NEW ZEALAND UNIVERSITY.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2001, 3 June 1875, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND UNIVERSITY.

To the Editor of the Evening Stab. Sib, —Education,.or ratherjhejwant^of it, seems to be engrossing tbe"thoug^ts of many throughout New Zealand. I say\ want of it—for the ways in which education is provided for the children of the colonists are each and all fiercely attacked; by, the enemies—and there are many—who oppose them—oppose them, perhaps, without : cause-rion the .ground that i much, public money is spent without ah adequate result being reaped; ?y Premising first of all that education may in New Zealand be divided ,intq y three classes,,,viz;r1. That provided for children and young boys as : is the case in what are termed Public Schools, though whether the old English term of "~Charity",Schools might not, perhaps, be more fitly applied, is open to question. 2. That slightly more advanced form which, takes.the shape of "Superior Schools" and"Pri^d| vate Schools." 3. That which ought to be regarded as the highest and ultimate ,' form which any, course of education can take,namely, " The New Zealand University." Assuming this much, I prefer to pass over for the present the first two forms — though of these .1 might say much— and to devote what space you' will allow to the last, or " University Education," both on account of the recent university examinations which * have been held in, Auckland and elsewhere; and also on account of the great interest wbich now is evidently being felt in Christchurch and the South as to the welfare of the university. It may perhaps not be among those things "generally known" that New Zealand boasts of its University— or perhaps would boast if it had cause to. \ Of course in its present infantile state it' cannot be expected to have as yet produced any great or shining 'lights, but to those who wish that these should at some future time appear, the working of the University with a view to produce these "lights," as well at to theheads of families who unable or unwilling to send their sons from home to "finish' their education," yet are anxious that they should do so, it is of the last importance. New Zealand.University may be stated to be a university modelled after' the type of.the University.of;,Lbndbh, i.e., after a type in which all 'collegiate"'" teaching is necessarily excluded, by th« fact that the University possesses no " colleges " in which the young men can reside ; but after the London model the undergraduate can live where and how he pleases, only presenting himself at certain intervals to pass his examination, having done which for the space of three years, he becomes entitled to the degree of B.A. So far .so good, and it is no doubt a great advantage to have some fixed standard to So by in gauging a man's mental capacity. !ut as is pointed out by a writer in the New Zealand Times of May* loth, the autho- - rities of the University, especially as re? gards their more recent regulations, "hava rendered it unlikely that the University will be of much advantage in this respect. (1.) As regards age—The age fixed by the University'now"at which a "man (we use the term assigned by custom to undergraduates) may enter the University is 15! - Truly this is converting the University into little more than a school for boys who ought to still be working their ways up the school in the 6th or 6th forms, amenable to the more vigorous discipline of school treatment. We know of course that Welsey was a Master of Arts of ..Oxford at the age of 15, and that there men or Bdyr cannot be Bachelors of Arts until they are 18, when they will be quite fit, 'or may be supposed to be so, to take their part in the world, and that as a rule they will not enter (i.e., the University) until the age of sixteen or seventeen. This may or may not be true, but there is no doubt that.by lowering the standard of any one thing you get an inferior quality of article;, and so, by admitting one boy of- fifteen to be an undergraduate—no matter' how clever that individual boy may be—you invite many who think, or where parents think, it matters not which, that they are to the full as far advanced as the successful unit'to follow in his wake; and"then either one of tiro things must happeneither the University standard' of education must be lowered, which is not to be denied, or the boy, after a series of reverses, gives up the University in disgust, having lost two or perhaps three of the most important years of his life. , For (2) looking at the standard fixed, for a B.A. degree it cannot be considered an easy one by any means, and to successfully pass it the examiners must be either very easily satisfied, or the boy of eighteen must be very much in advance of his fellows in the old country. Take for example the subjects in classics alone for next year, 1876. To satisfy the examiners the candidate must pass in four books of Thucydides, and four plays of Aristophanes (universally considered to be two of the hardest of all the Greek authors to master |thoroughly), as well as the Georgica 'and Eclogues of Virgil,, and four books of Livy. This in itself is more, probably, ; than any boy of eighteen could master in one y«ar, even without the additional : subjects which he chooses to take in, such as mathematics, modern languages, &c, and yet should the examiner not be very lenient he must either do so or bear through-life the stigma attached to a plucked man! Does this reem fair P At Oxford and Cambridge, where the average age at which men take their degree is 22, the authorities only require two books of; Thucydides instead of the four to form one Greek book, and even then many men fail, even though having had all the advantages of school tuition most probably to the age of nineteen,, and subsequently of lectures on these special books by men. well up in their subjects, who are thoroughly conversant with the style of questions which will most propably be set. Ido not wish to draw any comparison between the examinations held at Oxford and Cambridge and these in NewZealand, but I cannot help pointing out how unfair it is to take a boy of fifteen from . his Virgil and Cicero, and expect him to construe the choruses of Aristophanes or the speeches of Pericles, even with the advantage of such aid as he may havo been able to attain in three years. " A little learning is a dangerous thing," but that little is more dangerous when merely superficial, which must be the case if the, regulations of.tho New Zealand University are .adhered to. - On one other point—though many more might be mentioned—l should like to say a few words. I see the University offers prizes, for the " best" essay, &c. How happens it that no prize seems to have been awarded, in 1873 or 1874? Surely one j competitor at least must have been found in those two years. . I ask this question in the hope of eliciting information, because, even if only one competitor had writteu for the prize, it must, I opine,

have been awarded. A prize of course is given to the best of those who competo for it, and, unlike a scholarship, is not, and cannot be governed by any imaginary standard of excellence which the examiner may have formed in his mmd; Oliver Altjmney.