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a) Rawdon Twsp. -2-+ Just one hundred. years ago, 1863, 1n order to collect $ 1,400. for the use of the Township, $ 412. for schools and $ 3,010. as a county levy the tax rate was set at twenty-five wills per dollar of assessment. STATUTE LABOUR It 1s only in recent years that the Township of Rawdon has owned any mechanical equipment or employed a permanent. staff to build and repair roads. For about one .. hundred years the roads of the Township were built and maintained by "Statute Labour”. This was really a form of taxation. Each taxpayer was required to do a number of days work on the roads of the Township. The number of days of statute labour was determ- 4ned by the assessment. If property was not assessed at more than twenty-five pounds (about $ 125.) his statute labour was two days. Our forefathers with the aid of statute labour, laid the foundation for many of the good roads we have to-day. Through the low and swampy areas corduroy roads were built. To do this trees were cut down and the trunks of the trees were laid across the road- way, side by side. Gravel was then spread over the trunks where the roadway was to be. ch year more gravel was added and eventually a first class road bed was built up. About. one hundred years ago 2,478 days of statute labour were done in Rawdon township. Any person between the ages of twenty-one and ‘sixty who defaulted in the performance of statute labour assigned to him was to be proceeded against and if he had no goods or ehattels was liable to at least five days of confinement in the common jail. In case he could not do the statute labour assessed against him he could pay the sum of $ 1. per day. Each division of the road had a roadmaster or pathmaster as he was called. In 1864 there were one hundred and three pathmasters. Present residents of Rawdon Township owe a debt of gratitide to their forefathers for the fine system of roads and highways we now have. Often at considerable loss and in- convenience to themselves, they did the assigned roadwork when they could more easily have paid the $1. a day in lieu of doing it. SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION In the year 1850 there were one hundred and forty-one school teachers in all of Hastings County. One hundred and four were men and thirty-seven were women. Over fifty per- eent of the school houses were of log construction and all of them were poorly heated. Frequently the furnishings and equipment consisted of little more than a table in the centre of the room with benches around it. In 1851 the total grant made by the Prov- ince for use of the sthools in Rawdon Township was about $ 300. A by-law was passed in 1853 to raise a sum of money for building a school house and furnishing the same. This was S.S. No. 19 Rawdon (Minto School). The tax collected for this purpose was about $115. This school was a log school built near Mr. Tom Clements buildings. Later the present school was built. Before 1894 pupils attended a school on the 12th line near Mr. Gerald McFaul's present residence. In 1894 the section was divided and the old school moved to the present site (S.S. No, 14) 12th line. The pupils for S.S. No. 5 (Bonarlaw) attended school in a log house north of Mr. Ev~ erett Heath's formerly owned by the late Jesse Barlow, father of Wm.J. Barlow, clerk of Rawdon Township at the present time. Mrs. George Mumby, sister of Bill Barlow, sttenfed this school and according to this register was five years old. In 1895 the new school was ready and the teacher was W. C. Brown. ' Even as late as 1895 a special meeting of the council was called for the purpose of passing a by-law authorizing the issue of debentures for raising eleven hundred and fifty dollars for S.S. No. 5, Bonarlaw to pay for purchasing a site, building and furnishing a school house. The salaries paid to teachers were quite inadequate.' It was quite customary to have the teacher board, two or three weeks at a time, in the various homes in the school section, In 1850 men teachers who boarded themselves received about $ 240. a year and women teachers who boarded themselves received about $ 145. a year, That the requirements of the school sections were not excessive is shown by the fact that in 1879 nine school sections made application to the council for $ 2,820.25. :