302 Report S.A.A. Advancement of Science. 



preparatory school before making his debut nt Eton or Harrow. The 

 latter, the finished article, is already well grounded in and familiar 

 with the classics at any rate. There is where the vast difference lies, 

 and, to labour the point again, it is not merely the absence of the 

 preparatory school and the late stiirt at a big school which handicaps 

 the colonial boy : it is due still more to his surroundings and the 

 influence of climate reacting on the atmosphere of the home. The 

 boy in England, especiall}^ in the long winter evenings, is often a 

 voracious reader ; he has a wealth of light literature at his command 

 and there are no rival temptations to lure him from his books. Nor 

 is that all. He probably reads or hears read or discussed a large 

 number of daily and weekly newspapers, all brimful of politics and 

 news of other countries. The general talk, too, in an English home 

 would touch on topics which have an indirect bearing on a liberal 

 education. However manly the Home Country boy may be, and how- 

 ever little a natural bookworm, his surroundings are too much for him, 

 and consciously or unconsciously educate an^l broaden his mind and 

 powers of mental observation. Now contrast this with the South 

 African home. In the first place the young South African is essen- 

 tially an out-door boy. The seasons in this country are not nearly so 

 rigidly marked as the}^ are in the Homeland, and winter is often a 

 misnomer for the weather prevailing at that so-called season. The boy 

 is not driven indoors except on rare and exceptional occasions. Then, 

 again, the South African boy as a class does not care for reading, 

 nor are there the same facilities. The peinodical press, with all due 

 deference be it said, falls far beliind the English papers. The scope 

 of the articles and the news paragraphs is far moi-e local and pai'ochial. 

 In a word, the liorizon is limited. Again, South Africa is a practical 

 country, and looks at things from a practical point of view. There 

 is a constant struggle for existence with the elements and the rugged 

 natuie of the soil. Wliat wonder, then, if the general atmosphere and 

 surroundings of the home life give a tinge of the same practical element, 

 to the exclusion of literary tastes and pursuits. It is bound to do so 

 by the nature of things, and of course the meie intellectual growth of 

 the mental powers is thereby retarded. 



We have shown that priind facie and ovving to a conibination of 

 natural causes, the South African boy will be probably intellectually 

 inferio)-, at any rate as far as the point of education reached. Now 

 let us take the "physical" side, and see how he stands as compared 

 with his English confrere in this respect. Here we find a very differ- 

 ent state of things, and the balance; more than redressed. The typical 

 English boy is a manly specimen, plays cricket and football well and is 

 keen on athletic sports of all descriptions. But the young South 

 African more than holds his own, and in some respects show.s vast 

 superiorit^^ In cricket, it is true, the young English boy with his 

 level grass playing fields and billiard-table pitches may excel ; though, 

 giv(;n the chance, as recent events have shown, the South African can 

 <levelo}) into more than a formidable rival. The superiority of the 

 English boy is due largely to the superiority of the grounds and 



