SOUTH AFRICA — AND THE UNDERGRADUATE. 255 



Our Undergraduate's Unique Position. 



Our first duty, then, is to bring home to our Undergraduate 

 his unique position. With such an environment he cannot, he 

 must not. claim an inviolable sanctuary for his undergraduate's 

 days, but from his Matriculation upwards he must be disciplined 

 to meet what seems to be an overwhelming responsibility. Let 

 us not forget that the undergraduate of England has thirty 

 million men behind him, and a ruling class which has been bred 

 through centuries of administration; the undergraduates of 

 Canada and of Australia are confronted with no Native problem ; 

 the undergraduate of the United States has an enormous pre- 

 ponderance of Whites to give him leisure ; the undergraduate of 

 South Africa alone has to maintain the heritage of his fathers 

 intact in the face of odds that are daily increasing. Has he 

 realised this? Have we realised it? Has the present Ministry, 

 or any other South African Ministry ever realised it? We 

 frankly and fearlessly ask the responsible rulers of South Africa : 

 " Do you honestly think your present University system adequate 

 for such an imperial need? Do you think the fifty Examinations 

 through which you drive your young undergraduate before he 

 obtains his M.A. degree, conducive to high thinking and the 

 ' living of laborious days ' for his country? " We think not. 



Defect of Our University System. 



Before we venture with all due deference to find fault with 

 our University system, let us pay a whole-hearted tribute to the 

 good work it has done. Its chief praise is that it has focussed 

 the minds of our people upon the urgent need of Higher Educa- 

 tion. Whatever yearnings our people may have had for the 

 intellectual life, it has striven to satisfy. It is insufficient to-day 

 inasmuch as it clings too closely to its original traditions. Most 

 men feel that there is wanting a something in its composition. 

 W r ere the average intelligent thinker, whose perspective has been 

 adjusted by experience, asked to state his opinion, he would 

 probably say that the system is as though it had been " cast,'' 

 and, as such, it does not produce an enlightened and a liberal 

 mind. We would go further and say that it is wanting in a 

 quickening spirit and a leavening atmosphere. Let us examine 

 this University, since it is, at present, the only fount of our 

 National thought. 



In the first place our University has been transplanted from 

 a European soil ; it has manifested a growth not in accordance 

 with South African needs ; not even its staunchest supporter can 

 honestly affirm that it has adapted itself kindly to its environ- 

 ment. Secondly, it is an Examining Body only, and, true to its 

 functions, it has inaugurated sufficient Examinations to throttle 

 the whole of South Africa — young South Africa is at present 

 gasping for breath. Thirdly, its alumni are adherents of Col- 

 leges which are not animated by one common ideal whose foils et 



