10 



defray the expenses of the club, at 

 which Mrs. Kennedy, wife of the late 

 Captain Kennedy, of St. Andrews, pre- 

 sided at the piano. 



Education. 



But we must now speak of more de- 

 cided organizations for the promotion 

 of culture in Red River. The Selkirk 

 settlers had now (1821) gained a 

 footing in the land and the banks of the 

 Red River had become the paradise of 

 retired officers of the fur-traddng com- 

 panies. Happy families were growing 

 up in the homes of the settlement and 

 education was necessary. A settled 



2*** 



Old Fort Garry. 



community made it possible for the 

 churches and church societies in the 

 home-land to do Christian work, both 

 among the Indians and the white peo- 

 ple, and to these institutions the set- 

 tlement was indebted for the first edu- 

 cational efforts made. 



Common- Schools. 

 The Rev. John West, the first Epis- 

 copal missionary who arrived, in 1820, 

 and his successors, the Rev. David 

 Jones and Archdeacon Cochrane, as 

 far as they could, organized common 

 schools on the parochial system. A 

 visitor to the settlement in 

 1S54, John Ryerson, says that 

 there was then eight common 

 schools an the country — five of them 

 wholly, or in part, supported by the 

 church missionary society, two of 

 them depending on the bishop's indivi- 

 dual bounty, and one only, that at- 

 tached to the Presbyterian congrega- 

 tion, depending on the fees of the pup- 

 ils for support. The governor and 

 council of Assiniboia had, a few years 



before made an appropriation of £130 

 sterling in aid of public schools. The 

 Hudson's Bay Company may be said 

 .to have given aid to these schools in- 

 directly by .making an annual grant 

 to each missionary of an amount vary- 

 ing according to circumstances from 

 £150 to £50 sterling. The Catholics 

 had similar schools for the French 

 population along the banks of the Red 

 and Assiiniboine rivers and the writer 

 already quoted says that there were 

 seminaries at St. Boniface, one for 

 boys and one fo.r girls, under the Grey 

 nuns fro-m Montreal. 



Bishop Anderson, the first bishop of 

 Rupert's Land, was not specially an 

 educationalist. He turned his atten- 

 tion more to the evangelical work of 

 the church. Bishop Machray, who 

 came to the country in 18G5, has, on 

 the contrary, whilst not neglecting the 

 duties of a bishop of the church of 

 Christ, always given great attention 

 to education, and the country is great- 

 ly indebted to him for foundations laid. 

 It was his endeavor after entering on 

 his bishopric to have a parish school 

 wherever there was a missionary of 

 the Church of England, and in the 

 year 1869 there were 16 schools of this 

 kind in the different parishes of Rup- 

 ert's Land. This is bringing us very 

 near the time of the transfer when 

 our public school system was inaugur- 

 ated. 



Higher Education. 

 But we must further turn our at- 

 tention to what might be called higher 

 education in Red River, although not 

 using the term as it is applied in mod- 

 ern times. 



Mrs. Jones, the wife of Rev. David 

 Jones, the missionary of Red 

 River, joined her husband in 1829. She 

 very soon saw the need there was for 

 a boarding and day school for the sons 

 and daughters of Hudson's Bay Co. 

 factors and other settlers in the North- 

 west. A school of this kind was open- 

 ed and in addition to the mission work 

 in which she assisted her husband, 

 Mrs. Jones devoted herself to the train- 

 ing of the young people committed to 

 her charge until her death, which oc- 

 curred somewhat suddenly in 1836. 

 Mr. and Mrs. Jones were assisted by 

 a governess and tutor from England 

 and the Church Missionary society 

 gave financial assistance. 



But we must not think that previous 

 to this effort of Mr. and Mrs. Jones 

 no attention had been paid to private 



