MANITOBA SCHOOL QUESTION. In 1871, after the colony of Assiniboia had become a province of Canada under the name of Manitoba, a law was passed establishing a dual system of denominational public schools, serving respectively the needs of the French (Roman Catholic) and English-speaking (Prot estant) population in the province. At this time these racial and religious components were evenly divided; but immigration from Ontario speedily gave a marked preponderance in numbers to the English-speaking section, and in 1889 it was reported that of the 618 schools in the province 545 were Protestant and 73 Roman Catholic. An agitation against the sys tem of separate schools had begun to gather volume, and in 1890 under Premier Greenway an act was passed in the provincial legislature abolishing all sectarian schools and establishing a common school system, under which all school taxes, whether derived from Protestants or Catholics, were appropriated to the support of the new public schools. The passing of this act was hotly resented by the French-speaking Catholic population as an attack on their lan guage and religion, and as an invasion of the terms of the British North America Act and the Manitoba Act, which guaranteed minority rights in regard to education. Under the lead ership of Archbishop Tache an agitation for its repeal was engaged in by his coreligionists throughout the Dominion, but the act was per mitted to come into force by the federal gov ernment. A test case, however, was taken to the law courts; the judgment of the Provincial Court sustained the validity of the act, while the Supreme Court of Canada declared it to be ultra vices. The final court of appeal, the Ju dicial Committee of the Privy Council, reversed the decision of the Supreme Court and de clared for the validity of the act. Appeal was then made to the Dominion government to pass a remedial act, which the Prime Minister, Sir Charles Tupper, introduced in 1896; but the measure failed to carry through the diverse sectarian elements in the House of Commons, and the government suffered defeat in the en suing general election. A compromise was then effected under the premiership of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the most important feature of which was embodied in clause 258 of the School Law of 1897, which provided ((that where 10 of the pupils speak the French language (or any lan guage other than English) as their native lan: guage, the teaching of such pupils shall be con ducted in French (or such other language) and English upon the bilingual system.* The clause,
it will be observed, is somewhat loosely drawn and does not properly define what is meant by the bilingual system. No provision was then (or afterward) made for the adequate staffing of the schools with bilingual teachers. Shortly after the passing of. this law a great immigra tion into the Canadian West began and Mani. toba became a pblyglot province. The result of this influx was seen in the 1911 census, when the total number of persons of foreign birth— Germans, Austrians, Poles, Jews, Russians and Scandinavians stood at 100,000. At the end of 1915 it was reported that there were 126 French schools with 7,393 enrolments; 61 German schools with 2,814 pupils, and Ill Ruthenian or Polish schools with 6,513 pupils. One-sixth of the entire school population were being edu cated in bilingual schools. There were five school districts in which bilingual education might have been demanded in three languages other than English and 36 districts in which the same claim might have been made for two languages other than English. Under these conditions education remained very backward in the 'province— a situation that was aggravated by the indifference of communities Such as the Mennonites to education itself as tending to draw its members away from the simplicity of their faith and teaching. It was only after long agitation that in the session of the legis lature of 1916 clause 258 of the School Law quoted above was rescinded and nothing put in its place—a law which left Manitoba, like Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and British Columbia, without any provision as to language in its schools. Education was at the same time made compulsory on all children between 7 and 14 years.