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Carlyle, of whom Professor Tyndall in his Address to the British Association at Belfast said that "far more than any other of his age he aroused whatever of life and nobleness lay latent in its most gifted minds." Carlyle, as all the world knows, was the son of a stone mason. Would Sartor or the "French Revolution" have ever been written if there had been no Edinburgh University to open its doors to a poor man's son? It is for the children of the poor that we plead, when we ask for educational facilities in South Africa equal to those of Europe and America. Our boys have already to compete with the best brains in the world, trained in the best schools of the world; as the years go by that competition will become not less but more keen. It is our duty to see them fitly

equipped, so that they may hold their own, and rise to be masters instead of servants in the land of their birth. And we want to give them and their sisters something in addition to this, something which only great disinterested centres of teaching impart, some sympathy with the "nobler loves and nobler cares' which spring from a wide knowledge of the past history and aspirations of mankind.

Ten years ago a thoughtful citizen of this town, Mr. H. S. Caldecott, delivered an address on Our Boys and Girls," which revealed such a callous or ineffective attitude on the part of the State towards one of its most sacred duties, that a number of public-spirited men decided to take the matter into their own hands. The lapse of ten years in the life of a young community like this is a sufficiently long period to be counted as an important milestone in its progress. It is all the more deserving of being recorded since the "Council of Education, Witwatersrand," which was the immediate outcome of Mr. Caldecott's paper, has celebrated its tenth anniversary by setting aside a sum of over £100,000 towards improving secondary and higher education in this Colony, and towards providing opportunities for those young men and young women, whose elementary education has been neglected, to retrieve the disabilities under which they suffer, by means of evening classes and day continuation classes. The moment seems opportune for asking the question to what extent should the whole burden of education, from the lowest to the highest branches, be borne by the State? I will at once allay the alarm I see on your faces by disclaiming any intention at this late hour of attempting to supply the answer. But as paving the way towards an answer, I may mention the fact that out of the twenty millions sterling expended annually by the four Colonial Governments, less than one million is devoted to education. The proportion of State education to total expenditure in the Orange River Colony in the financial year 1903-4 was 12 per cent., in the Transvaal in 1904-5 nearly 8 per cent., and in each of the two coastal Colonies in the year 1902-3 less than 3 per cent. That does seem to leave some margin for increased education votes, and substantial increases will undoubtedly continue to be voted every year. For purposes of comparison I may add that last year

England spent 8 per cent. of the total expenditure of £130,000,000 on elementary education alone, and that the Australian Colonies and New Zealand spend from 9 to 10 per cent., as against 5 per cent. being spent in South Africa.

In conclusion, if I have given a somewhat gloomy account of the present position of education in South Africa, perhaps unconsciously darkening the shadows, when there are so many bright and hopeful signs to which your attention might with equal justice have been directed, I trust I may be forgiven for thinking it was more profitable in the short time at my disposal to dwell on the defects of our educational system, rather than on its many undoubted merits. A wise old Scotsman I once knew advised me to take as my motto: "Things are never as good as they look, and never as bad as they look." Much error and discomfort may be avoided by remembering that simple adage. It sums up what poets and philosophers in more ambitious phrase have striven to express for ages. There are two extreme ways of looking at life and its affairs, characteristic of two eternally opposed attitudes of different minds the melancholy and the sanguine. The Greek poet Hesiod, who was an eloquent exponent of the melancholy view-a kind of primitive Carlyle-has left on record a famous picture of what three thousand years ago he conceived to have been the good old days long antecedent to the iron age into which he lamented to have been born; whereas the enviable mortals of the early world had lived in what Hesiod called the Age of Gold, when greed, strife and want were still unknown-that age which so many poets since his time have vainly sighed to recall. Wiser, and more helpful far, than all these dreamers, is the great poet whom Carlyle was so fond of quoting; two of his sayings have been constantly in my mind during the preparing of this address, and I wish I could find an adequate translation for them. To those who are too easily satisfied with things as they are, Goethe says:

:

"Das Wenige verschwindet leicht dem Blick,

Der vorwaerts sieht, wie viel noch uebrig bleibt."

(The little we have done fades into insignificance, when we look ahead and see how much remains to be done.)

Whilst to those with backward-turned faces towards the mainly imaginary virtues of the past that golden age, says Goethe, could indeed be realised " were but men nobler than they are ":

"Mein Freund, die goldne Zeit ist wohl vorbei :

Allein die Guten bringen sie zurück";

or in the words of the English poet, who best renders his meaning, and whose writings are a perennial inspiration to all who are striving to make the best ideals of education prevail in the worldMatthew Arnold :

"I say: Fear not! Life still
Leaves human effort scope,
But, since life teems with ill,
Nurse no extravagant hope;

Because thou must not dream, thou need'st not then despair."

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J. D. F. GILCHRIST, M. A., B.Sc., PH.D., CAPETOWN.

WM. CULLEN, JOHANNESBURG.

Hon. General Treasurer:

W. WESTHOFEN, M.I.C.E.

Past Presidents:

SIR DAVID GILL, K.C.B., LL.D., D.Sc., F.R.S., HON. F.R.S.E.

SIR CHARLES METCALFE, BART., M.I.C.E.

Assistant General Secretaries :

E. H. JONES, P.O. Box 1497, CAPETOWN.
(For Cape Colony and Rhodesia.)

FRED. ROWLAND (CHARTERED SECRETARY), P.O. Box 1183,
5 AND 8, CORPORATION BUILDINGS (2ND FLOOR), JOHANNESBURG.
(For Transvaal, Orange River Colony and Natal.)

PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIRD ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF MEMBERS, HELD AT THE TRANSVAAL TECHNICAL INSTITUTE BUILDINGS, JOHANNESBURG, ON MONDAY, 28TH AUGUST, 1905.

Mr. T. Reunert, the President, occupied the Chair, and there were also present Mr. J. Burtt-Davy, Sir David Gill, Dr. Marloth, Prof. J. A. Wilkinson, Prof. Crawford, Messrs Albert Walsh, Ernest Williams, J. R. Williams, Ababrelton, W. E. Cursons, W. Reid Bell, A. von Dessauer, Dr. J. Hyslop, Rev. Dr. Flint, Prof. J. Orr, Dr. S. Schonland, Dr. J. D. F. Gilchrist, Messrs. R. T. A. Innes, Wm. Cullen, with Fred Rowland and E. H. Jones, Assistant General Secretaries.

The minutes of the previous Annual Meeting were taken as read, and confirmed.

The President explained that the meeting was called to transact purely formal business, and to make provision for the work of the ensuing year. He stated that the report of the Council had not yet been prepared, but he would ask Mr. Cullen to make a brief statement on the work performed by the Council of the Association since the Second Annual Meeting took place.

Mr. W. Cullen referred to the various matters deal with by the Council during the past year, and reported on the progress of the work done by those to whom grants for research work had been made. He also mentioned the part taken by the South African Association in arranging for the visit to South Africa of the British Association; to the appointment of Mr. Goldring as the Association's representative in London; to the work of the Johannesburg centre in inaugurating a Museum in Johannesburg; and the movement they had initiated for starting a Botanical Garden. Mr. Cullen concluded by stating that the report of the Council would be printed with other information, and forwarded to members in due course.

Alterations to Rules.-The Chairman stated that the question of the alterations to the Rules had received the attention and consideration of the Council for nearly a year past, and unless any member present wished to raise any point in connection therewith, he would move that the alterations as printed in the circular sent to members be now adopted. Mr. Cullen seconded, and the motion was agreed to.

Finance. The Chairman stated that the Treasurer's Report had not yet been printed, but that the financial position of the Association was in a very satisfactory state. The balance on the 30th June, 1905, was about £1,800, out of which they were to pay the British Association £500. A further £400 or £500 would be required for

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