University Education. 557 



" There is a University for you." In the first place, they had not 

 the endowments, and, in the second place, they had not the students. 

 We were a small community after all, although so widely scattered, 

 and if they brought their Colleges closer together he felt sure that 

 in a short time they would reach a standpoint from which they would 

 be able to see the lines future evolution would have to take. 



Professor Lehfeldt (Johannesburg) said he thought the meeting 

 had gained by listening to the remarks of the last speaker, repre- 

 senting the Cape University. If they looked forward to see what 

 the ultimate aim must be, he thought there could be only one answer. 

 The only kind of University that had ever succeeded was the Univer- 

 sity which was situated in one place, which had a corporate existence, 

 and had a staff and students who knew each other, and could create 

 that interest in study and research which was so essential. The 

 essence of a University therefore appeared to be that it should be 

 bound up with a particular locality. 



There had been previous attempts at creatmg Federal Univer- 

 sities, and they had served a purpose, but these Federal Universities 

 had nearly all broken up. According to Professor Crawford, the 

 only one which practically survived was the University of Wales, and 

 that could at the best be only a passing phase. A University 

 essentially implied a something which was located in one place, and 

 had an intimate, individual life. 



The name '' University " had unfortunately, of late years, been 

 given to certain institutions which were not Universities. He did not 

 wish to discredit the Cape University in any way by saying that it 

 was one of those institutions. The Cape University had done good 

 work for education in South Africa, and was evidently continuing to 

 do so, and, according to the information of ;he last speaker, the 

 managing body were very open-minded, but it was not in any real 

 s6nse a University. 



The only ultimate object which one coukl see for the evolution 

 which that institution was helping to bring about was the establish- 

 ment of real Universities — of a moderate number of real Universities 

 in South Africa. It could not possibly be content with one University 

 eventually. The difiiculty arose from the smallness of the popula- 

 tion, and the fact that it was scattered over so wide an area. It was 

 difficult, on the one hand, for such a population to make use of one 

 or two Universities, and, on the other hand, to provide for a sufficient 

 number. 



Of all the various schemes put forward, he thought the one 

 which had been recommended by Stellenbosch came the nearest to 

 what he would himself suggest. But he wished to offer one or two 

 criticisms on that proposal. There were two opposite extremes. One 

 was a weak affiliation, which could not do anvthing considerable to 

 stimulate the activity of particular localities. Perhaps he ought to 

 say that the extreme in that direction was the idea of the present 

 Cape Universitv. It would give no very strong stimulus to the 

 creation o-*^ the local atmosphere, of the local conditions, which were 



