HIGHER EDUCATION.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 11244, 9 April 1902, Page 7

HIGHER EDUCATION.

TO THE EDITOB OF THE PBESS. Sir, —By request I left the manuscript of my address in Christohuroh. With it "was the proof of my assertion that tiie salary paid to a professor at Victoria College is £500 per annum. I had to get my proof from Uhristckurch, hence my delay in replying. | 1 have been told—more leg-pulling vanity ! touched, you will say-: —-yes, 1 hare been toid that my attack on the College was a regular "Long Tom" shot. Your sputterings in reply have been quite harmless, so that your somewhat hysterical concern for "poor Mr Opie's feelings" is unnecessary, i'our readers will 'be gkd to know that" I have suffered no injury whatever from the discharges of your popgun. You question the accuracy of my figures, especially my statement that "at Victoria College a salary cf £500 a year secured a man of higii qualifications." Now, I wish your readers to be the judges, in your charge againsffc ane of gross inaccuracy. Who is my authority for the £500 statement? Why, you are!!! Yes, tha Christ church "Press" and the Wellington "Post." If you want proof turn up the "Press" of December 21st, 190|, You will there find your statement as follows:—"Victoria Col-

lege says the 'Pest.,' is to be congratulated on having secured a gentleman of high qualifications for the position of Professor of Modem Languages. The selected candidate is Mr G. W. yon Zedlitz, M.A., who is a* present form master of the lower fifth at Lorebto School, in ''Mjusselburgb, Scotland The salary is £500 per annum." OetrtaMy the Ohnrastchuroh "Prsb" and tihe Wellington "Post"-are sufficient authorities for the statement and I maintain tlsat £500 is on adequate salary for seven months' "work—£7o .« month, with £10 thrown in for a Christmas box. We have our own. New Zealanders, graduates of distinction, who would gkdfy take th«ee positions for the salary mentioned, and who would; in my bumble opinion do better work than is bemg done. It is reported of one of the most up-to-date universities': "The professors are for the most part young graduates full of fresh vigour, and brought up under the same conditions and under the same difficulties as their pupils." "There are no tuition fees, no gown and trencher." A college run on -these lines" is conducted in interests of th& public. But wihat °t1- t i l * T Boaj, d of Governors care for tie public? Let one of tie Governors answer .febe question. ' He said at the last meetihg of tihe Board that !he did pot care a two? pence fox «he public. I admire the manJiSl* h^, mean!ber v Hβ says straight out wtnat the other memibers- probaWy feed You also take exception to the statement average salary of professor and lecturer at Canteiibury College was over £500 * ye ? r ' urJ l7 statement, correctly reported m *he "Times," was "£560" a year; but your reporter's "above £500 a year" was near enough to prove my assertion that the cost at Canterbury College was twice, as much, as thaifc at Victoria College. I did not think, the misprint sufficiently important to challenge the report, but if you will have the exudt figures, you shall have tihem They only put Ctotenbury Ootiege in a wjoree iposition.. The cost then h £288 at Victoria College, against £560 at Canterbury College. • If you are really interested in thds matter of secondary educaltian, I wish you would get'ine the answers to tfiie following questions concerning the Boye' Hash Atehool: — (1) The number of boys on the roll. (2) The number of these in (1) who have not passed the VI. standard before admission to tihe school.

Before dosing this le*te r I should like to state, tibat I quite agree with tihe editor of the Dunedip "Evening Star" in the leading article which he devotes to my address "*h«b unless something is done, and tfeat qurckly . . . tfotere will be a general outcry .against tihe unfairness of the present syetftn. , ' ("Evening Star," Thursday, April 3rd, I9o2.)—Youra, etc., CHARLES OPIE Sheffield, April 7th, 1902.