Pro and Con 67 



ary into Western Canada with instructions &quot;to 

 meliorate the condition of the native Indians.&quot; 

 The remark of an officer of the Company to the 

 Reverend John West, is indicative of much &quot;I 

 must confess&quot; he observed &quot;that I am anxious 

 to see the first little Christian Church and 

 steeple of wood, slowly rising among the wilds, 

 to hear the sound of the first Sabbath bell that 

 has tolled here since the creation.&quot; Individual 

 members or employees have given gifts or made 

 provision, like the Finlayson bequest, for a simi 

 lar purpose; or the Leith bequest of 12,000, 

 which formed the endowment of the See of 

 Ruperts Land. This is not the time or the place 

 to discuss the contest between the rival fur 

 companies; it is the writer s conviction, however, 

 that the final supremacy of the &quot;Company of 

 Gentlemen Adventurers trading into Hudson 

 Bay&quot; was for the lasting good of the people of 

 the Great Lone Land. In ways too numerous to 

 mention, the Hudson s Bay Company has been, 

 and is, sympathetic and helpful in all efforts &quot;to 

 meliorate the condition of the Indian&quot; ; on the sole 

 and proper condition that the messengers of the 

 Gospel of Peace shall not forget the claims of their 

 High Calling, and meddle with barter and trade. 



The essential factors of the situation that the Education 

 country was destined to be the country of the 

 white man, and education must be invoked to fit 

 the Indian for his new conditions and duties 

 were recognized at an early date. 



