ADDRESS BY THEODORE REUNERT. XI. 



percentage of children attending school in Great Britain has more 

 than doubled. It is a pleasant coincidence that the year which 

 witnessed the visit of the British Association should have seen the 

 first successful attempt to introduce the system of compulsory 

 education in South Africa. It was only natural that the Cape 

 Colony, which has always been the pioneer in educational 

 progress in South Africa, should have been the first to take 

 this great step forward. The experiment that is being made 

 there will be watched with the greatest interest and sympathy by 

 all the other Colonies, and it is to be hoped the time is not far 

 distant when it will be possible to have a uniform compulsory 

 education law for the whole country. Of course, there are great 

 difficulties in the way of the universal application of such a law, 

 though the Cape Act removes most of the reasonable objections to it. 



Bv this Act, which was assented to on the 6th June, 1905, 

 provision has been made for the creation of School Boards within 

 every fiscal division of the Cape Colony, two-thirds of the members 

 of such boards being elected by the ratepayers, and the remaining 

 third being ajipointed by the Governor : a wise reservation which 

 enables representation to be given to the minority in any school 

 district. It is interesting to note that women are not disqualified 

 from being elected members of the school board ; and as there are 

 100,000 girls to educate in South Africa, and 4,000 women teachers 

 in our schools, it is not unreasonable that women should be eligible 

 to sit on school boards. 



By Section 51 of the Act it is made the duty of every school 

 board within six months of its constitution to prepare a return of 

 all children of European extraction within its district, " who, being 

 between the ages of six and fourteen, are credibly reported as not 

 attending any public, private, or other school, and as not receiving 

 adequate instruction in their own homes." These returns, when 

 available, will be a most important contribution to the educational 

 statistics of South Africa ; and it is ardently to be desired that as 

 soon as possible similar machinery will be devised for collecting 

 equally reliable data in every part of the country. 



By Section 60 of the Act it is lawful for any school board, 

 " at any time after the expiry of its first year in office, to resolve 

 to make school attendance compulsory for all children of European 

 parentage or extraction within its district who have completed 

 their seventh, but not their fourteenth, year," and by Section 66 

 " any person employing a child of European parentage or extrac- 

 tion during school hours who is under fourteen years of age and 

 has not passed the fourth standard," is guilty of an offence against 

 the Act, rendering him liable to a penalty not exceeding forty 

 shillings for each such offence. 



e - 



By Section 67 it is provided that within "three years after 

 the promulgation of the Act it shall be lawful for the Governor 

 to proclaim in any school district regulations in 



