TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION L. 599 
need for the organising of the highest teaching is felt, I believe, more particularly 
in regard to three great professions—the profession of Engineering in all its 
branches ; the profession of Agriculture (including Forestry); and the profession 
of Education itself, on which the intellectual future of South Africa must so 
largely and directly depend. That the interest in the higher instruction.is so real 
must be regarded as the best tribute to the efforts of those able and devoted men 
who, in various parts of this land, have laboured with dauntless perseverance for 
the improvement of primary and secondary education. Unstinted gratitude is 
due also to the University of the Cape of Good Hope. _ It is acknowledged on all 
hands that the University, as the chief guardian of learning in Softh Africa, 
has done admirable work in maintaining a high standard of general education, 
Certainly it cannot be regarded as any disparagement of that work if, as seems to 
be the case, a widespread desire exists that South Africa should possess an institu- 
tion, or institutions, of University rank, which, besides examining, should als) 
teach. That is a natural progress, which is illustrated by the recent reconstitution 
of the London University itself. I am not qualified, nor should [ desire, to 
discuss the various difficulties of detail which surround the question of a teaching 
University. That question is, for South Africa, an eminently practical one ; and 
doubtless it will be solved, possibly at no distant time, by those who are most 
competent to deal with it. 1 will only venture to say a few words on some of the 
more general aspects of the matter. 
The primary needs of daily life in a new country make demands for certain 
forms of higher training—demands which may be unable to wait for the develop- 
ment of anything so complex and costly as a teaching University. It is necessary 
to provide a training for men who shall be able to supervise the building of houses, 
the making of roads, bridges, and railways, and to direct skilled labour in various 
useful arts and handicrafts. The first step in such a provision is to establish tech- 
nical schools and institutes. Germany is, I suppose, the country where the 
educational possibilities of the technical school are realised in the amplest measure. 
In Germany the results of the highest education are systematically brought to 
bear on all the greater industries. But this highest education is not given only in 
completely equipped Universities which confer degrees. It is largely given in 
the institutions known as Technical High Schools. In these schools teaching of 
a University standard is given, by professors of University rank, in subjects such 
as Architecture, various branches of Engineering, Chemistry, and General Tech- 
nical Science. There are, I think, some ten or eleven of these Technical High 
Schools in Germany. In these institutions the teaching of the special art or 
science, on its theoretical side, is carried, I believe, to a point as high as could be 
attained in a University ; while on the practical side it is carried beyond the point 
which in a University would usually be possible. In England we have nothing, 
I believe, which properly corresponds to the German Technical High School ; but 
we may expect to see some of the functions of such a school included among the 
functions of the new Universities in our great industrial and commercial towns. 
Now Technical Schools or Institutes, which do not reach the level of a German 
Technical High School, may nevertheless be so planned as to be capable of being 
further developed as parts of a great teaching University. And the point which [ 
now wish to note is this—that the higher education given ina Technical Institute 
which is only such, will not be quite the same as that given in the corresponding 
department of a teacbing University. University education, as such, when it is 
efficient, has certain characteristics which differentiate it from the training of a 
specialist, however high the level of the teaching in the special subject may be. 
Here, however, I pause for a moment to guard against a possible misconception. 
I am not suggesting that the specialist training given in a technical institute 
though limited, is not an excellent thing in itself; or that, in certain conditions and 
circumstances, it is not desirable to have such a training, attested by a diploma or 
certificate, instead of aiming at a University standard and a University degree. 
Universities themselves recognise this fact. They reserve their degrees for those 
who have had a University training ; but they also grant diplomas for proficiency 
in certain special branches of knowledge. Cambridge, for instance, gives a 
