E.—7a

7

have far greater opportunities for university education than those in other places, unless bursaries and scholarships were provided sufficient in number and amount to meet the cost of board and travelling of those who have to live away from home to pursue their studies. (In the case of those engaged in other occupations during the day, some of whom have relatives dependent on them, the amounts would have to be substantially increased in order to put them in as good a position as they are in now.) If we assume that two-thirds of the present number of degree diploma students (about 1,500 in all) are living at home, we should have, if there were only one college, probably five-sixths, instead of onethird, of the whole number of students who could not attend the University without leaving home, or, say, 750 more students for whom board and travelling-expenses would have to be provided. But if the necessary allowances were made to these 750 students, they could hardly be refused to the other 500 who were living away from horne —that is, they would have to be paid to about 1,250 students. At £50 each per annum this would amount to £62,500, or, say, £60,000 a year—more than the whole cost of the four colleges now —and we should still have to provide in addition the cost of staffing, maintaining, and administering the central University College at a cost, say, of £40,000 to £50,000. At the same time we should leave totally unprovided-for the whole body of part-time students, and to a large extent confine the immediate influence of the University and its institutions to one city out of four. Even if we raised the standard of admission to the University so considerably that we reduced the number of students to one-half, we should still have to provide £25,000 to £30,000 more than we have to provide now for the boarding-expenses of students. That this is not desirable is shown by a comparison of the proportion per 10,000 of the population receiving university education in New Zealand and elsewhere : e.g., in Switzerland and in Wuerttemberg (Germany) 284 per 10,000 are in institutions of university rank ; in New Zealand, 18. The. same argument in a modified form applies to any single course or faculty ; and if we find that the usual fees for any course of study will furnish the necessary funds for carrying it on, then the argument for teaching that course at four University Colleges, and not at one only, will be overwhelmingly strong. This will be found presently to be specially relevant to the courses in commerce and in law. I assume, without further discussion, that it is necessary to provide at each of the University Colleges for art?, science, and education. The special or professional courses now provided at one or more of the colleges are as follows : Commerce, law, engineering, mining, medicine, and dentistry. The year's attendances required of candidates for degrees in agriculture may be taken at any University College, provided that the other two years' terms are kept at the Canterbury Agricultural College. Veterinary science and architecture have degrees allotted to them, and programmes of work have been drawn up by the Senate, but as yet the teaching is not provided at any college. I propose to examine the requirements in each of these special or professional courses, and the provision made for the necessary teaching. Professional Schools or Faculties. Law. The total number of law students proper is 260 ; and the salaries of Law Professors and lecturers in the four colleges (exclusive of the lecturers in the special law subjects of the commerce course) amount to £2,280, which averages a little less than £9 per student. Annual fees of £10 10s. per student would cover the cost both of the tuition and of the renewal of the law libraries ; an annual fee of £12 12s. would further allow the staffs to be strengthened as indicated in the table. Commerce. The total number of students in commerce is about 270 in the four colleges. The salaries at present paid to the special lecturers in commerce (exclusive of salaries paid for subjects also included in the arts course) amount to £820, or about £3 per student. Even if the improved staffing suggested in table were adopted, the total amount of salaries would not exceed, say, £2,600. The New Zealand Society of Accountants contributes, say, £100 to each college, or £400 in all ; this, with the statutory subsidy thereon, amounts to £800. If the fees were £10 10s. per annum, the total fees would amount to £2,835, or, allowing for students in single subjects, say, to £2,400, give a total income of the commerce departments of £3,200, which leaves some margin for libraries and for a payment of a share of the cost of the arts subjects included in the commerce course. Home Science. As soon as the value of the home science course is fully recognized, I estimate that the fees, together with the capitation and grants payable upon the classes as " college classes " under the manual and technical education sections of the Education Act, will maintain the classes. All that would be necessary to secure their financial success in any University College would be the money found, say, by local contributions and the statutory subsidy thereon, to meet the initial cost and to make the classes solvent during the first few years of working until they have got their full complement of students. The salaries of the special teachers in the Home Science School in Dunedin, if the proposal contained in Table H is adopted, will amount to, say, £1,000, and the total cost, say, to about £1,200 per annum. The fees charged at the school amount to £36 (nearly) for the three-years course, and the capitation payable by the Government to about the same sum ; the total of fees and capitation thus gives on the average £24 a year per student, which with the other Government grants payable for material, &c, would probably pay for the salaries and maintenance of the Department if there were fifty full-time students. The cost of additional salaries for the other demonstrators required, if the number of students increased, would easily be met by the fees of the additional students.