The motion was negatived. Dr. Duncombe was, however, determined not to be beaten. Mr. David Burn and other friends of his in the county of Oxford—no doubt on his suggestion—got up a petition to the Legislature on the subject, and on the 21st December—a week after his motion was defeated—Dr. Duncombe read this petition and had it referred to a select committee for report thereon.
On the 26th December an elaborate report on the petition was brought in by Dr. Duncombe himself, as chairman of the committee. In that report the whole subject was gone into fully, and a scheme elaborated by which the 1,000,000 acres of land were proposed to be hypothecated in advance, so that by the issue of debentures for $500,000, redeemable in ten, fifteen and twenty years, a sufficient sum would be at once realized on the prospective value of these lands to form a permanent fund for the support of common schools.
This report (as did the rejected motion) placed on record a few facts and principles which are interesting in the light of to-day. The report stated that—
"The common schools of this Province are generally in so deplorable a state that they scarcely deserve the name of schools."
It recommended that the common school law of the Province be so amended that hereafter the school grant be paid only to—
"Organized schools, taught by a person who had a certificate from the District Board of Education, or school inspector, of his or her ability to teach a common school."
It also urged that the Common School Fund should be large enough, with the local contributions, to provide an ample stipend for good teachers, instead of "transient persons" and "common idlers" then so often employed as teachers—
"So that common school teaching, instead of being a mere matter of convenience to transient persons, or common idlers, would become a regular, respectable business in the hands of gentlemanly, well-educated persons. For surely the foundation of the minds of our children (on which must depend the happiness or misery we are to enjoy with them) and their own success in life, is a business worthy to be respectable, worthy of the patronage of men in the highest walks of life."
The report then laid down an important principle in regard to the necessity for a certain and permanent endowment for public education. It said:—