SECONDARY SCHOOLS' CONFERENCE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2775, 19 May 1916, Page 3

SECONDARY SCHOOLS' CONFERENCE

SHOOTING COMPETITIONS. The New Zealand Secondary Schools'' Lonferenee resumed its deliberations at Wellington' College yesterday, Mr. W. J. .Morrell presiding > - ,A motion by Mr. T. D. Pearce: "Thdt this conference. express. the opinion that . more attention should be paid in the upR e ? standards to English grammar and arithmetic," -was, after some discussion, ■ withdrawn. Shooting Competitions. . Mr. C. H. Broad read a paper relative to the secondary schools of New Zealand shooting competition. Ho was of the opinton that the competition was carried out under.very unfavourable conditions. In the past the management had been in the hands of the Otago High School nnd now there were no rules or arrangemeats for the management : of the competition. He moved that tho management 6hould be taken over, by .the conference. . After discussion this step was agreed , to and a sub-oommitt-ee set up to decide npon rules and regulations for fnturo com . petitions. Other Matters. A sub-committee was set np, on the motion of Air: A. C. Gilford, to report on the changes that are desirable in tho scicnco requirements in. tho Free Place, . National Scholarships, Public Service, Matriculation, ' and Entrance University .Scholarships in order to co-ordinate theso - examinations. A resolution by Mr. W. Walton to the effect .'that the schools recognised by the conference as eligible for membership be those at present recognised, together with such'secondary schools ,as may be hereafter established under any clause of 1 tho Education Act, 1914, was carried. . Agriculture. Mr,: Ti R.-Cresswell (Hangiora) read a • paper on i "Agriculture." Ho pointed out that agriculture was a subject for the matriculation examination, but was: not included :in the ordinary ■ degree course, and it was not one of the science options for the University entrance schol-. arship. Hence no secondary school pupil, • ;' intending ultimately: to proceed to a degree, will look at it. He also oontended ,\ that there was a lack of trained teachers rn agriculture. There was a course in: agriculture leading, np to a Bachelor of .Agriculture, but'its effect was, and would , always be;, negligible. Agriculture must; be put on exactly the same ter'jn as phy- . sics, chemistry, "or any other branch of science. .He moved: "That the Senate of the University, of -New Zealand be requested to take steps to put agriculture on the same footing as other science subject's in the junior University entrance v nnd B.A. examinations/" /. The motion was carried • unanimously.