STUDY OF LAW.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18544, 20 November 1925, Page 11

STUDY OF LAW.

THE ENTRANCE TEST. RAISING THE STANDARD. (SPECIAL TO "THE PP.E35.") WELLINGTON. November 19. Quite a stir has been caused among young law students by the issue of tJbe new regulation* framed to govern the entrance examination to the law course* of tiie-University of New Zealand. Last week the Committee of Judges, under Sir Robert Stout, announced a change, under the Law Practitioners' Act, 190£, which means a decided raising of the standard of the test to which students must submit. Up to the present it has been matriculation, including a pass in Latin, plus.au examination for general knowledge. The new regulations make it a tesQ which is stated to be practically equivalent to a '■'& per' cent, pass in.the Junior National Scholarship examination. In this the Judges are putting into effect one of the recommendations of the University Commission. In its report the Commission 6tated that the nenoral level of education was very low. It was considered, too, that the matriculation examination fixes too low a standard for entrance to the legal profession, and the Commission recommended that in place of this there should be substituted the entrance scholarship examination for the University of New Zealand. Under the rules of this examination certain of the subjects for general knowledge will be compulsory. Latin, English, and history must be taken, and in addition the student-may take any two other siibiects from the list, provided this covers a. very wide field, and ranges from light and heat to home science and botany. The Commission, found students sitting for the law examination before, they had the general know.ledgo or knowledge of the world which would enable them to understand the principles with which they were dealing. These students were simply memorising without understanding.

General Knowledge Test. The new rules provide for two things: they substitute a new general knowledge test for the matriculation examination, which is by everyone admitted to be too low a test; they provide also that a student must pass his general knowledge test before he can go on to the study of his purely professional subjects.'lt has been found in practice that students fresh from school proceed to the study of the professional subjects without having the experience or the maturity of mind necessary to appreciate legal principles. It is pointed out, too. that under the uew examination a candidate mav pass in*nve subjects, whereas at present he must sit in six. A period is allowed for those who have i>asscd in certain matriculation subjects to complete their examination, as the new regulations will not come into force until March next. Meantime it is* known that several members of 'the Council of the New Zealand Law Society—Messrs C. P. Skerrett. -R. Kennedy, and H. F. von Haast—have been in conference .with the Professorial Board on subjects affecting the Jaw course It js understood that the New /ealrnd Law Society's active intervention in scholastic matters is a hew departure, It is stated-that the lawcourse is hkely to-he lengthened bv two years with the full-approval of the