ATE EDUCATIONAL EXPERIMENT. 177 



"introduce an alternative for the unsightly and uncomfortable iron 

 roofing so prevalent to-day. 



7. Carpentry. — Starting with simple instruction to meet their 

 own needs the teaching of carpentry should be a great factor in 

 improving the borne and in simulating the imagination. By 

 learning to make their own doer and window frames, and later 

 the doors and windows also, and by constructing sound well-pitched 

 roofs, the people will be bringing health into their homes, and as 

 they get on to furniture there should be born in them a desire for 

 better conditions, which should bring about a higher ideal of life 

 with its greater comforts and efficiency. As a trade they might 

 take to the making of good plain furniture from some of our 

 beautiful native woods, much in the way that the village craftsmen 

 of centuries ago did to such perfection in England. It is interest- 

 ing to note that some of the chiefs petitioned the Administrator 

 for some such practical instruction to be given their sons instead 

 of only the literary teaching of the classroom. 



8. Smithing and Wagon Repairing. — With the increasing use 

 of ploughs and carts there has arisen the need for knowledge in 

 repair work. How often can one see a plough or a cart lying 

 idle because some part has broken, and there was no one to repair 

 it. It is usually too far and too expensive to send to the nearest 

 European smithy, and so the thing goes from bad to worse, till 

 it is quite beyond repair. There is need for one or more such 

 repair shops in each of the Reserves. The timely care for imple- 

 ments would have a wider lesson for the people, and should have a 

 bearing on the general question of attention and thrift. 



9. Medicine. — To anyone who has administered a native terri- 

 tory the need for medical assistance has been ever pressing. Though 

 most districts have district surgeons, these practitioners find their 

 hands full with work among the Europeans, and those Natives 

 who are near at hand. It is only in very serious cases that their 

 services can be requisitioned, and then at considerable expense. 

 During the influenza epidemic of 1918 I was in charge of a district 

 of some sixteen thousand square miles in extent. The lack of 

 some provision and of some simple medical knowledge in the 

 remote Reserves was brought home in a way that I trust may never 

 be seen again. There is no question but that we must try and 

 bring into those native communities some system, however simple, 

 of affording medical assistance. It is impossible to get European 

 doctors, even if the funds could be found. It must be by some 

 system which can be worked by the Natives themselves, backed 

 and supplemented, we hope, by the medical profession, that we 

 shall tackle this necessity. At our Government schools we intend 

 to give a simple training in first-aid, and in the treatment of the 

 more common and less serious ailments. We are at this moment 

 building a hospital at Chindamora, and a well-qualified matron 

 has been engaged. The Medical Director has approved of the 

 scheme, and is advising us. It is hoped to be able to arrange for 

 lectures and advice by the district surgeon, who will also have the 

 ■general direction of the course to be followed. Besides looking 



