GAIA

札幌農学校開業式（1876年8月14日）におけるＷ．Ｓ．クラークの英文演説原稿
Your Excellency, Mr. Director, Officers and Students of Sapporo Agricultural College, and Gentlemen ; It is with mingled emotions of pride and pleasure that I participate in the ceremony of formally opening this, the first, Agricultural College in the Land of the Rising Sun. It is less than ten years since Massachusetts, celebrated as she is for her progress in educational affairs, could boast that she possessed a similar institution. To-day it is my high privilege to stand here the first president of the Sapporo Agricultural College, and also president of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, which is located many thousand miles away to the opposite side of the great round world on which we dwell. I was much gratified to learn upon my arrival here that the three grand model and experimental farms of the Kaitakushi were each under the direction of a Japanese gentleman who had received instruction at the Massachusetts College. Now I am here, with two graduates of the College, to lay the foundations of a similar institution, which I trust will in years to come powerfully aid in improving the agriculture and developing the great producing industries of Hokkaido. The establishment and maintenance of schools and universities are justly regarded as among the most imperative duties of every enlightened government, but it is very remarkable that while institutions for the promotion of education in agriculture and the mechanic arts have only recently received due consideration in Europe and America, His Excellency Governor Kuroda has founded first of all in Hokkaido a college of agriculture. May its eminent success demonstrate the wisdom of his policy. We who have been called to constitute the first board of institution here will zealously do our part in our noble and inspiring vocation. We will by our example and our teachings endeavor to develop in the young men who may become our pupils those qualities of mind and heart which will best fit them for usefulness in life. I am informed by His Excellency, who has already achieved for himself by patriotic devotion to his country’s service a competent fortune, enduring fame and offices of the highest honor and responsibility, that there is nothing in the present policy of the imperial government to prevent any member of this College from imitating his illustratious example and by the exercise of similar virtues attaining to like distinction. This wonderful emancipation from the tyranny of caste and custom, which in ages past has enveloped like a dark cloud the nations of the East, should awaken a lofty ambition in the breast of every student to whom an education is offered. Let every one of you, young gentlemen, strive to prepare himself for the highest positions of labor and trust and consequent honor in your native land which greatly needs your most faithful and efficient service. Preserve your health and control your appetites and passions, cultivate habits of obedience and diligence, and acquire all possible knowledge and skill in the various sciences which you may have an opportunity to study. Thus you will prepare yourselves for important positions, which are always in waiting for honest, intelligent, and energetic men, of whom the supply is uniformly less than the demand in this as in every other country. In conclusion, I will only say that the circumstances of this interesting occasion seem most auspicious, and that if the Sapporo Agricultural College can but enjoy the fostering care of His Excellency during the first few years of its infancy, I am confident it will both deserve and command the respect and support of the people not only of Hokkaido, but of the whole empire of Japan.