Kaffir Promise and Capability. 435 



for tlie employment of the public revenue in works of general 

 utility, the Government is not yet able to devote any large 

 sum to the furtherance of the work of native education. The 

 expedient course has therefore been taken of giving small 

 grants in aid from the public funds to the various missionary 

 establishments already having a footing in the land, upon the 

 condition that the English language and industrial pursuits 

 are taught to the native children of the neighbourhood. It 

 would unquestionably have been better for the immediate 

 prospect of success if the Government could have taken the 

 work of secular native instruction entirely into its own hands, 

 because among the wild native people the influence of prestige 

 is in favour of the Government and against the missionaries. 

 The wild natives are generally suspicious of the missionaries, 

 because they are so very zealous in their work, and because 

 they preach energetically against polygamy. The natives 

 think it is quite impossible for men to be so personalty eager 

 about making converts, unless for their own purposes and for 

 their own gain. The alternative plan, which has been adopted 

 on economical grounds, of using the agency already established 

 on the field by missionary spirit and enterprise will, in the 

 meantime, produce very decided results in the right direction, 

 until more energetic and costly measures can be added. The 

 system alluded to has only been in force three years, and there 

 are, at the present time, as a first instalment, 1700 Kaffir 

 children learning English at the various schools, of which one 

 is a central training school, where the most promising native 

 pupils from other schools are received to complete their educa- 

 tion as pupil teachers. The cost to the Government of the 

 common native schools is a trifle in excess of £900 per annum, 

 and, in the last year, contributions were made in ten of these 

 schools by the Kaffirs themselves in aid of their support, 

 amountino- in the whole to- £205 12s. 9d. The Colonial Govern- 

 ment also furnishes £1 000 a year to these schools, for industrial 

 training of natives. The amount is expended in the payment 

 of salaries to skilled labour masters or mistresses. Last year 

 about 120 boys and girls were benefiting by these industrial 

 grants, of whom several were under regular indenture for 

 fixed terms. The lads in these industrial schools are trained 

 as carpenters, cabinetmakers, waggonmakers, brickmakers, 

 stonemasons, builders, thatchers, tailors, and shoemakers. 

 They readily attain fair proficiency in all these arts. Most of 

 the extension of the buildings on the principal stations is now 

 performed entirely by the boys-; and, in some of the most 

 advanced schools, the boys are beginning to go out as hired 

 workmen to settlers living in the neighbourhood. 



There is no more interesting subject of observation and 



