100 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



mineralogy, geology, botany, mathematical and physical geography, zoology, 

 anatomy, physiology, general and experimental pathology, experimental psy- 

 chology, and anthropology, to the exclusion of what are sometimes called the 

 applied sciences. 



The convention conferred power upon an International Council to carry 

 out the details of the work on the lines laid down, during each ten years' 

 interval of the meeting of the convention. The central Bureau for the actual 

 work, is located in London, and Regional Bui-eaus "have been established in 

 all countries, who will be responsible for the preparation of the slips requisite 

 for indexing all the scientific literature of the region, whatever may be the 

 language in which that literature may appear." The Regional Bureau also sends 

 one member each to the luternational Council. The catalogue is to be issued 

 for the present, in book form ouly, at least one annual volume for each science, 

 the first group to be published in July 1901, and continued i-egularly at quarterly 

 intervals. Each annual volume will contain an author's and subject catalogue, 

 and the first literature to be included in the catalogue, is that of January, 1901. 

 This enormous undertaking, wliich has been carried out under the inspiration 

 of the Royal Society, will prove of infinite value to scientific labourers, and to 

 the library it not only means perfection of cataloguing of the books it possesses, 

 but an absolute guide to what it has not and what it requires. 



At the first conference held in Loudon, in 1890, invitations to send 

 delegates, were extended to all countries. Canada was represented on that 

 occasion by Lord Strathcona, who freely expressed the good wishes of the 

 Canadian Government. At the last conference, it was resolved to ask all 

 the countries represented at any of the conferences, to assume a certain amount 

 of financial responsibility. A sum was to be agreed upon as the approximate 

 yearly cost of each year's volumes, until some years of experience permitted 

 more accurate calculations. Each country was asked to guarantee a fixed 

 number of sets for five years. The United States for example were apportioned 

 forty-five sets and have already subscribed fifty-eight. Canada as yet has 

 done nothing, and is now asked to bear her shax'e. Our national honour demands 

 that she should not hold back from this work of the community of nations. I 

 trust that this Institute will not be backward in its eflforts to induce the 

 Government of Canada, to do, what is being done by other colonies of the 

 Empire, and by Denmark, and the smaller countries of Europe, and that at 

 least a sufficient number of copies shall be subscribed for, to supply the eight 

 or nine Universities of the Dominion. 



A successful library on the lines I have indicated, would create such a 

 standard as would naturally influence the other libraries of the Province. The 

 demand for a Provincial Central Library, commensurate with the importance 

 of its interests would follow in due course. The Economic Arts would demand 

 the same attention, the Fine Arts in the various forms of painting, sculpture and 

 decorative art, would present their claim, and the Province of Ontario would 

 awaken to a sense of its poverty in all that tends to develop a sense of the 

 beautiful, of its inability to compete with foreign nations in those industrial 

 pursuits, which demand the employment of artistic taste, and in those higher 

 qualifications, without which, no nation has risen to eminence. Such a Central 

 Library, working in connection with the smaller specialized libraries, would 

 become a centre of light for the Province. Its books with some exceptions, 

 should be placed at the service of every student within its limits, so that a 

 graduate from any of our Univei'sities might be enabled to continue his studies 

 wherever his home is fixed, and the self-taught scholar, however humble his 

 surroundings, brought within reach of the master-minds of the century. Is it 

 among the impossibilities of the future, that the post-office department could be 

 induced to grant a one cent per pound rate for books going and coming from 

 the library to a resident in the Province ? 



I have from this platform urged the claims of those who are far removed 

 from the centres of education ; whose little reading matter is poor and tawdry, 

 except what is obtained from the weekly newspaper, and I wish in conclusion, 

 to say a few words on their behalf. The population of the older portion of 

 this Province is largely agricultural ; the new Ontario promises to be a land 



