THE TRADES Sf llOOL IN THE TRANSVAAL. 35I 



It is to the advantage of the eonununity to sui)i)lenieiit the earnings of 

 the parent in order that in the person of the child it may ol)tain a more 

 useful, because better trained and instructed citizen. ( 10 ) 



This view appears to be very prevalent in the Trans- 

 vaal — I mean assistance from the Go\ernment in the matter of 

 training children. (11) Hitherto maintenance busaries have 

 been awarded on application dtily certified as deserving, and 

 after due consideration ; but with the most perfect system ot 

 enquiry, errors of judgment are made resulting in invidious com- 

 parison and dissatisfacti'on. I have, therefore, advocated a 

 small daily rate of pay, advancing by grades from a minimum, 

 on entering the school, to a maximum depending upon the pro 

 gress and increase of ability in the })upil. This, of course, would 

 only be paid to those who submitted the usual declaration cf 

 financial inability to meet the cost of maintaining their sons with- 

 out such assistance. Such pay is not to l)e looked upon as made 

 on the factory system of payment for work done, but as a better 

 means of contributing to the upkeep of the boy in such a way as 

 to provide most for those of better ability. There is the precedent 

 of the Miners" School at W'olhuter and the Potteries Industrial 

 ."School at Olifantsfontein, each of which pays a daily wage 

 increasing half-yearly, and there is the exjjectation of the majo- 

 rity of parents that wages will be forthcoming. These facts seem 

 to render some wages necessary. The third point, the recognition 

 in apprenticeship of some theoretical training in the elementary 

 technical principles underlying trades, is met h\- the trades school 

 curriculum in class-rooiu subjects. ( )f course the l)oy is not 

 carried the whole way ; the end of the trades scliool course does 

 not mark the end of the technical education necessary, on the 

 contrary, the ex-trades school pupil will still have to continue his 

 technical studies. The point is that he has been trained to the 

 necessity for doing so ; the dangerous gap between leaving school 

 and taking up employment has l^een bridged and bridged before 

 he has quite lost what may he called school ability. Classroom 

 su])jects are a sine qua non in the tt"ades school; if any boy does 

 not attend, he is invited to leave the school and of course the 

 workshops. The ex-trades school pupil should, of course, take 

 up further technical study in the classroom and laboratories of 

 the School of Mines in the evening course provided by that 

 institution, that is as far as the Rand is concerned; if in Pretoria, 

 he would continue in the polytechnic exening classes .it the 

 Pretoria institution. Pet it be thoroughly understood that it is 

 practical and theoretical training in technics of the artisan as an 

 artisan that these schools, either in day classes or in evening 

 classes, will cater for ; the higher professional training necessary 

 for the architect, the engineer, and the general works manager 

 can only ])e gixen in an institution where all energies are 

 concentrated on higher education and on higher education 

 dlone that is to say, in the technical side of the University College. 

 There are three such institutions in South Africa ; two that have 



