2 PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 



which have elapsed reveal that the country is making vigorous 

 efforts to rise to its responsibilities, and to build upon the sure 

 foundation of education and investigation. Everywhere we see 

 an earnest endeavour to supply its own requirements in trained 

 men and to provide them with opportunities, and the principle 

 of South Africa for the South African is applied with more and 

 more success. The efforts in the direction of university develop- 

 ment, of agricultural progress, and of technical application are 

 particularly encouraging. Ten years ago it was barely possible 

 to procure a South African trained scholar for the higher positions 

 in elementary education, much less for university appointments. 

 Now in all directions men are being supplied by our universities, 

 fully trained for these careers; where in 1910 there were 1,171 

 university students, last year there were 2,947, nearly three times 

 the number, with a corresponding increase in State expenditure. 

 Four vigorous universities exist where a few years ago there was 

 only one, and others of the federated University Colleges are more 

 than dreaming of separate Charters. We congratulate Johannes- 

 burg, which has procured its Charter so recently, and wish it every 

 success. In place of relying wholly on oversea institutions for 

 training in medicine, two of the universities are for the first time 

 preparing students for the complete medical degree; while investi- 

 gational work at the Institute for Medical Research in Johannes- 

 burg ranks high in comparison with that in similar institutions 

 abroad. 



The provision of veterinary officers is of first importance for 

 South Africa, with its innumerable and baffling stock diseases. 

 Within the past year a scheme has been initiated for a training 

 in veterinary sjience which, under Sir Arnold Theiler, a past 

 President of this Association, will be on a foundation well in 

 advance of that in any other part of the world, as is the Onderste- 

 poort Laboratory with which it will be associated. For many 

 years South African youths of promise have been sent abroad by 

 the Government to study the agricultural sciences in the univer- 

 sities of Europe and America, and have returned to occupy 

 positions as lecturers in the various Schools of Agriculture, and 

 as agricultural advisers and investigators. The universities have 

 again risen to the occasion, and two of them have now established 

 Faculties in Agriculture which provide degree courses, and will 

 soon supply South Africa with her own trained experts. Two 

 or more of the five Schools of Agriculture are likewise making 

 laudable efforts to advance their courses of instruction from a 

 school standard to that of a university. It is by no means con- 

 tended that the training to be obtained in South Africa will supply 

 for some time that wide experience and culture obtainable from 

 the older universities overseas, but we are earnestly endeavouring 

 to meet the educational requirements of the country step by step 

 with its natural growth. There are few youths of ability who are 

 not given the opportunity to scale the educational ladder. 



The Government throughout has shown a high recognition 

 of the value of scientific research in all its industrial and economic 



