E.—lc.

2

completed satisfactorily a period of pupil-teacher service, and 75 under Division B, without pupil-teacher service, on the ground of holding simply some University standing under one or other of the different headings specified in the regulations. The following table shows the classification in detail: —

TABLE A.—Number and Classification of Students in Attendance at each Training College, December, 1907.* (Excluding those admitted under the Provisions of Clause 11 of the Regulations.)

In general, students are admitted to the training colleges with the double purpose of continuing their general education and of receiving professional training. In the case of students of Class A the continuance of their education and the completion of their qualification for a certificate naturally furnish the main purpose of their attendance; those of Class B regard the training college from a somewhat different standpoint—that of the University student without teaching experience who desires primarily without discontinuing his studies to secure the necessary practical acquaintance with a teacher's duties. In either case the understanding is that the University work and the special work of the training college shall be united in the closest possible association, the University college classes furnishing the chief means of general education, and the training college providing for the instruction and training of the students in teachingmethods and in special subjects of professional practice. That the principle may be applied with success obviously requires that the earlier education of those admitted shall be sufficient to enable them to profit by University instruction. To this end the regulations prescribe among the qualifications that candidates for admission shall have passed the Matriculation Examination of the University of New Zealand. The requirement has been modified in practice so as to place on a similar footing ex-pupil-teachers who have already gained a substantial measure of success in the examination for the Class D certificate, though they may not have actually passed Matriculation. It does not appear that in fitness to receive University instruction much is thereby lost. The standards of the two examinations are in the main on parallel lines, and it must be admitted that in many cases even the successful matriculant has yet much mental progress to make before he can be regarded as an efficient student of a University course. The colleges cannot be said to have yet reached the stage at which the requirements of their students as a whole can be fully supplied by the University classes, but an intimate connection with the University college is generally maintained, and all students, whatever their future prospects or their present attainments may be, take one or more University classes, among which English is necessarily included. The tendency at present shown is rather to contract than to extend the University work of the weaker students, but the expediency of any such step, it is hoped, will only be temporary. The University classes taken by students in the different centres vary considerably both in number and character. The control exercised in this respect is at the discretion of the Principals, and has little pretension to uniformity. In one centre, as stated in his report by the Principal, who adds that in the choice of subjects he has allowed the students unrestricted freedom, the range of subjects taken is so wide that " nearly all, if not all," of the subjects taught at the University college have been taken by some of the students. Such unrestricted freedom is not contemplated by the regulations, and it is difficult to see how it can consist with any convenient scheme of organization. At other centres the latitude permitted has evidently much narrower limits. From the general return of the classes taken at the beginning of the year it appears that, apart from English, which is obligatory, though it may be taken in either year, and education, which is also an obligatory subject for the Class C certificate, the University classes taken by the greatest proportion of students were Latin, mathematics, mental science, and botany. The numbers taking these and other subjects of importance are given in Table B below, but classes in chemistry, geography, German, economics, history, mechanics, jurisprudence, and geology were also taken by one or more students under a total of twenty. In Christchurch the range of subjects covers twenty different classes, in Wellington thirteen, and in Auckland and Dunedin nine. In Dunedin forty-five of the students in attendance are reported as having kept "terms" during the year at the University; in Wellington twenty-one are stated to have been pursuing a definite degree course, while thirty-four others succeeded in keeping one year's terms. For

Division B.» Division A. (i)»<U). a<111). a(i iv). Total. M. F. M. F. M. F. M. F. M. F. M. F. M. F. Total. Auckland Wellington Cbristohurch Dunedin 12 9 10 10 14 41 42 40 1 1 10 2 1 2 3 1 "i 3 2 3 1 1 5 5 1 3 1 8 8 12 5 7 2 6 5 21 12 17 17 16 12 16 19 62 54 57 36 78 66 73 Totals for 1907 41 137 1 14 5 5 7 14 29 20 55 61 192 253 Totals for 1906 39 121 2 14 4 8 4 3 21 9 47 48 216 168 •Notes. —"a(i) "as havir it the University Junior Soi Jniversity college ; " a(iv) " igpai aolan as h: ssed tl ship iving ie first sectii Sxaminatior passed the i/. in of ! !atric the B.A. or '. a(iii)" as h iulation Exai B.So. degree; "a laving kept termi mination of the U ( (ii) " s for iniveri as ha\ at leai Sty. ing gi it one lined year sredit at a