Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/675

 QUEBEC

599

QUEBEC

proverbially numerous, in spite of a notable in- fantile death-rate, should be far greater, were it not for the continuous flow of emigration to the United States and to the western provinces of Canada, with a comparative!}' small immigration from Europe. This emigration of French Canadians, according to authentic statistics, amounted to 10,000 for the single year of 1909. (For history, see Canada.)

Correction and EoncATioN. — All penitentiaries and prisons are provided with Catholic chaplains subsidized by the State, and feast-days of obligation, as well as Sunday, are observed. Reformatories for youth are managed at the public expense by the Brothers of Charity for older boys, by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd for girls, and by the Sisters of Charity for younger children of both se.xes, the Government contributing in the last two cases a per capita sum for a limited number of juveniles. The two largest sanitaria in the province are managed, by government contract, by the Sisters of Providence and of Charity, in Montreal and Quebec, respectively. Homes for idiots, enjoying government subsidies, are likewise in the care of religious. According to the latest criminal statistics (1908), the province of Quebec, with a ratio of 13-91 per 10,000 of population, comes fourth in order of excellence, after the three maritime provinces, where there has been no im- migration within the last decade; and third for number of convictions according to population, being one for each 96 inhabitants, Prince Ed- ward Island and New Brunswick alone surpassing Quebec.

Schools. — The public-school system in the prov- ince of Quebec, without being ideal, ia, in a notable measure, respectful of the rights of the family and of the Church. This desirable condition results mainly from the constitution of the Council of PubUc In- struction, composed, ex officio, of the hierarchy of the province representing the Church, and of an equal number of laymen. The latter are nominated ex- clusively by the lieutenant governor in council. The council is presided over by a superintendent of public instruction who represents the State; there is no minister of education, and politics are thereby partly excluded from the administration. Several prin- cipals of normal schools and lay professors have lately been added to the council. The council has the power to distribute a limited portion of the public moneys for primary and classical schools to propose certain nominees to normal schools and to the board of examiners for teaching licences, to approve or reject all text-books. But its powers are more ad- visorj- than legislative, nearly all its deUberations being subject to government sanction. A committee similarly organized attends to the educational in- terests of the Protestant minority. The most strik- ing feature of the Quebec school law is the absolute liberty enjoyed by each of the two chief religious denominations of controlling its own schools agree- ably to the wishes of parents. In municipalities where they form the majority. Catholics cannot in- terfere with the rights of Protestants, and vice versa. In this respect, of all the school laws of the dominion, that of Quebec may justly be considered as the fairest and most conducive to religious harmony; never was a majority so liberal towards a minority. The Bchool grants are even proportionally larger to the latter (the Protestant minority) than to the former. It has been rightly proclaimed that nowhere has the separate school law been more generously and con- scientiously applied, and that, to the honour of French Catholic Quebec, there has never been any occasion to invoke government interference for the protection of the minority. This fair treatment extends likewise to the language. The French- speaking province of Quebec amply provides for the requirements of the English-speaking minorities, as

regards education in their mother tongue. More- over, a course of English, in many cases quite efficient, is given in every French school of the intermediate and higher grades. It must be noted that there is only one school law for the province, under which all schools, Catholic and Protestant, are organized. To interest the people more deeply in the schools and give greater unity and strength to the system, the legislature has grafted it on the parish organiza- tion. Each parish is thus incorporated three times: (1) for church affairs; (2) for municipal affairs; (3) for school affairs. The parish priest is eligible as school commissioner, and has the right to i-isit the schools with the exclusive choice of textbooks relating to religion. In parishes where there is a Protestant minority, the minority has a right to a dissentient separate school, controlled by special trustees. Lay inspectors, nominated by the gover- nor in council, visit all schools under control of the school commissioners; diocesan clerical inspectors, chosen by the respective bishops, are authorized to visit even schools receiving a partial grant from the Government. Normal or training schools, based on the principle of denominationalism, were definitively created in 1857, two for the Catholics, one in Quebec for both sexes, the Laval, and one in Montreal, the Jacques-Cartier, for male teachers, and one for Protes- tants, in IMontreal, the McGill. Recenth', normal schools for women teachers only have been established in Montreal, Three Rivers, Rimouski, Cliicoutimi, St. Hyacinth, Hull, Sherbrooke, Valleyfield, Nicolet, and Joliette, under the management of religious communities, and grafted on pre-existing educational institutions. In each of the ten Catholic normal schools of the province, the principal is a priest nominated by the Catholic committee. Another late improvement is the establishment of special schools of domestic economy under the management of sisters. (For legislation relating to the Church, see Canada.)

The latest report of the superintendent of public education for the school year 1909-10 gives the following general statistics for the province of Quebec: schools, 6760; teachers, 14,000; pupils, 394,945; average attendance, 308,982; average per cent, 78-23. The same report shows an increase above the figures of the year previous of 7552 in the num- ber of pupils. There has also been a considerable increase in the expenditure, due to grants for technical schools, and to the newly organized normal schools. The total government outlay for 1909-10 was $6,210,530, showing an increase above that of 1907-08 of $1,744,993. The contrast between the amount spent and the number of schools, teachers, and pupils, instead of signifying an inferior quality of education, testifies to the economy wrought by the employment of teaching religious orders, 5805 of whose members (out of a total of 14,000 teachers) are employed in the public schools. (For statistics regarding uni- versities, classical colleges, and the several teaching orders, see Canada.)

The accompanying table of comparative school sta- tistics for the entire dominion was published officially

AVERAGE

SCHOOLS

TEACH-

PUPILS

ATTEND-

EIPENDI-

ERS

ANCE

TUKES

Canada. . ..

22.971

44,896

1,214.457

776.968

$19,370.,538

Alberta, - -.

1,070

1,171

39,109

•17.311

282,205

B. Columbia

422

816

33.314

23,558

1,220,509

Manitoba. ,

1,943

2,480

67.144

37.279

324,836

(1907)

New Brswk

1.828

1,903

66.383

38..584

776.320

Nova Scotia

2, .510

2.664

101.725

.58,343

1,215.500

Ontario,. .

•0.413

•10.643

•478..549

•284.988

•8,769.876

P.E.I

476

&S0

18-.012

11.646

176.092

Quebec ...

6.549

13,139

.372,599

285,418

4,465,537

Saskatch'n.

1,754

1,500

•37.622

•19.841

•2,139,663