80 Transactions of the Sontli African Philosopliical Society. 



periods, discussion arises, and even agitation breaks forth, in favour 

 of placing the University education of tlie Colony upon the higher 

 level. 



That such a discussion should take place in our Society will l)e 

 regarded as most natural ; the first University which ever existed 

 was the product of the philosophical mind, and such societies as this 

 depend largely for their ultimate and permanent value upon the 

 influence of University training and life. This Society is one of the 

 very few in South Africa which can lay any claim to being a learned 

 Society, and it has the advantage of approaching the subject from a 

 ■starting-point outside of any particular educational circle with vested 

 interests, while it is certainly beyond suspicion of having any axe of 

 its own to grind. 



Our study of the bases of Colonial Universities brings us immedi- 

 ately to the fact that in scarcely a single instance have the promoters 

 and founders of those institutions been able to start their work ah 

 initio, or it is not too much to affirm that in very few cases, if any, 

 w^ould the idea of an Examining University have been entertained as 

 meeting the necessities of the Colony. The vested interests of 

 collegiate institutions, more or less firmly established, have had to 

 be considered ; the religious prejudices or requirements of the 

 Churches have had to be conciliated or met ; and even when some of 

 these difficulties might have been surmounted, economical con- 

 ■siderations have often prevented the necessary effort, to overcome 

 them, being put forth. But, even when all due allowance has been 

 made for the influences at work in favour of establishing Examining, 

 in preference to Teaching Universities, it has to be recorded that in 

 scarcely a single instance has a Colonial Examining University of the 

 pure type been founded. Indeed it may be noted that the University 

 of the Cape of Good Hope appears to be the purest type of an 

 Examining University existing in the whole of the British Colonies, 

 iind in its freedom from legal connection with colleges and 

 institutions is almost sui generis. 



In studying the bases of other Universities in the Colonies, that of 

 New Zealand may be taken as representing the first approach to a 

 Teaching University, and we bring it into this category notwithstand- 

 ing the fact that the Act of Parliament upon which it is founded 

 -expressly affirms that it shall not directly exercise functions of teach- 

 ing. There is a somewhat interesting and suggestive history attach- 

 ing to this condition. In 1869 the Superintendent and Provincial 

 Council of Otago passed an ordinance vmder which a University of 

 Otago was established. It should be noted, l)y way of explanation, 

 that the body adopting this ordinance was one of nine such bodies 



