r.—No. i.

5.] Not less than £200, -with an additional £50 during the last year to cover the expense of a private tutor. There would also be the passage money to and from England, with entrance fees, caution money, and fees on taking degrees. I can form no estimate on the latter items as they differ at different Universities. 6.] The subjects should be Classics and Mathematics, and I presume scholarships should be given separately for each. As for the books to be taken in and so forth, that must be left to the discretion of the Board of Examiners, who would draw up and publish a list of what they required. The successful candidate should show that he had attained such a proficiency as would place him on a par with men matriculating from the best English schools, and allow him to commence reading for honours without having to pick up lost ground or to make good knowledge imperfectly acquired. Latin writing would be a requisite. The essentials are, accuracy and genuine knowledge, as distinguished from slovenliness and cram, the latter being the vices of Colonial schools, where, as a rule, boys are badly grounded in their rudiments, and where it frequently happens that a boy entering late is classed rather according to his age than what he actually knows, and is made to read Virgil while ignorant of his grammar. After such training a man would be nowhere at Oxford, and instead of taking honours would have to undergo much drudgery to escape a pluck. Ido not quite understand what is meant by the phrase "limitations of competition." If it means to what extent should the examination go in each subject, that, as I have said, must be left to the examiners. If it means limitations as to the age and numbers of candidates, I imagine that no very young lad will be sufficiently prepared to undergo the examination; but it might, if thought desirable, be announced that no candidate would be admitted of less than (say) seventeen years of age or over (say) twenty. The members of the Board of Examiners resident in each Province might hold a preliminary examination of the competitors from their Province, so as to obviate unnecessary expense in sending to Wellington boys whose chance of success was clearly hopeless. Of course it must be understood that the scholarships will only be awarded in the event of the required standard being reached. Any parent may send his son to the University at his own expense, however ill-prepared; but he cannot claim to do so at the public expense, unless there is a reasonable probability that the objects contemplated by the founders of the scholarships will be achieved. 7.] I can answer this only by going at some length into the whole question of public education. I start with these two propositions:—(l.) That every child in the State has a right to the utmost amount of education he is capable of receiving. (2.) That it is of the highest importance to the State itself to utilise, by means of education, all the intellectual capital at its command. I call no system of education worthy of the name which fails fully to recognize and provide for both these requirements. The problem then is, how are we to provide for New Zealand a system which shall bring the highest education within reach of every one, irrespectively of rank in life or pecuniary circumstances. In the first place, surely it can be done only by the Colony, not by the Provinces. I cannot conceive why education should be considered a Provincial question; surely it as much and as equally concerns every part of the Colony as docs the administration of justice. Nor do I believe that, allowing the Provinces to have the inclination and means to carry out some systems of their own —which docs not seem to be the case with them all —any worthy result can be obtained by their uncombincd efforts. I should propose then that the General Government take the matter into its own hands, and frame a scheme of education for the whole Colony, placing it under the supervision of a Minister of Education. Let there be district schools all over the country, established by Government, where not already existing, and supported by rates and endowments, with salaries liberal enough to induce a superior class of men to take the post of masters. Let exhibitions be attached to each, of sufficient value to defray the expenses of board, lodging, &c, at an upper school to be established at the chief town of every Province, of the character of the public schools of England. The lower schools might with advantage be left to the charge of local committees, but should be visited at intervals by a Government Inspector, and the upper schools should undergo a thorough examination every half-year by examiners appointed by the Minister of Education. I may remark here that without this higher class of school, of a kind much superior to anything that to my knowledge exists in New Zealand, the University Scholarships will be of little use, as unless under exceptional circumstances the winners will be much below the England standard, and will therefore fail, not without discredit to the Colony, at Oxford or Cambridge. By making the lower schools free, with, if found necessary, compulsory attendance, a certain amount of education would be ensured to every child in the Colony, while the exhibitions would afford to those capable of rising higher, the means of pursuing their studies at the upper schools. The question then arises, what should be the crowning point of the whole—scholarships tenable at the English Universities, or a New Zealand University, with of course a considerable number of open scholarships attached ? lam in favour of the latter. The English scholarships would at best provide only for a few of the most advanced and ablest students, but condemn all who are somewhat less advanced or less able, and the great bulk who could not aspire beyond an ordinary degree, to the mediocrity of the Grammar School. Mr. Simmons, in a letter to the Otago Daily Times, talks of thirty or forty candidates

31

ESTABLISHMENT OF UNIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIPS.