A DISTRICT HIGH SCHOOL FOR CHRISTCHURCH.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 11946, 15 July 1904, Page 4

A DISTRICT HIGH SCHOOL FOR CHRISTCHURCH.

The Premier, in his reply to the deputation on technical education in Christchurch, indulged again in the bluff which characterises so many of his utterances in his capacity of Minister for Education. Christchurch shall; willy-nilly, have a "District High "School," and the Board of Governors of Canterbury College shall, nolens volens, be "brought to heel." The Premier is not ignorant, he merely affects to be ignorant, of the fact that the Board is complying in every way with the letter and the spirit of tho Act. Two courses were left open to governing bodies of secondary schools—to admit free all pupils who obtain a certificate of proficiency from the primary schools, under a certain age, or, in the alternative, to give one free place for every £50 of income from their endowments. The local Board, in the exercise of its legitimate discretion, adopted the first alternative as regards the Girls' High School, and the second as regards the Boys' High School. What more does the Premier ask? It is true, in the case of the Girls' High School, tho Board's decision has not produced much practical result. But that is simply because Acts of Parliament, though they avail to confer rights, do not avail to stretch the dimensions of brick buildings, unless they also provide for the grant, of adequate funds for increasing the accommodation. And the Government, ready to pass statutes, is not. equally ready to supply cash. As regards tho Boys' High School, the buildings are on rach ample scale that the school could probably without inconvenience accommodate a number of additional pupils. But aa a matter of fact, it is doubtful whether there is a demand for increased facilities for secondary education, of a sort worthy of the name. The authorities of tho High . School frequently find it difficult to fill the free places they offer; "continuing exhibitions," Governors' exhibitions, and foundation exhibitions are often refused by the parents to whom they are offered. It is true, no doubt, that a certain number of boys are ready to come on for a term or two, perhaps

even a year or more, to be "finished off' for business. But w* demur, and the Board, we fancy, demur also, in. the interests of edacation, to the Premiers idea that a genuine secondary sc-ooi should be a mere dumping-ground for boys who are waiting for a billet. Birds of "-passage of this migratory diameter are not suitable recipients of the bounty of the State in tho matter of secondary education. Any boy who is aMe to obtain half marks hi the Board of Education's scholarship exanrina*ion is at present able to obtain fitee education at the High Sc-001. A. boy who fa-Is beJow that very moderate standard of efficiency is better employed devoting his energies to qualifying for his immediate trade or calling as soon as he leaves school. The Premier's idea of a District High School appears to be an institution where children, on passing the sixth standard, will be instructed in a smattering of Latin and French, Euclid and algebra, to fIU up timo while they are waiting for a "berth." The absurdity of such an idea is patent. If a District High School is to be of real benefit to the community it.ought to be a "continuing school," of a more or less technical character, in which the pupils who have passed the sixth standard would pursue with greater breadth and thoroughness the subjects they have already been taught, and would, in addition, take up different branches of technical education. In a word, if the technical clasßes, now established as evening classes for apprentices and others, were mado day classes for school children who have passed the sixth standard, they would, to a very large extent, supply the requirements which are sought to be met by the establishment of a District High School.