54^ Report S.A.A. Advancement of Science. 



not altogether a disadvantage, in view of the fact proved by the Cape 

 examination lists, that any good grammar school can pass candidates 

 through the present University examination. It would have the 

 disadvantage that it would entirely exclude the private student from 

 the advantages of the University. 



(2) The Federal University might, like the London University, 

 retain an external department (Examining Unn-ersity) for students 

 from the excluded colleges, secondary schools, and private study. 

 This scheme might not be acceptable to the student graduating from 

 a federal college, who might resent the external man being placed on 

 the same footing. And, to a certain extent, the existence of an 

 external degree would defeat the main object of the federation, viz., 

 to make work done, rather than examination results, the basis of the 

 degree. 



(3) In addition to the Federal University, the existing examin- 

 ing University might continue, for the benefit of external students, as 

 an examining body. There would then be two Universities, the 

 (Examining) University of the Cape of Good Hope and the (Teach- 

 ing) Federal University of South Africa. Many of the disadvantages 

 of a federal system would be minimised in this case, while the 

 federation could, if necessary, be confined to three or four colleges 

 at first, and the danger, in the event of a disruption, of the lilieration 

 as independent universities of the weaker colleges, would not exist. 



(4) There might be one Federal Teaching University, confined 

 to the strongest colleges, and that University might arrange with the 

 University of London to hold (for the benefit of the non-federal 

 colleges, external students and those of the internal students who 

 desired a double degree), the external examination of the University 

 of London, in South Africa. 



Personally, I think that either the third or fourth of these meas- 

 ures would do justice to the smaller colleges, without handicapping 

 the stronger institutions, except to such an extent as thev might impede 

 one another. There would be, in such a scheme, nothifig to prevent 

 a non-federal college, on satisfying the necessary conditions as to 

 efiiciency, from entering the federation at any time; while the weakest 

 would soon know their chances of success, and some might eventually 

 decide that it is better to be a fir.st-class high school than an inefficient 

 college. 



I must just refer here to the possibility, discussed at a confer- 

 ence between the Transvaal Technical Institute and the Technical 

 Education Commissions of Natal and the Orange River Colony last 

 year, of a system of federation or affiliation between the Trans\aal 

 Technical Institute on the one hand, and the Grey College and the 

 proposed classes recommended bv the Commission for Natal on the 

 other hand. So far as Natal is concerned, those classes are not 

 likely, I understand, to come into existence at present, while the 

 Institute has already accepted the work of the Grey College for the 

 first year of the mining course, in the case of one student. 



The alternative to federation is separate charters for such institu- 

 tions as are strong enough to cbim them. Two arguments are 



