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Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 141, 11 December 1935, Page 10

The Examination System. "I hope that in as many cases as possible parents will not require their boys to sit for matriculation at the end of three years. Matriculation is a four-year course, and success in three years can come only at the expense of the boy's education. Matriculation in three years is rather like the preparation of the Christmas duck—a case of unnatural cramming. To secure matriculation passes in three years is no credit to a school, as it means a deliberate lowering of a school's educational ideals," remarked the headmaster (the Rev. G. M. McKenzie) at the Cathedral Grammar School prizegiving on Tuesday (reports the Christchurch "Press"). Mr. McKenzie, who said that the matriculation examination was "always something of a gamble," added that the school this year abandoned the proficiency examination, although boys who wished to sit for it might still do so each year. He regarded the proficiency examination as a very real barrier to real education. It was a test restricted in the choice of subjects to little more than English and arithmetic, and even those were tested along lines of little real value.

Art Unions and Unemployed.

Criticism of art unions as a means of securing funds for the relief of unemployment was made by Monsignor H. F. Holbrook in addressing members of the Auckland Rotary Club on Monday, states the "New Zeaalnd Herald." Monsignor Holbrook said it reminded him of the time in Ireland when the whisky tax was used to provide the grant for education. "The more whisky that was drunk the more education became available," he said. "In this Dominion the more people gamble, the more money becomes available for the unemployed." Gold-crested Silver-eyes. Excitement was created in an Auckland suburban garden on Monday by the appearance of a pair of silver-eyes showing a remarkable variation of the usual plumage, one of the birds having brilliant gold on its head, states the "New Zealand Herald." The mate also showed the same colouring, but to a lesser degree, the gold appearing only as a crest. Both birds were otherwise normal in appearance. The head of the silver-eye is usually green or russet. Expert opinion was consulted and the birds were watched. An ordinary silver-eye was observed to enter a syringa bush. After thrusting its head into a blossom it withdrew it, bearing not onjy the coveted green caterpillar, but a realistic feathery crown of golden pollen. Activity on Mount Egmont. The first double traverse of Mount Egmont on ski was made, on Sunday by Mr. F. Bourke, a member of the Mount Egmont Alpine Club, and later by Mr. R. Griffiths, of New Plymouth, and Mr. G. Carryer, of Stratford, states a Hawera correspondent. The route was from Syme Hut, Fantham Peak, to the summit, down to Tahurangi Hut on the north side, back to Syme Hut, over the summit. Mr. Bourke's total time was nine and a half hours. There was considerable activity on the mountain on Sunday. Over 50 people lunched on the summit and early in the afternoon 37 made the ascent from the north side under the leadership of Mr. L. V. Bryant. Mr. Rod Syme, the captain of the Egmont Club, made with the party his 114 th ascent.