PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS — SECTION E. IO9 



metheus of Central African discovery to the mission station of 

 Kuruman or Mabotsa (over there among the Bakgatla, vi^hom 

 I also, a few years ago, was teaching) , he braved alone the perils 

 of river, swamp, and forest, of slave-trader and barbarous chief, 

 and came safely through, where Stanley, with an army, found op- 

 iposition at every turn. He became the typical opener up of 

 Africa, whom his mission would have used to teach a few Bech- 

 uana. When will missions and when will governments learn to 

 know and use their men ? 



Further than the crying and historic case of Livingstone, 

 I cannot venture to speak of other denominations than my own; 

 but of that I am bold to say — for truth is better than dear friends 

 — the failure of thoise responsible for the training and equipping 

 of the minds of our missionaries for their task, linguistically and 

 ethnologically — the failure to use them when they have equipped 

 theniselves, fills me oftentimes with grief, despair and shame. 



You may think that this is too strong language, and more- 

 over not a concern of this Association, nor of any but the mis- 

 sionary societies. This I deny. The missionaries, as a class, 

 are in closer touch than any other European, with the native, i.e., 

 with the bulk of the population of this country ; and I consider 

 that their effectual training and the moral (I do not say religious) 

 training of the native which depends upon it, is a very serious 

 matter for the community in general. 



In Nigeria I was told by an administrator that missionaries 

 who are not ethnologists are not encouraged by the Government 

 for fear of complication with the Mohammedans. No one desires 

 such an attitude here, but the fact is very significant. Nor can 

 our governments escape blame for the lack of training of Admin- 

 istrators. 



If I may quote Mr. A. E. Griffiths in a recent paper on the 

 South African Undergraduate : — 



" The part our undergraduate has to play in the administra- 

 tion of native affairs has received no consideration from our 

 University or Ministerial Authorities. The fact that South Africa 

 looks among the rising generation for the future rulers of 

 her native races is not yet understood. There exists, apparently, 

 no correlation between University work and preparation for na- 

 tive administration ; at least, we have no specific University 

 course — no professorial chair of native languages." (And that is 

 still true in spite of one advertised last year.) " No national 

 school of administration. . . . Are we surprised that our 

 undergraduate has given this — the first of South African fields — 

 no serious attention?" 



in. 



Mommsen has said of Scipio Africanus that in his quiet 

 chamber he no less died for Rome than if he had fallen beneath 

 the walls of Carthage. Thus (may we not say?) the scholar 

 Lepsiiis, for example, in addition to his labours for European 

 scholarship, did more for African missions by his phonetic 



