void. About the
same time provision was made for the levying of a tax of
two cents per acre on mineral lands. The Montreal Mining
Company, the owner of extensive tracts, became convinced
that it did not pay to hold the lands in idleness. In May
1868 an exploring party was organized by the company, and
the vein on Silver Islet was shortly afterwards discovered.
The mine was worked for about fifteen years, closing down
through being flooded in 1884. The vein yielded about
three million ounces of fine silver, that sold for $3,250,000 —
silver in those years being higher in price than at present.

Like the ore of the veins at Cobalt, that of Silver Islet
contains cobalt and nickel minerals. The first nickel pro-
duced from ores of the province, which is now the leading
producer of this metal, came from the Silver Islet ore. Long
before 1868, the year of the discovery of the Silver Islet vein,
silver had been found on the north-west shore of Lake
Superior. In 1846 the metal was reported to occur on several
of the properties located by the early prospectors. Later,
the vein on Prince's location was worked.

EARLY GOLD-MINING

The first important discovery of gold in the province was
made in the township of Madoc, Hastings County, in 1866.
Prospectors sinking a pit in search of copper, near what is
now known as Eldorado Station on the Central Ontario
Railway, found metal which they mistook for copper. On
a sample being shown to a member of the staff of the
Geological Survey then in the locality, it was identified as
the more precious metal. At that time there was in Ontario
a considerable number of returned California miners. Hence
it did not take long to get up a ' boom ' in North Hastings.
After prospecting in the surrounding district without finding
gold, the men came to the conclusion that they had been

624 MINES AND MINING

deceived. In the spring of 1867 a raid was made on the
mine at Eldorado, the Richardson, in order to determine
whether it really contained gold and was not a humbug.
The accounts given of Ontario's first gold camp read much
like those of more recent days. The Madoc excitement
must have been even greater than that since witnessed in
other fields in the province, since the government found it
necessary to equip a body of mounted men to keep the unruly
spirits among the prospectors in check. While the ore was
high grade, the value of the production is not definitely known.
A historical sketch of the discoveries of gold that have
been made in the province is given on a preceding page.1
This shows the widespread distribution of the metal. While
certain mines have produced more gold than the Richardson,
few of them have, as yet, been a success financially. One
of the most recently discovered gold areas, Porcupine, found
in 1909, in its brief history has produced more of the precious
metal than have all the other areas since the beginning of
mining in Ontario.

NICKEL-COPPER MINES OF SUDBURY 2

As a producer of nickel Sudbury has only one competitor
—New Caledonia in the Southern Pacific. The ores of the
two regions are quite different in character and occur under
vastly different conditions. The Sudbury deposits, which pro-
duce copper and minor quantities of other metals in addition
to nickel, were discovered during the building of the Canadian
Pacific Railway. Unlike the mineral deposits at Cobalt,
which are in the form of narrow veins difficult to find, many
of the Sudbury deposits had striking exposures. The ore
weathers readily at the surface to rusty material, and most
of the outcrops of the ore bodies are of large size. As the
name of the pioneer company, the Canadian Copper Company,
indicates, mining was begun with the object of producing
copper, the presence of nickel in the ores not being known.

1 See p. 619.

2 Detailed reports have been published on the nickel-copper deposits, and
industry, of Sudbury by A. E. Barlow, Part H, Report Geological Survey of
Canada, 1901, and A. P. Coleman, Part III, Fourteenth Report, Ontario Bureau
of Mines, and The Nickel Industry, Mines branch, Ottawa, 1913.

THE HISTORY OF MINING IN ONTARIO 625

At the time mining was begun in the Sudbury district,
practically the only uses of the metal nickel were as a con-
stituent of German silver and in electro-plating and coinage.
The price of the metal was also much higher than it is at
present ; for instance, in 1876 it sold at $2.60 per lb., in 1880
at $1.10, in 1890 at 60 cents. The average price now is prob-
ably about 33 cents per lb. The lowering of the price of
nickel has been accompanied by its employment in a greater
number of industries and also by a much larger consump-
tion. Nickel may be called the metal of defence, since its
chief use now is as a constituent of nickel-steel, which is em-
ployed by all the navies of the world for armour-plate. It
was only after the Sudbury Mines had been worked for a
few years that it was discovered that nickel has a very
beneficial effect on steel when alloyed with it.

At present there are two producing companies in the
Sudbury field : viz. the Canadian Copper Company, the
pioneer company of the district, which was established and
financed chiefly by United States capitalists, and the Mond
Nickel Company, which was organized in England. Both of
these companies, during late years at least, have been success-
ful ; both of them had to go through a long and costly
period of experimentation. The progress of nickel-mining
at Sudbury is shown in the following table of statistics :

892

895

900

1905

9r3

Tons

Value

Tons

Value

Tons

Value

Tons

Value

Tons

Value

Nickel .
Copper .

2,082
1,936

$
590,902
232.135

s.3'5
2,365

404,861
160,913

3,540
3,364

$ ,
756,626
319,681

9,5°3
4,525

3,354.934
688,993

24,562
12,938

S
5.179,241

1,840,065

The values of the two metals given in the table represent
their estimated values in the matte, the form in which the
metals are shipped out of the province, and not those of the
refined materials, which are much greater.

In the past platinum, palladium, gold, and cobalt have
been produced as by-products from Sudbury ores. These
metals occur in minute quantities in the ore of some of the

626 MINES AND MINING

deposits. On the smelting of several tons of ore into one,
the resulting product, known as matte, sometimes contains
the above-named metals in economic quantities. But since
the discovery of the ores at Cobalt there has been no object
in trying to save the cobalt in the Sudbury ores.

While the Sudbury mines are the greatest producers of
nickel, they are also important producers of copper, as the
above table shows. The ores of different deposits vary con-
siderably in composition. In order to determine the average
percentage of the metals, nickel and copper, the present
writer has taken the percentage of the metals in the ores
smelted during two three-year periods, 1892-3-4 and 1908-9-10,
with the following result :

Nickel (per cent) Copper (per cent)

1892-3-4 . . . 2'94 2-87

1908-9-10 . . . 2-84 172

The falling off in both nickel and copper content in the
later period as compared with that of the earlier is accounted
for by the fact that in the later period operations were on
a smaller scale and the ore was more carefully selected.
Copper twenty years ago was more valuable than at present,
and there was a tendency to select ores higher in that metal
for smelting. The larger, more cheaply worked deposits
operated during later years, together with the larger" scale
on which both mining and smelting are carried on, offset
the lower grade of the ores treated.

The Sudbury ores are only partly refined in Canada, the
metals being finally separated either in the United States,
where most of the Canadian Copper Company's matte is
sent, or in England, where the refining works of the Mond
Nickel Company are located.

An important use for nickel has been discovered during
recent years. It has been found by the Canadian Copper
Company that if the nickel and copper, in the proportion
they occur in certain ores, are freed from rock matter, iron,
and sulphur by slagging off these constituents, they form an
alloy that has valuable properties. This alloy has been
named monel metal, and contains approximately seventy

THE HISTORY OF MINING IN ONTARIO 627

per cent nickel and thirty per cent copper. The metal is
practically non-corrosive, and owing to its being made
directly from the matte without the two metals having to
be separated, it can be produced and sold at a price that
enables it to compete with bronze, German silver, and such-
like alloys. Sheets of monel metal are used for roofing
buildings. The metal is also employed in the manufacture
of propeller blades in shipbuilding, since it is not materially
affected either by salt water or by ordinary acid solutions.

There are other uses to which it is well adapted, and the
metal appears to have a wide field of usefulness.

The accompanying plan or sketch-map of the Sudbury
area shows the relative position of some of the chief mines,
such as the Creighton, Krean Hill, and Stobie of the Canadian
Copper Company and the Victoria and Garson mines of the
Mond Nickel Company. The smelter of the former company
is at Copper Cliff. The Mond Nickel Company is erecting
an enlarged plant at Coniston, east of Sudbury. Deposits
of nickel-copper ores are known to occur at various points
near the edge of the circular area shown on the map. It may

VOL. XVIII

628

MINES AND MINING

be added that the deposits at Sudbury appear to be practi-
cally inexhaustible and are among the largest and the most
important ore bodies of the world. The output of nickel
from New Caledonia ores in 1909 was 7100 tons ; from
Sudbury ores it was 13,141. Ontario was therefore produc-
ing nearly twice as much nickel as the French colony.

COBALT SILVER AREA

The first rich veins at what is now known as Cobalt were
discovered during the building of the Timiskaming and
Northern Ontario Railway, the Ontario government railway,

THE HISTORY OF MINING IN ONTARIO 629

in 1903. At that time, owing to little prospecting and no
mining being carried on in the district, the veins attracted
little attention. A few additional veins were found in
1904, but it was not until 1905 that really active prospecting
and development began. In August 1906 interest in the ore
deposits had reached a high pitch. Prices of mining stock
reached their highest point in that month.

The productive area at Cobalt consists approximately of six
square miles. There are, however, one or two productive veins
similar to those of Cobalt in the South Lorraine area to the
south-east, in Casey Township to the north, and in the Gow-
ganda area to the north-west. During late years Cobalt has
not only been the greatest silver-producing area in the world,
but it leads also in the production of cobalt and arsenic and
has been excelled in nickel output only by Sudbury and
New Caledonia. The veins in the area have caused Canada
to take a leading place as a silver producer. This country
stands third, the United States and Mexico occupying first
and second place respectively.

The table on the next page gives the production of the
Cobalt area from 1904, when shipments began, to the end
of 1913.

In 1913 the value of the silver was $16,555,001, and the
dividends paid during that year amounted to over $9,000,000.
The total production to the end of 1913 was 185,497,814
ounces of silver, which brought $98,286,116.

While Cobalt is characterized by the place it takes as a
producer of silver, cobalt, nickel, and arsenic, it is distin-
guished by the proportion which the dividends paid by the
mines bear to the value of the production, the dividends having
represented over fifty-five per cent of the value of the output.

Sudbury has been the chief competitor of New Caledonia
in the production of nickel. Curiously enough, Cobalt has
been practically New Caledonia's only competitor in the
production of cobalt. Prior to 1904, when the cobalt veins
were discovered, New Caledonia had an important cobalt
industry. The Ontario mines, where cobalt occurs in such
abundance and can be produced so cheaply, have practically
killed the New Caledonia industry.

630

MINES AND MINING

££

•s

£2

Is, fl «-« i- GO VO ts, *•* vi

oo *o »n c»i m VN o oo ON

M VD VO *n fl VO Is. VI O

"dS

« oo" oo fi

2 1 I a ,1

M m f .n •*

«r 6'

N • • ? i?i ° °° " °°

O • • •' ' N M O OO 00 OO

s' : ! : ' : ; ? i I 1 *

fl in »o*

**} O ^f ON oo ro
ON *s to 00 « fl
fj> ^ OO «-» M VO

N • • 1O "^ N VO OO* ^t"

O * • M VO CO f> VO HH

•* •* o^ o^ is. o

CO ON ON 00

vO vO ^^ O vi ^ vo ^* ON
LO vo ^^ CO in n N

M t-i W N M

VO fs fl O\

VO^" ON 2 *S o>

-* -"* ON

vo"

o : : : : " ^ °4 *? N b.
*3 •-. « vo OA -T •-

OM ^POfs^-ls.^-N ls,fl

MinTfTfrCtCtCcToN ON

O "1

• • •

l/f

•— •

Jzf
O

I— <

U
^3
Q

s
o

. g8

2-l.s
°<^S

MINING IN ONTARIO

(0 THE TOWN OF COI5ALT AND COBALT LAKE
(2) A WORKED VKIN AT COBALT

THE HISTORY OF MINING IN ONTARIO 631

The demand for the compounds of cobalt is limited, the
chief use being as a colouring agent in the pottery and glass
industries. Cobalt glass has been known since prehistoric
times, having been found in the graves of the ancient Egyptians
and in the ruins of Troy.

During the earlier period of mining at Cobalt the ores
were all shipped out of Canada, some going to the United
States and some to Europe. Most of the ore is now treated
in Ontario, plants having been built at Cobalt, at Thorold
in the Niagara district, and at Deloro in Hastings County.
There are other plants in Ontario working on a smaller scale
than those mentioned.

Considering the great richness of Cobalt and the ease
with which the silver can be mined, it is an interesting specu-
lation as to what would have happened if the ores had been
discovered during the French period. Silver in those days
was worth more than twice what it is at present, selling for
something like $1.30 an ounce ; labour was cheaper and
money represented more in other ways than it now does.
Cobalt lying so close to Lake Timiskaming, a part of the
great Ottawa River route, the rich ore could easily have
been transported. The discovery during the French period
might have changed the political complexion of the whole
of North America. Either the French would have come
over in such numbers as to have enabled them to hold Canada
for a much longer period at least, or the New England
colonists would have stampeded to the north and have taken
possession of the land.

PORCUPINE GOLD AREA

Porcupine, the most important gold area in Ontario,
lies about ninety miles north-west of Cobalt. It was dis-
covered in 1909. A branch line, from a point on the
Timiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway one hundred
miles north of Cobalt, provides transportation facilities.
The accompanying sketch-map shows the chief geographical
features of the Porcupine area, together with the location of
some of the best-known properties.

632

MINES AND MINING

THE HISTORY OF MINING IN ONTARIO 633

In 1913 the production of gold from the Porcupine area
was 207,583 ounces. Several excellent plants for the extrac-
tion of the metal have been erected. The chief properties
thus far developed are in the township of Tisdale. The
camp is favoured, not only by having railway facilities at an
early period of its development, but also in being provided
with electric power, which is developed on the Mattagami
River a few miles distant from the principal mines.

Another gold area which has recently attracted con-
siderable attention is that of Kirkland Lake, which lies
along the Timiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway to
the east of Porcupine.

IRON-SMELTING

After the attempts to establish an iron industry in Ontario,
described on a foregoing page, the industry had a long sleep.
The first furnace to be built during later times was that
erected at Hamilton in 1895, nearly forty years after the last
furnace of the early period had gone out of blast. This
furnace has had a prosperous record. The next furnace to
be built was a small one at Deseronto in 1899. Then
followed that at Midland in 1900. In 1902 a steel plant
began operations at Sault Ste Marie and a blast-furnace
went into commission in 1904. Some years later, in 1907,
a furnace began smelting at Port Arthur. More recently
other furnaces have been erected at some of these places.

During the period of the operation of these furnaces com-
paratively little Ontario iron ore has been smelted, most of
the ore having been imported from the Lake Superior district
of the United States. The output of the Helen mine in
Michipicoten is now being used in larger quantity than for-
merly at Sault Ste Marie. The iron ore deposits in South-
Eastern Ontario have had only a small output during recent
years. In the period between the cessation of operations
at the early iron furnaces and that of the erection of the
modern ones, considerable ore was shipped to United States
points. The opening up of the Minnesota and other deposits

634

MINES AND MINING

in the Lake Superior region lowered the price of ore, so that
the small deposits could not be worked at a profit.

The combined production of the eight Ontario blast-
furnaces in 1910 was 447,351 tons of pig-iron valued at
$6,975,418. At Sault Ste Marie and Hamilton there was a
total of 331,321 tons of steel manufactured. The plant at
Sault Ste Marie makes steel rails exclusively, while at Hamil-
ton basic open-hearth ingots are produced, the large tonnage
of which is further developed into billets, forgings, spikes, and
bar iron and steel.1 The Ontario iron ore smelted in 1910
amounted to 143,284 tons, while that of foreign origin repre-
sented 678,890 tons.

At Welland, where cheap electric power is available, con-
siderable industrial development is going on. Among the
plants established there is one that produces ferro-silicon.

The following table sets forth details of the iron and
steel making industry in the province during the seven years
1906-12 :

Schedule

1906

1908

1910

1911

1912

Ontario ore smelted tons

101,569

170,215

143,284

67,631

71,589

Foreign ore smelted „

396,463

342,747

678,890

848,814

1,062,071

Limestone for flux „

153,702

I79,74i

248,750

275,628

305,509

Coke . . „

304,676

322,817

471,493

577,388

660,248

Charcoal . bush.

811,926

1,133,419

1,666,897

1,886,748

Pig-iron . tons

275,558

271,656

447,35'

526,610

589,593

Value of pig-iron $

4,554,247

4,39°,839

6,975,418

7,716,314

8,054,369

Steel . . tons

167,026

172,108

331,321

361,581

457,8i7

Value of steel $

4,202,278

4,397,082

7,855,407

9,505,013

8,071,339

PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS

The following table gives the production of the Ontario
oil areas for 1906, 1910, and 1913. It also shows the localities
in which oil is being produced. The production has sunk to
less than one-half of what it was fifteen years ago. More
crude oil is now imported into the province than is produced
in it.

1 Twentieth Report, Ontario Bureau of Mines, p. 29.

THE HISTORY OF MINING IN ONTARIO 635

Field

1906

1910

1913

bbls.

bbls. bbls.

Lambton ....

377.286

205,456

155,747

Tilbury and Romney

106,992

63,058

26,824

Both well ....

44,827

36,999

34-348

Leamington

39,652

141

Dutton ....

19,376

7,752

4.610

Thamesville

175

. ,

. »

Comber ....

651

. .

Onondaga (Brant Co.)

1,005

4,172

Belle River

• •

464

Total

588,959

3I4,4H

226,165

The production of natural gas has increased rapidly of
late years. The output comes from three fields in the Erie-
Huron peninsula : namely, Welland County, Haldimand
and Norfolk Counties, and the counties of Essex and Kent.
The Haldimand-Norfolk field is the largest producer.

PORTLAND CEMENT

The manufacture of Portland cement in Ontario began
in 1891 and has gradually grown to its present proportions.
The Canada Cement Company operates plants at Port Col-
borne, Marlbank, Belleville (Lehigh), Owen Sound, and Lake-
field. Then there are plants belonging to other companies
at Durham, Owen Sound, Blue Lake, Hanover, Orangeville,
and Atwood.

In the earlier years of production marl was employed for
supplying the carbonate of lime ; the more recently erected
plants use compact limestone. The following table shows
the growth that has taken place in the Portland cement
industry :

1891 1900 1910 1913

Barrels . . 2033 306,726 2,471,837 3,802,321
Value . . $5082 598,021 3,144,343 4>I05>455

636 MINES AND MINING

MATERIALS OF CONSTRUCTION

As the statistical table on a preceding page shows, the
value of materials of construction in addition to Portland
cement is important. Since these materials are produced
widely throughout the settled parts of the province, a descrip-
tion of the industry as regards them is scarcely required.
They include common brick, pressed brick, and paving brick,
together with lime and stone. It may be added, however,
that at various times during many years attempts have been
made without success to establish a marble industry in
Ontario. Marble quarries and a plant for sawing the material
are now being operated near Bancroft in North Hastings.
This marble has proved to be a desirable material for interior
decoration and is now being used rather extensively in
Toronto. Another marble quarry is being operated in
Lanark County.

Additional clay products produced in the province are
drain tile, sewer pipe, and pottery ware.

MINOR MINERAL PRODUCTS

Iron pyrites is a mineral the mining of which is becoming
important in the province. It is used in the production of
sulphuric acid, which is employed in many industries. Mining
is carried on in Hastings County and in the north-western
part of the province near Lake Superior Junction. Some
of the larger deposits that have been developed have not
begun to ship in quantity. Zinc ore has been mined in small
quantities during the last ten years in the township of Olden,
Frontenac County. The production of ore in 1910 was 576
tons.

Mica of the best quality for use in electrical machines
is mined in South-Eastern Ontario, Frontenac and Lanark
Counties. It is the variety known as amber mica.

The salt production of Ontario varies comparatively
little from year to year. The chief producers have plants
at Windsor, Sandwich, Goderich, Sarnia, Elarton, Kincardine,
and at other points in the Erie-Huron peninsula.

THE HISTORY OF MINING IN ONTARIO 637

Corundum, which may be called pure emery, is mined at
Craigmont in Renfrew County and in the adjacent part of
Hastings County. Ontario produces more of this mineral
than does any other country. In spite of the fact that a
number of artificial abrasives, or materials employed for
grinding and polishing purposes, are now produced, the
demand for corundum continues. For certain purposes it is
the most desirable abrasive known.

Feldspar-mining occupies an important place in Ontario,
since the largest deposit of this mineral known is worked in
the province. The Richardson mine in Frontenac County
was the largest shipper of feldspar in North America in 1910.
It is worked as a large open pit, the dimensions of the work-
ings being about 500 feet in length, 200 feet in width, and
130 feet in depth, measured from the highest point on the
wall. The quartz which is produced as a by-product is
used for such purposes as the manufacture of ferro-silicon.

Graphite has been mined for a number of years near
Calabogie in Renfrew County, and also near Port Elmsley
in Lanark County. Another plant has been equipped near
Wilberforce Station on the Irondale and Bancroft Railway.

Gypsum has been mined for many years in small quantities
along the valley of the Grand River which empties into Lake
Erie, but the industry has never attained large proportions.
Hitherto the mineral has been employed as a land fertilizer,
in the manufacture of wall plaster, and in other minor in-
dustries, but the Portland cement industry has stimulated
production. The mixture of a small proportion of gypsum
has the effect of retarding the setting of cement, and so facili-
tates the manipulation of large quantities at a time. There
appear to be extensive deposits of gypsum in the locality
mentioned. The mineral is also known to occur in Northern
Ontario.

Talc has been mined for a number of years on the out-
skirts of the village of Madoc in Hastings County. A few
years ago a mill for grinding it was erected. This Madoc talc,
owing to its good quality, is in considerable demand. It is
used in the manufacture of paper, soap, cosmetics, and for
other purposes.

638 MINES AND MINING

Peat fuel manufacture has not become a successful in-
dustry in the province. It was carried on at one or two
places in 1913.

Phosphate of lime is now mined only as a by-product and
none was marketed in 1913.

There are other minor minerals such as actinolite and
fluorspar, which were mined in 1913 in small quantities.

MINING REVENUE

Chiefly from the following mining resources the province
derives an annual revenue : sales of mining lands, leases
of mining lands, miners' licences, permits, and fees, mining
royalties, and Supplementary Revenue Act, 1907. A
royalty is obtained only from certain mines at Cobalt.
Under the provisions of the Supplementary Revenue Act,
1907, three different taxes are imposed : (i) profit tax, being
leviable on the profits of mining companies in excess of
$10,000, computed, as explained in the act, at the rate of
three per cent — certain deductions are made for the municipal
tax, if any ; (2) natural gas tax, being at the rate of two-
tenths of a cent per thousand cubic feet, or two dollars per
million on all gas used in Canada ; (3) acreage tax of two
cents per acre on all patented or leased lands not situated in
any municipality. The law requires the possession of a
current miner's licence before mining claims may be validly
staked out or recorded, and also in forest reserves a permit
to prospect for minerals therein. From the various sources
mentioned the revenue for the year ending October 31, 1910,
was $941,030.09.

DEPARTMENT OF MINES

The mineral lands still in the crown and the mining regu-
lations of the province are administered by the bureau of
Mines, organized in 1891. The bureau is a branch of the
department of Lands, Forests, and Mines. The depart-
ment, presided over by a minister, has two subdivisions, (i)
Lands and Forests, and (2) Mines, with a deputy minister

THE HISTORY OF MINING IN ONTARIO 639

for each. The deputy minister of Mines is in charge of the
bureau of Mines.1

The organization of the department as regards the legal,
mining, and geological work is different from that of most
countries. In Ontario the work of the provincial geological
survey, that of the mining inspectorate, and the statistical
work are closely interwoven.

The chief subdivisions of the bureau of Mines are the
following : (i) geological, — this branch of the work is carried
on by an officer known as the provincial geologist with a
corps of assistants including topographers ; (2) inspection
of mines, — four permanent inspectors are employed whose
chief duty is to examine the working mines as regards safety
of employees ; (3) mine assessor, — whose duties, as the name
implies, are in connection with the collection of taxes and
royalties derived from mines or mineral lands by the pro-
vince ; (4) mining commissioner, — whose duties are to
adjudicate questions and disputes arising under the Mining
Act ; (5) provincial assayer, — -who, with his staff, performs
all assay and chemical work of the bureau together with
certain custom work ; (6) mining recorders, — who are in
charge of the work of recording claims in various subdivi-
sions of the province.

The work of the bureau of Mines and that of the Lands
and Forests branch are closely interwoven as regards surveys,
the granting of titles to land by the crown, and various other
matters.

A word or two may be said concerning the relation between
the work of the Dominion department of Mines and that of the
province. The geological and statistical work of the former
covers Ontario as well as that of the rest of Canada. While
the Dominion geological survey and other branches of the
Mines department have done much excellent work in Ontario,
still, since this province controls its own mineral lands and
mining regulations, it must support its own department.

1 The department was known as that of Crown Lands until 1905, when it was
changed to Lands and Mines, the commissioner of Crown Lands being given the
title of minister. In 1906 a further change was made, the department since that
time being known under the name of Lands, Forests, and Mines. In the same
year the director of the bureau of Mines became deputy minister of Mines.

640 MINES AND MINING

The provincial officers are the only persons who have authority
to enter upon private lands or to make examination of work-
ing mines. There is, of course, always the chance that
officers of the two departments will duplicate certain work
and thus waste public funds. This probably has happened
in a few cases in the past, but with proper understanding
between the departments and while friendly relations prevail,
such duplication of labour is easily prevented. The Dominion
Geological Survey, on the other hand, can render important
service by mapping the country, not necessarily in great
detail, but so that prospectors for minerals will know the
most likely territory in which to search. There are also
certain problems of correlation and comparison of the geo-
logical structure of the provinces, one with another, that
properly belong to the domain of the Dominion department
of Mines.

ONTARIO'S MINING LAWS

The following historical sketch of Ontario's mining laws
has recently been prepared by Samuel Price, mining com-
missioner.1 It is interesting in that it shows the change in
views regarding the disposal of mineral lands by the crown
during the last sixty years or more.

Ontario did not, like so large a part of the United States,
derive its mining laws from an influx of miners bringing in
their rules and customs with them. In early mining history,
going back to about 1845, mining lands were disposed of
under order-in-council, at first specific for each case, after-
wards crystallized into general regulations. Under these
many large areas were granted in fee-simple at a small price
per acre.

The first legislation, the Gold Mining Act of 1864 (27-28
Viet. Can. cap. 9), related only to gold-mining and did
not, as to other minerals, supersede the regulations. After
Confederation, the Gold and Silver Mining Act of 1868 (31
Viet. Ont. cap. 19) was passed by the Ontario legislature.
This followed in the main the provisions of the Gold Mining

1 Twentieth Report, Ontario Bureau of Mines, 1911, pp. 270-9.

THE HISTORY OF MINING IN ONTARIO 641

Act of 1864, but applied to silver as well as gold. Both
these acts provided for the establishment of mining divisions,
and for an officer to preside over them to record claims and
determine disputes. The size of claims was very small, and
varied according to circumstances. A licence was necessary,
and the claim had to be staked out by planting a picket at
each of the four corners. The title given was merely a right
to occupy and work, and leaving the claim unworked for
a space of fifteen days or more forfeited it.

In 1869 was passed the General Mining Act of 1869
(32 Viet. cap. 34). It superseded the previous acts and
applied to all kinds of minerals. The mining division pro-
visions were continued with some changes, but with them
were enacted provisions for disposing of mining locations of
80, 1 60, or 320 acres. These might be purchased at one
dollar an acre, neither discovery nor working conditions
being required ;' nor was it necessary to stake out the land
before application.

This act continued until 1890 with only one change-
raising the price per acre in 1886 from one to two dollars.
In 1890 (by 53 Viet. cap. 9) an amendment was made
allowing a location of 40 acres as well as one of 80, 160,
or 320, and in 1890 also was passed the Mining Operations
Act (53 Viet. cap. 10) enacting rules for safety in the
working of mines.

In 1891 (by 54 Viet. cap. 8) amendments were made re-
quiring for the first time, so far as statutory enactment
was concerned, the performance of development work upon
mining locations (as distinguished from mining claims in
mining divisions), the work being required to be done during
the seven years immediately following the issue of the patent.
It was also provided that instead of a patent in fee-simple a
lease for ten years might be obtained for a mining location,
the lessee to have at any time during the term the right to
become purchaser.

In 1892 all former mining acts and amendments were
repealed and a new act called the Mines Act, 1892 (55 Viet,
cap. 9) was passed, some new features being added and the
Mining Operations Act of 1890 incorporated.

642 MINES AND MINING

In 1894 (by 57 Viet. cap. 16) and 1896 (by 59 Viet. cap. 13)
a number of amendments were made, but these were of little
importance.

In 1897 (by 60 Viet. cap. 8) very important changes were
again made, and the acts were consolidated and carried
into the revised statutes of 1897 (cap. 36). Discovery of
' valuable ore or mineral ' was for the first time (by statutory
provision) required as the foundation for a mining location,
an affidavit of discovery being required to be filed with every
application. As to mining claims in mining divisions, the
right to take them up was also expressly limited to licensees
who ' discovered a vein, lode or other deposit of ore or
mineral ' ; a discovery post was required as well as corner
posts, and the form and size of the claim were changed, so
that, instead of being composed of ten acres laid out along
the course of the vein, it was to be a square of twenty-two
and a half acres laid out with boundaries running north and
south and east and west, and in filing the claim an outline
sketch or plan and particulars, much as at present demanded,
were required.

Again in 1898 (by 6 1 Viet. cap. 2) important amend-
ments were made. It was for the first time provided that
the holder of a mining claim in a mining division might
obtain a patent or lease (at the price per acre charged for
mining locations) after performing the prescribed develop-
ment work for two or three years, according as the claim was
a square of twenty-two and a half acres or a square of forty
acres, the option of making it the latter being now given.
The working conditions on mining claims were made five
months of one man's time or its equivalent in every calendar
year, the old provision requiring continuous working (barring
intervals of less than fifteen days and any time allowed as
close season) being thus replaced.

In 1899 (by 62 Viet. cap. 10) important amendments were
again made, the main feature being a new plan for the
taking up of mining land. It was provided that in unsur-
veyed territory not valuable for pine timber a prospector,
after obtaining a licence, might, under regulations, stake
out not more than two mining locations of forty acres each

THE HISTORY OF MINING IN ONTARIO 643

in a year, and might hold them for two years subject to an
expenditure of three dollars per acre of actual mining work
the first year and seven dollars per acre the second year,
after which he was to complete his application as in the case
of ordinary mining locations. This act also increased the
number of years' work required to obtain patents for mining
claims from three and two to four and three respectively, and
changed the amount of work required on them each year
from five months' work to $150 worth of work, computed
at two dollars per man per day, and provided that when
the amount of work required for a patent had been done no
further work would be necessary, thus putting them upon
somewhat the same basis as to working requirements as
mining locations, except that in the case of mining claims
the work had to be done before patent and in the case of
mining locations after patent.

Again in 1900 (by 63 Viet. cap. 13) more changes
were made. Royalties, before provided for, were declared
to be abandoned. Provisions were made (to go into force
by proclamation but never enforced) for exaction of what
were called licence fees on nickel ores exported to be refined
outside of Canada ; provisions were also enacted for requir-
ing the raising of a specified amount of iron ore on locations
and claims shown to be valuable for iron ; an appeal (within
twenty days) from the decisions of inspectors of mining divi-
sions to the commissioner of Crown Lands was provided for ;
and the rules and provisions respecting the operation of
mines were amended and recast.

The present Ontario law may be briefly outlined as follows :
(i) Any one over eighteen years of age who takes out a
miner's licence may prospect for minerals upon crown lands,
or lands of which the mining rights are reserved to the crown,
and may take up, work, and acquire title to a- specified area
by making a discovery of valuable mineral, staking out and
recording a claim, performing and filing proof of the pre-
scribed development work, obtaining a survey if in unsur-
veyed territory, and paying a small price per acre, patent
being given in fee-simple upon the completion of these
requirements.

VOL. XVIII 2 A

644 MINES AND MINING

(2) The claim, or any share or interest in it, may at any
time be sold or transferred to another licensee, and transfers,
agreements, and other instruments executed by the recorded
holder may, and to ensure priority of preservation must, be
recorded, the recording office being the repository of title
prior to patent, much as the registry or land titles office is
after patent.

(3) The validity of every claim is open to dispute for a
limited time after recording, but when this time has passed
a certificate of record may be obtained, and on satisfactory
proof of performance of work a certificate may also be
obtained for that, and these certificates, in the absence of
fraud or mistake, are conclusive evidence of the performance
of the requirements of the act.

(4) Questions and disputes arising under the act, either
between individuals or between an individual and the crown,
are adjudicated by the local recorder or by a special officer
called the mining commissioner, subject to appeal in important
cases to the High Court.

(5) Rules and regulations are prescribed for the opera-
tion of mines (whether on patented or unpatented lands)
looking to the safety of employees and the protection of the
rights of other miners, and for the collection of statistics.

ROYAL COMMISSION'S REPORT, 1890

The Report of the Royal Commission on the Mineral
Resources of Ontario was published in 1890. This report
contains a historical review of the mineral industry together
with a description of the conditions then prevailing in the
province. The chief recommendations made were :

(1) That a thorough system of instruction in mining
and cognate subjects be provided by the establishment
of a School of Mines, or the enlargement of courses of
study then being given by the School of Practical Science ;

(2) That a bureau of Mines be established for the
purpose of making a complete geological survey of the
province, and for the establishment of an efficient plan

THE HISTORY OF MINING IN ONTARIO 645

for the collection of yearly statistics of the mining and
metallurgical industries ; and

(3) That a provincial museum of geology and miner-
alogy be organized.

All of these recommendations have in the course of years
been adopted. The bureau of Mines was established in 1891,
and has published an annual volume descriptive of the geology,
mineralogy, and mining industry since that date. Much
attention has been given during recent years to instruction
in mining subjects by the School of Practical Science, which
is now known as the Faculty of Applied Science of the Uni-
versity of Toronto. In 1893 the School of Mining at Kingston
was established. This has been generously supported by
the provincial government, and serves as the Faculty of
Applied Science of Queen's University.

The third important recommendation of the commission
has recently been carried into effect by the provincial uni-
versity at Toronto and the government joining forces in the
establishment of a museum.

Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to His Majesty
at the Edinburgh University Press

5011

S57

19U
v.18

Short t, Ad sun

Canada and its provinces

PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE
CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY

Internet Archive Audio

Featured

Top

Images

Featured

Top

Software

Featured

Top

Books

Featured

Top

Video

Featured

Top

Mobile Apps

Browser Extensions

Archive-It Subscription

Save Page Now

Full text of "Canada and its provinces; a history of the Canadian people and their institutions by one hundred associates"

See other formats