PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SEC'llON D. 33 



European chiklren of the same age? Is the South African child's, 

 capacity for mental work quantitatively more or less than that of 

 the European stock from which it sprang? Anthropometric 

 measurements might prove that there was no physical deprecia- 

 tion — prohably it would be found that there was physical appre- 

 ciation. Would mental measurements give a siiuilar result? 



Professor Kidd, in a paper four years ago, mentioned the 

 fact that the timbre of the voice tended to deteriorate in South 

 Africa. Is there any weakening of the intellectual fibre? Are oui 

 sons better mentally than ourselves, or worse? South Africa has 

 produced no great poet, writer, artist or inventor. Neither,, 

 indeed, lias any country under the Southern Cross. Are the stars 

 in their courses fighting against us? Or is it that the climate is 

 too generous and too alluring? Gibbon, Scott, Wordswo-rth, 

 Carlyle, and Stevenson were undistinguished at school and col- 

 lege. It required the stimulus of new and hard conditions to^ 

 awake their powers and intellectual energies. Is it because con- 

 ditions have been too soft in South Africa that there are no 

 Robert Louis Stevensons here? Great success means sacrifice. 

 Is youth disinclined to pay the price-^unwilling to scorn delights 

 and live laborious days — too content with the trivial round, the 

 common task? 



It would be folly to predict the result of what such compara- 

 tive mental tests would be. But if the answers to such questions 

 as I have asked were to be of such a nature as not to flatter our 

 national pride, then a certain amount of immigration to this 

 country would be an intellectual necessity, whether it were an 

 economic one or not. 



I have dealt with only a very few of the developments which 

 the educational to-morrow may bring forth If this subject wer^^ 

 thrown open for discussion at this meeting^ every one present 

 would have some new educational proposal to make. Mr. Leslie 

 would propose, as he did on Tuesday, that all schools in South 

 Africa should be fitted up with simple meteorological instruments, 

 and all boys taught to read them. Good ! Professor Younj:;- 

 would approve, as he did on Wednesday, of instruction in the 

 simple rocks and minerals being given in the schools of South 

 Africa. Again, good! Professor Alacfadyen, who is sure to 

 have been ruminating on the "psychology of the mob during his 

 enforced stay further west last week, might suggest to us that 

 the educational psychologists, having done a g'ood deal of work on 

 the subject of the individual child, might, with advantage, turn 

 to the study of the psychology of the mass. After all, children 

 are taught in masses, more or less, and usually more than less, 

 large. The Union Astronomer might not press for star-know- 

 ledge in the schools, but T have heard him advocate a simplified 

 form of our English spelling as one of the most Dressing of 

 educational reforms. I believe that the demand for spelling 

 reform will grow in strength year by year, although its accom- 

 plishment may not be seen by the present generation. South; 



