What the architect is to the building that was Egerton Ryerson to our school system. His it was to lay the foundation upon which a structure which might be at once the pride and the glory of our Province could be erected; his it was to lay these deep and broad and enduring. How wisely and how well he did his work. How well his efforts have been supplemented by the able band of workers who were associated with him the splendid school system of our Province to-day abundantly testifies.
It is fitting, therefore, that his statue should be placed on these grounds, so that the coming generations may be made familiar with the general appearance of the man who has done so much for the educational interests of his country.
But it is not here, faithful as the bronze may speak of the man, that his most fitting and most enduring monument must be found. The group of happy faced children which throng our sidewalks wending their way each morning to our schools, the pupils of our Model Schools, our High Schools, the under-graduates of our Universities, and these seen not only in their school period, but in their subsequent career taking their place in our country as its legislators, its professional men, its merchants, mechanics, farmers, its matrons, taking their places in life, and taking them all the better for their own good and that of their country for the training, sound, thorough and scholarly, which they have received in the schools, colleges and universities of their own country, helping them to make their homes homes of comfort, elegance and refinement.
Here must be found the true and abiding monument of the man; here the enduring fruit of his life-work, more imperishable also than either brass or marble.
Statistics have been freely given, and these need not be repeated.
Not often does it fall to the lot of one man to leave behind him such a record as that left by Dr. Ryerson in his life-work of thirty-three years.
To see the old-log school house, with its imperfect appliances, supplanted by the palatial school buildings with their perfect equipment of our own day.
To see the work done by our High Schools, our Colleges and Universities, which challenges not the attention only, but the admiration of other countries, that is an honour, even with the capabilities which exist in a young country like ours, reserved but for few, and yet among that number he stands out promptly whose statue has this day been unveiled by His Honour the Lieutenant-Governor.
Any words of mine are poor and weak indeed in dealing with a matter so full of interest, not to the people of Ontario only but to the people of Canada, but full of interest to my own mind, as it must be to the mind of others, is the estimate placed upon Dr. Ryerson's work by many eminent men, all well qualified to judge from an educationalist standpoint. Dr. Hodgins has spoken of the late Dr. Fraser, Bishop of Manchester.
Few men were so well able to form an opinion upon any educational system. Himself a great scholar, an Oriel man, an enthusiast on all matters connected with the educational system of his own country, appointed by the Royal Commission as an assistant commissioner to visit and report upon the educational system of the United States and Canada, thus speaks of our school system and of Dr. Ryerson. After referring to the system says: "It shows what can be accomplished by the energy, determination and devotion of a single earnest man. Through evil report and good report, he has found others to support him in the resolution that free education shall be placed within the reach of every Canadian parent for every Canadian child."