CHAPTER XXIII 



EDUCATION 



Education has been and is a source of very con- 

 siderable perplexity to those responsible for it. It may 

 be presumed that there is nothing very peculiar about 

 this fact. Part of the price that the pioneers in a 

 white colony in process of formation have to pay, lies 

 in the hard choice of either parting from their children 

 or in seeing them grow up but imperfectly educated. 

 In British East Africa the problem is, however, 

 unusually complicated owing to the variety of Residents 

 and their several claims. There are the innumerable 

 native tribes, all with divers tongues. They certainly 

 show no special desire for education, but we have a 

 duty towards them, and possibly that duty includes the 

 putting before them of at least the chance of betterment. 

 Then we have the Indians, who clamour loudly for 

 teaching, and, further, for teaching in the vernacular. 

 For anything which he can get for nothing the Indian is 

 always ready. Then, again, we have the Boer, who 

 firmly and insistently demands to be taught in Dutch. 

 Finally, there is the white Colonist, who wants 

 and must have the best facilities for education which 

 the finances of the Protectorate can afford. The con- 

 flicting claims of these various classes is bad enough, 



