It has been apparent to those who have had to do with the work in the Canadian field, that the conditions were such as to warrant the establishment of an industrial school in order that the young people may be educated and trained to take up the work in their own field. The constituency being small, and the majority of the members poor, caused some to look upon the enterprise with disfavor, for fear that the plan could not be carried through, but there have been those who have realized that the greatest blessing which could come to the field would be a school where the principles of Christian education could be taught, and that an effort ought to be put forth to save our young men and women from the evil influences with which they are usually brought in contact in securing an education.
At the time of the organization of the Canadian field, Elder W. C. White introduced a resolution favoring the establishment of a school, and granting the proceeds of the sale of “Christ’s Object Lessons” for that purpose. This received the approval of Sister White, Elder Daniels, Professor Prescott, and other members of the General Conference Committee who were present at that time. The officers of the Canadian Union Conference, after carefully considering all the conditions, came to the conclusion that it would be better for each province to establish a school when the time had fully come, than to try to maintain one school for the entire field.
Ontario, although the largest conference of the union conference, has only a small constituency, and finds itself continually handicapped because of its lack of laborers who understand the condition and needs of the field, and who feel a deep interest in the success of its work. At the last camp meeting held in June, over thirty-five hundred dollars was pledged for the purchase of a site, and a committee was appointed with power to buy if such a place could be purchased at reasonable figures. After looking at a number of places, the committee finally selected a farm of fifty acres located one mile west of Lorne Park, and thirteen miles southwest of Toronto, on the main line of the Grand Trunk Railroad. The farm is in what is known as the “fruit belt,” and is protected from the early frosts, being only one mile and a half from Lake Ontario. There is four acres of timber bush, which will provide wood for some time to come, also a fine orchard containing about seventy-five trees, and four hundred grape vines, which in 1901 yielded a net profit of four hundred dollars. There is a variety of soil upon the place, and it is especially adapted to the growing of small fruits and vegetables; and its close proximity to the Toronto market, which is the best in the province, gives it a commercial value.
THE SCHOOL HOME
There is a large, twelve-room stone house upon the place, which can be made into a most excellent school building. Fine large barns and other necessary outbuildings complete the make-up of this place, which, by careful management, will make a most desirable locality for our industrial school. The place has cost us six thousand five hundred dollars, and with a dormitory, which it will be necessary to build, and with equipment for the farm, will cost about eight thousand dollars. The committee wish to go slow in the matter of adding too much expense, believing that, as the farm will have a regular income from the first, and the matter of payment has been made very easy, it will not be a difficult matter to clear the place in a few years if careful and judicious management is exercised from the first.
The Ontario brethren and sisters have responded nobly in this enterprise, and are looking forward with pleasure to the opening of the school. We are aware that the proposition is one that will have to be handled carefully; but we are promised wisdom from above, and thus with confidence we go forward.
Some of our brethren and sisters who are more favorably situated, with opportunities which we do not possess, can appreciate the difficulty under which a small conference of six hundred members must be placed in making a desperate effort to instruct its young people in18the principles of Christian education, and they may wish to assist us in this enterprise. Any assistance whatever will be most thankfully received, and we are confident that the donors will be remembered by our Heavenly Father, who enunciated that grand principle, “Give, and it shall be given unto you.”
All donations which may be sent to the undersigned will be acknowledged in The Messenger, and applied on the school enterprise.
We ask an interest in the prayers of our brethren and sisters everywhere as we move forward in this work.
J. W. COLLIE,
President Ontario Conference.Brantford, Ontario.
