The Evening Star. MONDAY, APRIL 17, 1871.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2547, 17 April 1871, Page 2

The Evening Star. MONDAY, APRIL 17, 1871.

Tiik educational system of Otago is about to receive what has been termed its finishing touch in the opening of a University, with a staff of professors who, we are led to believe, have been selected from some of the most successful educational establishments of the Home country. We, no doubt, have croakers amongst us who look forward with considerable incredulity to its success, and tauntingly demand where the students are to come. from. Wc need not trouble our readers with an account of the public schools which arc dotted over the whole Province, and are the true nurseries of such an institution, or to our High School,'which forms the intermediate link between them and our infant university; the system is well known and highly appreciated in New Zealand, and as highly spoken of wherever it is known, in spite of the late anathemas of one whose zeal is certainly not tempered by wisdom. What we wish to direct the attention of our readers more particularly to at present is that an effort was made last year*, and very successfully, to bring a higher education within the reach of our artizans, storekeepers, clerks, and young men engaged in business, who may not have had the opportunity of adding to their ordinary school education, This effort consisted in the formtion of evening classes in connection with the Atlneneum, and these were taught during four nights in the week for a period of six months. The course of studies comprised English, Latin, Greek, French, Mathematics, and Phonography ; and the classes were attended by some sixty or seventy pupils who were actively engaged in business during the day. The gentlemen who conducted them are well-known teachers in Dunedin, and as each had a separate branch of the course to teach he met his pupils one night weekly, and devoted the whole time to that branch only. The superior advantages of such an arrangement to the students must be evident. It is, in fact, the nearest approach to a working man’s college that we could possibly have in our circumstances. We are aware that evening classes had, before this attempt, been started under the auspices of the Athenaeum, and failed ; but we attribute their failure to a defect in their organisation. When one man undertakes to teach different branches of education to pupils of all ages in an evening school, he, as w'ell as they, soon find that he has undertaken what he never can successfully accomplish. But it is a very different matter when each branch is taught separately to students who come for the purjmse of studying it only, and whose attainments nearly approximate to each other. Such, then, was the method adopted last year; and we are happy to see that the classes have been resumed for another session. By encouraging even*

ing classes of this nature we believe that the Committee of the Athenauun are in a greet measure fulfilling one ot the chief aims of the founders of that institution ; for though hitherto designated by the imposing n lines of “ Athe- “ nauim and Mechanics’ Institute,” wc never thought till now it worthy of any other designation than a lending library, with reading room attached. But, as wo may have something to say on this point at another time, wo will content ourselves by directing the attention of our young men to tneso very desirable evening classes, and hope there may not be one amongst them, who is not led away by other and perhaps very qiicsidoimolc pursuits, but will avail himself of the advantages they offer. Without seeming to dictate to the gentlemen who have undertaken to conduct the classes in question, wc would suggest to the: ; the desirability of holding an examination, like that in Melbourne, at the close of the session, on the various subjects which have been taught; and that certificates of merit should be awarded corresponding to the efficiency displayed by the students who might compete for them. These certificates would doubtless bo of considerable value to the young men who gained them, not only as a proof of their attainments, but also ot their having applied themselves to consecutive study at a period of life when self-denial is rather difficult.