604 REPORT—1905. 
the place which English literature should hold in the examination of students at 
the Training Colleges, and has under consideration carefully planned courses of 
study, in which portions of the best English writers of prose and of verse are pre- 
scribed to be read in connection with corresponding periods of English history, it 
being understood that the study of the literature shall be directed, not to philo- 
logical or grammatical detail, but to the substance and meaning of the books, and 
to the leading characteristics of each writer’s style. If, on the other hand, the 
student is to derive his literary culture, wholly or in part, from a foreign literature, 
ancient or modern, then it will be most desirable that, before leaving school, he 
should have surmounted the initial difficulties of grammar, and should have 
learned to read the foreign language with tolerable ease. 
When we look at this problem—how to combine the scientific and the literary 
elements of culture—in the light of existing or prospective conditions in South 
Africa, it appears natural to suppose that, ina teaching University, the F aculty of 
Education would be that with which literary studies would be more particularly 
connected. And if students of practical sciences, such as Engineering and Agri- 
culture, were brought together at the same centre where the Faculty of Education 
had its seat, then it should not be difficult, without unduly trenching on the time 
demanded by scientific or technical studies, to provide such students with facilities 
for some measure of good literary training. 
A further subject is necessarily suggested by that with which we have been 
dealing—I mean the relation of University to Secondary Education; but on that 
I can only touch very briefly. Before University Education can be widely effi- 
cient it is indispensable that Secondary Education should be fairly well developed 
and organised. Secondary Education should be intelligent—liberal in spirit—not 
too much trammelled by the somewhat mechanical uniformity apt to result from 
working for external examinations, but sufficiently elastic to allow for different 
aptitudes in the pupils, and to afford scope for the free initiative of able teachers. 
It is again for the continuity of education when a school-leaving examination can 
be accepted as giving admission to the University. Such an examination must be 
conducted under the authority of the University ; but there is much to be said in 
favour of the view that, under proper safeguards, the school-teachers should have 
a part in the examination; always provided that the ultimate control, and the 
decision in all cases of doubt, shall rest with the University. A system of school- 
leaving examinations for this country was earnestly advocated, I believe, by Mr. 
P. A. Barnett, who has achieved such excellent work for the cause of education in 
Natal. To discuss the advantages or difficulties of such a proposal, as they at 
present affect South Africa, would demand knowledge which I do not possess ; 
and I must content myself with the expression of a hope that in days to come— 
perhaps in a not distant future—it may be found practicable to form such a link 
between the highest education and the grade next below it. 
But the Jimit of time proper for a President’s address has now almost been 
reached. I thank you sincerely for the kindness and patience with which 
you have heard me. In conclusion, I would only say how entirely I share a 
conviction which has been expressed by one to whose ability, to whose generous 
enthusiasm and unflagging efforts the cause of education in this country owes 
an incalculable debt—I refer to Mr. E. B. Sargant. Like him, I believe that 
the progress of education in all its grades, from the lowest to the highest, 
is the agency which, more surely than any other, will conduce to the prosperity 
and the unity of South Africa. For all workers in that great cause it 
must be an inspiring thought that they are engaged in promoting the most 
fundamental and the most far-reaching of national interests. They are endeavour- 
ing to secure that the men and women to whom’the future of this country belongs 
shall be equal to their responsibilities and worthy of their inheritance. In that 
endeavour the sympathies which they carry with them are world-wide. As we 
come to see, more and more clearly, that the highest education is not only a 
national but an Imperial concern, there is a growing desire for interchange of 
counsels and for active co-operation between the educational institutions of the 
Colonies and those of the Mother Country. The development of education in 
