PROVINCIAL SCHOLARSHIPS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 15, 17 January 1880, Page 5

PRO VI N CI AL SCHOLARSHIPS.

The following is the report of the Examiners for the Provincial Scholarships : — TC THE CHAIRMEN' 07 THB NELSON AND MABLBOBGTTGH EDUCATION BOABDS. Gentlemen, — We have the honor to lay before you our report of the examination of candidates for the College Scholarships. Nelson sent 22 boys— fourteen from the country, eight, from the town. Marlborough sent' six boys, five of whom came from Blenheim High School. The Marlborough scholarship fell to Oonolly, from Ficton school. - The Nelson town scholarships were won by (1) Johnson, (2) Bartel, both from the first division of the Nelson town schools. The country scholarships were gained by (1) Harkness, (2)..Talbot, both from Eiohmond bojs' sohool. Much of the interest formerly attached to the competition for the Town scholarships, when several of the leading Town schools entered into the lists, has been lost since the contest has been practically restricted to the boys attending a single aohool, — thefirst division of the Town boys,— to which the most promising scholars from the other Town schools are now annually drafted. It is hoped that the following remarks as to the way in whioh the several subjects were handled by the candidates will be of service to both master* and scholars : — Geography (Physical and Political).— The Geography of the Nelson Country boys, only two of whom gained half marks last year, showed a decided improvement, seven out of fourteen getting half marks on. this occasion. The Marlborough and Nelson Town boys, on the other hand, fell short of last year'a standard. The papers, were, however, on the whole, loss unequal than those of last year, while our comments on the diffuseneea and irrelevance of much of the work then submitted to us have had' the intended effect of making the candidates stick to the point and avoid needless .digressionsHistory (Age of Anne).— As this subjeot has not formed part of our programme for several years, no comparison with past work can be made. The papers of the oountry boys in Nelson district were well done, all but three, and, like their geography papers, were singularly equal; but with the' exception of one excellent paper by a Nelson town boy, and another fair one from Blenheim, the rest of the work was of verr moderate merit. The* Composition was somewhat better than that of 1878, but the defective spoiling and punctuation, and the oareless handwriting betrayed the haste with, whioh work upon whioh so muoh depended had been got through. Nor can want of time be alleged in excuse, for the 19 competitors from town and country who were examined in Nelson were required to make a note of the hour when they ceased from working. Only one boy made full use of the time allow od him,

Theibllowing~are the questions which. appeared on the examination papers, the candidates being allowed two hours for each paper :— Physio Aii and Political Geo<*ba]?hy. 1. -Explain the causes of Trade Winds, and bliow how they affect navigation. ' 2. Account for the difference between the direction of the winds of the Indian Ocean, and that of the winds of the Atlantic and Pacific. 3. flow is climate affected by — (a) Latitude. (6) Height above the sea-level, (c) Distance from the ooean. Give illustrations. 4. Give some instances of the climate of a country - being altered by. human agency: 5. Upon what three conditions does the abundance of rain generally depend ? 6. Desoribe the process by which Coral Beefs are formed.* . / 7. Give the latitude and longitude of New York, Bio Janeiro, Paris, Calcutta, and Wellington./ 8. What countries lie wholly or partly within the Tropio of Cancer ? 9. Draw an outline map of South America, showing the course of the principal rivers, and the positions of the chief towns. Histoby. AaE op Anne. 1. Describe the character of Anne. 2. Explain the mode of electing an Emperor of - Germany at the beginning of the 18th century. 3. What causes led to the war of the Spanish Sue* cession ? 4. Wbat apparent advantages had France over the Allies at the outset of that war P ' 5. Hqw did the Elector of Brandenburg come to be King, and what countries are now ruled by his descendant ? 6. Give a brief outline of the life of Marlborough, until the signing of the treaty of Utrecht. , English. j 1. Write the passage dictated to you. 2. Define " etymology," " adverb," " preposition," " mood," and " voice." 3. What is meant by " inflexion" ? To what do the inflexions of the verb relate ? 4. Distinguish between a "prefix" and a"Buffix." Give six prefixes and six suffixes, pointing out the force of each. 5. Analyse the following Sentence, and parse the words printed jin italics ; — "Your daughter,— if you have not given her leave, — Tsay again, 7iatkm&Ae a gross revolt." 6. Give a brief outline of any boo? you have read. 7. Correct or justify the following expressions, giving in each case a reason for your decision : — (a) Who's it for, eh ? . (b) There waa only three of us to-day, (c) Me and George oould not go. Id) Neither my father nor my brother were then in ..Nelson,' (?) No one was to blame but me. Dictation. If we would enjoy life, it is necessary to be careful . in preserving health, by due exercise end great temperance ; for in sickness the imagination is disturbed j and disagreeable, and-sometimes to'rible, •dejEts are apt to present themselves. Exercise should

either m Geography or History ; some finishing little more than an hour work for which the two hours allotted were no more than enough. , Suoh impatience ia fatal to good and accurate work. Arithmetic. — Some of the Arithmetic papers were co bad that it is difficult to imagine why candidates oo ill-prepared were allowed to present themselves. On the other hand, a fair proportion were above the average j a few were excellent, the calculations being correct to the minutest fraction. It may not be amies to repeat here that in this subject the shortest method .is always the best ; though many of the candidates, judged by their work, think otherwise. Grammar and Dictation. — When it is stated that only four of the twenty-eight candidates scored half marks, it will bo evident that this paper was almost a failure. Many of the answers were mere hinfu, which showed that the candidates had some hazy notion of the subjeot-matter of the questions, but were unable to express their thoughts in words. As ' regards Composition, the papers afiVded a striking illustration of the fact that a boy, who can answ«r fluently in the course of a viv& toco examination, often becomes utterly helpless when he takes a pen in hand. In parsing, instead of writing the word to be parsed in the margin, and beginning a new line with each new word, most of the candidates jumbled the whole of the words and their relations into such an inextricable maze as to make any award of marks impossible. Moreover, few of the candidates have been trained to adopt any intelligible system of abbreviation. It was not uncommon in the samo exercise to find n. doing duty for noun, neuter, and number; v. for verb and voice, and so on. To remedy such defects as these, more practice on paper is necessary. Once or twice a week, masters might set a few questions, and require candidates to bring answers written oat on paper as part of their homo preparation. These, after being examined and marked in private, might be gone over with the pupils in olas«, when an opportunity would present itss'lf of pointing out faults and commending exoellenoe. Oontinued practice of this sort could not fail to produoe in a short time a marked improvement in punctuation, power of expression, and style in general. It having been made a matter of complaint that several of the subjects included in the Scholarships' examinations were outside of the ordinary school coarse, -thus necessitating spjeial preparation of candidates, wo propose that, in future, our examinations be restricted to the work of Standard VI, as prescribed by Regulations. In order, to check, as muoh as possible, the tendency to push forward a few scholars at the expense of the reat of the school, no text- books will be prescribed this year, nor will the subjects seleoted bs made known before the examination. We are, Sirs, , Your obedient Servants,

precede meals, nob immediately follow them : the first-promotes ; the latter, unless moderate, obstructs digestion. If after exercise, we feed sparingly, the digestion will be easy and good, the body lightsome, the temper cheerful, and all the animal functions performed agreeably. Sleep, when it follows, will be natural and undisturbed ; while indolence with satiety, occasions nightmares and horrors inexpressible : we fall from precipices, are assailed by wild beasts, murderers, and demons, and experience every variety of distress. Abithmetic. 1. From seven hundred and fen millions sov.*n hundred and ten, tuke five millions fire thousand and fire. Write your answer in words. 2. What fraction of a guinea is $ of half-a-erown P 4. If 24 men can do a piece of work in I*4 days, working B'l hours ; how many hours a day must 28 boys work in order to complete the same in 45 days, the work of a boy being half that of a man ? 5 When is a fraction said to be in its lowest terms ? Beduce f?Hft§if vf fco * fes lowest terms, 6. A. borrows £613 10s f»r 3 years at 3£ per oent simp, int., and immediately lends it on the same terms at comp. int. How muoh more will he receive for interest than be will have to pay ? 7. Cube 1 9, and extract the cube root of 3.403862625. 8. The length of a rectangular Geld which contains 7 acres, 1 rood, 17 poles, is 453 yards, 2 feat, 3 inches : find its breadth.

,_ Masks Allowed $ g Names. '§> Sohooi.. g> " .s |l 3 zj zj 8 " I f |a - 3 | | a V 130 130 140 200 600 ... Nelson Town Boys. 1. Johnson 14 First Diribion Town 80y5... 109 116 107 180 512 1 2. Bartel 13 Ditto 67 70 53 189 379 2 | 3. Savage ... 13 Ditto 51 50 33 20 154. 6 4. Tucker * 14 Ditto 65 56 50 135 306 4 5. Barltrop ........ 13 Ditto 66 52 51 140 309 3 6. Creßswell 13 Ditto 38 36 20 10 104 8 7. Perctval „.- 14 Ditto ' 60 65 15 105 245 5 8. Gouland 13 Ditto . 46 42 0 30 118 7 Nelson Cotthtbx Boys. 1.C0nde11..,;. 13 Stoke... .-. 62 84 17 10 173 11 2. Fairhali 13 Richmond Boys 61 76 23 130 291 6 :3. Talbot 12 Ditto 101 88 36 193 418 2 4. Rogers 14 Ditto ... ... 96 73 66 145 380 3 5. Harkneas 14 Ditto 100 90 v 51 180 421 1 6. Dencker 14 Neudorf 57 60 20 0 137 14 '7. Wastney 14 Ditto 60 54 35 30 179 10 8. Painton 14 Upper Wakefield ... ... 91 88 81 110 370 4 9. Hodgson 13 Ditto 70 67 73 100 310 5 10. Barleymao 14 Motueka - ... ... ... 65 86 .48 70 269 7 11. ledger , 13 Pakawau .... 58 64 10 15 147 13 12. Terry 13 Westporfc 72 45 50 75 242 9 13. McKay... ; ...... 12 Reefton 45 36 46 30 157 12 14. Oorfield 14 Ditto 51 61 71 70 253 8 Maeiboeottgh Boys. ■ ■ - 1. J0hn50n.....; 15 Blenheim High School .. 65 28 33 90 216 3 2. Rayner 15 Ditto 57 32 25 0 114 4 3. Hustwick 14 Ditto 36 29 10 0 75 6 4. Matthews 14 Ditto ... v ... 31 19 17 10 77 5 5. O'Leary ;. 12 Ditto 78 72 67 108 325 2 6. Oonolly 15 Picton 65 56 66 160 347* I