" The Commissioners found that much remained to be done
before it could be said that the children of the agricultural
population frequent the schools in sufficient numbers. They
thought that the establishment of School Boards having a lien
jirpon local rates will have considerable influence in promoting
school attendance in the rural districts. They urged that a
capitation grant should be paid even for one child (instead of
for a minimum of five) regularly taught by a qualified teacher
on a lonely farm. They urged certain increases in salary in
order to induce a better class of teachers to take up work in
connection with district boarding schools among the agricultural
ipopulatioh. They further recommended (1) augmentation of
grants in aid of salaries of teachers of schools started by a
School Board in rural areas, where the permanent needs of a
poorer class of inhabitants have to be provided for; (2) the
supply of movable structures for school purposes and for teachers'
houses; (3) grants to village technical schools undertaken by
School Boards, either as adjuncts to day schools or as separate
institutions; and (4) free railway tickets for children of poorer
families in rural areas attending day schools at a distance from
their homes." e

The Boer War, 1899-1902, greatly affected the rural
schools.
" In 1906 the ominous term ' Poor White ' seems to appear for
the first time as the subject of definite enquiry by a Select Com-
mittee of the House of Assembly, and ever since the question
has commanded some considerable, if not always well informed or
statesmanlike attention." '

" Great Britain Education Department. Op. cit. p. 68.
"Ibid p. 84.
' Macmillan W.M. The South African Agrarian Problem and its
Historical Development, p. S.
