he Education of the South African Native._ By CHARLES T. LORAM.
Longmans, Green and Company, London, 1917. Pp. 340.

This is a treatise written by a South African brought up among the
natives. He was once a Fellow in Teachers College of Columbia
University. At the time of writing this book he was serving as an
inspector of schools in Natal. The study, however, was undertaken as a
doctoral dissertation at Columbia.

Observing the shortcomings of writers on Africa, this author endeavors
to make a step ahead of them. He feels that they have dealt too much
with ethnology, and with the descriptions of customs and habits. He
does not think very much of the books primarily devoted to a
discussion of the conflicting opinions on craniology and psychology of
the natives. Taking up his own chosen task, however, he found it
rather difficult because the government has had no definite policy of
native education, and when there has been a policy among the four
important South African governments there does not appear to be any
uniformity of effort. No one, moreover, has undertaken to give the
problem of the uplift of the natives adequate treatment.

The author desired to make his work scientific but it appears that he
had not prosecuted this study very far before he found that important
facts were lacking and that in making his conclusions and suggestions
he would have to rely upon faith that what he may surmise may in the
future prove to be true, although some modification may be necessary.
Taking up this problem of education, however, he made use of the
reports of the government departments, reports of school officials,
books, pamphlets, articles in periodicals, statistical and
experimental investigations, personal experience, and the experiences
of his colleagues. While the work for the lack of some scientific
treatise blazing the way suffered from so many handicaps that it could
not be thoroughly scientific, it is the nearest approach to it and
must be considered the best authority in this field until superseded.

The work begins with a consideration of such scientific topics as race
contact in its larger aspects, the native problem and its proposed
solution, serving as a sort of introduction to the essential portion
of the work. The chief value of the book lies in its consideration of
why the natives should be educated, the early missionary enterprises,
the present status, elementary, industrial and higher education of th