Page:The empire and the century.djvu/623

 A difficulty of another kind presents itself in a rapidly growing mining community, such as that of Kimberley or Johannesburg. It is not easy to anticipate in which directions the town will extend, and even if school accommodation keep pace with the increase in children of school age, the constant change in the actual families living in any one district makes it difficult for teachers to obtain a real knowledge of individual children. In Johannesburg the failure of the South African Republic to provide suitably for even the barest educational needs of the Outlander population made the task of the new Government still more difficult.

In the distribution of schools it was manifestly the first duty of the various South African States to make provision for the white population, and from what has been said it should be clear that this was no easy matter, and that it is still imperfectly accomplished. The provision of schools for natives and other coloured people has been left mainly to various missionary agencies, the first society to undertake such duties being the Moravian. Before the British occupation there appear also to have been slave children in the public elementary schools of Capetown. As in the case of other pupils, they were instructed in the tenets of the Dutch Reformed Church. There was also a 'Slave Lodge' school. The first half of the century of British dominion was marked by the increase of 'mission' schools aided by Government. A leading feature of such schools was that white and coloured children were often taught together.

The second half of the century was marked by the institution of special schools for aborigines, and by the gradual separation of white from coloured scholars in other kinds of schools. Thus, having regard to their origin, the historian can easily distinguish between the two classes of schools termed 'mission' and 'aborigines.' The one class embodied the ideal of the earlier Christian missionaries in South Africa, that there should be no social distinctions founded on differences of colour or