TRANS. XCl'IONS OF SOCIETIES. i<Jl 



curriculum. As a school subject, agriculture is most suitable, 

 especiall}' when we realise the ])artnershi|) iu agriculture between 

 the men and women of the kraal. Apart from an already over- 

 crowded curriculum, the main difficult}- in the way of introduc- 

 ing the subject is that the present Native teachers have had no 

 training in agriculture, and therefore the tirst step would need 

 to be the addition of agriculture to the recjuired subjects for a 

 teacher's certificate. 



At first, vacation courses might be arranged and a special 

 certificate provided, so that the present teachers might qualify, 

 but in time the difficulty wotdd be automatically removed. 



In due course the school curriculum would be re-arranged 

 so as to include agriculture. 



The wisdxMii of this course is seen when we realise that the 

 older generation is not likely to benefit much b\- the intensive 

 methods of agriculture. They are almost untouchable. But the 

 children are more susceptible to change, and who can estimate 

 the revolution that will 1)e worked in production when the 

 children leave school after being taught for several years the 

 ])rinciples of agriculture — when they leave school and commence 

 to cultivate their own fields. The teaching of 55.000 children 

 would create a new atmosphere and outlook (and anyone who 

 has lived among the Natives will appreciate the need of this 

 change ) throughout the length and breadth of the Territories. 

 In its reaction it would produce vastly improved crops, both as 

 to quality and quantity, and these would be available for the 

 needs of the country and for export. 



The need for this training is all the greater when we realise 

 that the instincts of the people are primarily pastoral. It is 

 infinitely better for the Union of South Africa, and better for 

 the individual native, to produce a nation of skilled agricul- 

 turists rather than to allow that nation to nerpetuate a pastoral 

 tradition — to live by the labour of their hands rather than on the 

 strength of the increase of the lieasts of the field. 



TRANSACTIONS OF SOCIETIES. 



Chemical. AIetallukcucal and ]\Iinixg Society of South Africa. — 

 Saturday, June 26th: Professor G. H. Stanley, A.R.S.M.. M.I.M.E., 

 M.I.M.M., F.I.C.. President, in the chair. — "Notes on the treatment of 

 antinwiiial sold ores from the MnrcJiison Ranse": H. R. Adams. 

 Metallurgically the ores may be divided into partially weathered surface 

 ores and sulphide ores, each of these a,t>ain bein<? '^nh-divided into ores 

 rich in antimony and ores poor in antimony. Meth.'ds of treatinti ores of 

 each of the four classes v.ere described. 



Saturday, September i<Stli : J. K. Thomas, .A.I.M.M.. M.Am.I.E.E., 

 President, in the chair. — Presidential address: J. K. Thomas. The author 

 uraed strenuous efforts in the direction of making South Africa more 

 self-suppoFtins in respect of the suppHes necessary for the maintenance 

 of tlie gold mining industry, instancing the local production of zinc and 

 of lead acetate as exemphfying the need and importance of encouraging 



