328 OPENING ADDRESS.—MACGREGOR. 
application of skilled labor to them. It would give to our youth 
the means of becoming acquainted, without undue expenditure 
of time and money, With the natural resources of their own 
country ; and to travellers it would show what inducements the 
Province offers for the investment of capital. 
Were funds available, it might be utilised in very special cases, 
as similar museums have been in France, for the introduction of 
improved industrial methods, the finished products obtained by 
these methods, and even models and descriptions of the appliances 
involved in them, being procured and exhibited ; and it might be 
made to exert a beneficial influence on industries which are to a 
certain extent artistic, by including in its scope more or less 
extensive collections of specimens of artistic workmanship. 
But while we have very considerable natural resources already 
known, it must not be forgotten that our knowledge of them is 
still incomplete, and that we may have stores of valuable material 
not yet discovered. Hence we must not rest satisfied with our 
present knowledge, but must make provision for its extension. 
In other words the promotion of scientific research is essential 
to the promotion of our industrial development. The advance- 
ment of science is of course a good thing in itself; and where 
wealth has been accumulated no better use can be made of it 
than in promoting research. But even if it be granted that our 
accumulated wealth is not sufficient to admit of our devoting any 
part of it to the advancement of science generally, it may still 
be true that if we wish to discover and develop the resources of 
our country, we must secure its advancement in some special 
departments. We already know some of our useful plants and ani- 
mals. We must know them all ; and for this purpose we must make 
a systematic study of the zoology and the botany of the Province. 
So, also, we now know some of our useful minerals and some of the 
places where they are to be found. We must find out all such 
minerals and all the places where search for them is likely to be 
successful. That is, we must make a thorough study of our 
mineralogy and of our geology. Now, the first essential of 
progress in knowledge is acquaintance with what is already 
