H.-i

15

ten hours a week are assigned—a very liberal allowance even for the classical side—whilst only two hours are assigned to Greek. The school-work occupies twenty-eight hours a week. In Christ's College Grammar School, the curriculum includes no fewer than six subjects besides divinity. If there is a sufficient staff to teach all these subjects efficiently, it would probably be an improvement to allow more option; at present the only option allowed is in the case of some boys who learn German instead of Greek. If boys who take Greek were not also required to learn Science, a fuller allowance of time could be given to both these subjects. In a school in which Greek is taught to almost all the boys in the upper forms, we think that the four or five hours a week allowed to Latin in these forms is too little. The entire curriculum occupies twenty-six hours a week, two of which are allotted to divinity. In the three schools last referred to the study of Latin is compulsory throughout the course, while in the Auckland College and Grammar School and the Dunedin High School, although recommended and encom"aged, it is not in all cases enforced. In these latter institutions the school authorities appear to have made some concession to a feeling, assumed to prevail among some classes of the community, averse to the recognition of classical studies as an indispensable part of a liberal education. We are of opinion that, in the present position of education, no other subject can be found which is capable of filling satisfactorily the place now assigned to Latin in the curriculum of a secondary school. We base this opinion not only upon the admitted superiority of Latin over any of the modern languages as a means of intellectual discipline (especially when taught with the ability and thoroughness so frequently to be met with in good schools), but also upon the advantage which a knowledge of Latin confers upon the student of English, Trench, and other modern tongues. We think, therefore, that Latin ought to continue to occupy a prominent place in the curriculum of all our secondary schools, and we should be inclined to treat the case of boys whose parents or guardians do not desire them to learn Latin, as coming within the scope of our recommendation regarding special exemption from certain classes. On the other hand, we believe that it would be judicious for the governing bodies and headmasters of schools, more especially in districts where an opinion adverse to the study of classics is known to exist, not only to grant exemption from attendance at the Latin classes on sufficient grounds, but also to take care, in arranging the time-table, to make it possible to substitute for Latin some other branch of study. We feel assured that the adoption of this course, while tending to make a school more popular, and to extend the area of its usefulness by providing a valuable means of culture for those boys to whom the study of Latin may be deemed unsuitable, would not in reality be injurious to the interests of classical studies. In all the schools there is a nominal division into upper and lower depart- T ments; and, as a rule, the teaching in the. upper departments is more specialized d than in the lower, the different subjects being assigned to separate, masters. The Boys' High School at Dunedin, however, affords the only instance in which a special examination is interposed between the two divisions of the school. This examination has to be passed by all boys who desire to enter the upper department, whether they have been sent up from the lower department of the school or come from other schools. The standard of the examination corresponds nearly to the Sixth Standard of the primary-school subjects, with the addition of a moderate amount of Latin, or mathematics, or French. As the reasons which led to the adoption of this distinctive feature of the school are of interest, we here quote the paragraphs of the report of the Otago High School Commission, 1873, in which this arrangement is recommended : — " There are two considerations which have chiefly Aveighed with us in arriving at the conclusion that the existing entrance-test [to the lower school] should no longer be insisted on. In the first place, it is obvious that the present standard of qualification, or any other which could be reasonably exacted from pupils at the proper age for entering the lower division, is quite valueless as a test either of diligence or of fitness for receiving a higher education. An examination fitted to test these qualities can only come at a later stage; and we have therefore placed it

Upper and lower departmentl>