48 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. — SECTION III. 



some other respects. The brighter pupils who wished to pursue 

 their studies would have opportunities of doing so in secondary 

 schools with agricultural or technical departments, which will 

 doubtless become general. There would, of course, have to be 

 correlation between the rural and the town schools, all of which 

 would lead eventually to the Agricultural or Technical Institutions 

 or to the University Colleges. In this way a complete scheme of 

 education would exist, one of the foundations of which would be 

 the rural school, from which the more advanced institutions would 

 eventually receive a supply of intelligent and observant pupils. 



But after obtaining a central site and adequate buildings for the 

 pupils and the staff, and after arranging means for conveying the 

 children to the school and providing them with a suitable curriculum, 

 there yet remains the most important factor to be considered — 

 the supply of properly qualified teachers. I have stated elsewhere 

 that I consider the teacher to be the school, and the school the 

 teacher. It is his capacity and sympathy and character which 

 determine the quality of the work, and unless he has his heart in 

 his business and uses intelligent methods, any scheme is doomed to 

 failure. Indeed it is impossible to emphasise unduly the impor- 

 tance of the spirit shown and the methods adopted in teaching the 

 subjects I have been discussing. The teachers must be trained in 

 systematic methods of enquiry, as it is essential that they should 

 teach their pupils to use correct methods. I do not advocate that 

 the teachers of rural schools should be educated apart from teachers 

 destined for the towns ; they should be taught together, but in the 

 course of training adequate provision should be made for such 

 instruction. In France practical instruction in the elementary 

 principles of agriculture and horticulture is compulsory in every 

 Normal School, though most of the students come from and return 

 to the towns. The intention is not to make the students farmers 

 and gardeners, but to make them take an intelligent and observant 

 interest in animal and plant life, in fruit and vegetable culture, 

 and generally in the problems of rural economy. Similarly in 

 Holland students have to undergo a course of training in manual 

 occupations, and are thus taught to make simple inexpensive 

 apparatus in addition to the educational benefit received from the 

 instruction. In the Normal School at Bloemfontein a lady gardener 

 who was trained at the Swanley Horticultural College, has been 

 giving definite instruction in gardening to the students for the past 

 two years, and the results of the teaching are very promising. 



The whole question, however, of the supply of teachers — of their 

 training, emoluments and prospects — demands earnest consideration, 

 and much more extensive facilities for their training are required. 

 In all the Colonies provision^ — more or less efficient — is made for 

 those demands, but neither the number of students nor the width or 

 completeness of their education is equal to the requirements. While 

 provision is made for instruction in the subjects which I propose 

 should be included in the curriculum of country schools, it is scarcely 

 adequate and it will be necessary to enlarge the scope of the in- 

 struction and probably to extend the period of training. The 

 difficulty which has existed in the past in this country in obtaining 



