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Publications & Reports

Bleek revisits the oppressive policy clause declaring English a compulsory medium of instruction for a daily minimum of two hours. It has resulted in the dismissal of otherwise competent Dutch-speaking educators and the disbanding of good elementary schools servicing non-English speakers. This clause limits the educational potential of Dutch-speaking Cape colonists, who outnumber the British -- by preventing them from establishing their schools. This inconvenience is prejudicial. This clause denies the Dutch-speaking lower classes home language education and squanders human assets. Unlike Britain's Oceanian colonies, South Africa was in Dutch hands before being transferred (ceded outright) in about 1815 (after the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814). The Treaty guaranteed the retention of existing laws and institutions. The English language is not what makes a colonist loyal or a good farmer. These educational grants arise from local taxpayers/ratepayers and are not from the Imperial Treasury. English is a beneficial lingua franca, but draconian linguistic imperialism will not achieve this. Educated Dutch speakers will organically acquire English as a means to grow. Education is required to recognise English's utility. Even Robert Lowe, the English statesman, felt English need not be an imperative for British Government Welsh elementary schools. He then shifts to the Synod dispatching Andrew Murray Jnr to England to champion the Church's appeal to the Privy Council against the Kotze/Burgers case judgement. The empire's highest authority will clarify the Church's legal status for the Orthodox party and help remedy the undefined legal powers of different church authorities. In Murray's absence, the parish would benefit from one substitute in all instances.

Printed newsprint glued on paper

03/05/1866

Two cut out columns of newsprint text, positioned vertically parallel, pasted onto a plus-sized A4 unlined sheet with visible warping. No title was subsequently handwritten onto the mount/paper backing.