47- NATIVE EDUCATION" IN TIJE TKANSKEI. 



class of school natives, while not wholly free from this custom, 

 represents a very real effort to he free from heathenism; and the 

 laro^er we can make this class, the hetter for the white man and 

 his children. 



I am further informed, with only very slight exaggeration 

 I fear, that every heathen man has one or more secret consorts 

 other than his wife, and conversely wives are friendlv with one 

 or more men other than their hnshands. Sometimes there is 

 connivance because the one dare not accuse the other. Amongst 

 school natives there is at least a real attempt in the direction of 

 faithfulness. 



With this before us as a serious statement of the position, 

 the argument for educating the native becomes unanswerable. 

 We must choose between keeping within our borders a large and 

 growing population of primitive people, perpetuating evils that 

 every right-minded man should be determined to stamp out ; or, 

 on the other hand, putting forth every effort to turn them from 

 animalism to a higher view of life's values; and so long as w^e 

 do not do our ])art to right this great wrong they will be an 

 abiding moral menace to the State — a menace that we dare not 

 leave at our doors. 



4. OTHER REASONS FOR XATIVE EDUCATION. 



I am unwilling to burden this paper with lengthy (|Uotations. 

 but feel that certain paragraphs in Rejx^rts of Government Com- 

 missions need to be ptiblished in their natural context, where they 

 may be correctly correlated. No serious study of the question 

 of Native Education can leave them out of account. These 

 notable findings refer to the results of Native Education, and are 

 in themselves a complete answer to superficial critics. 



§ 189. The evidence of the effect of Christian teaching and education 

 on the character of natives is verv stron,u. These unqucstionahly exercise 

 an enormous intkience for ^ood. A(hninistrati\ e action can go hut a 

 short way in that direction. It is a universal comph^int tliat the weakening 

 of tribal control is having a disastrous l)earing on social and family life. 

 The effect rf the introduction of a civilised form of government results 

 necessarily in the discouragement of ceremonies and customs which. 

 tliough barbaric in European eyes, have important consequences in 

 regard to tribal, paternal, and marital autliority, and indirectly on the 

 nmral bearing of the c'>mnnmity. 



In this evolution the Commission is convinced that the restraining 

 and directing influence of the Cliristian religion and education, if imi)artcd 

 on proper lines, are absolutely essential, 'riiere is abundant testimony of 

 tlie benefit derived from these agencies which should receive the fullest 

 possible enconragemenl in the interests of the white as well as the black 

 races. — P. 35, Report of the Commission appointed to entiuire into 

 Assaults on Women. 191. 1 



The consensus of opinion expressed liefore the Commission is to the 

 effect that education, while in a certain number of cases it has had the 

 effect of creating in the natives an aggressive .spirit, arising no doubt from 

 an exaggerated sense of individual self-importance, wliich renders them 

 less docile and less disposed to be contented with the position for which 

 nature nr circumstances have litted them, has had generally a bencticial 

 influence on the natives themseK'es. and l)y raising the level of their 

 intelligence, and by increasing their capacity as workers and their earning 



