FREE PLACES.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 15955, 17 July 1917, Page 7

FREE PLACES.

THE COURSE IN ENGLISH. (srrciAL to "tiie pkess.") WELLINGTON, July 16. Interesting referoncc was made this morning by the Minister of Education (Hon. J. A. Hanan) to the subject of the new regulations regarding free places in secondary schools and district high schools. "The course in English." ho said, "prescribes that there ' shall bo a general study of a fairly wide range of .selected standard worl?s in both prose aud verse. This wider reading is intended to supersede, to a large extent the minute study of oaly one or two books during the year's work. Emphasis is also laid on the cultivation of faeijity and expression both. oral and written, so as to sccurc habits of correct and fluent speech as well as of written composition, Reports of inspectors and the statements of educational authorities generally go to show that with the closer attention given _tp books in secondary schools, and with a lesser amount of oral teaching compared with that given in the primary schools, the majority of pupils do not, in my opinion, develop sufficiently their powers of oral composition or expression through speech. They ' are able to answer questions in writing v but few have the power of giving a connected and intelligently spoken account of what they havo learned. What I am aiming at is to give to those "passing through our sfecondary schools a better knowledge and a fuller capacity of expression of the mother tongue, to inculcate a lovo and devotion to the well of English, pure and nndefiled.''