48o 



NATURE 



[August io, 19 i6 



SOVTH AFRICAN UNIVERSITY 

 LEGISLATION. 

 TDL'BLIC discussion, extending- over many. years, 

 J- in the Press and m Parliament, on higner edu- 

 cation in South Africa has at length resulted in 

 legislation. The old University of the Cape of Good 

 Hope, with its offices at Capetown, was merely 

 an "'examining" institution, founded on the model 

 of the University of London. The constituent 

 colleges were (the figures give distances in miles 

 from Capetown) : — '1 he South African College at 

 Capetown, the \'ictoria College at Stellenbosch (31), 

 the Huguenot Ladies' College at Wellington (45), 

 the Rhodes University College at Grahamstown 

 (757)> the Grey University College at Bloemfontein 

 (750), the Natal University College at Pietermaritz- 

 burg (1182), the Transvaal University College at 

 Pretoria (looi), and the South African School of 

 Mines and Technology at Johannesburg (956). 

 There are many objections to a university which is 

 a mere examining body ; there are many objections 

 to a university the constituent colleges of which 

 are separated even by such short distances as 

 are Liverpool, Manchester, and Leeds ; it has long 

 been felt that all such objections are greatly magni- 

 fied when a meeting of Senate cannot be held 

 unless many of its members spend six or eight 

 days in travel. It scarcely needs the words of 

 the report of the University Commission (p. 138) 

 to let us know that, in spite of having distin- 

 guished, well-paid professors, the only work done 

 by the colleges hitherto has been mere cramming 

 for examinations, and that there is an almost total 

 absence of the university spirit in South Africa. 



In 1904 Mr. Alfred Beit gave an estate near 

 Johannesburg to the Government of the Transvaal 

 (this was before the union of the States under one 

 Government) for agricultural and other educational 

 purposes. The estate is probably worth 20,000/. 

 now. In 1905 he made a will giving 200,000/. to 

 the University of Johannesburg for university 

 buildings on the estate; "but if, at the expiration 

 of ten years after my death, the said 200,000/. shall 

 not have been applied in such building and equip- 

 ment as aforesaid, then this legacy shall lapse and 

 fall into my residuary estate." Even now there is 

 no . university at Johannesburg, nor is there any 

 college of university rank except the School of 

 Mines. Mr. Beit died in igo6. In 1910 General 

 Smuts, the Union Minister of Education, sug- 

 gested to Mr. Otto Beit (his brother's heir) and 

 to Sir Julius Wernher that Mr. A. Beit's bequest 

 ought to be increased to 500,000/. for the estab- 

 lishment of a national university on the Rhodes 

 estate at Groote Schuur (at Capetown), which 

 belonged to the Government. Sir Julius promised 

 250,000/., and Mr. Otto Beit 50,000/. The De 

 Beers Company offered also 25,000/. In a joint 

 letter Sir Julius Wernher and Mr. Otto Beit said 

 that "the primary condition underlying the gift 

 . . . was that the university to be erected shall 

 and must be a residential teaching university." 



There was universal approval all over South 

 Africa of the idea of a residential teaching uni- 

 versity at Capetown, but it soon appeared that 

 NO. 2441, VOL. 97] 



there was room for divergent opinion as to th 

 nature of such a university. A proposal large! 

 approved of and soon after almost universally con 

 demned was that the new institution should be j 

 " post-graduate " university. Then came a ne\ 

 proposal, so favourably received that it was em 

 bodied in a Parliamentary Bill, that entrance t« 

 the new university should require " intermediate ' 

 qualifications, and not merely the ordinary 

 matriculation. To this proposal, also, oppositioi 

 became too great, and the Bill was withdrawn 

 Before 191 4 there was a general expression o 

 opinion in favour of two universities — north an( 

 south. A University Commission met in January 

 1914, and reported just before the war in favou 

 of two universities — a southern university wit! 

 new buildings on the Rhodes estate at Capetown 

 incorporating the South African College and th« 

 Victoria College, and a northern university in^ 

 corporating all the other colleges. The committer 

 recommended that 350,000/. should be spent ir 

 buildings and equipment at Capetown, that Stel- 

 lenbosch should get 25,000/., and that the rest oj 

 the money should be distributed among the more 

 distant colleges. 



Prof. John Perry, who was one of the com- 

 missioners, agreed to the more important recom- 

 mendations of the report, only with reservations ; 

 he especially wished half a million to be given 

 to a teaching university at Capetown so that 

 South Africa might have at least one real uni- 

 versity. He said that no scheme could succeed 

 unless Stellenbosch had some endowment, and he 

 proposed that to the 25,000/. there should be 

 added a Government grant of 50,000/., and also 

 that Stellenbosch should be encouraged to -gather 

 more money so that she might soon apply for ;i 

 charter of her own. In that case the Capetown 

 University would consist of the South Afric;- 

 College only. Prof. Perry was strongly of opinii 

 that no distant college, such as that of Graham 

 town, should be incorporated with Capetown, ai- 

 in this consisted his greatest difference from h 

 colleagues. This gentleman's recommendatioi 

 have now been carried out in an Act of Parli: 

 ment. The South .\frican College is to becon 

 "The University of Capetown," with its preset 

 buildings and new ones on the Rhodes estate, an- 

 with 525,000/. The \'ictoria College is to becorr 

 "The University of Stellenbosch," a recent be 

 quest of 50,000/. by Dr. Marais taking the plat 

 of the proposed Government grant. (There ougl 

 certainly to be a large additional grant from th 

 Government.) The proposed northern universit 

 is to be called "The University of South Africa. 

 It is to be hoped that the Johannesburg Scho( 

 of Mines will soon apply for a charter of its owm 

 it is already nearly as well equipped as any pohi 

 technie in the world. 



Now that the scheme has been carried ou; 

 the people of Johannesburg make objection: 

 having awakened to the knowledge tha, 

 except for their School of Mines, they ha^ 

 no teaching there of a university characti 

 nearer than Pretoria, which is forty-five mil* 



