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Winnipeg, the capital of Manitoba, has a population of 136,035, or about 30 per cent of the entire population of the Province. This city has been noted for its ample educational provision, and during the past year extended its facilities by the establishment of two technical high schools comprising academic courses of instruction with industrial and technical branches. By the upward expansion of courses of instruction in three intermediate schools of the Province, the number of high schools has been increased to 13, and in addition there are six collegiate departments which prepare students for the university.

The capital city is the site of the University of Manitoba, founded in 1877 and registering at present 500 students, and an agricultural college which has nearly 400 students.

Alberta and Saskatchewan, both organized as independent Provinces in 1905, have large excess of rural population, but cities are rapidly growing and are well provided with facilities for education. Municipal efforts have been expended chiefly in providing school buildings and in securing teachers; at present the latter are necessarily drawn largely from the older Provinces. At the same time local normal schools have been established and well equipped for providing teachers in the future. The University of Alberta, organized in 1907, has nearly 500 students, many of whom will become teachers in the secondary schools of the Province. The University of Saskatchewan dates from the same year (1907).

THE BILINGUAL QUESTION.

The question of bilingual instruction is one of great interest in the western Provinces on account of the mixture of populations. During the current year Manitoba has been greatly agitated over this question, which also is in a measure involved with that of denominational schools. A return submitted to the legislature gave the number of children attending mono-lingual schools in the Provinces as 64,126 and those attending bilingual schools as 12,473. It is estimated that there are 145 schools for French settlers with 200 bilingual teachers, 75 German-Mennonite with about 85 teachers, and 107 Ruthenian, Polish, or Russian-German schools with 107 teachers.

At a convention of bilingual teachers held at St. Boniface on October 18 the French Canadians stood firmly by their bilingual schools. Early in the same year a provincial school trustees' convention held at Winnipeg passed a resolution providing that wherever 12 scholars whose mother tongue is French attend a school "such pupils shall have instruction in French, in addition to English, provided the parents of said pupils shall make a request to the trustees for such additional instruction."

APPROPRIATION FOR AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION.

The chief event of the year in respect to education in the Canadian Dominion was the passage of the bill already referred to, providing an appropriation of $10,000,000 for the encouragement of agricultural instruction. In his speech supporting this measure, Hon. Martin Burrell, minister of agriculture, said:

In so far as this Federal Government is concerned, we have come to the conclusion that we can best help on this great work by freely and generously assisting the cause of agricultural education. If we are told that this is an innovation, we answer that it is the people's money, drawn from them, and that it is not only defensible but desirable that such money should be spent in what we believe to be the most efficient way to attain the objects referred to. In choosing education or instruction as a desirable line which Federal expenditure should take, we are following the best methods of the most progressive countries. We propose to develop what we call the direct work of the Federal department by assisting and developing the live-stock, dairying, fruit-growing and other industries along lines of investigation, research, improvement in transportation, markets, and so on, but in respect of funds applied to education we propose to follow what may fairly be termed constitutional lines, using and strengthening the machinery already existing in the Provinces, or by them properly established. It is proposed by the bill to strengthen all lines of instructional and educational work. The particular form such assistance may take may vary with the special needs and conditions in each Province. It will embrace the increasing of the efficiency and equipment of our agricultural colleges; the establishment of agricultural schools, of dairy and horticultural schools, of short courses in agriculture; the initiation of agricultural teaching in public schools and work by traveling or located qualified instructors. It might well include the valuable educational work carried on by means of demonstration trains, the training of teachers in nature study, and the invaluable work of domestic science concerned with the women and girls of our communities.

The expenditure of this money is to be extended over 10 years, the amounts being allotted to the several Provinces yearly in proportion to their population. The plan was generally approved, and by the close of the year all the Provinces had accepted their allotments and had agreed with the Dominion departments as to forms of expenditure. The sum received by each Province for the year ending March 31, 1914, was as follows:

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1 Includes $1,420,881 for buildings, and $1,229,171 for payments on notes, debentures, etc.

2 Includes $630,964 for sites, buildings, etc.

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CHAPTER XXX,

EDUCATION IN THE CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICAN STATES.

CONTENTS.-Progress in Central America and Panama-States of South America: Introduction; educational conditions-International relations-Exchange of students between the States-The Normal School of Commerce at Montevideo.

PROGRESS IN CENTRAL AMERICA.

All reports and advices from the States of Central America show increasing efforts to extend primary education. Official reports for 1913 give for Guatemala an enrollment of 61,163 pupils in primary schools, an increase of nearly 4,000 since 1911; in Nicaragua the enrollment reported for the same year was 31,000, an increase of 2,000 pupils in two years; for Costa Rica the enrollment was 33,084, as against 29,904 in 1911. In each of the States named the progress appears to be due to the opening of new schools where none existed before.

A movement in rural education has been started in Costa Rica which promises important results. The experiment was begun under . the direction of Sr. Brenes-Mesén, at present envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the United States from Costa Rica, and formerly undersecretary of public instruction in that State. During a tour of investigation in the United States Señor Brenes-Mesén was impressed with the instruction in community industries as carried out in several rural schools, and on his return to his own country, he started a school on the same general plan, with adaptations required by the different conditions of climate and productions.

At the request of the Commissioner of Education he has prepared the following account of this experiment:1

Some 4 miles, approximately, from the capital is found the school of San Vicente, which, as it united certain entirely local conditions, was chosen to carry out the most important of the experiments. Around the building there is a small field of

1 In the letter to the commissioner accompanying the report Sr. Brenes-Mesén says: "When, two years ago, I had the honor to approach you to solicit a letter of introduction which opened to me all schools and facilitated my study of them, I had conceived the plan of a rural school which would solve as satisfactorily as possible our agricultural and social problems. My journey had for its object to investigate the means employed in the United States to obtain the same result, and, although I did not find a model which might serve definitely, I did find in exchange all the elements and all the data which would contribute to determine the bases of the experiments which I described to you and which I will try to set forth again in this brief report for which you have so kindly asked me."

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