The following movement may be chronicled sufficiently appropriately here among the charities for unfortunates:
The Canadian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was incorporated in 1868, its charter being granted at the request of Thomas Workman, M.P., H.J. Joseph, Henry Bulmer, T.J. Claxton, E.A. Prentice, H.L. Boulter, J.J.C. Abbott, James Ferrier, Jr., R. Mowat, A.M. Foster, T. Mackenzie, George Stephens, James Hutton, G.W. Weaver, Jesse Joseph and others.
In 1898 a woman’s auxiliary was formed with Mrs. W.R. Miller as its first president.
The above association was the first in Canada. It is the head office of the Province of Quebec, having several branches in other towns. For the first twenty years progress was slow, but in 1913, as many as six thousand cases came to the association.
COURT COMMITTALS
The statistics for the year 1913 regarding the children committed to industrial schools by the City of Montreal is as follows:
| Number of applications | 1,227 |
| These applications were accepted or refused as follows: | |
| Committals accepted | 330 |
| Committals refused | 216 |
| Recommittals accepted | 397 |
| Recommittals refused | 53 |
| Committals accepted by the Government | 4 |
| Recommittals accepted by the Government | 5 |
| Applications discontinued | 100 |
| Applications for release | 126 |
| Children in industrial schools* on the 31st of December, 1912: | |
| At the expense of the city | 747 |
| Half at the expense of the Government | 68 |
| —— | |
| Total | 815 |
| Committed during the year 1913:— | |
| At the expense of the city | 330 |
| Half at the expense of the Government | 4 |
| Recommitted during the year 1913:— | |
| At the expense of the city | 397 |
| Half at the expense of the Government | 5 |
| —— | |
| Total | 736 |
| —— | |
| Grand total | 1,551 |
| Released, discharged, etc., during the year 1913:— | |
| At the expense of the city | 732 |
| Half at the expense of the Government | 13 |
| —— | |
| Total | 745 |
| In industrial schools on the 31st December, 1913:— | |
| At the expense of the city | 752 |
| Half at the expense of the government | 54 |
| —— | |
| Total | 806 |
| * It is now desired to change the charter so that Reformatory schools should be renamed Industrial schools and former Industrial schools be renamed Trades and Labour schools. | |
Of the 806 Montreal children confined in the industrial schools on the 31st of December, 1913, 463 were Catholic boys committed to the Montfort Orphanage, 422 at the expense of the city and 41 at the joint expense of the city and Government, 290 were Catholic girls confided to the care of the Good Shepherd Nuns, 277 at the expense of the city and 13 at the joint expense of the city and Government, and 53 were Protestant children (33 boys and 20 girls) placed in the Ladies’ Benevolent Institution, Berthelet Street, Montreal.
| Number of boys | 496 |
| Number of girls | 310 |