Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/110

 relates to the proportion out of the whole educational fund which is devoted to the superior instruction. In the Bombay Presidency this proportion amounts to about one-fifth of the whole. At present our care is to fix for the high schools and the Colleges such a scale of fees as the students can reasonably afford in the existing circumstances of Native society. Their fees are high, relatively, to the means of ordinary students and to the fees of the other schools; so that our superior instruction is very much more costly to the students than instruction of any lower kind. We take into consideration the expense incurred by the students on account of their being obliged to live at capital cities like Bombay or Poona. And this is one of the reasons why we have lately assented to the inauguration of a College at Ahmedabad, for the Guzerat province (as soon as may be financially practicable), for the founding of which institution a sum of money has been raised by Native gentlemen. Another reason is this, that we sympathize with the trouble which the parents must have in placing their sons under proper supervision while studying in capital cities distant from home.

By establishing one or two additional Colleges in this Presidency we hope to augment the number of those receiving high education, which number is at present seen to be so small. But we cannot do more than this without unduly weakening the limited resources available for the existing Colleges. Manifestly a College is of little use unless it enables students to take University degrees. Unless the teaching staff be strong enough for this, it must fail to perform its proper functions. Native professors are comparatively inexpensive, and can competently teach many subjects. But there is one great subject for which you must have Englishmen and graduates of the British Universities, who are necessarily expensive, and that is English literature. We have given you English professors worthy of your respect and confidence in the highest degree. But the number of such valuable men must unavoidably be limited. And this circumstance alone would preclude the founding of many Colleges in this Presidency. At all events, we must take care that the English education does not deteriorate: such deterioration is apprehended by many even among the Natives. Certainly there is not enough attention paid to English elocution and caligraphy. Much as we may employ Native professors in various subjects, we must endeavour in our superior institutions to maintain English professors for English literature.

With all the efforts which we may have made, or may yet make, the quantity of high education in Western India is, and