PHINCK KDWAHD ISLAND. 



657 



Church, the Presbyterian Church of Canada, the 

 il Assembly of Austral in and Tasmania, 

 tin- Churches of S T ew South Wales ami Victoria, 

 Otago and Southland, tin- I'tv-hvl.-ry of Natal, 

 tin- Haptist I'nion of Great Britain and Ireland, 

 tlir Presbyterian Church of Kngland, the Wcs- 

 leyaii Conference, the Kcfonncd Church of Hol- 

 land, the Free Church of Neufchatcl, the Wal- 

 densian Church, and the Bohemian Church. 

 I 'pon the report of the Committee on the Edu- 

 cation and Trials of Students, the Assembly 

 agreed to a resolution expressing the opinion 

 that the maintenance of the theological chairs 

 with their present subjects and with no further 

 modifications than the abolition of existing 

 theological tests, as had been recommended by 

 the committee, would be in a high degree anoma- 

 lous and objectionable. With reference to ques- 

 tions concerning Ireland, the Assembly declared 

 that it was deeply touched bv the anxieties aris- 

 ing out of the present political proposals, but 

 could not collectively express an opinion on the 

 political condition. In his address closing the 

 Assembly the moderator remarked that the most 

 interesting feature of the meeting had been the 

 number of those who took part in the disruption 

 in 1843 and had been present at its jubilee com- 

 memoration. Of the 474 who signed the Deed 

 of Disruption, only 34 now remained, and of 

 these but 12 had been able to take part in the 

 proceedings of the Assembly. Turning to the 

 subject of thought, the speaker said that the 

 method of scientific criticism had already got a 

 footing in the Church and established the right 

 to be there without injury to their belief in 

 Christ or to their reliance on the sacred records. 

 Let them possess their souls in patience. The 

 faith by which they lived had its roots too deep 

 to be seriously affected by literary criticism. Of 

 course, the Church could not adopt the main 

 scientific and literary results of that half cen- 

 tury and remain exactly the same as it was be- 

 fore. Doubtless these had wrought changes in 

 its way of thinking about many things ; our 

 ideas of the universe were different from those of 

 our fathers, yet it was God's world to us as much 

 as ever it was to them. 



PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. Legisla- 

 tive. The last session of the General Assembly 

 of the province was opened at Charlottetown on 

 March 8, 1893, and closed on April 20. The As- 

 sembly was presided over bv lion. William W. 

 Sullivan, Chief Justice, who had been appointed 

 Administrator of the Government during the 

 absence of Lieut.-Gov. J. S. Carvell. 



The most important act was one involving a 

 revision of the Constitution of the province and 

 certain radical changes in the legislative body. 

 During the session of 1892 the General Assem- 

 bly passed a bill abolishing the Legislative 

 Council, and providing for a legislature of one 

 house only. The Legislative Council agreed to 

 support the measure, and the bill was forthwith 

 submitted to the Lieutenant-Governor, who re- 

 served it for submission to the Governor-Gen- 

 eral. On the recommendation of a committee 

 of the Privy Council, which held that the Legis- 

 lature of Prince Edward Island was competent 

 to pass such a measure, the Governor-General 

 took no action on the bill, and Lieut. -<!ov. 

 Carvell was so notified. On April 20 the bill 

 VOL. xxxiii. 42 A 



was signed by the Administrator of the Govern- 

 ment of the province and became law. 



The Legislature of the province henceforth 

 will bo composed of the Lieutenant -Governor 

 and <>ne House, to be called the Lcgislati. 

 sembly. This will be composed of :{0 members 

 to represent the 15 electoral districts, 15 of them 

 to be styled Councilors, and 15 Assemblymen. 

 A small property qualification is required of 

 those voting for Councilors. Every Assembly 

 is to continue for four year-, unless sooner dis- 

 solved by the Lieutenant-Governor, and there is 

 to be a session of the Legislature once at least 

 in every year. Persons employe d in any capacity 

 whereby they receive any public money of the 

 province are not eligible as members of the As- 

 sembly ; neither are clergymen. 



Among the acts passed during the session 

 were the following: To incorporate a law so- 

 ciety, and to enable the electors of the province 

 to register their votes upon the advisability of 

 the introduction of a law totally prohibiting the 

 importation, manufacture, and sale of intoxicat- 

 ing liquors as a beverage. 



Finances. The receipts of the province for 

 the year ending Dec. 31, 1892, amounted to 

 $245',625.28, and the expenditure to $283,30:j.:>7. 

 The Dominion subsidy of $183.571.04 to the 

 province for the year was nearly triple the sum 

 received from all other sources of provincial 

 revenues for the same period. The chief items 

 in the expenditure for the year were as follow : 

 Administration of justice, $ 1 6,66 1. ( )5 ; educa- 

 tion. $114,570.15; hospital for the insane, $17,- 

 952.37 ; legislation, $12,500 ; public works, $84,- 

 981.21. 



Wealth. The inhabitants of Prince Edward 

 Island had on deposit in savings banks in 1893 

 the sum of $2,181,000, while on entering the 

 confederation in 1873 they had but $336,000. 

 During the interval the population increased 

 but 15,000, while the deposits increased more 

 than sixfold. 



Education. From the annual report of the 

 Chief Superintendent of Education it appears 

 that there were 447 schools in the province in 

 1892, 538 teachers, and 22.169 pupils enrolled. 

 The average salary paid to first-class male teachers 

 was $467.50, female $330 ; and to second-class 

 teachers $265.23 and $209.80 respectively. 



The estimate of the sums necessary for the 

 Government for the year ending Dec. 31, 1893, 

 amounted to $283,945. 



Agriculture. The Government of the prov- 

 ince collects no statistics of agricultural products. 

 Experiments conducted during 1892 at the (u.v- 

 ernment stock farm show that the ordinary 

 cereals can be successfully produced on the 

 island. The highest yield of wheat produced 

 under those testing operations was 22-66 bushels 

 an acre; of barley. :>!?-,? bushels; and of oats, 

 54-11 bushels. The province does much to foster 

 agriculture, and a few vears ago a professorship 

 of Agriculture was established in Prince of Wales 



College. 



Fisheries, The total yield of the fisheries 

 in 1892 was $U79,8M, and in 1891 to $i 

 738. The number of men employed in 1S!>2 was 

 5,020. The decline in the product of the fish- 

 eries for last year was more than accounted for 

 in the single item of lobsters, the pack of which 



