102 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SECTION E. 



fpr schools, for in«titvitions of learuiDfij. It was a worthy desire 

 on the part of the Native people; and the goveniments of that 

 day, especially that of the Cape, answered the call by sanctioning 

 and aiding schools all over the Native territories, and by starting 

 training colleges for the instruction of teachers. For fifty years 

 and more the chief object of Native education has been to train 

 teachers. The land needed elementary schools and in response 

 to that need our Native Institutions spent practically all their 

 energies, and nearly all their funds in supplying teachers for these 

 schools. The conditions of this time of transition demanded that 

 this need should be met. 



But with education so general now, and the supply of 

 teachers greater than the demand for them ; with the deplorable 

 congestion tliat is taking place in many Native areas ; with the 

 new political vision which we hope the institution of the Council 

 systein will give to our Natdve people ; with their entry into so 

 many of the industrial activities of the land, the old system of a 

 restricted curriculun:i suited to one direction only is out of date. 

 It has served its puipose, and served it well, and no man honours 

 the old simple system more than the man who has given half tlie 

 allotted span of his life to its service. 



The new ideals in Native education ought to lie more in the 

 direction of material progress. Wealth is not necessary to pro- 

 gress but poverty is a distinct hindrance, ever and always, to a 

 people's advancement. 



Better means of agricultvu-e should be taught to the Native 

 people. To some extent this is done in the Transkei, but it should 

 be general all over the country. 



Then home and village industries should be encouraged. 

 Until the Native has breadth of opportunity, variety of occvipa- 

 tion (and that at his own home) he will never be anything but a 

 machine. 



One counts up in a rough way the number of boys and girls, 

 between thirteen and eighteen, in Native ai'eas who are doing 

 nothing. They have left the village school. They are too young 

 to go to the mines or to the towns. Their parents are too poor 

 to send them to institutions to be taught. And so it is idle hands 

 and idle thoughts; service which might be given to the state 

 running to waste. There must surely be some way of occupying 

 these idle hands, those idle thoughts. And the best way we can 

 think of is the creation and fostering of simple village industries 

 here and there and finally everywhere. 



The fundamental elements of education must bo the same 

 for all races, and in all times. The young must be taught to read 

 and to write and to count. Habits of application, of industry, of 

 good manners, of manliness must be impressed upon our children. 

 The basic principles of good citizenshij) ought not to be forgotten. 

 No new system can change this. It is when w^e get to the upper 

 structure of our educational system that the enquiry comes; is 

 this just suited to this people : to their circimistances : to their 

 line of progress: and frequently I think the answer is that it is not. 



