attempts of the white man to ameliorate their condition is to be found an essential unity of purpose. In the past nothing has been more conspicuous than the want of union of States between themselves (and of Churches between themselves) as to the right means to be used for the advancement of the native population.
This federal action promises to extend to the education of the white races also. Already since peace has been established two important conferences have been held between the chiefs of the various Education Departments, and a common syllabus of instruction in elementary schools has been agreed upon for the Transvaal, the Orange River Colony, Natal, and Rhodesia. In higher education, especially in all that relates to technical and University education, the same tendency to co-operation has been shown on the part of these Colonies; and though there may be periods of retrogression as well as periods of advance, it can hardly be doubted that never again is there likely to be the same isolation of the various Governments of South Africa in educational matters as existed in the past.
But for the full realization of these common aims, and for the preparation of South Africa to act as a unit in any general discussion of the educational ideals of the different parts of the British Empire, one condition, to which allusion has already been made, must be kept steadily in view. The aims of each State must not be distorted through denominational or racial antagonism, but must present, as far as may be, a homogeneous character. Nothing will so certainly conduce to this end as the adequate training of all South African teachers, each staff of teachers in its own Colony. No wise man wishes colonists in their youth to be taught to take the purely British point of view. But if thoroughly trained colonial teachers cannot be found, it will always be necessary to introduce many such teachers from home, and so to provoke a reaction on the part of one section of the population by too great insistence in schools upon the views of the Mother Country. South
