ADDRESS AT THE OPENING OF THE WINTER 

 COURSE OF LECTURES, OTTAWA LITERARY 

 AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY, NOVEMBER 23rd, 



1906. 



By Otto Klotz, President. 



It gives me much pleasure to greet you to this, the opening 

 meeting of our winter course of lectures. 



The history of our Society has been presented to you in former 

 years, especially by our veteran ex-president, Dr. W. D. LeSueur — 

 to whom the Society owes so much — that I will not dilate thereon 

 now. 



However, I may say that our membership is nearly 300 and 

 that our finances are in so far satisfactory that we have no debts 

 and have a substantial figure to our credit in the bank. 



The past year in Ottawa has been marked by an event that 

 cannot but be fraught with great good to the people of Ottawa 

 and which will also, it is hoped, prove a benefit to the Literary 

 and Scientific Society. I refer of course to the opening of the 

 Carnegie Library. It is but a few months since this took place, 

 and already some ten thousand have availed themselves of the 

 privileges thus made available. This in itself is ample justification 

 for the existence of the institution, the usefulness of which is, 

 however, but in its infant stage; let us hope that as time passes 

 there will not be a home in Ottawa which shall not be directly 

 or indirectly benefitted by its humanizing and elevating influences. 



That the library may occupy the position it should as an 

 educational factor in the community, it must receive adequate 

 support from the City Treasury for the purchase of books and 

 magazines, and ultimately for the technical instruction of our 

 artisans, not to mention the maintenance of a staff commensurate 

 with its requirements. The present supply of books falls visibly 

 short of the immediate needs. . 



When the library building was designed, a small hall was set 

 apart for the purpose of meetings of a literary and scientific charac- 

 ter, meetings that should be free and open to the public, and at 

 which subjects more or less popular in character should be dis- 

 cussed, for it was considered eminently fitting, that addresses and 

 lectures having "the diffusion of knowledge" in view should be. 



