LITERACY TESTS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19632, 28 October 1933, Page 19

LITERACY TESTS

IMPROVEMENT IN CANADA. TORONTO, September 24. Tabulation of the 10,376,786 Canadians according to the languages they speak has been completed by the Dominion Bureau of Statistics, and the results are interesting. Of the total population, 6,999,913 speak English only, 1,779,338 are French-speaking exclusively, no fewer than 1,322,370 speek both English and French, and 275,165 do not speak either of these languages. This inconsiderable minority consists in the main of immigrants from Central Europe and the Orient who came to the Dominion in their maturity and have retained their own speech in settlements of their own people. The French language dominates the province of Quebec, where it is used exclusively by 1,815,155 persons, while English alone is spoken by but 395,995. On the other hand, 842,369 speak both languages. Ontario, with a population somewhat larger, has only 64.534 who speak nothing but French and only 219,532 who speak both. In fact, In all provinces except Quebec the use of English is almost universal. The ffimc report records an improvement in thi past decade in literacy teats. In the course of a deeade the proportion of the population over 10 years of age unable to read and write decreased /r mi 5,.3 per cent to (.32 fo. males, and from 4. .j per cent to 3.21 for females. In other words, 95.7 per cent of the mule population over 10 can read and write, and 96.3 per cent of females are similarly qualified.