450 NATIVE EDUCATION IN THE TRAXSKEl. 



animal reports, and conseciuently some statistics arc not so com- 

 plete as they might be. 



II. The Origin of Native Education. 



The origin of Native Education is directly traceable to the 

 earliest missionaries. As one and another arrived in this 

 country, abtnit one hundred and twenty-six years ago, he was 

 faced with the ]jroblem of a growing number of converts who 

 could not read the Word of (iod. The logical stqj was to teach 

 them to read. and. the bonds of ignorance and superstition once 

 broken, men eagerly came forward to learn. The tirst schools 

 were comi)Ose(l for the most part of old, or at least full-grown, 

 men and women, the missionary was the teacher, and the only 

 textbook a classic which holds pride of place in the literature of 

 the world. These schools were often conducted in places widely 

 separated from each other, sometimes by men of highest quali- 

 fication, sometimes by men whose highest (jualification was a life 

 transformed, and as a result they varied in most respects. 

 Nevertheless, they formed the nucleus of a system which later 

 came to be modified by State su]:)erintendence and assisted by 

 grants-in-aid. 



To-day the whole fabric oi Native Education rests ujjon the 

 missionaries, but neither the missionaries on the one hand, nor 

 the State on the other, are free agents. Perhaps this accounts 

 for such unsatisfactory features as are to be found in the sys- 

 tem — it is neither jnirely missionary nor yet ])iu-ely State. Some 

 vears ago a special report on education was i)repared for the 

 Imperial Government, in which we find this clear statement of 

 the actual 1)eginnings : — 



TIk' missionary movement. I)egun l>y the Mora\ians in I79-', had been 

 taken np hy the I.ondon Missionary Society in 1799, the Soutli .\frican 

 Society about llie same time, tlie Wesleyan Chnrcli in 1S16, the Glasgow 

 .Society in 1821. tlie Rhenish .Society in US29. the Paris Society in 1829, 

 and the Berlin Society in 1H34. It liad thus gradually assumed large 

 proportions, and we are consequently not surprised to learn that at the 

 time now reached tliere were over 50 missionaries at work in the Colony. 

 All of these, with tlicir numerous helpers, interested themselves in the 

 education of the coloured races, no fees being charged, and the training 

 being in most cases similar to that given in the schools attaciied to 

 Churches in England. In almost every village, we are told, a branch of 

 one or other society existed, by means of which the education of coloured 

 peojtle. both children and adults, was fostered. 



.\s early as 1841, on the .sug'gestii)n of Sir John Herschel. 

 (I<^\crnment grants had been made available for teachers m 

 the.-e mission schools ]>rovided certain re(|uirements were ful- 

 filled, but this was designed in the interests of the white and 

 coloured children rather than for the natives. IVrhaps the 

 experience gained as a result of this was largely incidental in 

 leading .Sir ( ieorge (irey. greatest of (iovernors. to ai)ply a 

 similar .system in the Transkei. It is to be noted that the Imperial 

 (Government, as a matter of policy, encouraged the education of 

 the natives as a sort of insm-ance against Kafir wars, and for years 

 lio received money direct from the Imperial (lovenuiient with 



