OPENING ADDRESS.—MACGREGOR. 335 
give us confidence in the hope that another step may also be taken, 
by which our Provincial Museum will be developed and made 
the nucleus of a technica! school. 
So far I have dealt with accion which can be taken only by 
the Government. Finally, I would like to refer to the various 
ways in which this Institute may give material assistance both 
in the development of the museum and in the establishment of 
the scientific school. And first, the main work of the Institute, 
the furthering of scientific research, especially in the department 
of local natural science, is directly in the line of what the mu- 
seum is intended to encourage; and every new fact brought to light 
and every truth established wiil add so much to the sum of know- 
ledge which the museum is intended to illustrate. 
Secondly, no nuseum can be successfully managed without a 
library of scientific books containing the most recent results of 
scientific investigation; and such a library, if it has to be pur- 
chased, involves very considerable expenditure. Now our Insti- 
tute, because of the fact of our publishing Transactions which are 
considered to be of some value, can obtain at no greater expense 
than is required to forward copies of our Transactions to scientific 
societies abroad, a very large portion of the necessary library, 
the portion which consists of the publications of home and 
foreign scientific societies. At present we exchange publications 
with about one hundred learned societies, and we are taking steps 
to increase the number to three or four hundred. For the small 
volume which we annually send out, we, in many cases, receive a 
large volume, or even several volumes in return, so that our 
library, already valuable, is rapidly increasing in value as in 
bulk ; and this library the Institute will gladly place at the dis- 
posal of the curator of the museum. 
Thirdly, if we can increase our membership as we hope soon 
to do, by recruits from the large body of teachers scattered 
through the Province, who are every year, through the influence 
and exertions of leading men among themselves, making progress 
in the knowledge of natural science, we may hope to give 
material aid to the curator in the completion of his local collections. 
To render these anything like complete with no undue delay, he 
