r. Chamberlain.

Mr. ----, in a letter addressed to one of your contemporaries,
informed the British public that in view of a liberal Government
grant of L4 per head per annum, the Transvaal Uitlander had nothing
to complain of in respect to education. As Mr. ---- claims to be
completely informed on Transvaal politics, he can only have been
guilty of a deliberate, if not malicious _suppressio veri_ when he
omitted to say that, like most of the legislation of this country,
which has for its ostensible object the amelioration of the condition
of the Uitlander, this measure, which looks like munificence at first
sight, has been rendered practically inoperative by the conditions
which hedge it round. Take, for example, a school of 100 children.
Strike out ten as being under age, ten as having been too short a
time at school, twenty as suspected of being of Dutch parentage. Out
of the sixty that remain suppose fifty satisfy the inspector in the
Dutch language and history, and you have as your allowance for the
year L200--a sum which is insufficient to pay the Dutch teacher
employed to bring the children up to the required standard in that
language. It is small wonder, then, that most teachers prefer to
dispense with this Will-o'-the-wisp grant altogether, seeing that the
efforts of some to earn it have resulted in pecuniary loss. The
actual sum expended on Uitlander schools last year amounted to L650,
or 1s. 10d. a head out of a total expenditure for education of
L63,000, the expenditure per Dutch child amounting to L8 6s. 1d.

Mr. Chamberlain considers the new educational law for Johannesburg as
a subject for gratulation. I should have thought that his recent
dealings with Pretoria would have suggested to him as a statesman
that felicitations upon the passing of a vague and absolutely
undefined measure might possibly be a little too premature. A
Volksraad, which only rejected the forcible closing of private
schools by a majority of two votes, is hardly likely to give the
Executive _carte blanche_ to deal with Uitlander education without
some understanding, tacit or declared, as to how this power is to be
wielded. Be that as it may, nearly two months have elapsed since the
passing of a measure which was to come into operation at once, and
nothing has been done. In the meantime, we can learn from the
inspired press and other sources that English schools which desire
aid under the new law must be prepared to give instruction