MATRICULATION EXAMINATIONS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1708, 27 March 1913, Page 6

MATRICULATION EXAMINATIONS.

(To tho Editor!) i • Sir,—Your recent correspondent, "M 3. Hector," states that the majority of thoso who failed at the matriculation examination were "students who either hive private tuition or'read by themselves, and who probably have no intention of taking up university work," and wo are ied to infer from tho context that theso students are regarded with, disfavour by the ■ University authorities. How characteristic of University methods! Give all to him that ! hath, and nothing to him that hath not. Tho unreasonableness of such prejudico simply tstiiggers one. 1 ulten wonder wliothor a. placid and smugly respectable existenco does not limit the understanding and' impair tho sympathies of tho individual, and mako iiim tho"slave of orthodoxy. This theory may ,explain the insorutablo attitude of the majority of tho members of tho Senate. Will Air. Hector, or .even dim icli"Lumen," affirm that tho student who is a wage-earner, and who pursues his studios of aa evening, is not entitled to more consideration than tho boy who gives all his time to study, aided by the constant guidance of an ambitious master? Surely not. Moreover, if this examination is only intended as a cost of fitness for those who are desirous of taking up University work, then wily mako it imperative in accountancy?

Much of the difficulty, I think, could be obviated if the present regulations wero modified to meet such unfortunate cases as that cited by "Parent" in today's paper, and also to meet the case of students who can show that they have left school abovo seven or oven ten years, by permitting them to take the examination in two sections,"no fewer than threo subjects to bo taken successfully in the first—l am, cto., : J. E. HAMILL. March 20, 1913.