478 



MANITOBA. 



Providing that mortgages may be foreclosed by 

 suit in equity, in addition to the other modes pre- 

 scribed by law. 



Revising the game laws. 



To provide tor the registration of vital statistics. 



Givmg a right of action for injuries causing death. 

 The wiSow, children, or heirs may recover not over 

 $5,000. 



To prohibit discrimination in life or endowment 

 insurance policies. 



Education. The following common- school 

 statistics cover the school year 1889-'90 : Chil- 

 dren of school age, 211,547; number attending 

 school, 139.676 ; average daily attendance. 98,364 ; 

 average school year, twenty-two weeks two days ; 

 teachers employed, 7,517 ; average monthly wages, 

 male teachers, $34.40 ; average monthly wages, 

 female teachers, $17.60; number of towns and 

 plantations having town system, 127; number of 

 school districts, 3.305 ; number of school-houses, 

 4,354 ; built during the year, 62 ; cost of new 

 buildings, $176,252; value of school property, 

 $3,455,965; expenditures for the year, $1,327,- 

 553. 



In comparison with the figures for the year 

 preceding, there was a decrease of 517 in the 

 number of children of school age, of 3,437 in the 

 number attending, of 278 in the average daily 

 attendance, and of 32 in the number of teachers. 

 The marked decrease in the number attending 

 school is in part offset by the increase in attend- 

 ance upon the free high schools, which were 

 maintained during the year in 210 towns and 

 cities. In these schools 15,299 pupils were regis- 

 tered, an increase of 399. 



At the three normal schools the average num- 

 ber of pupils during the year was as follows : 

 At Pramingham, 120 ; at Castine, 100 ; at Gorham, 

 109. There were 77 pupils in the Madawaska 

 Training School during the year. 



Railroads. On June 30 there were 1.382 

 miles of railroad in operation in the State. The 

 gross earnings of railroads for the year end- 

 ing on that day was $7,012,778.92; the number 

 of passengers carried, 5,502,646; and the num- 

 ber of tons of freight. 10,389,420. There were 

 51 miles of street railroad in the State. 



MANITOBA. About the beginning of the 

 present century Thomas Hamilton-Douglas, the 

 fifth Earl of Selkirk, gave much attention to the 

 subject of emigration, especially from Scotland. 

 He established a colony in Prince Edward Isl- 

 and, of which he had become a grantee, and then 

 conceived the bolder design of planting a colony 

 of Scotch Highlanders and islanders within the 

 territory of the Hudson Bay Company, of which 

 company he is believed to have been an associate. 

 Still, this project was the earl's private venture. 

 in which the company had no part. It was 

 found necessary not only to obtain from the 

 Hudson Bay Company their title to a tract of 

 land for the proposed settlement, but to obtain 

 from the aborigines their title, which they were 

 not yet aware of having conveyed to the King 

 of England, the Hudson Bay Company, or any-, 

 body else. So the Indians were made content, 

 at least for the time. There is a tradition that 

 the concession from the Indians to the Earl of 

 Selkirk, or to the Hudson Bay Company, to be 

 transferred to him, was of "as much land as 

 could be seen under a horse's belly." This de- 

 scription is rather vague, but in that level prai- 



rie country it is very comprehensive. It seems 

 to have been held to mean the country all about 

 the point of junction of the Assiniboine with 

 the Red river ; and the settlement was to be 

 called Assiniboia, but it became more commonly 

 known as " Lord Selkirk's Settlement." The 

 first arrival of immigrants was in 1813, and was 

 under the direction of Lord Selkirk's agent, Mr. 

 Miles McDonald. These settlers came from the 

 Scottish Highlands by what was then the usuai 

 route, via Hudson Bay and York Factory, up 

 Hayes and Hill rivers, and by Lake Winnipeg to 

 Red river, a most formidable journey even for 

 Scottish Highlanders. It is said that the first 

 fort was erected at Pembina, on Red river, just 

 south of what is now known as the United States 

 boundary line. It was called " Fort Daer." The 

 name Daer gave the courtesy title to the heir of 

 the Earldom of Selkirk. However this may be, 

 the site eventually fixed upon for the new settle- 

 ment was on the west side of Red river, about 5 

 miles below, or northward of. the mouth of the 

 Assiniboine. In 1814 the new settlers amounted 

 to 200. This little colony was the nucleus of the 

 province of Manitoba. 



Lord Selkirk, in 1816, caused a fort to be built, 

 and called it Fort Douglas; the name survives 

 in Point Douglas, in the northern part of the 

 present city of Winnipeg. The early histories of 

 all the older colonies on this continent present 

 harrowing pictures of hardship and suffering; 

 but it is doubtful if any of them passed through 

 a more trying ordeal than did the early settlers 

 of Assiniboia. Planted in the very heart of the 

 continent, they saw, in their isolation, that they 

 stood upon a fertile spot ; but it might be only 

 an oasis, for aught they knew ; for all beyond 

 the horizon of their vision was an unknown 

 wilderness. The Northwest Company, long the 

 fierce rivals of the Hudson Bay Company in 

 the fur trade, regarded the new settlement as 

 being under the protection of the latter, if not 

 really the work of that association, projected in 

 order to obtain a firmer foothold upon the great 

 surrounding territory. As early as 1804 the 

 former company had established a post called 

 Fort Gibraltar, in the immediate vicinity of the 

 spot now occupied by this colony ; and they as- 

 sumed that the settlement was a trespass upon 

 their rights. The Indians, encouraged by this 

 example, treated the newcomers with open hos- 

 tility. At the same time even the people of 

 the Hudson Bay Company seemed to look with 

 anything but a favorable eye upon the little 

 agricultural colony. Amid the frequent plots 

 and squabbles of the rival companies these un- 

 fortunate settlers became objects of suspicion to 

 both. More than once the whole colony, in dread 

 or despair, took flight in a body, and made their 

 way to Pembina, but were induced to return to 

 the place of their earlier abode. 



In 1816 the Earl of Selkirk visited this his pet 

 colony, and found it, in a great measure, broken 

 up. The task of setting matters right he found 

 to be most formidable. What with the Indians 

 and the Highlanders and the Hudson Bay peo- 

 ple and the Northwesters, he was involved in a 

 perplexing chaos. The French-Indian IHetis. or 

 Boia-bruU, with others ready for such frays, had 

 been let loose upon the settlement; its mills and 

 many of its houses and barns had been burned, 



