somewhat resemble bad seed-wheat. I explained matters to him, and asked him whether he had ever observed drabok turn into wheat. He replied that he would not say that it could not turn into it. Then there are our plant diseases, which are getting worse and worse every year, and which should be understood by the average farmer. Then there is the deterioration of the veldt, which concerns chiefly our stock farmers. Everyone knows that stock eats only certain kinds of plant growing in the veldt. This simply means that, unless precautions are taken, the useless kinds get a better chance of propagating themselves than their useful competitors, and may even dominate the veldt, to the complete, or nearly complete, exclusion of the useful ones. The natural course to adopt, and a course which is adopted by thoughtful farmers, is to give portions of the veldt an occasional rest, to let useful grasses seed occasionally to give them a chance to regain their hold against the weeds. This is commonsense, but it is a deplorable fact that, broadly speaking, the prevailing system of education does not develop commonsense. Huxley has rightly said that Science is systematised commonsense, and yet we exclude it from the education of our children, either by shutting it out altogether or teaching it, as is done usually with Botany, in a worthless manner. What, now, is the moral influence that may be expected from the study of Botany? No one can be brought into constant touch with the beauties and the laws of the organic world without being the better for it. It raises him above the sordid actualities of every-day life, it occupies his mind when out for a walk, it gives him an intellectual companion in whatever part of the globe he may be placed, and, if it is true that bad thoughts and bad deeds are the outcome of idleness, the man or women who can fill up his or her spare moments with a study of Botany has a great deal of the temptation removed which empty minds encounter. But I maintain that Botany does more. It tends to make its students humble, truthful, and straightforward. It makes them humble, because the more it is studied the more one sees how little we know, and how the inward nature of things must be for ever be hidden from us. We talk about protoplasm as the bearer of life, we know approximately its chemical constitution and its reactions, but we shall never know why it is the bearer of life, we shall, e.g., never know why a tiny speck in the seed of a bluegum brought from Australia develops into just such a giant tree of a particular kind as it would in its native home, while another speck develops into a plant of quite a different kind. Hundreds and thousands of similar enigmata cross the path of the thinking student of Botany. They may make him an agnostic, a man who frankly confesses that the fundamental principles of the organic, and, for the matter of that, also of the inorganic world are totally hidden from us, but they will also make him humble and reverent, acknowledging the shortcomings of the human mind and of human powers. I said, further, that the study of Botany makes one truthful and straightforward, as would also the study of any other Science, because such a study is a continuous exercise in trying to find out the truth about the subjects of study, in stating the results of one's finding in plain language and drawing matter-of-fact conclusions. I am aware that a number of schools in South Africa have admitted the study of Botany to their curriculum, and I may perhaps be allowed to acknowledge the encouragement which it has received at the hands of the Superintendent-General of Education of Cape Colony, Dr. Muir, F.R.G. Let us hope, now that there are in several places in South Africa higher institutions where teachers can be properly trained in the higher branches of this Science, a better state of things will soon be introduced, and that every school which does not take up some other Science will get teachers who can teach Botany in a proper manner. The question then remains, how is the time to be found for it? Already there is a cry that there are too many subjects taught. Well, if you agree with me as to the claims of Botany, you will also go so far that some other subject ought to suffer. Fortunately, there is one subject which, if fortune favours, can afford to be lopped of some of its branches-I refer to Arith'metic. I have been informed on very good authority that if we had a rational system of weights and measures, an enormous amount of time could be saved in the teaching of Arithmetic. If, instead of our present awkward troy weights, apothecaries weights and others, we had all round a decimal-metrical system, like most other civilised nations, much of the unnecessary work of schoolboys and schoolgirls could be saved, and time found for more intellectual pursuits. There is a movement on foot to urge upon Parliament the introduction of the metrical system, and I can assure you from actual experience that within a very short time after its introduction everybody would rejoice over it. However, the argument which I have brought forward will, I am afraid, have little weight with our legislature. Let us hope that others will prevail, and that our schools will thus be relieved of a burden which they needlessly bear, and the removal of which will afford them time to give attention to Science, and especially to the study of Botany, on which, I trust, you will look with greater sympathy than is usually accorded it. A question which was only put to me a couple of days ago by the principal of a school remains yet to be answered. It comes to this: Suppose we want to introduce Botany as one of our objects and have a trained teacher, how are we to get the material for teaching? I have already said that a kitchen garden affords a great deal of material, but, of course, other aids are required. In the first place, a certain amount of apparatus is required to teach the principles of Physiology. If you glance through one of the elementary text-books of Experimental Plant-Physiology, such as McDougal's translation of Oels' book, you will see that even the poorest school, with the aid of the Education Department, could afford to get a suitable set of apparatus. A few pounds will cover the cost. In the teaching of Anatomy a miscroscope, costing about £10. will be required. Very good botanical slides can now be bought in England for about 9d. each, so that if £25 were spent on the outfit for the teaching of Anatomy and Physiology, it could be carried on as far as school-children can be supposed to know it. In the teaching of Morphology no apparatus is really required. Still, to facilitate matters, a few models may be acquired to help to demonstrate the structure of small flowers, such as the flowers of Grasses. One great difficulty teachers have to contend with is the naming of the native plants. Now, as there are at least 12,000 species of flowering plants alone in South Africa, it is manifestly impossible for an ordinary teacher to name the plants in the neighbourhood of the school, but this difficulty is more apparent than real, as we are always glad to name plants for teachers at the Albany Museum, provided reasonable care has been taken in selecting and transmitting the specimens, which can be sent to me free by post and rail; besides, similar facilities are available in Cape Town. Every teacher should then, with numbered specimens kept back, form a small local Herbarium for reference; the formation of a collection of fruits and seeds is also very desirable, and I think in many cases the teacher might go a step further and plant some of the native plants round about the school-building. It is wonderful how much help one gets from such a collection of live plants, even if it consists of only a few dozen species. There are also some places, like Kimberley, where it is very difficult to get any wild specimens for class-teaching. Here the formation of a small botanical garden is imperative, and a type herbarium and a collection of fruits and seeds should be acquired by purchase or exchange. AFRICAN EDUCATION. BY THOMAS LOWDEN. Among the many questions before the public of South Africa, not the least important is that of Education. Recently I was glad to notice, that the Rand Daily Mail had, in a series of leaders, directed attention to the question of practical education, under the title of "Our Future Artisans." In the Colonies it is just as much of vital importance, and perhaps more so, that our youths should be as properly prepared, if inclined to take up trades, as the Home youths. It seems to me that South African born and reared youths, and over-sea born, but reared here, should take the bulk of positions as highly-skilled and highly-paid artisans and mechanics, and high places in offices or the Civil Service, and not have to take, as is too often the case, what is left after valuable posts have been filled by highly-paid imported men. Undoubtedly good colonists are needed, but not at the future expense of our boys. Further, in a country like this, where the mineral wealth has only been scratched, where agriculture is practically only emerging from its infancy, and where manufactures are yet to be born, the education must be such that the youths, our future pioneers, the kings of isolated places, may be self-reliant and self-contained. That our boys have been, and are, still somewhat handicapped, most will agree with me, and that being so, it is necessary to study the cause and the means of prevention. On enquiring why so many imported men from all parts of the world occupy the good positions, we are told the lack of training facilities for our Colonial youths has kept them in the second place. When should we begin the training of "Our Future Artisans," Argiculturists, etc.? Undoubtedly the training should begin the moment a child starts its school life, and should be of such a character that the transfer from the classroom to the business life should simply be a change of environment, and a change of master. That business life is simply an expanding of school life, and the application of the principles, information, moral tone, perception and application, reliability, and habit of work acquired at school, and that there is nothing to unlearn. Educationalists must face this question. Perhaps no profession outside those of religion, law, and medicine, sticks tighter to Tradi tion, or is more classic and conservative than the Teaching Profession. Because, in the Middle Ages, what little information was to be obtained, what little was known of Theology, Philosophy, Science, and Mathematics, was wrapped up in books written in Latin and Greek, and it was necessary for scholars to get at that information first hand, to be expert in Latin and Greek, is no good reason why so much of our students' time should be spent over dead languages. Nor are any of the arguments put forward by those in favour of classic education of commonsense or utilitarian value. The needs of the community are sacrificed to custom. Ninety per cent. of our students will never require Latin and Greek in their manhood. |