AGRICULTURAL TRAINING OF NATIVES. 233 



If one had time one might describe more fully what is being 

 attempted, but this will suffice perhaps to indicate a direction 

 in which such work might be at once developed with some chance 

 of success. Unfortunately this form of training is not yet 

 " recognised " by the Government, and in consequence is still 

 regarded by many pupils and teachers as a work of supererogation 

 — the passing of examinations being the " chief end of man." 



There are, of course, other ways in which a knowledge of agri- 

 culture and a desire for such knowledge is being encouraged among 

 natives. In the more progressive districts of the Transkeian 

 Territories, especially in those where the land is held on individual 

 titles, there have been in recent years great advances in the methods 

 of farming, and the educated natives there have shown their ap- 

 preciation of the value of agricultural training by establishing 

 two small agricultural institutions, where native apprentices are 

 trained and where an object lesson in up-to-date farming is being 

 given to the surrounding districts. On the upkeep of these two 

 institutions the Transkeian Territories General Council is spending 

 this year £4,654. 



In the Transvaal, also, regulations were recently drawn up 

 making gardening or farm work of some kind an integral part of 

 the course of a native village school. Of the utility of this in 

 teaching habits of industry there can be no doubt. But somewhat 

 extensive enquiries made a few years ago by the Cape Government 

 Education Department elicited the fact that in the majority of 

 cases it was impossible to obtain land suitable for agricultural 

 purposes in the vicinity of native schools, the latter being usually 

 built on high and rocky ridges of commonage for the sake of dry- 

 ness, good drainage and prominence, or because the headman 

 who chose the site considered the land as useless for pastoral or 

 agricultural purposes. 



Obviously this is a difficulty which could be overcome, but 

 there is the further obstacle that, unless the teachers in charge of 

 these schools have received practical training in agriculture, their 

 labours in this branch of the work will be of little use. I do not 

 know how far it has been found possible to insist upon these rules 

 being carried out, but, as none of the native institutions of the 

 Cape Colony from which the majority of trained teachers have 

 in the past come, give instruction in this work, it will be necessary 

 to wait some years until another generation of teachers trained 

 in agriculture has arisen, before its full benefits are felt. When 

 these go out to work they will be an example to the other men of 

 their village in the way in which they cultivate the garden lot 

 which is usually given to supplement their meagre salary, they 

 may, where possible, directly teach gardening and tree-planting 

 to their pupils, but perhaps most of all they will help by the atmos- 

 phere they create in their schools, in which manual labour will be 

 given the dignity and importance that is its due. 



