PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 5 



Bill for establishing the University, one of the leading members 

 of the House said* that Nature had selected Ca]>etovvn for the 

 home of the L niversity l)\ her lich favours bestowed on it, and 

 that the beauty of its scenery and the si)lendour and grandeur of 

 the great mountain which oversliadows it were a soitrce of 

 inspiration to all who regarded il. I do not know how the 

 beauty of the scenery, etc., etc.. were to be reflected through 

 examination papers to the enormous riumber of students of the 

 University, who, though taking its examinations, were never, 

 while students, to see Capetown. But something of this idealis- 

 ing of the examining University seems to have always remained. 

 In a book on South Africa in 1895,7 the writer states in his 

 preface as a c|ualification, " I should ])erhaps say that I have 

 been able to bring information acquired during a residence of 

 nearly two years in the Cape Colony and Natal to bear upon the 

 treatment of this subject." A quotation from the book itself is: 

 " In this connection it is necessary to make some mention of the 

 Ca]>e I 'niversity. The University of the Cape of Cjood Hope 

 was incorporated in 1873 and obtained its charter in 1877. It 

 is the crown of a remarkably complete and effective system of 

 national education; and although its teaching staff is distributed 

 among the various colleges, there is a sufficient amount of aca- 

 demic work to be transacted at its headcjuarters at Capetown to 

 render the University circle a distinct stimulus to the literar\- 

 enterprise of the Colony." (^ther ]:)eople have followed this in 

 saying that the Universit}- was really a teaching University; a 

 \'ice-Chancellor has claimed that it was really a National Uni- 

 versity ; one who " might be called the oldest son of the Uni- 

 versity " could see no improvement i)ossible excejit by some slow 

 l)rocess of evolution ; and the Minister for Education said that 

 the Uni\ersitv had satisfied the needs of the people of .^outh 

 Africa ! 



In the same speech the Minister said t that a change was 

 contemi)lated and woidd be made, and now after six years the 

 change has been made. However at first the University satis- 

 fied the needs of South Africa, the same experience has haj)- 

 ])ened here as in England and New Zealand, the founding of an 

 examining University, its initial success in the encouragement 

 of institutions where higher education has been given, the 

 gradual dissatisfaction with the working of the machine as 

 higher education has develo])ed. The examination for the certi- 

 cate or the degree has ranked as practically everything in the 

 eyes of a student, the teaching as very little ; cramming has been 

 encouraged ; Jjy many the work during the year has been looked 

 on as merely pre]:)aration for the examination at the end. and 

 work outside a fixed schedule has been regarded as practicall\- 

 useless. In this country there is a belief in education, but it 

 is apt to show itself in the desire for certificates and examina- 



* " Life and Times of Sir Tohn Molteno.'" Vol. I, p. 213. 

 f South Africa," by W. B. Worsfold. 

 JAt Camps Bay, 1910. 



