LXXII THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Our mineral resources, like the mineral resources of every country, 

 are in the very nature of the case being depleted in direct proportion 

 to the growth of our annual output of the products of mine and 

 quarry. 



Our forests, which are by no means so extensive as is generally 

 supposed, have been cut, slashed and burned in a reckless manner. 



Our agricultural lands, although showing an ever-increasing 

 output on account of the opening up of new tracts of virgin soil, are 

 not yielding even approximately the returns of which they are capable 

 were they farmed according to more improved modern methods. 



Our water powers cannot be maintained at their maximum 

 efficiency if the forest areas of their catchment-basins are not preserved. 



The fisheries of British Columbia and of our inland waters are 

 in serious danger. 



With the continued advance of settlement our wild fur-bearing 

 animals are in course of extermination. 



Each and all of these resources of our national domain (with 

 the exception of the mineral deposits) can, however, not only be restored 

 to its original condition but may, if we take vigorous action at the 

 present time, be conserved, cultivated and not only be made to yield 

 a higher annual return than at present but while doing so to increase 

 in value year by year, and be handed on by each generation to the 

 succeeding one in a better and more productive condition than that 

 in which it received them. 



It is time for the people of Canada to awake to the realization 

 of these facts, and in so doing to remember that in the last analysis 

 the success of any policy of conservation depends upon the efficiency 

 of the human unit. 



The instinct of the savage which still survives in the ordinary 

 man inclines him to seize what he can now and for himself and let 

 others, including posterity, take their chance. 



The national instinct for the preservation of the state does not, 

 however, lend itself to any such practice of personal aggrandisement 

 and selfish waste. 



Canada should learn the lesson exemplified in the rise of such a 

 powerful state as Germany — relatively poor in natural resources 

 but becoming rich by their careful conservation and able husbanding. 



This conservation is part of that "righteousness which exalteth 

 a nation.' 



And finally, let us remember that — in the words of Dr. James 

 Douglas — we should be preservers of the gifts with which a beneficent 

 Providence has stored our world, for next to being a creator man 

 reaches his highest position in being a saver — a saviour. 



