A BLIND STUDENT'S FEAT.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1032, 23 January 1911, Page 4

A BLIND STUDENT'S FEAT.

PASSES MATRICULATION EXAMINATION. (By Telesrraph.—Special Correspondent.! Auckland, January 22. Among the successful candidates at the recent matriculation examination is Boric Laird Algio, whoso success is the more striking on account of the exceptional difficulties under which ha has worked. Algio is a son of Mr. J. A. Algie, of Queenstown, Lake Wakatipu, and, though not quite blind, is so lar deprived of sight as to be unable to pursue his studies in the usual way. .Four years ago he entered the Jubilee Institute for the Blind, and in less than eighteen months not only mastered the Braille system of reading and writing, but. became proSciet in Braille, shorthand. At the Auckland winter exhibition in August, 1908, he made a verbatim report of the inaugural speech of the Prime Minister at a speed of SO words a minue, and afterwards transcribed it on a Hammond typewriter. Algie showed such marked ability that at the. beginning of 1909 it was decided to prepare him for matriculation. The teaching staff of tho institute undertook part of the work, whil6 for English, Latin, and geometry ho was S laced under tho tuition of Mr. (now ev.) Ernest Chitty, JI.A. Ho made such rapid progress that by the end of the year his teachers decided that ho was quite ready to take his place in the matriculation form at King's College. The Latin text books had all to Do copied in Braille together with the arithmetical examples, and Jlacaulay's essay on Lord Chatham. A very considerable part of this work was done bv Algie himself. The year was indeed a hard one for the young student, but thanks to his own efforts and those of his friends it has ended in victory.