BUFFET SUPPER AT THE SUNNYSIDE PARK HOTEL IN HONOUR OF THE WORLD CHIEF GUIDE. LAD? BADEN-POWELL.
This year is the 60th anniversary of Guiding,, How fortunate we are that Lady Baden-Powell accepted the invitation of the Girl Guide Association of South Africa to pay a six-week visit to this country to give Guides andGulders an opportunity of meeting their Chief, and w@ are glad that we, too,, are being given this opportunity of meeting her*
has been the forging of links between Guides all over the world» In Cape Town, on February 22nd, Lady Baden-Powell0s 81st birthday, will be celebrated THINKING BAY» This is the day every year when throughout the world Girl Guides and Girl Scouts think of their sister guides and guide scouts, exchange greetings, and make contributions to a special fund used to promote world Guiding»
When one thinks of these Guides and Gulders throughout the world with like thoughts and ideals, when one thinks of qther organisations such as the Red Cross, Rotary, the Lions and other organisations with ideals of goodwill, good citizenship and service to their fellows, it gives one hope for a better world, especially at this time when so much publicity is given to other aspects of life such as hooliganism, drug addiction, and drop outs who feel the world owes them a living» How stimulating is the knowledge that there are in this world leaders such as our honoured guest, whose lives are dedicated
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to developing and sustaining a worthwhile movements where trust is fostered amongst people, and where the aim is to remove man-made harriers between nation and nations between people of all races and colours» It is people such as this that give us hope and inspiration to play our part in whatever niche we fill»
No one must ever feel that the Scout and Guide Movements are sombre and dreary» An essential of guiding is a spirit of adventure, where fun plays an important part, and where the development o f the spiritual, mental and physical aspects all play a vital role»
Let us ^ust for a moment think of the Guide Law:
A Guide!s honour is to be trustedA Guide is loyalA Guldens duty is to be useful and
to help others
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4»A Guide is a friend to all and sister
to every other Guide no matter of what social class the other belongs
difficulties A Guide is thriftyA Guide keeps herself pure in thoughts,
words and deeds»
what an ideal, and how this Law has stood the test of time»
This afternoon it was my pleasure to receive from the Eoy Scouts Association of South Africa an historic collection of scouting material» I then spoke of the long and valued association between the City and the Scouts and Guides» I believe the City has been helpful to these Movements, recognising the worth of their contributions, and 1 am quite sure that the most recent lease of the camping areas at Delta will further assist in the provision of facilities which are
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so essential in giving our lads and lasses opportunities for camping and training'»
As one who has taken an interest in the Scouting Movement as a lay-member for some twenty-five years, I would like to take this opportunity of paying tribute to the Ssouters and Guiders who have given of their time and talents to sustain sc oil ting and guiding in South Africa» I know a heavy burden is placed upon them because of the shortage of Scouters and Guiders: I know they get a lot of fun and companionship,but I want them to know that the parents of the children in whom they are fostering the spirit of scouting and guiding, are deeply grateful for what they are doing for our young people»
To all of you who have honoured us with your presence this evening, may I say thank you for joining us to share with us our great pleasure in meeting the World Chief Guide,
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Lady Baden-Powell, and her family, and I would ask you to stand and drink with me a toast to a grand young lady, the companion, helpmeet and inspiration of the Pounder of this world-wide Movement, which has dons, and is doing, so much for so many => Lady Baden-Powell»
JOHANNESBURG:February 15« 1970»
A TALK TO SCHOOLCHILDREN. A CZ)What, I wondered, when I was asked to speak to you today, would
schoolchildren like to hear about? What would enchant them, make it worthwhile for them to sit still and hear yet another speech? Because I remember that as a child it seemed to me that grown-ups were non-stop talkers and that most of wh*t they said seemed pretty boring.
Then I remembered how much I had enjoyed adventure stories, as I'm sure you do. But I can tell you that the most exciting adventures happen in real life, far more wonderful than many of you will find in story books. And you can read about the real ones, too, because the greatest of them have been put into books.
So I decided to talk to you about two of my special'heroes.Who are your heroes? I am sure your chief ones are the astronauts,
those magnificent men who whirl in space and have actually walked on the moon. When I look at the moon riding brightly across our night sky, I still find it difficult to believe that, with the aid of science, people like us have walked there and will walk on it again. The astronauts have put Superman where he belongs, in the pages of a five-cent comic. And they have made it possible that some of you may go to the moon one day.
Your moonmen heroes journey 250, 000 miles to their shining target.In my day my hero had to cover 900 fantastically difficult miles over ice and snowy mountains to reach the South Pole in a team of magnificent men under CaptainScott, who wanted a Briton to be the first to plant a flag at the Pole.
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They were all heroes, this small band of sailor-adventurers, scientific explorers and good companions who voyaged with Scott in a small, beautiful sailing ship from England to our Simonstown, then on to New Zealand, then on to the glorious fairyland of the Antarctic Circle with its pack ice and icebergs, its seals and penguins, its whales and whalebirds and albatrosses.
The antarctic was a fairyland to look at. But to travel over with dogs and ponies, on skis and with sledges, over dangerous hidden crevasses and in howling blizzards, every step of the 900-mile journey could have meant possible death.
Scott's plan was to find a base, take several teams of men on foot to set up food and supply depots at intervals of 62 miles, and send men back from ' these points until, in the end, there would be only five left, he and four others, a lonely little band who would make the final crossing and man-haul their sledges over the frozen wastes and towering icy glaciers to the Pole. My hero could have been any of those five men. He was, in fact, Dr. Edward Wilson, "Uncle Bill" to everybody, chief of the scientific staff and medical doctor who went every inch of the way with Scott.
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It was in December 1910 that the stout little wooden ship was in Antarctic waters looking for a base. On Christmas Day it was held fast byice so the day was celebrated on board with an enormous dinner of fresh»penguin, roast beef, plum pudding, mince pies, champagne and a huge box of fancy chocolates for dessert. Captain Scott conducted the Christmas church service and dinner was followed by a sing song lasting until midnight.
It was a marvellously cheerful sound in the great white silence - men’s voices singing Christmas carols and other happy songs against an orchestra of the wind soughing and whistling in the rigging.
iSoon after, they found a base, carried their equipment over sea ice to the land, built a hut and put up tents, and made a programme for the coming journey overland to the Pole.
This was Wilson’s second visit to the Antarctic. Nine years earlier, just recovered from tuberculosis, he had spent two years in the Antarctic with Scott who was determined that Wilson should accompany him again. As a scientist and naturalist, Wilson had spent the two years exploring the polar areas day and night, making most important discoveries in geology, geography and zoology. It was two years of constant danger but once more in 1911, knowing all the hazards, he was eager and determined to go again.
Wilson was a great and truly noble-hearted Englishman. The most . outstanding facet of his character was his unshakeable faith in God and his utterrbelief that everything he did, even should he die in doing it, was in the service of God and was planned by Him.
He did not need to be in a church to be with God. His spirit was such that God was with him everywhere, in the beautiful, eerie scenery of the Antarctic, in everything he saw and did, big and small, in every tiny bird or beastie he held in his hands.
In spite óf his early grave illness he was a man of gigantic courage and endurance, serenity, sympathy and a great capacity for loving and helping others. He always wore a happy smile, enjoying larking about and scorned self- pity.
' What sort of a boy makes a man like this? Wilson won the prize for art at school but was weak at maths. From a tiny child he had a passion for nature, collecting shells, fossils, butterflies and dried flowers, silkworms, mice, eggs, snakes, newts, frogs, b e lle s - anything he could lay his hands upon. He drew beautifully, without any training, and accurately recorded both in writing and exquisite sketches everything he saw.
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Nor was this boy who loved everything that was pure, truthful and beautiful, who had a horror of all that was mean, low and dishonest, what you would call a "sissy”. He came first in the long and high jump, later he rowed for his university, and still later played Rugby for his hospital when he was studying medicine. Was it not Sir Galahad, one of King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table, who said "My strength is as the strength of 10 because my heart is pure"? Well, Wilson is my Sir Galahad - but I willingly share him with you.
In the Antarctic this tall, lean man, always neatly dressed, performed Herculean feats of strength in ghastly blizzards. His hands were so frostbitten that he could scarcely hold a pencil. He pulled a heavy sledge blindfold because of snow-blindness, and using only one eye, when he could, to see through a slit in his goggles, he would make yet another lovely and accurate drawing of Arctic birds and animals, or mountains of ice, or of the course he and his fellows were charting. Careless of cold, wet, difficulty, danger or sickness, he kept a faithful diary, devotedly tended the sick, and by the light of candle or lamp stole hours from precious sleep to carry on with his writing and sketching at night.
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You can see why Scott chose him as one of the five men to do the last j ourney to the Pole. And at last the last five men set out - Scott, Wilson, . Oates, Evans and Bowers - stiffly pulling the sledges, plugging on blindly through blizzards, through a blank, white wall of fog, ice, snow, slush and terrifying wind. Scott wrote of Wilson "he was tough as steel on the traces, never wavering from start to finish". Bowers wrote: "I am glad that Captain Scott has Dr. Bill in his tent. There is something always so reassuring about Bill. He comes out best in adversity. " *
The live men had 148 miles to go to the Pole and got there, only to find to Scott's disappointment that a Norwegian explorer, Amundsen, had reached there a month earlier. But they planted their country's flag, Wilson made pencil sketches at the Pole and then they set out on the desperate struggle back across the immense wastes of frozen fields on their 900 mile return trip. It was a tragic journey. Oates and Evans were severely frost-bitten, Wilson was snow- blind and had severely strained a tendon of his leg, Scott had bruised his shoulder,
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blizzard followed blistering blizzard - a book about the march says it was "blizzing like blazes" - all were freezing cold and wet, and very tired.But Wilson was both caring for the others and still filling his journal with observations of weather and glaciers, and sketches of ice crystals.
After descending a steep 10,000 ft. glacier, Evans, who had fallen heavily many times, died. For the first time Wilson stopped writing in his diary. Each minute in camp was now needed to tend to his companions. Scott wrote 'Wilson, the best fellow that ever stepped, has sacrificed himself again
iand again to the sick men of the party. " This was Wilson's Odyssey. He was living his highest ideal - "to become entirely careless of your own soul or body in looking after the welfare of others. "
The four survivors struggled on but Oates, with his frost-bitten feet, was in such enormous pain that he was unable to pull the sledge. Gallantly he struggled on for four days. Then he limped away into the howling wind and snow to die so that he would not further burden the party.
Finally, only 11 miles away from a depot where they would find food and fuel to keep them alive for weeks, a nine-day blizzard fell on the remaining three. Their fuel was finished, their food nearly all gone. They could not beat the blizzard. Scott, Wilson and Bowers died in their tent and now the world is their couch, the snow their blanket, the sky their canopy. On a gaunt white cross where my hero and his friends died are carved words which marvellously describe Wilson: "TO STRIVE, TO SEEK, TO FIND, AND NOT TO YIELD. "
Wilson died with his little testament and prayer book close to him and wrote in his last letter to the wife he adored "There are greater things for us to do in the world to come . . . all is well. " Scott wrote to Mrs. Wilson: "I shall like you to know how splendid he was at the end, everlastingly cheerful and ready to sacrifice himself for others . . . his mind is peaceful with the satisfaction of his faith in regarding himself as part of the great scheme of the Almighty. "
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And now I must tell you, more briefly, about my second hero. He was a school master who did nothing spectacular but what he did was heroic. His name was James Rose-Innes, a Scot with an M. A. degree from Aberdeen University.He arrived in Cape Town in 1822 after a four-months' trip on a sailing ship, and was appointed a school master at a salary of £80 a year plus a house. Before the British occupation in 1914, the Cape had been a half-way station for the Dutch East India Company. This Company's fortunes had suffered and education was not the
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thing which they had thought it was necessary to provide for the residents in the Cape. Any educated person at the Cape at that time had been educated in Europe. There were very few school teachers at that time. There were people called Meesters who taught in the hinterland, but most of them were vagrants and drunks giving to the farmers' children schooling of the most ignorant kind for £2 to £3 a month and their meals.
This was the South Africa into which Rose-Innes came. He found little thirst for education. How could he bring the children real teachers instead of the drunken "meesters"? He started a school at Uitenhage and was welcomediby a farmer's wife with a scornful exclamation: "A schoolmaster? Aren't you ashamed to be a schoolmaster, a strong, healthy young fellow like you, who can dig in the garden and earn your bread?". So used were people to the drunken,lazy and vice-ridden hoboes who were the Ij^e^ste^ that people did not know that genuine school masters really existed. So young Innes, at 22, set up a one-manschool at Uitenhage for 100 children, taking all the classes in confined rooms with mud floors. He noted: "When the children walked you had a fog of dust in the school room". The school grew to 160 and still Rose-Innes taught alone from kindergarten to as high as he could get the children. The application for an assistant teacher fell on deaf ears,
Innes married Margaret, the 21 year old daughter of an officer. She quietly took over the boarding arrangements for farmers' children and kept house for a number of boarders and her own children.
After 8 years Rose-Innes went to Cape Town to help to found the first high school, teaching mathematics. This school later became the famous South African College.
In 1839 he was appointed the Superintendent of Education in the Cape, covering his territory of 150, 000 square miles on indifferent roads by horse and cart. He returned to Scotland to recruit more teachers and brought with him textbooks and classroom maps. At that time there were in all 11 schools at the Cape, with 500 pupils. It was Rose-Innes who patiently built the foundation of education in South Africa. He knew how little future there was for an uneducated people. He is one of my heroes because he did an ordinary job in an extraordinary manner because of his dedication, his fine values and standards and his growing love for the people of his new country.
When he retired in 1859 he left 38 primary schools, 47 State-aided farm schools and 112 mission schools. A new class of educated South African had arisen. He had the Scottish characteristic of thoroughness and he put all his strength at his command into building the basis of a sound educational system.
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So my special heroes are of two types - the spectacular and the ordinary. Over and over again in my work as Mayor of our city I meet Rose- inneses, people who have a job to do, not a specially exciting job, but who put their heart and soul into it, not because of the reward but because the job is important for the welfare or happiness of others and has to be done and the quality of their work is such that nothing but the best will do. This thought was in my mind fairly recently when I watched the absolutely superb way in which the staff at Baragwanath Hospital laboured after an accident at a railway station.
Is there a difference in the quality of heroism between a man who wins the V. C. in a war for a particularly gallant act, or the charwoman,the Mrs. Mops, who turned up at work every day with her bucket and broom in London during the Battle of Britain so that the people whose offices she cleaned could get on with the job of trying to win the war?
There is_ a way to be a hero, even a pocket-size hero. Put more into life than you expect to be given in return. Let your target be not only your pay packet but the best job you can do with the abilities you have. Put more into any situation than you take out. Your satisfaction will be the knowledge of a job well done. Then you will have heroic quality. Then you will be a fine person, like Wilson and Rose-Innes.
The others will be glued to the hit parade
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Personality, February 26, 1970 — 119
cusanoHsIF YESTRMYby F. C. Metrowich
In the early days of the Cape, education was a hit-and-miss affair . . . with the teachers doing the hitting and the pupils often going missingAFTER the settlement at the Cape in 1652, education was first put in the hands of the Sieckentrooster. Variously known as the Comforter of the Sick and the Reader or the Precentor, this versatile teacher had many other functions to perform besides his scholastic duties.
In Van Riebeeck’s time, for example, in the absence of a regular clergyman he was allowed to carry out some of the minister’s duties. But these were strictly defined. Thus he could conduct services and read a sermon to the congregation. But he must on no account compose his own discourse or “arrogate to himself under any pretext whatever anything which properly belonged to the ministerial office.”In fact the very first Sieckentrooster at the Cape, Willem Barentz Wylant, soon got into serious trouble with the authorities because he actually had the presumption to deliver a religious address which he had drawn up himself instead of reading a printed sermon as he should have done. When taxed with this heinous crime he naively pleaded that his eyesight was so weak that he found it difficult to read anything!
But the Ecclesiastical Court of Batavia refused to accept this explanation of what it considered to be “a scandal to the Christian Church” and it stated bluntly that the “sick comforter should have known better than to put his sickle into another’s harvest and to take to himself honour which did not belong to him.” The Council of India also took a very serious view of the matter and sent a strongly worded dispatch to Van Riebeeck strictly enjoining him to prevent such irregular proceedings in future.This incident clearly shows how jealously the clergy guarded their rights and privileges in those days and how they resented the introduction of any innovation or divergence from the established custom.
The first regular school in South Africa was not opened until 1658 when the settlement was about six years old. It had some peculiar features and its pupils consisted solely of Bantu men from the West coast who had been imported as slaves. The teacher was the Sieckentrooster Pieter van der Stael and he had orders to instruct his unruly flock in the Dutch language and in the elements of the Christian religion.
But, as can be imagined, Van der Stael had a very rough time of it. His pupils were semi-savages and neither they nor the teacher understood one another’s language. It is small wonder then that the experiment was not a success. The slaves were
soon bored with their unhappy lot and frequently played truant. On one occasion they were missing for five days until they were discovered living in a cave at Hout Bay. They were ignominiously hauled back to the classroom by the company’s soldiers. Van Riebeeck then tried to stimulate their interest in their studies by instituting a system of rewards which would have shocked the educational authorities today — a tot of rum and a few inches of chewing tobacco each. In spite of these inducements the students continued to play truant and before long the school had to be permanently closed down.
Five years later the first school for Whites was opened — but it had rather a mixed roll. Of its 17 pupils, 12 were Whites, four were slaves and one was a Hottentot. At the time the population of the Cape was so small that the Commander knew each oupil by name and he personally fixed the fee which each had to pay.
The scholars, strangely enough, received no regular holidays. But the only schoolroom available was the fairly large loft of one of the company’s buildings. When the fleet arrived this room was used as a lodging for the crews and the pupils were given a holiday until it sailed. And so it can be imagined with what glee the happy tidings spread among the youngsters: “The ships have arrived” and how fervently they prayed that their stay would be a long one.
This school, unfortunately, also had a very chequered career. Its schoolmaster, the Sieckentrooster Emestus Back, set his scholars a very poor example. He was extremely fond of the bottle and on more than one Sunday was so intoxicated that he was unable to carry out his church duties. The Commander naturally took a most serious view of his reprehensible conduct and in vain warned him that he must mend his ways. But Back failed to do this. And then in 1665 a large comet appeared in the sky. This was taken as a clear expression of divine disapproval of the erring teacher’s evil behaviour and so he, with his wife and family, was incontinently banished to Batavia.During the 18th century education maintained its religious bias and its main object was to fit the children to pass the catechism examination so that they could become full members of the Dutch Reformed Church. For this reason reading and writing were taught and the rest of the time was devoted to religious subjects — the learning of the Lord’s prayer, the ten commandments, the articles of the Christian faith, the grace before and after
meals, the morning and evening prayers, the catechism and the singing o f psalms.In spite of the paltry wages which the schoolmaster was paid, he was expected to be a very versatile man — in fact a Jack of all trades. One old account describes the ideal teacher as a man “who knows how to write a good hand and who is good at reading; who knows sol-fa-ing and who can sing the psalms from notes; who neither lisps nor speaks too low; who can write letters and requests; who understands the scriptures so that he can educate the people; and who knows how to set a clock, how to manage it, and oil and clean it.”Perhaps even more enlightening is the list of functions which the teacher might be permitted to perform in order to add to his pitiful salary. “He could become a notary, a tax collector, and a secretary. He might compute the taxes, cut hair, cure wounds, act as a glazier, make wooden balls and coffins, cut stone, stain and varnish chairs, mend shoes, prepare all mourning articles, hoe gardens, bind books, knit fish nets, keep a few cows, fatten oxen, earn a stiver by sewing, carve wood, write books and compose love letters.” And then is added the cautionary note: “But he should be allowed to do all these things, only outside school hours! ”
In spite of, or perhaps because of, these various activities in which the teacher might indulge, the general level of schooling in Cape Town was of such a low standard that most of the wealthier citizens sent their sons to Holland to be educated. For the children living in the country districts there was of course no such solution.
In the small towns and villages the Voorlezer or Parish Clerk, clad in a dignified black coat, waistcoat, breeches and long stockings, was alsc the local schoolteacher. He was on duty every day of the week, including Sundays. On the Sabbath day he was in charge of the children in church and he had to keep a sharp look-out to see that they behaved with suitable decorum, took their full share in singing the psalms and answered the questions on the catechism correctly.Still poorer off educationally were the youngsters on the isolated farms. There were no schools for them to attend and the farmer was forced to rely on the dubious aid of itinerant meesters who after spending a few months with their pupils felt that they had exhausted their own capabilities and moved to the next homestead.
The type of education provided under these circumstances was usually so rudimentary that it proved quite inadequate even for those times. As a
120 — Personality, February 26, 1970
Above: Professor James Rose Innes, Ll.D - the first Superintendent of Education at the CapeAbove: Sir Thomas Muir who was Superintendent-General of Education at the Cape between 1892 and 1915.
Left: The South African College in Cape Town in 1832. This was the predecessor of the University of Cape Town.result, when a farm boy reached man’s estate and wished to set up his own establishment, he was invariably faced with a serious problem. Before he could be married he had to pass the catechism examination in order to be admitted to the church. And so he was forced to make the long and hazardous journey to Cape Town and go back to school.
The need to pass the examination was an extremely serious matter for him. Young marriageable girls of 1'4 years old and upwards, were in such short supply at the Cape that they were seldom prepared to wait another year if their prospective husband failed. In that case he would inevitably find his intended wife snapped up by one of his more successful rivals.
During the early part of the 19th century a large number of schools were opened in the Cape Colony. Many of these were extremely short-lived. But there were notable exceptions. Perhaps the most famous of these was the South African College at which for the first time in South Africa an attempt to provide a system of higher education was made.
Begun in 1829, S.A.C.S. eventually developed into the University of Cape Town. At first however it had a very chequered career and for a long time its lecturers were severely handicapped by the fact that so many of their students were only fit for elementary education. In fact as late as 1883 there were still seventy pre-matriculation pupils in attendance.
In its initial stages, and for some time afterwards, the professors found it extremely difficult to control their turbulent classes and to enforce discipline. Corporal punishment was strictly forbidden but there was the peculiar anomaly that any student who broke the laws of the college could be hauled before the Senate by the janitor and sentenced to varying terms of confinement dependent on the severity of his offence. The prison consisted of a couple of rooms in the building and there the unfortunate miscreants were shut up all day untU nine o’ clock at night on a diet of bread and water for as long as a fortnight at a time.
This peculiar system of punishment apparently lasted for some years. In the Senate minutes of 1831 for example we find a reference to the fact that the two existing places of detention were ineffective as they were not secure enough and their temporary occupants had little difficulty in breaking out of them. To remedy this, the authorities thereupon decided to erect six new
escape-proof cells — although there is no record that this was ever actually done.The Council and the Senate had in fact to deal with many strange and unusual situations. On one occasion applications were invited for the vacant chair of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, Mineralogy and Botany. One candidate submitted this amazing effort in effrontery:“I must, however, observe that on the subject of Mineralogy my memory will require much brushing up, and o f Botany I know little or nothing. Nevertheless, if these studies can be arranged so as not to form part of the first opening term, I have no doubt I shall be able to prepare myself for their elucidation in due course. When Bishop Watson was appointed to the Professorship of Chemistry in Cambridge he knew as little of the subject as I of Botany and yet continued to support its reputation.”
Regrettably he failed to obtain the post!In the smaller towns away from the capital,
many private schools and institutions were also opened and most of them flourished - for a time at any rate. Typical of these was the Grahamstown Grammar School the founder and principal of which was Mr J.H. Stephenson. In 1831 he issued the following prospectus:
“Mr J.H. Stephenson respectfully announces to the inhabitants of Albany that he has made arrangements for the reception of eight young gentlemen as boarders on the following terms: Pupils under fifteen years of age, 25 pounds per annum. Above fifteen years of age, thirty pounds per annum. There are no extra charges except for washing and stationery.”
Most of the schoolrooms of those days were very crude affairs. They usually consisted of a single room with mud floors and walls. They had thatched roofs with open rafters and often the desks comprised rough planks nailed onto sneezewood poles planted in the ground.
The most conspicuous object in all these schools was invariably the quince switch or similar implement of chastisement. This was always prominently displayed, hanging from a nail in the wall when not in use. It was small wonder, however, that the schoolmaster in those days was bad-tempered and quick to anger as he had much to try him. Often he had to cope with as many as 150 children in half a dozen standards all in one room at the same time. As a result most teachers were afterwards remembered, not so much for the learning which they strove to impart but for their
acid tongues and the severity of their corporal punishments.Mr Snell of the Grahamstown Public School, for example, was notorious for the way in which he mixed bitter invective with half a dozen of the
best — administed with his favourite weapon, a stout, stinkwood rod, while Mr William Bett of the same school would sadly shake his head over some particularly stupid boy and point through the window at the mental asylum across the valley. “Yon is the hill you should be on,” he would say bitterly. “Keepers are what you need, not teachers! ”
To make matters worse, the teaching profession was still regarded during the 19th century by the general public as a very lowly one and not really a fit occupation for anyone capable of better things. This is not surprising because most of its members were uneducated men, quite incapable of gracing a more honourable profession. There were of course exceptions but these were usually men who looked upon teaching as a mere stepping-stone to the much nobler and more respected calling of the ministry — to which they hoped to aspire as speedily as possible.
Many of these early pedagogues could only read and write with great difficulty themselves and the simplest sums in arithmetic were often beyond their capabilities. They were in fact men to whom the words of the old jingle aptly applied:“Multiplication is vexatious. Division is as bad.The rule of three doth puzzle me,And practice makes me mad.”
In 1842, in order to raise the status of the profession so that teachers would be able to earn as much as 70 pounds a year, each parent was ordered’to contribute five shillings a term towards their salaries. But many in the country districts were unable to afford even this paltry sum and had to make good the deficiency in the master’s stipend by supplying him with wheat, butter, cheese, poultry, eggs and other farm produce. Others paid their fees in I.O.U’s which were seldom redeemed.
The Colonial Secretary of the Cape, Colonel Bell, adequately summed up the position of teachers in a memorandum issued in 1837:“There is certainly in this colony,” he wrote, “something like a prejudice against the profession of the schoolmaster, few of the Cape-bom inhabitants engaging in it. There are, or were, numbers of ex-soldiers, who for want of other means o f livelihood became teachers in Boer families. These men were generally drunken,
Personality, February 26, 1970 — 121
disreputable characters, and it is not to be wondered at that uninstructed Boers could hardly honour a profession which they saw degraded in the persons of the professors.”As for a real lady becoming a schoolmistress — if she so lowered herself, she could hardly expect an offer of marriage from any respectable male of any standing in the community. For this statement we have the authority of no less a person than the famous Dr John Philip. Annoyed that his daughter Elizabeth was even contemplating such a degrading step, he wrote her the following scathing letter:“You are not without dignified sentiments but in the present case I cannot help thinking that you have lost sight of your own dignity. Diminishing ideas are invariably connected with the office of a stipendary school teacher. However your present - equals in society might speak to you, they would instantly feel that you were below them as soon as it should be known you were a schoolmistress. Although I want to see you independent, as far as happiness is concerned, of the marriage state, yet I do not wish to see you in a situation which might preclude you from a reputable offer. I must tell you plainly with the present ideas of society you would have no chance of an offer of marriage such as I would wish to see you accept.”To the general low level of education among teachers themselves, there were of course outstanding exceptions. Undoubtedly the most notable of these was James Rose Innes who was appointed the schoolmaster of Uitenhage at a salary of 80 pounds a year and a free house. One day he accompanied the newly arrived predikant from Scotland on a tour of his new parish. At one of the outlying farms, the Dutch housewife greeted the Rev. Smith with the greatest deference - but when she discovered that his companion was a mere teacher she turned on him with scorn.“Aren’t you ashamed of being a schoolmaster,” she rebuked him, “a strong, healthy fellow like you, who can dig in the garden and earn your bread? ”Little did she know that she was addressing an M.A. of Aberdeen University who was destined to become a professor of the South African College and subsequently the first Superintendent of Education of the Cape!Indeed for a long time the inhabitants of Uitenhage itself doubted whether the eminently respectable Mr Rose Innes could really be a genuine schoolmaster as no one ever saw him drunk.When James Rose Innes took up his post as Superintendent in 1839, one of the first things
that he did was to try to improve matters by importing five teachers from Scotland. Unfortunately the posts vacant at the Cape carried different salaries and so the new masters had to write a competitive examination so that they could be graded. As a result John Paterson, John McNaughton and George Bremner secured Port Elizabeth, Wynberg and Paarl respectively — each at a salary of 150 pounds per annum, P. Black, Worcester at 130 pounds, while poor John Reid who came bottom of the list, had to be content with Somerset East at a mere 100 pounds.
There have naturally been many queer anomalies in educational practice in South Africa at different times in the past. One of the strangest of these was the peculiar system under which a teacher’s salary was made dependent on the number of pupils he taught and their success in the examinations. This unusual method of fixing his emoluments was still in force in many parts of South Africa towards the end of the past century.In the Cape Colony for example, farm school teachers at one time received no direct salary at all from the government. Instead they were granted a capitation grant of one pound a year for each scholar in their classes plus five shillings for each child who passed Std. I, 10 shillings for a Std. II pass, 15 shillings for a Std. Ill pass and one pound for a Std. IV pass.As these schools were usually very small — in 1877 there were 179 of them with an average enrolment of between eight and nine - the amount on which the teacher had to subsist was extremely low. He did not, of course, have to pay for his board and lodging but this was usually of a very inferior standard. In fact we find one unfortunate teacher complaining bitterly that neither he nor his pupils could be expected to give of their best when they had to work on a breakfast consisting solely of prickly pears — and that they were also expected to give a hand with the farm chores in their spare time.This parsimonious payment of teachers led directly to various forms of fraudulent practice becoming common. In 1882 a Cape inspector stated that some ingenious, but apparently absent-minded members but artificial roll by conveniently forgetting to remove but artificial role by conveniently forgetting to remove the names of children who had long since left the school.Even more artful were the headmasters, who adopted a still more subtle method of hoodwinking the authorities. As late as 1893 the Superintendent-General of Education, Dr Thomas
Muir, pointed out that in order to increase their stipends some of them were actually retaining children in school for the sole purpose of passing examinations. In his report for that year he explained how this was done:“Supposing,” he wrote, “a pupil passes in Std. II this year, and the sum of ten shillings is consequently paid, one would naturally expect that the pupil would be prepared for the examination in Std. III next year and that no money would be forthcoming if he failed. Instead of this the practice has been to pay for such a pupil all the same, namely ten shillings, for his having passed Std. II a second time, or five shillings if in adverse circumstances he fell back to Std. I. It is impossible to look upon this practice with any degree of satisfaction.”But it was in Natal where the system was most popular and lasted for the longest time that it was most abused. The government had laid down that in apportioning the attendance grants for a teacher’s salary, each child must attend a minimum of 175 school days. The inevitable result was that once he had completed this period his continued presence in the class was of no value to the teacher and in too many cases he was actively encouraged to absent himself for the rest of the year.Of course this system also worked in reverse and put a powerful weapon in the hands of the parents. If they had a grudge against an unpopular schoolmaster they would deliberately retain their children at home just long enough to ensure that they did not qualify for the 175-day grant. In this way, by combining, a number of parents could out of pure spite succeed in substantially reducing the teacher’s salary.The system, too, had another very bad effect on the children’s education. The regulations laid down that the examination fee would be paid only on a pass in reading, writing and arithmetic and many unscrupulous teachers concentrated on drilling their pupils in these subjects while the rest of the syllabus was almost completely neglected.The importance to a teacher of maintaining as high a school roll as possible for salary purposes led to another unexpected result. Because of this, mere toddlers were often encouraged to attend classes by enticing them with sweets, toys or other inducements. Some schools, in fact, often had a number of floor-attendants present — that is children of tender years who played about on the floor in front of the classes or on occasion even slumbered peacefully through the lessons and were only awakened when it was time for the school t dismiss. $$
H O U S E W IF E ’SLA M EN T
SOME DIET — LETS TRIET
by Isobel Randall
I cook with great thought The meat that I ’ve bought; Vegetables, rice,And a pudding that’s nice.But she turns up her nose And refuses to eat The veggies and meat,The pudding, the rice,Or anything nice.She prefers leaves and stones Buttons, bottle-tops and bones — I find it incredible That she finds them more edible!
122 — Personality, February 26, 1970
Collection Number: A1132 Collection Name: Patrick LEWIS Papers, 1949-1987
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