XIV. SOUTH AFRICAN ASSOCIATION FOR ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



emoluments to, say, a chief-justiceship, and a few school inspectors 

 as well paid as a surveyor-general? Then I would suggest offering 

 what I may describe as a kind of glorified travelling scholarship. 

 After the Lehrjahre come the Wander jahre; after the training at 

 the normal school should follow opportunities for travel. I wish it 

 were possible, in the interest of education as much as in that of the 

 teachers, for every deserving teacher of higher rank to have, say, six 

 months" holiday every three years, with a travelling allowance and 

 the necessary introductions to enable thein to visit schools in other 

 parts of the world. As things are at present, such visits by the very 

 persons competent to benefit by them are very rarely practicable ; 

 for, naturally, when teachers have holidays in vacation time the 

 schools are closed, and under any circumstances it would be unreason- 

 able to expect regular holidays to be devoted to inspecting schools, 

 which could only be done to advantage with a mind unbent from its 

 ordinary work after rest and change. I believe such a scheme as I 

 have outlined is really not half so Utopian as it may sound at the 

 first hearing. I am convinced it would be welcomed with gratitude 

 and enthusiasm, not in this country only, but by teachers in many 

 older lands, and I do not think there is any insuperable financial 

 difficulty about it. In the first place, the government railways in 

 this and other countries would, doubtless, grant free passes, and 

 probably the different steamship companies would issue tickets at 

 reduced fares ; for there is no question such a scheme would result 

 in increased traffic by which they would ultimately benefit. The 

 teachers on their return would, of course, deliver lectures on what 

 they had seen, and many of their pupils would want to follow in their 

 footsteps. And in what a different spirit, and with what added force 

 and impressiveness, would these modern pilgrims to the ancient 

 shrines of learning be able to instruct their classes ! What extra 

 colour and vividness would they impart to their lessons in geography 

 and history, in the literature and customs of the countries they had 

 visited ! I can conceive of nothing more likely to tend to an increase 

 of brotherhood among the nations than such a scheme, by which all 

 the great schools in the world would be united in a league of mutual 

 help and friendly rivalry. Holding very ardently these views, which 

 are, perhaps, not unnatural in the son of a teacher, I may be pardoned 

 for confessing to the glow of delight with which I listened to Sir 

 Richard Jebb's noble words of sympathy with all workers in the cause 

 of education in all its grades, from the lowest to the highest. " The 

 sympathies which they carry with them," said Sir Richard, " are 

 world-wide. As we come to see, more and more clearly, that the 

 highest education is not only a national, but an Imperial, concern, 

 there is a growing desire for interchange of counsels and for active 

 co-operation between the educational institutions of the Colonies and 

 those of the Mother Country." 



In one of the best-known English novels there is a memorable 

 description of the havoc wrought in the homes of Anglo-Indians by 

 the cruel necessity of having to send the children to Europe to escape 

 the deadly effects of the climate. What Thackeray so pathetically 



