The Lyttelton Times. SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 1862.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XVII, Issue 983, 12 April 1862, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times. SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 1862.

Duking the last session of the Provincial Council certain reports of the Inspector of Schools were laid on the table and ordered to be printed. The importance of a proper inspection of the schools receiving Government aid cannot be exaggerated, and we therefore hope that the Council paid some attention to the matter and the style of the reports laid on the table. We presume that it was an anxiety to prove the incompetence of the present Inspector to fulfil some of the duties imposed upon him that led to the motion for printing. The intrinsic value of a document is sometimes the last reason which should have weight in deciding on its publication. The Inspector comments not only on the ordinary district schools obtaining aid from the Government, but also criticises, in strong terms, the Grammar School connected with Christ's College. As the general impression is that this school has, under great difficulties, gradually risen to a usefulness and popularity, which in a very young community give a promise of increased success, we have made some enquiry both as to the qualifications of the Inspector, and as to the allegations" made by him on this subject. Iv appears that when the Provincial Government wrote to England for an Inspector of Schools, it was contemplated that a gentleman of high attainments and scholarly education might be induced to take the office. But it was found that the salary offered was too low to tempt the class of men wanted, and it was determined to select Mr. Restell, who had a high character as a certificated schoolmaster ; in the hope that by working with schoolmasters here and giving them the benefit of his experience, he might do as much good in organising young schools as might be gained by inspection of a higher class. Mr. Restell was, probably, quite competent to perform such a duty, and to have made himself most useful to the community. But unfortunately he took a different view of his position. Some sort of notion that he was to ape the proceedings of the gentlemen who in England occupy the position of inspectors appears to have taken possession of him, and he has been more bent upon inspecting than upon helping inexperienced schoolmasters. If anything had been wanting to turn his head it was the fact that among tli« schools receiving Government assistance, and

thus made liable to his inspection, was one whose head master was a first-class man of Oxford, and whose second master was a wrangler of Cambridge.

If Mr. Restell had recognised the difficulty he was placed in by receiving instructions to inspect Christ's College, and had confined himself in his examinations to subjects with which he was conversant, we should only have been sorry that he was placed in such a false position. But the Inspector of Schools does not appear to have been at all sorry for himself, or to have had the least misgiving as to his qualifications. Unfortunately for him, boys have a keen sense of the ridiculous; and some of the jokes current among them about Mr. Restell's scholarship have reached us. The Inspector gives his opinion as to the progress of the boys in " Latin, &c." It is true that he undertook to examine them in Latin, but we must beg to be allowed to doubt his qualification. We are credibly informed that in an examination paper set by him, one of the questions was as follows:— Certain persons were mentioned in the passage before him, and he wished to ask who were referred to by the author. An ordinary examiner would have asked this in plain English, but Mr. Restell asks in Latin, thus — Cvi refert ? Is it to be wondered at that boys should remember the Inspector's Latin, or that cvi referi has taken its place with such choice and traditional translations as

verte canem ex, and mens tuus ego. Let us return to the reports we alluded to above. We regret to say that they are not at all such as we should expect from a man entrusted with the inspection of the schools of the Province, —above all with the inspection of the Grammar School. We could forgive bad grammar, but who could tolerate such stuff as this; —we quote from a Report dated November, 1860 :—

" Such a thin coating1 of secular knowledge as that generally afforded by our secondary schools—such a mere precipitate, of no very bright surface—is soon oxidised by the rust of colonial life. What is required is that, by sound principles, wisely inculcated, and deeply instilled, the mind may be concreted and interpenetrated with truths as firm and imperishable, and as capable of adaptation to good ends, as the rugged, yet sparkling granite, that has permeated the hollows and fissures of the earth; a more inwrought education."

He closes the report thus:—" In conclusion, I beg to state that the compilation of my report is, in each quarter concurrent with the fulfilment of correlative duties." What does this mean ? He concludes the report, dated April, 1861, by saying, "I withhold for the June quarter report a brief abstract of suggestions, collated principally from former reports." Mrs. Malaprop would have thought " collated " a fine word in this sentence.

We cannot linger among the somewhat ungrammatical beauties of these reports, but must quote Mr. Restell's opinion of the Grammar School, as summed up by himself: "The school contains several youths of brilliant talent and high attainments; but the general progress is less characterised by accuracy than might fairly be expected : the boys appear to require more frequent exhibitions of good models of reading and elocution; greater care in the inspection and correction of exercises; more practical teaching; less lesson-setting and lesson-hearing. The desultory tendency of the present routine of secular instruction would be corrected by greater attention to accuracy and to the exact sciences. Boys from other provinces often display more neatness, better methods, higher attainments, and that greater aptitude which is incidental to good and sound grounding in the rudiments."

We are really anxious to hear something of the Grammar School. Does this 'elegant extract' help us to form an idea of its merits and demerits. In what grammar schools do they exhibit models of reading and elocution ? Cvi refert? What, in the name of common sense, is meant by " less lesson-setting and lesson-hearing?" and who are meant by the " boys from other provinces?" Are they now in the Grammar School? if so, with whom are they contrasted ? Are they boys having nothing to do with the school ? if so, when and where were they examined? May we say, Quibus refert? We are diffident of altering the Inspector's Latin. There is one statement in this report which demands enquiry; we understand that it is one the truth of which the authorities of the Grammar School are anxious to have tested:

"Lads of fourteen and upwards leave ourbest school, the Grammar School, without being qualified to enter upon such occupation as they require; their services are declined by our leading mercantile firms on the ground of their insufficient knowledge of arithmetic." We have made some enquiries as to this assertion, and we are bound to say that we disbelieve it. It is made in such general and reckless language that one is almost led to suspect some animus against the school. Can it be that Mi1. Hostel! has become aware that the boys joke about him, and that lie is con-

sequently angry with the whole establishment?

The Province is able now to pay for a really good system of school inspection. A place might be found, in such a system, for Mr. Restell's services; but if the country is to spend on education a sum proportionate to its wants, it will be good economy to obtain a really first-rate Inspector. In the meantime we would put in a plea for Christ's College. Could not the Provincial Government let it off this inspection 1 It is hard that the Head Master should, for the sake of the small state assistance given, have his boys put through their facings by Mr. Restell, but still harder that he should be doomed to h«ar them taught bad Latin and worse Greek.