John Hammond
It is customary on this day for a report on the year’s work to be given. Before doing that, however, I want to thank you all for coming out here today.
That the journey is not a pleasure trip we all know, none better than those of us who live here. We have made an attempt this year to add a little comic relief to the monotony of the bumps. Our principal misgiving when editing the road map was that on first reading it through at Nyamandhlovu you would all turn round and go home again! I hope that what you have seen today has made you feel that the journey has been worth while.
By this time next year, I hope that the road map will be out of date. Next year a new and magnificent bridge is to be put across the Gwaai on another road. We owe this new bridge to the generosity of the Government, the Native Reserves Fund and the Beit Trustees. When this is completed the journey to Bulawayo will be less arduous than the one you have taken today; but even a new Bridge cannot make an indifferent road perfect and there will still remain 15 miles of road on the new route which will be capable of doing damage to the springs of any car. But I sincerely hope that you will not let a mere 15 miles of bad road deter you from visiting us again.
Today, of course, the School is on show. Naturally things are looking a bit more spick and span than they usually do, but we have tried to give you some indication of what the School looks like on an ordinary working day. Naturally the boys work with greater enthusiasm when they have an audience to watch them; but you will have been able to get some idea of what we do here and how we do it. If any of you feel that you want to see more, I take this opportunity of extending to you an invitation to come out here when the School is in normal working order and to spend a day or two finding out more about the place.
This year, it was decided to limit the numbers of the School to 200. This was made necessary for two main reasons – water and accommodation. We have had anxious moments this year with our water supplies; in October last the second borehole gave signs of going in, one having done so the year before. Then in March this year, the third suddenly dropped just when it should have been at its best. A machine was rushed in to sink a new hole and has found an apparently excellent supply. This new borehole is not yet in use – the other two having picked up sufficiently to keep us going and our water problems are temporarily solved; I say ‘temporarily’ because I would not dare to guarantee the life of any borehole in this area – only a very rash man would. When once an engine is put to pump on a hole it seldom seems to last more than three or four years and in spite of the thousand gallons an hour which our new hole gave on a test, I am still far from optimistic about the future.
The new dormitory, which was completed in January, has made it possible to house all the boys in good buildings. It would not have been possible to exceed our present numbers without having to go on using the old and very dilapidated buildings which have served as dormitories almost since the School started 18 years ago.
For the coming year, no funds have been given for the construction of permanent buildings … the dining hall in which you have just heard the boys singing, had to be left uncompleted through lack of funds. I regret that I am unable to say when work is likely to be resumed.
A few figures regarding the boys of the School may be of interest. They come from 26 different districts of Southern Rhodesia and from three neighbouring territories. There are 14 vernacular languages spoken in the School and 12 different religious denominations are represented; two boys claim no definite denomination; 86% of the boys are between the ages of 15 and 25, the average age being about 20. 23 of the 37 new boys who entered the School this year came from 15 different central or boarding Schools – the other 14 came from Kraal (village) schools.
Many of them travel long distances to come to school. Most of them come from Matobe, Gwanda, Mzingwane and this reserve, but some come from as far as Marandellas and Chipinga. One man arrived this year from Enkeldoorn. He was 36 and wanted to enter Standard 2. We hadn’t the heart to turn him away, so he is here now struggling along, and hoping that his time here will help to improve his wage earning capacity and so make it possible for him to send his children to school.
The numbers following the different industries in the upper standards show the popularity of each … 20 take building, 17 carpentry, 7 farming and 15 tanning and leatherwork.
This year, standards V and VI are allowed to specialise. Next year Standard VI and a post standard VI class will specialise and in the year after than specialising will only be allowed after boys have passed standard VI. The lower standards do general industrial work which includes elementary building, carpentry, agriculture and leatherwork. A course of metalwork will be started this year for standard VI and I hope that in a year or two we shall be able to offer that as a further course in which boys may specialise.
The time table is divided so that half the boys are on industrial work while the others are in the classroom.We try as far as is possible, to relate the work of both sections.We are in fact, giving the boys a grown up form of what is being called modern education.Most of the boys have to earn their livings as soon as they have finished their schooling here.Their time at school is too short to allow them to learn by playing in the lower standards.That time will come, but meanwhile I sincerely hope that we shall not be asked to modernise to the extent of having free discipline.
Those of you who were here last year will have seen the progress that has been made since then. The new dormitory was built almost entirely by school boys and completed in eight months. The pupils get a certain amount of useful practice on these permanent buildings but most of their instruction is given on the teachers’ cottages. Those cottages are of the type which we hope Natives will build in their Reserves. They are designed to show the Native that in the Reserves he has the material from which to build a good house. No large cash outlay has to be made to purchase other materials such as glass, ant course etc.
The poles and grass are getting scarce in some areas; however, our boys agricultural training should equip him to grow these things or at least to ensure that supplies are maintained in those areas where they do still exist. Personally I am in doubt as to whether this is a right principal to follow. Should we endeavour to make the Native self sufficient in his own Reserve, or should we encourage him to train for his wants. The greatest benefit to the country as a whole would undoubtedly come from this latter training.
To make this trade possible however, he must have the where-with-al to buy his goods. Only two ways lie open to him to make money; firstly by selling his labour and secondly by selling produce and stock. In both of these his scope is limited by the very people who want his trade. And so the vicious circle continues and we, who are endeavouring to raise the standard of the Native population, see our own way out in making the Native self sufficient, while at the same time we see the drawbacks of that practice.
At this end of the country, it is through stock that the Native will benefit most. If agriculture can be raised even to the level where famines need no longer occur, a great advance will have been made. We averaged seven bags of maize to the acre on the School plots this year. Only fifteen inches of rain fell on those crops before they were reaped. That shows that even in this area, famines need not occur if sound methods of agriculture are followed. Even if only a few Natives, having learnt, then carry out the methods by which they get fair crops in bad areas, our time will not have been wasted.
But for anything over and above the bare necessities, the Native here must look to their stock and it is on animal husbandry that we wish to lay most emphasis. We are slowly improving the plant which we have for the teaching of this. New pigsties have been built this year and a new stone kraal. Both of these add considerably to the appearance of the cattle sheds. This year we hope to put up new milking sheds and sheep pens. Without them the instruction we give loses much of its value. Mere theory is insufficient; concrete results push home lessons much more quickly. I hope that when the time comes for us to ask for the necessary funds for this work that we shall be able to obtain the backing of the Hon. Minister of Agriculture, who is here today.
The tannery continues to do very good work. A Native Teacher is in entire charge of that section of the work. The results he obtains are splendid. Educationally it is an excellent industrial subject, particularly for boys who ar too small to hand bricks or planes. Its value economically in a cattle country is too obvious for me to have to mention it.
The exhibit of carpentry is not a very large one. There has been a great deal of building construction to be done this year and carpenters have consequently not had a great deal of time in the workshop. But you will have been able to see the type of thing we teach them to make and you will have had a chance to study the quality of their work.
Of the future, two things will always have to be contended; water and malaria. This year an average of six boys were absent each day during April on account of malaria. Last year for the same period, the number was twelve. This may have been due to the short rains. We like to think that the improvement has been mainly brought about by the methods of control of mosquitoes which we have introduced as well as to the extra clearing and drainage. Of one thing I am certain, this improved situation would not have been but for the presence here of Miss Weir. She has probably the hardest job on the place, yet never have I known it to be too much trouble to turn out at any time of the day or night to give assistance to those who need it. We are extremely fortunate as a district, to have her at Tjolotjo.
We might be able to reduce the incidence of malaria, but increasing our water supply is a different matter. No one, as I have said before, should dare to guarantee the continued supply of water in an area such as this. There are very few possibilities of damming; and overstocking in the neighbouring Reserve leaves the veld bare of all grass. As a result most of the rain which falls runs off instead of sinking into the ground. Before we can hope for adequate water supplies, the problem of overstocking and soil erosion will have to be overcome. On the continuance of this adequate water supply rests the fate of this School. It is my belief that a definite decision will have to be made within five years.
Before I stop I must take this opportunity of expressing my gratitude to the members of the staff for their loyal co-operation. In a School such as this where there are several branches of technical work, it is impossible to carry on if the is any lack of co-operation among the staff. For the past year, there has certainly been no such lack, and it is principally to this that I attribute the excellent progress which the School has made. I must also extend the thanks of us all to the ladies who have given so much of their time and trouble in the preparation of this lunch. At this distance from town, catering is not easy, especially when one has to deal with the unreliability of certain Bulawayo firms.
Lastly, I would like to emphases once again the pleasure which it has given us to entertain you here today and to express the hope that we shall have further opportunities to show you a small part of what is being done towards the raising of the standard of a vast number of Natives in this country.