bury, including Bloomsbury, Grand Valley and Poplar Hill schools. At each of these a programme of sports was successfully carried through and each was well attended and enjoyed by the people of the various districts.

Such gatherings as these cannot fail to be beneficial. In the first place they help to establish a sort of community pride in the districts. The lack of pride in their particular school, in both children and adults, is one of the things that keeps that particular school below the average. In the second place the contestants learn to strive for the community honor rather than for self and also to take defeat gracefully and success with becoming modesty.

The equipment of most of the town schools is steadily improving, but very little improvement can be reported in the rural schools. Again, I must say that this is not always the fault of the trustees or ratepayers. In most cases a teacher can get a reasonable response if she has the confidence of her trustees, but this confidence is not gained by a few months' acquaintance in her district.

Again, I repeat that the teachers as a whole are doing faithful work. I find them almost always anxious to succeed and willing to follow out any reasonable suggestion. In some cases, of course, I find teachers forgetting the truth of the statement: "To be able to show the way to correct results is the very essence of successful teaching." There is a tendency, too, to strive too much for uniformity in the apparent belief that all boys are alike and if not we should make them so. We have too much purposeless education. I am inclined to agree with the definition of education given to Hawley Smith by an Irish engineer: "Any man is educated when he is onto his job."

Respectfully submitted,

D. J. WRIGHT, I.P.S.

Report of Inspector Parr-Inspectoral Division No. 8

HON. R. S. THORNTON,

Minister of Education, Winnipeg.

Sir, I have the honor to submit the following report of Division No. 8 for the year ending June 30th, 1915.

This division, which is about thirty-six miles by sixty, has been covered twice during the school year just closed. The distance travelled in completing this work is slightly more than five thousand miles by automobile. The length of inspection visits will average about two hours. There are now eighty-two schools in operation with one hundred and one departments. There are fifteen village and town schools, two of these being high schools and five intermediate. During the year only one new school has been built, viz., Highview, and one has been enlarged to give additional accommodation; viz., Primrose.

The subject of consolidation of schools has been kept before the people during the year, but no new districts have been formed. Two are in operation at present, one at Elgin and a second at Fairfax, both giving the best of satisfaction. The Consolidated District of Waukeemo, which was formed about three years ago, has been dissolved by arbitration, the reason being not that the people opposed the principle, but the impossibility of securing a central site of a suitable kind.

Judging from my visits to the various schools I am prepared to state that the teachers on the whole have done good, faithful work during the year and are covering the various subjects of the programme with fair results. The subjects of music and drawing are not as faithfully taught as they deserve, although nearly every school takes a little.

According to instructions from the Superintendent of Education special emphasis was given to the subject of reading. It is a fact that a large percentage of the pupils read indifferently and with little thought or expression. I reached this conclusion after hearing the reading of practically every class in my division during the last term. When I found it necessary I reminded the teacher of the need of special attention to this subject. There is no reason why every grade V pupil should not be a tolerably good reader. The entrance examination reveals the fact that history is one of the weakest subjects. Many teachers do not make the necessary preparation to place the subject before the class in a connected and logical manner. Litreature in grades VII and VIII has been taught very satisfactorily.

Practically no teachers have permits this year and as a result the standing is somewhat higher than formerly and on account of the large supply at present there should be less changing.

The equipment of schools continues to improve from year to year. It is very significant to find trustees becoming more interested in school matters and as the interest increases the response is readier in keeping the equipment up to date. At least seventy-five per cent. of the schools either have a good library or a supply of supplementary readers. Other kinds of equipment being supplied are-drinking fountains or tanks, cupboards for lunch pails, better heaters and materials for handwork. It might be stated regarding handwork that since it is part of the normal school work the teachers are giving a good deal of attention to the subject and with raffia some excellent work is being done. Sewing and paper-folding are taught in many of the town schools. The only school which has put on a regular course in manual training is Killarney. Mr. M. F. Pringle has charge of this work and has large classes in ironwork, wood-work, electrical-work, etc. A separate room is devoted to this department.

Very little has been attempted during the year by way of improvement to grounds. This is particularly true of rural schools, and until some definite work in tree-planting and gardening is accomplished the school can never have the proper influence over the pupils. It may be stated, however, that several good garden plots have been made this spring, the credit in most cases to be given to teachers and children for their interest in the matter. Good gardens were found at Bluevale, Whitewater, Strathallen, Caranto, Highview, Lily Hill, West, Derby, Bethel, Rowland, East Lynne, Jacques, Riverbank, and the following town schools-Boissevain, Killarney, Ninette, Dunrea and Mather. A good deal of credit is due the Depart ment of Education in bringing before the teachers the need and value of such work.

Closely related to the above work are Jehu corn competitions and the varied activities of the boys' and girls' clubs. In the corn competition there are in this division six schools enrolled, including one hundred and ten pupils, and in the other there are three schools, viz., Ninette, Killarney and Jacques, including about one hundred pupils. Parents and pupils alike recognize the importance of this phase of educational work.

Another sign of the increasing interest taken in school matters is the organization of municipal trustees' associations. Three municipalities have been organized in this division, viz., Turtle Mountain, Morton and Roblin and during the past winter a convention was held in each. The attendance was large

and the meetings interesting and profitable. Valuable assistance was received from the Department of Education and the Provincial Trustees' Association. The discussions at these meetings will be the means of arousing an interest not previously shown and will lead to a general improvement in school conditions. It would be in the interest of the work if teachers were allowed to attend these local conventions for one day, the grants being paid for the time taken.

The subject of physical drill is taken by practically every teacher in this division and good work is being done. In many cases it is excellent, making it difficult to decide who are the winners in the competition. At the Field Day gathering which was held again in Killarney on June 4th, the subject of physical drill was a part of the regular programme. Good prizes were given and the work was satisfactory.

Two conventions were held last fall for the teachers of this district, one at Manitou and the other at Roland. At both of these Mr. C. K. Newcombe, Superintendent of Education, was present and rendered valuable assistance.

Respectfully submitted,

W. J. PARR.

Report of Inspector Herriott-Inspectoral Division No. 9

HON. R. S. THORNTON,

Minister of Education, Winnipeg.

Sir, I have the honor to submit the following report of inspectoral division No. 9 for the year ending June 30th, 1915.

During the past year there has been no change in the boundaries of this division, but there has been the usual increase in the number of school districts formed, and a new municipality has been organized and approved. Three of these, namely Shergrove, Antwerpia and Thornton are in the unorganized territory to the east of St. Rose municipality. A new district, Boboruw, has been formed in the Ruthenian settlement in the eastern part of McCreary municipality. In the newly formed municipality of Lawrence, which is composed of the northern parts of old St. Rose and Ochre River municipalities, and a considerable area of previously unorganized territory, two new districts, Hoeyn and Cecil, have been organized, school formations have followed settlement very satisfactorily, and wherever the required ten children are to be found organization has been got under way.

Eight schools that had never previously been in operation got started during the year. These are Asham Point, Thibert, and Shergrove away to the north along Lake Manitoba, Granville which had lain dormant since 1912, Budka, Lake Mary and Rocklands off to the east of McCreary village, and a third department in the Jordan district. The three first named have good substantial log school houses, which were completed and put into use during the winter. New, well furnished frame buildings have been put into service at Budka, Lake Mary, Rocklands, Turtle River, Turtle Plains and Livingstone. The Granville school is temporarily housed in a rented farm house.

A consolidation was put through at Molesworth to provide for some previously unorganized lands in Lansdowne Municipality. Conveyance was provided at the beginning of last term and the arrangement has been providing a satisfactory solution of a situation that had been giving trouble for some time. The other consolidations in this district, namely, Flora, Langruth, Palestine, and Landing are working out to the benefit of their respective communities. Nora district continues to convey its pupils to the Westbourne Village school. The principle of consolidation is gaining wider favor each year.

During the year eighty-eight separate districts operated schools employing in all one hundred teachers. There are two rooms in operation at Ochre River, Laurier, Glenella and Westbourne villages. Arden and Plumas each have three teachers.