48 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SECTION D. 



in a measure, reflect national aims and aspirations, should strive 

 after the civic as well as the individualistic ideal. In South 

 Africa there is, unfortunately, divergence of view with regard 

 to these aims and aspirations : there is a clashing of ideals. This 

 is, however, only an additional reason for discussing them in a 

 national assembly. 



Then there is unanimity, at any rate of voice, as to the 

 desirability of keeping education outside the arena of politics 

 and party. This consummation, so devoutly to be Avished, will 

 be attained if, and only if, a national policy acceptable to all 

 parties, in respect of aims, principles, and administrative proce- 

 dure, can be evolved and developed. There should be no 

 insuperable difficulty, if the necessary measure of local freedom 

 and option is provided. The subject is one around which passion 

 and prejudice notoriously range themselves, and nowhere more 

 frequently than in South Africa ; yet the problem should not, I 

 repeat, be difficult of solution. The Provinces have accumulated 

 a store of experience which indicates the broad lines a national 

 policy must take. What is needed is an atmosphere where the 

 sound, the tolerant, and the long view is likely to prevail. Where 

 else is it likely to be found than in the national assembly, where 

 the leaders of the nation foregather? Provincial Councils, in 

 some instances at least, have developed along party lines, and 

 there is no question that in one case education has been sacri- 

 ficed in the clashing of party interests. If party politics are to 

 prevail in Provincial Councils as well as in the central assembly. 

 then educational jjrinciples and policy will be safer with the 

 bigger and more completely representative body. 



It has been suggested that the assumption of control over 

 general principles and policy by the national assembly would 

 involve the delegation of a large measvn'e of administrative re- 

 sponsibility to local education authorities. This control would 

 be exercised mainly through legislation, and it is a corollary of 

 the argument just used, i.e., that the magnaminous view is more 

 lively to prevail in the national assembly, that legislative func- 

 tions should be exercised by that body and by that body alone. 

 Legislation to the central body and administration to the local 

 bodies represents roughly, though not with any exactness and 

 completeness, the line of ckavage I should suggest. Apart from 

 the fact that the veto is an instrument which, as experience has 

 shown, is likely to prove an irritant if it has to be frequently 

 invoked, educational legislation being as it is, of such far- 

 reaching individual and national importance .should become a 

 Union function. 



The desirability of equality in the distribution of the finan- 

 cial burden also points to the need for central control. Existing 

 inequalities are undeniable. One Province, Transvaal, finances 

 education entirely from the Provincial exchequer, which is fed 

 by the Union subsidy and certain assigned revenues ; that is to 

 say, it depends entirely upon Union bounties. A second, the 



