E.—7 A

thereto, we cannot recommend that its School of Engineering be closed down. We consider that its students should be allowed to present themselves for the first and second professional examinations of the IS. E. degree in civil, mechanical, and electrical engineering, but that they should proceed to Canterbury for the final year of their training at least. The Auckland School might well become, along with the local technical college, a technological department of the University College. Before this can be done, however, much closer relations must be brought about between the University College and the Technical College. This should minimize the likelihood of duplication of equipment and teaching. There should be no alienation of grant from Canterbury College in consequence of the above recommendations. The Mining School at Dunedin should, as stated above, be transferred to Christchurch or Auckland when opportunity offers. As stated in the section of our report dealing with technical schools, the evening classes at Canterbury College should be curtailed as much as possible, and the work handed over to the local Technical College, thus enabling the staff to devote more time to the degree students and to advanced teaching and research. We understand that the recent decision of the Education Department to discontinue the payment of capitation grants for these classes, with substitution of a fixed grant therefor, will facilitate the carrying out of this recommendation. Both at Canterbury and Auckland strong Faculties of Engineering should be established. In addition to the principal teachers there should be included on the Faculty a few persons who possess expert knowledge of engineering and are willing to give their services in an advisory capacity. PROVISION FOR SPECIAL PROFESSIONAL SCHOOLS. The physical configuration of New Zealand and a distribution of population which has produced four main cities along a line of 850 miles, with by far the largest city at the northern extremity of this line, have greatly complicated the problem of university education. Colleges offering courses in Arts and in Science could be established and maintained without great expense. Accordingly, the facilities for education in such courses and those allied to them are probably more widely spread in New Zealand than in any other part of the Empire. The great enrolment of students is a proof of this. In the year 1924 out of a population of 1,350,000, there were 1,503 students taking courses in Arts ; 371 students taking courses in science; 586 students taking courses in Law; 279 students taking courses in Commerce. While it is true that the provision made for these courses can and ought to be bettered in many respects (and this does not apply only to New Zealand University colleges), New - Zealanders can claim that, on the whole, they have made a very good beginning. The reforms to be brought about in these courses depend mainly upon improving the teaching by the abolition of the rigidly imposed syllabus and the wholly external examination, by the strengthening of the teaching staff and improving its methods through the addition of a tutorial staff, by the development of the college libraries, and by other such means. The real difficulty ahead is the allocation of special schools among the our University centres, by a method which will be just to the different provincial districts and at the same time will be educationally sound. Dunedin has a Medical School, a Mining School, a Dental School, and a School of Home Science. Christchurch has a School of Engineering. Neither Auckland nor Wellington can claim to have a developed professional school, although a beginning has been made in architecture at Auckland, and in agriculture at Wellington and Auckland. Very much, however, remains to be done before these schools can be regarded seriously. In our conception of a university school there must be full provision for a Director of high academic standing, for a suitable staff of professors and lecturers, and for efficient laboratory, museum, library, or other equipment. Otherwise it cannot lay claim to being a professional school. Residents in the North Island, and especially in Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand, complain that there are no facilities for their young people to take professional courses in medicine, dentistry, and engineering, and remain at or near

Non-university courses at Canterbury College should cease.

Special difficulties which confront New Zealand in developing University professional schools.

The problem of the allocation of special professional schools.

Developed professional schools all in South Island.

54