POPULATIO. The returns of the population for 1591 and 1901 were respectively 450.396 and 459.57 t. .Nearly all of the inhabitants are of British origin, the :scotch being in the majority.. There is not so much unoccupied territory as in the other provinces (excepting Prince Edward Island), and the density of population-22 per square milt—is accordingly greater. Halifax, the seventh largest city of the Dominion, had a population in 1901 of 40.700. Sydney, in Cape Breton Island, had a population of 9900, a of 75 per cent. during the decade.
Itlittotos AND EDI CATION. While the Catholic Church is numerically the strongest, it contains but a little o‘er one-third of the church follow ing in the province. The Presbyterians. Baptists, Episcopalians. and Methodists 1011./W in the order named. The great interest in t•thteation is shown by the fact that I out of every 4.4 of the popula tion attends school. The schools are free and undenontinational ; t here are no separate Catholic or Protestant schools maintained by the public system, as in Ontario and QuelH.e. The niembers of the Executive Council constitute the Council of Public Instruction. which, together with the Superintendent of Education. is at the head of the school syst(mi. The schools arc carefully superintended, and gradation and uniformity of methods are generally maintained. There is one icadeiny in each county. 'Clic province maintains at normal school. but no university. The total cost of the school system in 1901 was S:8.58 per child. About two-fifths of this is borne by Government grants and inn nicipal aid, the rest by local taxation. The following, are t he (lento a ina t ional colleges: Acadia University, at \Vol frith! ( Bapt ist King's College (Episeopalian). at Windsor. the oldest chartered university in Canada; Saint Francois Navier College, and Saint Anne's Col lege (Catholic) ; and Dalhousie University, at Halifax—the last being undenominational. but receiving the support of the Presbyterian Church.
ItisTotty. Nova Scotia is believed to have been first discovered in 1-197 by John Cabot, who sailed under the English flag. It is probable that the Portuguese navigator C'ortereal explored the coast in 1500. The first settlers, however, were the Freneh. who took possession of the country in virtue of the explorations of Verrazano, ('ar tier, the de la Roche, and Champlain.
French fishermen frequented this locality. and in 1598 henry IV. of France granted Acadia, as the country was called. to De la Roche. In 1604 the first settlement was made by the Sieur de Monts. Samuel de Champlain, and the Baron de P011i un the island 14 Saint Croix. This 1-1`1110V(.11 in the following year to Port lloyal Annapolis). Thr.ingholit the french tenure the eolonists of New England made at tt mid. to obtain possession of the country. and in 11;21 Sir William Alexander (q.v.) obtained from :fames I. of England a of Acadia, which was now named Nova Sentia. In 1710 the Eng lish captured Port Royal. and in 1713. by the Treah of Utrecht. France gave up its claim to the count ry. except to Cape Breton or Isle Royale, which W114 Ceded in 1763. In order to destroy the French influence. which continued to predominate, the English 1,overnment in 1755 deported a large number of the French Acadians, estimated at more than 0000 (probably about half of the total population of French descent), and scattered them among English colonists from Massa chusetts to Georgia. This act forms the theme of Longfellow's Evangeline. A blow was also struck at the French intluence by the founding in 1749 of Halifax, which beeame a distinctly English centre. The develmunent of the country was greatly aided by the arrival of Scotch settlers and by the large number of loyalists who left the United States at the time of the Revolution. Until 1758 the mitrel of the colony was almost eompletely in the hands of the Governor ap pointed by the King, but in that year the first Legislature was created. The country increased in population to such air extent that in 1784 the Province of New Brunswick was formed from a part of its territory. The history of Nova 5;cotia suttee 1784 forms a part of the general history of Canada (q.v.).
Consult: Haliburton, Papers on. the History and Resources of A ora Scotia (Halifax, 18621; Dawson, Handbook of the Geography and A a aral History of _Nora Scotia (6th ed., Pictou, 1863( ; Selwyn and Dawson, Descriptive Skeleh of the Physical Geography find Geology of the Dominion of Canada I S84 ) ; Yarn Scot ion Ia si it ate of ,'deuce Procc, dings and Transactions ( Halifax, 1870 et seq.) ; „Morley. Record of Tree, I ire .\ ora Scot ( New York, 1900) ; and the authorities referred to under CANADA.