MATRICULATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 123, 27 May 1930, Page 6

MATRICULATION.

It is a well-worn subject, but'l feel that I cannot leave your correspondent's letter; "Academic Training" unchallenged. To quote ■ his letter: "The examination blasts the future of thousands of our youth." I fail to see it. If those "thousands" cannot pass the University entrance examination how can they expect to enter the University and study the "skilled crafts"? If it was not for this examination we would have our University filled with wealthy men's sons who have no brains and no grit. If the fact that the New Zealand youths have to work hard to have an opportunity of entering professional careers is going to carry the population of our country into "a state similar to that of the Russian population prior to the war," this world is no fit ; place for a person with "go" and ambition. Your correspondent speaks contemptuously of • the "swat." Does he think that it is easy for these jelly backboned "swats" to give up the sport so dear to youth, to set their jaws and say "I will," to "swat" late at night or to force themselves out of bed in the cold, dark early morning? "Swats" have will power. Thus to those "fags" who have not allowed a ' mere examination to "blast their lives," who, seeing the stumbling. block, have had enough • grit to clear it, who have worked, and are still working, to attain a higher end, I say from the bottom of'my heart, "Good luck!" '"-'.'- S. JACK. ..