Page:George McCall Theal, History of South Africa from 1873 to 1884, Volume 1 (1919).djvu/33

1874] to Tulbagh Road just beyond the cleft in the first range of mountains through which the Little Berg river flows, the line was opened on the 31st of August 1875, to Ceres Road on the 3rd of November 1875, and to Worcester on the 16th of June 1876. From Port Elizabeth the line was opened to Commando Kraal on the 24th of July 1875, and to Uitenhage on the 21st of September of the same year.

An event that should not pass unnoticed was the opening in February 1874 of the Huguenot seminary for girls, as no other institution in the country has done so much for the education of the daughters of the farmers and their training in habits of neatness and usefulness. This excellent institution owes its existence to the zeal of the reverend Dr. Andrew Murray, who took advantage of a large building at Wellington being for sale, and collected sufficient money to purchase it and adapt it to the purpose of a boarding school. Trained teachers were obtained from Holyoke in America, one of whom, Miss Ferguson, a lady of great energy and ability, was the first principal. The object was to give a sound Christian education and to inculcate habits of tidiness and domestic economy in the pupils, rather than to turn out idle ladies. The school grew rapidly, extensive buildings were erected, largely by means of money contributed in America, and at length a college department was added in which selected girls are trained as teachers and to fill important positions in life, while the lower school continues its highly useful work. The late Mr. John Samuel, organising inspector of schools, testified of the Huguenot seminary that on entering a farm house in any part of the western districts he could see at once whether the daughters had been trained at Wellington or not. If they had, everything was clean and tidy, and the table at meals was laid out in a way that would have been creditable in any town household. He could not speak too highly of the admirable work this school is doing.