94 Transactions of fJic SoutJi African. Pliilosophical Sociefj/. 



permit of affiliated colleges. Such colleges may exist for specific 

 teaching and training only as divinitj^ medicine, engineering, and 

 mining, or they may cover certain other of the requisite subjects for 

 examination, the conditions under which this is practicable having 

 appeared before us in our review. Such colleges might be built 

 upon a site granted by the Government or the University, on 

 condition that buildings of not less than a specified value be erected. 

 Or the affiliated colleges might be some already in existence, as in 

 the case of Toronto, but receiving official recognition, and being 

 empowered to carry on their work as additional colleges to those 

 under the more direct auspices of the University. 



Whatever University is established must be broad enough to attract^ 

 and so constituted as not to repel, those who have been seeking in 

 past years in their own spheres and neighbourhoods to promote 

 University ideas and interests. It must be borne in mind that 

 w^henever a Teaching University is set up there will probably be 

 some inconvenience and possibly some passing loss to other bodies, 

 but the longer the present condition continues the greater w411 be 

 the measure of that inconvenience. The vested interests of the 

 different teaching bodies will always be increasing. Should it be 

 found necessary or desirable' to take a particular college with its 

 properties and interests as the nucleus of the University it must not 

 be supposed that such a college becomes an unfair competitor with 

 other colleges. It is taken out of the category of an ordinary 

 competitor by the very act which creates it the nucleus of a 

 University. In discussing any scheme which may be proposed it 

 will be necessary to discriminate between the arguments against the 

 weaknesses and defects incidental to a beginning, and those against 

 the general principle involved. 



If we look around us for a practical nucleus, taking the facts as 

 we find them, it must, we think, be confessed that the whole history 

 of the South African College, especially as it is related in Blue 

 Books, shows that it has been approximating gradually through its 

 whole career to the ideal of a Government institution, existing for 

 the purpose of University teaching. Perhaps the same may be said 

 of two or three other colleges, and in discussing schemes, it remains 

 for such assertions to be proved, and due consideration must then be 

 given to the claims established. 



Should such an institution as the South African College be accepted 

 as a nucleus of a Teaching University, it would at least bring with 

 it the prestige of honourable lineage, and every old South African 

 College student would have as a compensation for the loss of the 

 familiar and inspirational initials, the feeling in relation to the 



