THE RHODES SCHOLARSHIP.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 166, 14 July 1903, Page 4

THE RHODES SCHOLARSHIP.

From our American files we gather that the preliminaries for the allotment of the Rhodes Scholarships have now been completed as far as the United States is concerned. Mr Parkin, the well-known Imperialist aud Special Commissioner for tlie Rhodes Trustees, seems to have accepted the proposals of the Californian Universities on the subject, and we presume that some such conditions will apply to other American Colleges, and possibly in some modified forms to o.her similar institutions in these colonies.

It has been arranged that California and Stanford, the two chief Universities of the State, shall send up candidates each year alternately for six years, and that 'the other less important Colleges shall have the right of proposal in the seventh year. There is to be a qualifying examination, which will not be competitive, but. is intended to give an assurance that the candidates are readyto enter upon a course of University work at Oxford. Any one candidate passing this examination may be chosen as a Rhodes scholar for each State or territory to which a scholarship is as-

signed.

The examination is to correspond to "responsions," the ilrst public examination which lias to be passed at Oxford by candidates for a degree. The subjects required for "responsions" are arithmetic, either algebra or geometry, Creek and Lai in grammar, translation from English into Latin prose, and Greek ami Latin authors prepared or "unseen." United States candidates will be required to have passed at least two years' University terms; they must be between nineteen and twenty-five years of age, aud unmarried. In case of a number of candidates the rival claims must be ad-

indicated by a committee of selection on the basis of Mr Rhodes' well-known suggestions as to physical culture, moral character aiid general personal merit.

The only comment that we feel called upon to make on these arrangements is that they seem to require considerable alteration before they are applied to fbese colonies. Many American academical institutions are rather advanced secondary schools than Universities, and Mr Parkin has probably taken that fact into consideration. But we hold strongly that iir Rhodes' plain intention, as expressed in his will, was to secure colonial undergraduates for Oxford at their most impressionable age, before their intellects are "set" and their tastes are specialised, and while their characters are still unformed. A University course as a preliminary to the acceptance of a Rhodes Scholarship seems to us calculated to defeat the very object that MiRhodes had in view—to mould the best type of colonial youth and early manhood in accordance with the best traditions of English University lif.-.- For that supremely important reason we hold, as we have previously contended, that the Rhodes Scholarships should in these colonies, be awarded to students who have passed through our secondary schools, but have not yet entered on a University course.