PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 7 



sidered suitable for England when the present century began, 

 what petition will suffice to-day for South Africa, which, as 

 regards University research, stands well in the rear of the 

 England of forty years ago ? Are we to be encouraged to hope 

 that one result of this year of Union will be a serious effort to 

 uproot our low ideals of University work, and to sow in their 

 place the seeds of true learning and research ? Fortunately, 

 in one or two of the Colleges a few individual teachers have set 

 an excellent example, striving as far as their scant leisure 

 permitted to advance the boundaries of their subject. All 

 honour to them, and may more and more of their students 

 imbibe their spirit, and unite to press on the question of Uni- 

 versity Reform and the removal of a deeply engrained stigma. 



Co-ordinate in a sense with Universities are public Museums 

 and Libraries, the link of connection being that besides being 

 intended for the promotion of research they have other pur- 

 poses to serve. All of them profess to aim at the instruction 

 of the people ; but in the case of museums and libraries this 

 instruction is avowed to be mainly of a popular character, and 

 in the case of museums it often differs very little from that 

 more or less elevated amusement called sight-seeing. 



As regards Museums, especially local museums, we have to 

 note that in the first place very seldom have their founders had 

 the purposes of real research in their minds. Usually, indeed, 

 the original object has been the formation of a collection of 

 animals, plants, and mere curiosities, with the result that if 

 anything profited thereby it was Natural History and Archae- 

 ology alone. Further, a fresh museum has almost uniformly 

 been started without any intention of supplementing or co- 

 operating with those already in existence : much loss in effec- 

 tiveness has thus been sustained. How best to remedy these 

 initial defects has been a long-standing problem with scientific 

 men, and it is now fairly well agreed (i) that the museums 

 of a country should, for purposes of co-ordination and co- 

 operation, be under some common control. (2) that while in 

 local museums appropriate specialization should be encouraged 

 no science should be wholly neglected, (3) that both of the main 

 purposes, instruction and research, should receive adequate 

 attention in all museums, (4) that in the case of the Central 

 ^Museum the purpose of research should be paramount, all the 

 chief officers being chosen because of their ability to advance 

 the knowledge of their own subjects. Though much is lackmg 

 imder all of these heads in South Africa, it is also unquestion- 

 able that under all of them for a considerable number of years 

 much has been accomplished, and that at any rate the tendency 

 of administration has been along lines almost uniformly good. 

 In particular, we in Capetown have in the South African 

 Museum, with its Annals, a scientific agency of great national 

 value and of immense promise for the future. Sad it is to 

 think that, while its collections have been rapidly growing in 

 magnitude and importance, the accommodation for exhibiting 

 them remains as it was fifteen years ago. 



As regards Libraries, the state of matters is not greatly dis- 

 similar. There are more of them, it is true: but if the list be 



