Lornedale Academy, Lorne Park, Ontario
By W. E. Hancock
We have begun the spring term of the school with an increased attendance. Three new students have arrived, and we are corresponding with others who desire to come; but at present all our accommodations are filled. We can not arrange for more students until warm weather comes. We are glad to report that a good spirit is manifested by nearly all the students. Most of them are Christians, and have a purpose to enter some branch of the work as soon as they leave school. Some are planning to enter the canvassing work this summer and work for a scholarship. The conference has made a very liberal offer in this line. A young person who will sell one hundred and fifty dollars’ worth of “Christ’s Object Lessons,” and will turn the money over to the conference treasurer, will receive in return one year’s schooling (board, room, and tuition). We hope a goodly number will enter this field and work for this scholarship. Those who do so, will receive a double blessing,—an experience in a very important work, and remuneration for taking more preparation. A canvassers’ institute will be held in connection with the last three weeks of the school year, from June 11 to July 1. It is hoped that a new interest will be awakened in the canvassing work among the students who are now attending the academy, also that a number of others will come in, take the instruction, and engage in the work. Ontario presents a most favorable field for canvassers. One of the most encouraging features of advancement in the work of the academy is the addition now being made to our school buildings, which, with the buildings we already have, will give us capacity for about forty or forty-five students. This new addition will contain a large chapel and schoolroom (twenty-four by thirty-two feet), a recitation room, and a commodious dining-room. It will be a frame structure with brick veneering, dimensions thirty-two by thirty-six feet, three stories high, and a basement floor. An experiment will be made this year in raising broom-corn; and if it proves successful, a broom factory will be added to our industrial facilities. It is necessary for a large share of our young people in this conference to work all or part of their way through school. It is, therefore, incumbent upon our people to provide industries in connection with the school to meet this demand, and in this way they may also be taught useful trades. It is our earnest endeavor to make this institution one that will meet the needs of our Canadian young people, so that they may receive their training in the fields where they are to labor. Some of them have gone to our American institutions with the expectation of returning after receiving their training, but for some reason few of them return to their home field. This has left our Canadian field destitute of native workers, and this hinders the progress of the work here, just as it would to leave any other country thus destitute. Canada, with its peculiar customs and national distinction, I think has been somewhat overlooked in plans for supplying workers. But with the interest which is now manifested in the educational work at large, and by our people of this field, we hope to see a large number of our young people come to receive a training, and go into the fields white for the harvest. W. E. HANCOCK, Principal.