At Confederation in 1867 it was agreed that the Indian Department should contribute an amount equal to that contributed by the Methodist Church for schools in Ontario and Quebec, provided the sum did not exceed $1,000. Hence it was natural and easy, apart from treaty engagements, for the government to extend this principle to the schools of the newly acquired Northwest Territories. There appears a memorandum of Sir John A. Macdonald, dated October 19, 1880, fixing the salary of $300 to be given each day school teacher in Manitoba and the Territories. It also states that if the attendance should fall short of 25 in any quarter, the teacher should be paid at a per capita rate of $3 per quarter; in the case of non-denominational schools, it was considered that teachers should be paid a maximum salary of $504, or at the rate of $12 per annum for 42 pupils; if the attendance be short of this number, the teacher should receive $3 per pupil for the quarter. The same memorandum provided prizes or bonuses to the teachers of the five best conducted schools in Manitoba and the Northwest.

In the annual report for 1881, Commissioner Dewdney states:—‘There are now 20 schools and missions in the Northwest Territories, 12 of which are receiving government aid; 9 are Church of England, 6 Roman Catholic, 4 Canada Methodist, and 1 Presbyterian. There are now 11 school-houses under construction or completed, for which teachers will be required during the coming season. We find considerable difficulty in securing teachers for schools where the number of children is small and is

not likely to increase to an extent sufficient to make the per capita remuneration attractive, and I would recommend that in these cases a fixed sum be granted, say two-thirds (⅔) of the maximum allowed by order in council of 19th October, 1880.’ The same report shows that grants were paid to the following additional schools, 10 of which were in Superintendent Graham’s inspectorate:—

  1. Little Saskatchewan.
  2. Brokenhead.
  3. Ebb and Flow.
  4. Fairford.
  5. Lake St. Martin.
  6. Black River.
  7. Berens River.
  8. Fisher Lake.
  9. Eagle Hill.
  10. Isle à la Crosse.
  11. Onion Lake.

Inspector Graham says in the same report: ‘I find it very difficult to secure the services of competent teachers for the schools in Treaties 3 and 5 owing to the difficulty of getting there and the high prices charged for provisions, &c., and being cut off from any mail communication.’

The total amount paid by the government as salaries to teachers that year in these 31 schools was $3,227.50, or roughly, $100 per school.

In the same appendix may be found items for building materials and for erecting buildings at several points.

These quotations serve very well to indicate the embryonic condition of the Indian school system, if it may be so called, in the Northwest, and regarding which the adoption in 1884 of the industrial school idea seems to have been a necessary growth.

Such was the general condition when in 1879 Mr. N. F. Davin was appointed a commissioner to report on the establishment of industrial schools in the Northwest. A comprehensive report, dated March 14, 1879, was the result of his investigations. In his conclusions he says:—‘I should recommend at once an extensive application of the principle of industrial boarding schools in the Northwest, were it not that the population is so largely migratory that any great outlay at present would be money thrown away.’ He also recommends—