11

E.—7a

adjusted schemes for the same departments of the several colleges, suggested above as the minimum necessary for efficiency, would give as the total salaries of the staffs for arts, science, commerce, and law— £ Auckland University College .. ... .. .. .. 10,400 Victoria College .. .. .. .. .. .. ..11,200 Canterbury College.. .. .. ... .. .. .. 10,650 Otago University .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 10,650 Total .. .. .. .. .. .. .'. £42,900 or, on an average, we may say that the colleges, with their present number of students, might be very reasonably staffed as to the courses in arts, science, commerce, and law, at a total annual cost of £44,000, or £11,000 per college per annum. The total salaries now paid to the teaching staffs in arts, science, commerce, and law are as follows :— £ Auckland University College .. .. .. .. .. 5,730 Victoria College .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 8,700 Canterbury College.. .. .. .. .. .. .. 8,190 Otago University .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 7,680 Total .. .. .. .. .. .. .. £30,300 If the sum of £1,550 (the total amount of salaries allotted to the Auckland School of Mines) were given to the four departments just named, the amount available for these departments in Auckland would be £7,280, and the total for the four colleges would be £31,850, or nearly £32,000, or an average of £8,000. In other words, the colleges require about £3,000 more each to give them the staffs that I have indicated as the desirable mininum for their present numbers, or, say, £4,100 each to give them the ideal staffing. But the first scale would give them sufficient staffing for increased numbers, and the second scale (the ideal) would give them, with the addition of some junior lecturers and demonstrators, the staffing necessary probably for double their present numbers. Herein consists the real difficulty : the minimum staff for efficient teaching of the several subjects would be practically sufficient for a much larger number of students. Additional endowments, the revenue of which would be likely to increase with the progress of the Dominion, would allow of the gradual improvement of the staffing, and when the standard of £11,000 per college was reached, a properly adjusted scale of fees would give for increased numbers the necessary increase of revenue. We have now to consider the amount required for the staffing of the special or professional schools of education, home science, engineering, mining, medicine, dentistry, which are now in operation, and also of those which may have to be provided for in the near future—architecture, veterinary science, and agriculture. In education the provision should be made, I suggest, in connection with the vote for the training of teachers. An additional £300 per annum in each of the four centres would be sufficient: the senior lecturer (in charge) might probably have the rank of a professor : total, £1,200. In home science, now maintained principally by voluntary contributions and the subsidy thereon, provision should, I think, be made for the full amount of £1,000. The voluntary contributions might very well be devoted to buildings and equipment, and to providing additional bursaries. Other localities in the Dominion might provide bursaries or exhibitions to meet the expenses of students from their own districts who desired to take a home-science course in Dunedin. Total, £1,000. The salaries required for the School of Engineering might be set down at about the present figure, £3,000, and those for the Mining School at £1,000. The expenditure on salaries in the Dental School is now £810. I would allot to it £1,100. If faculties were established in architecture and veterinary science, I estimate the minimum expenditure on the salaries of the staffs at £800 and £1,800 respectively. We thus arrive at the following estimate (Table I) for the cost of the total minimum staffing consistent, in my opinion, with a reasonable degree of efficiency (education is excluded as otherwise provided for) :—

Table I.—Total Cost of Staffs as recommended.

2. LIBRARIES. Sufficient evidence was given last year before the Education Committee of the House to demonstrate the supreme importance of ample and up-to-date libraries aa part of the equipment of every University College. It is important that these libraries should be easily accessible at all times to students and to the teaching staffs. At present at two of the colleges the existing libraries can hardly be said

Auckland. Victoria. | Canterbury. Otago. . .. Total. Arts, science, commerce, and law Home science Engineering Mining Medicine Dentistry Totals £ £ £ £ .. | 11,000 11,000 11,000 11,000 .. I .. .. .. 1,000 . . .. .. 3,000 ..i .. .. .. 1,000 .. I .. .. .. 4,900 .. I .. .. .. 1,100 11,000 11,000 14,000 19,000 £ 44,000 1,000 3,000 1.000 4,900 1,100 55,000