THE HIGH SCHOOL.

Evening Star, Issue 3769, 23 March 1875, Page 2

THE HIGH SCHOOL.

To the Editor. Sir,—Having read your report of the Home Agent s communication, I am somewhat impressed by one or two of the leading features of same. The Agent remarks-" I gave the whole of the testimonials my best consideration, and after selecting out of the whole a considerable number*jwhom I thought most likely, and made special inquiries about them;” and then, after commenting upon the English and Irish applicants quaiifications, adds, “Besides, I had not the same opportunities of making full inqumes regarding them, which experience has shown me is absolutely necessary, irrespective ot testimonials, however good.” It appears to me these paragraphs are slightly inconsistent, and not only so, but calculated to lead one to inter that the English and Irish candidates were at considerable disadvantage, as upon his own showing residence in Scotland had its peculiar favor on the score of convenience to himself. Does it not appear to savor slightly of that absence of a fair field and no favor that u so dear to the English mind, that an agent

commissioned to choose such an important individual as the Rector of the High School, should suffer any candidate’s interest to be prejudiced by his inability, on account of the extra trouble of making inquiries? Not the least striking feature in this report i| the fact that the whole of the testimonials, with bat one exception, ate from members of Scotch Institutions, and this, coupled with the fact that the agent is presumed to be one of Scotia’s sons, strongly recalls to one’s mind these, suggestive, and because of their classical association, weighty words, “ 2Vo* Triusvt mihi nullo diserimine ogetur.” It is to be hoped the gentleman chosen will restore the “efficiency” of the High School, although the fact of its having lost any of its efficiency under the management of the two last rectors is exceedingly problematical. There are very many who are of opinion that had the late rector been so fortunate as to have had the prefix of “ Mao ” to his cognomen, hia times would have been far more rosy. I may seem very presumptous to call in question the ability of such an authority, who seems to breathe the atmosphere peculiar to Glasgow and Edinburgh Professors, to construct a paragraph without such an error as that I have marked by an asterisk, but let us hope for the sake of those whom we expect to learn to construct a sentence in English grammatically, that the chosen may be free from such disposition to — to be “human,” I use a mild term. You know the quotation, Mr Editor, to “err, &o.” I have always, without the advantages of a Northern University education, been under the impression that the words “ who ” and “ whom” related rather to persons than things, but it is doubtless a faculty peculiar to Northern lights to discover the fitness of such a con junction aa testimonials ” and “ whom.”-1 am, &0., „ , „ . Riohakd Allbk. Port Chalmers, March 15,1875.