SECOND CONFERENCE, 



Friday, July 25 



Chairman: The LORD STRATHCONA, G.C.M.G., High 

 Commissioner for Canada 



Lord Strathcona said : — No study is of greater 

 interest than that of Nature, and the habits of obser- 

 vation acquired by this study, together with the con- 

 sequent brightening of the mental faculties, cannot 

 fail to be of the greatest benefit to the young. On 

 the other side of the Atlantic, and especially in 

 Canada, we are fortunate in having in Sir William 

 Macdonald one who has devoted himself to promot- 

 ing education in all its best forms, and has given for 

 higher education in Canada a sum of not less than 

 three-quarters of a million sterling. He has, more- 

 over, also given a large sum for the purpose of 

 promoting Nature-study, and, happily, he has had 

 associated with him in this object Professor Robert- 

 son, Commissioner of Agriculture for the Dominion, 

 a gentleman who has already done much for the 

 agricultural interests of the country. Both in the 

 United Kingdom and in Canada we have been 

 content for many years to go on in the old 

 grooves, hardly realizing how much circumstances 

 have changed, and I fear we have not devoted suf- 

 ficient attention to the necessity of awakening the 

 interest of children in the knowledge of things 



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