[357]. Quantity not given in published trade returns.
[358]. Captain Beeckman, op. cit.
[359]. The Brooketon Colliery leased to the Sarawak Government is in Bruni territory. In Chap. XV. will be found a full account of this mine.
ST. JOSEPH'S CHURCH (R.C.) ST. THOMAS' DIOCESAN CHURCH (S.P.G.)
CHAPTER XVII
EDUCATION—RELIGION—MISSIONS
Many changes of opinion must take place upon the subject of the education of natives before it is exhausted and the best way of teaching found, and such changes of opinion and the improvements in methods which follow in their train can only be the result of experience, or of conclusions drawn from successful or unsuccessful experiments.
So the Rajah wrote thirty years ago, but hitherto experience has taught little that gives any encouragement to the expectation that the present condition of the natives will be improved by any form of education based upon accepted ideals. Though the difficulty lies perhaps not so much in knowing what or how to teach the natives, but in getting them to come to be taught; especially is this the case with the dominant Sea-Dayak race, a fact which should not be lost sight of in considering how missionary efforts in this direction have met with such small success.
If he would learn, a Sea-Dayak could be taught almost anything; but what should we teach him? A common school board education is of no value to him. He may learn to read and write, and gain a little rudimentary knowledge utterly useless to him after leaving school, and therefore soon to be forgotten. If he is placed in one of the larger schools in Kuching he will there receive impressions and imbibe ideas which may render a return to his old surroundings distasteful to him, and unfit him for the ordinary life and occupations of his people. He will be left with one opportunity of gaining a living—he may become a clerk, though the demand for clerks is limited; but if he is successful in obtaining a clerkship he will be beset with temptations which he will be unable to resist, and which will soon prove his ruin; and unfortunately this has been the rule and not the exception. There are some who advocate technical education, and who rightly point out that the Sea-Dayak would make an excellent artisan, though the same argument applies equally against the utility of such a training. He may become a clever carpenter or smith, but there would be few opportunities for him to benefit himself by his skill, for he could never compete with the Chinese artisan, into whose hands all the skilled labour has fallen.