this firm began the publication of theMani- 

 toban. During this year a small sheet, chiefly 

 known for its bitterness, made its appear- 

 ance under the name of the "News Let- 

 ter." Its life was as short as its utter- 

 ances were violent. Party feeling ran 

 very high in 1871, and in that year opposi- 

 tion to the Manitoban appeared in the 

 new paper, the "Liberal." The Liberal 

 began publication in July, 1871. Mr. 

 Stewart Mulvey was its editor. On Janu- 

 ary 1st, 1872, a small journal was begun 

 by Mr. Alexander Begg called the 

 "Manitoba Trade Review." This had apre- 

 carious existence, but early in March 

 blossomed out as the Gazette and Trade 

 Review. The writer remembers the first 

 number of this paper as somewhat amus- 

 ing. In going to press the latter part of 

 the name had dropped out, so that the 

 first issue had the interesting caption 

 The Gazette and. 



In the autumn of 1872 there were four 

 newspapers published in Winnipeg. In 

 September of that year elections for the 

 Dominion parliament were held. Sir 

 Donald Smith was elected for Selkirk, the 

 country in which Winnipeg was situated. 

 The disappointed party, or some turbulent 

 members of it, signalized the occasion by 

 what was called a "typical" visit to the 



A. G. B. BANIVATYIS^E, 



Postmaster and Leading Merchant. 



oflieers of the "Manitoban, ""Gazette,"and 

 "Le Metis," (the first French paper), from 

 which they ejected type, presses, and 

 furniture. The "Liberal" was the only 

 survivor, and for a time had a newspaper 

 monopoly. 



Our greatest newspaper, the Free Press, 

 saw the light for the first time on the 9th 

 of November, 1872. It was begun by the 

 experienced journalists, Kenny & Lux- 

 ton, and has always been well conducted. 

 All these early journals were weeklies, 

 but ihey laid the foundations of the three 



ALEXANDER LOGAN. 



All orig-inal proprietor of Winnipeg-. 



excellent dailies, and themultitude of cred- 

 itable weekly papers published in Win- 

 nipeg to-day. 



WINNIPEG SCHOOLS. 



An old school building standing in the 

 field this side of St. John's cathe- 

 dral is the centre of common school 

 education for St. John's parish as 

 it existed in old Red River days. That 

 building has never been used since the 

 village of Winnipeg began to assume im- 

 portance. The first public school act for 

 the province was passed in May, 1871, and 

 on the 8th of July following, three trus- 

 tees were elected to establish the first 

 public school for Winnipeg. These were 

 Messrs. Stewart Mulvey, W. G. Fonseca 

 and Archibald Wright. On the 

 last day of October of that year the first 

 public school was opened in a small build- 

 ing on Point Douglas hastily fitted up for 

 the purpose. Mr. W. F, Luxton, who had 

 taught school in Ontario, was the first 

 teacher. In a short time it was found that 

 the school was not centrally situated, 

 and a central school lot was ob- 

 tained from the Hudson's Bay 

 company, where Grace church now stands. 

 On this site was erected a plain wooden 

 building, and the difiiculty of collecting 

 taxes almost brought destruction to the 

 school. This unostentatious structure 

 with its one teacher was the beginning of 

 the system of to-day with its splendid 

 buildings and its band of 70 excellent 

 teachers. 



