34 NEW BRUNSWICK FORESTRY CONVENTION 



We may say, in a word, that the attitude of educational institutions should 

 be one of extreme sympathy, and should present every element of helpfulness 

 and encouragement towards such a practical science as Forestry. So far a 

 this Province is concerned, that sympathy should not be altogether of a 

 sentimental sort. When we consider how much of the revenue of our 

 Province is derived from the resources of the forest, ad when we consider 

 also that our public schools are dependent upon the revenues of the Province, 

 I think our educational institutions have indeed good reason to give every 

 encouragement they can to such a movement as that being inaugurated in 

 the Province through this Convention. In general, then, and so far as the 

 public schools of the Province are concerned, in their attitude towards this 

 question, they should, so far as possible, reflect and stimulate public interest 

 in the subject of Forestry. I am not in favor of making our public school* 

 in any sense professional schools. Professional work has very little place in' 

 the curriculum of the public school. Nevertheless, anything that the public 

 schools can do to reflect public interest and stimulate public interest in this 

 question they should always do. So far as any work along the line of 

 practical lumbering or practical Forestry as a profession or business is con- 

 cerned, I think the public schools should have very little to do ; but there 

 are some things in connection with the Forestry work which are of extreme 

 public interest and which the public schools could very well consider to a 

 considerable extent. Among those things is, first of all, the subject of 

 revenue. I think that a very useful part of public school education might 

 be a consideration of the ways in which the revenue of our Province is made 

 up. It is as important that the students in the public schools should know 

 how the revenue of the Province is made UD and how distributed, as it is tokncw 

 the population of some town in Central Africa. College men are always, 

 supposed to be very conservative ; however, I am altogether, so far as I 

 myself am concerned, in sympathy with getting down to practical work in 

 educational lines, and one thing the public schools could teach to great 

 advantage is this question of the revenue. And in considering it, so far as-- 

 a tax on forest products is concerned, it will stimulate the interest of the 

 children, and, in the future, the people of the Province, in its revenues and 

 matters connected with them, all of which will be very helpful. 



Secondly, I think the public should be interested largely in the Forestry- 

 question, because of its economic value. Apart from the earth itself, the 

 forest covering of the earth is the most valuable asset that Providence has 

 endowed this country with, and the public schools should be. led to see this 

 fact. The value of the forests of the country, so far as regards its economic 



