ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT, MR. E. STEWART, AT 

 VANCOUVER FORESTRY CONVENTION. 



I shall not on this occasion weary you with any lengthened 

 remarks on the subject of Forestry in general, interesting and 

 inviting as that subject is. Neither shall I quote any figures to 

 show the extent of the existing woodlands of Canada as I have 

 done on other occasions, suffice to say that this country does pos- 

 sess a heritage in her virgin timber, the extent and value of 

 which very few countries of the globe can equal, and I need not 

 say that British Columbia, in this respect, is unrivalled by anv 

 Province of the Dominion. 



Recognizing this fact, and with the belief that our people 

 did not appreciate the value of, and were negligent in conserving 

 its forests, this Association was organized a few years ago. 



The aims of its founders were to enlist the active co-oper- 

 ation of the people in every Province in the subject, and not only 

 of every Province, but of those living in the un-organized dis- 

 tricts of the wilderness regions of the far North. They also saw 

 the necessity of the cultivation of at least a limited number of 

 trees on the prairie lands of the Northwest, if those regions 

 were ever to contain the real homes of a contented people, and 

 not remain merely grain ranches. 



The result has shown that the most enlightened members 

 of the community in every part of Canada recognized that the 

 movement was worthy of their support and the attendance here 

 to-day shows that this Province of British Columbia is not be- 

 hind any of her sister Provinces of the east in her appreciation 

 of the importance of the subject. 



Gentlemen, the fact is, the people of Canada have, in 

 the years gone by, utterly failed to appreciate the value of their 

 possessions. Their horizon has been too circumscribed. In 

 too many instances the undeveloped wealth, the natural re- 

 sources, not only in timber but in minerals, in fisheries, as well 

 as in agricultural lands, have scarcely been imagined. 



We should be very slow in pronouncing any district as 

 worthless. Who, only a few years ago would have imagined 

 the Yukon to contain the mineral riches which the succeeding 

 years have revealed there? Within this generation the United 

 States purchased the whole of Alaska for a less sum than has 

 been realized in one season from a single mining camp in that 

 territory, and I venture to predict that future years will afford 

 similar results from regions at present known only to natives of 

 this countrv. 



