F.—No. ]

If these schools are in any way to be brought into connection with the Government, I should much like to sec the appointments in the Civil Service made the subject of competition among the best pupils in them. This would be a further means of improving their efficiency, and would, I believe, tend very much to the advantage of the Public Service. 4.] I do not think that the scholarships should be restricted to any particular Universities. If the means arc afforded the best Universities will, no doubt, be selected by those interested. I think they should also be tenable at the Schools of Law and Medicine in London, Dublin, and Edinburgh. 5.] In Cambridge the cost of private tuition is necessarily very considerable, and all men reading for honours must have private tutors. If a man is. only reading for honours in one class of subjects (in Classics or Mathematics), the annual cost would be £35 per annum (£7 each term, and £11 in the long vacation). Presuming that a mau had sufficient ability to obtain some of the many College exhibitions or scholarships, I am of opinion that £200 a-year would be sufficient to cover all University expenses. AY. Rolleston.

J. E. FitzGerald, Esq.—l.] I think the foundation of University Scholarships of great importance, but subordinate to that of founding a Colonial University. There are many who, from a variety of circumstances would be well able to take advantage of a free education in the Colony, but would not be able to go to an English University, even did they gain a scholarship. Now a National institution should be equally free to all. Hence the best plan seems to me to be to establish a certain number of scholarships which might be held by those gaining them, either at the New Zealand University, or at one of the British Universities, that is, Oxford, Cambridge, Dublin, or Edinburgh, for I see no object to be gained by including others. I should decidedly exclude all Colonial Universities, because we ought to, and in time could, get as good a University in New Zealand as in any other Colony.. But there are special advantages connected with the training in one of the ancient Universities of the Mother Country which we could not expect to obtain in a Colony. The more of our students we send to other places the more we shall weaken the power and influence and success of a local institution. I should regret tempting our youths to seek other schools of learning, except for the sake of subjecting them to those influences which Ido not believe to exist in newly peopled countries. Therefore I should not send them away except to the most eminent Universities of the old country. On the whole 1 do not think less than twenty scholarships would be of much use, to be held, at the option of the student, either in the New Zealand University, or in one of the institutions of Great Britain above mentioned. 2.] Most certainly. It seems to me a very great calamity that the Waste Lands of the Crown should be passing away, and that nothing but the meanest endowments should have been made for the permanent education and improvement of the population which is settling upon them. The Provinces have universally neglected this duty; and there is even yet time for the Government of the Colony to see that the truest interests of the people are provided for before it is too late. I think that these exhibitions should be very numerous, —say one hundred in number, at least. That they should be won by public examination, and the winner should be allowed to hold his exhibition at any approved school in the Colony, certain schools being approved or licensed as being up to the required standard. The machinery of the University should be used for the competitive examinations, which might be held, under the general control of the University, in all the principal towns. If the fund were common and not local, and students were allowed to select their own school, not only would the competition between boys for the exhibitions be felt over the whole field of competitors, but a competition between schools to attract exhibitioners would tend to raise the whole standard of the schools in the Colony. I think fifty pounds a-year would be enough for each exhibition, so that the total cost would be £5000 a-year. The whole of this might be readily raised by land endowment. 3.] Perhaps no practical suggestions of any great value. But there docs not appear any great difficulty, with the multitude of institutions before us, in framing a good useful constitution for a New Zealand University. But lam strongly of opinion that the endowments should all vest in the University, and be used, as I have said before, in all parts of the Colony, at the ■option of those enjoying them. The paid staff of the University would not be large, the Fellows need not be paid, except for travelling expenses, and perhaps for examinations; audit might be a useful provision that some or all of the Fellows should take it turn about to reside at the University, and assist in the work of tuition by lectures. During such time they should be paid, or at least maintained free of charge. The body of Fellows would probably comprise most of those in the Colony most fitted to be examiners, and the examiners for scholarships should be selected out of the Fellows. The examiners for the exhibitions should be appointed, not necessarily out of the Fellows, to conduct the examinations in each town. 1 think some such plan would infuse something like a National spirit into the education, without interfering with, unless indeed to stimulate to higher exertions, the local efforts of the people to maintain good schools in each town. To damp in any way local efforts, or to deaden the sense of local responsibility, would be ruinous to education; but to bring all local institutions under the influence of a central University, within whose sphere the value and merits of each could be

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REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON THE