The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, JULY 30, 1901. NELSON COLLEGE AMD THE HIGH SCHOOL SYSTEM.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXXV, Issue 171, 30 July 1901, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, JULY 30, 1901. NELSON COLLEGE AMD THE HIGH SCHOOL SYSTEM.

THE GOVERNORS' PROPOSALS Without committing ourselves to a more definite opinion at present on the subject of a High School for Nelson, it appears frem the offer of the Nelson College Governors made on the 6th inst in a letter to the Minister for Education (published on the 4th page of to-day's issue) that the matter might be satisfactorily adjusted by the acceptance of the terms therpjn contained. Briefly, the offer is that the College will receive as Exhibitioners 50 "Board School " pupils (25 boys and 25 Tgirls) who have passed lhe si7.li stanj dard, and to be selected by examination, at £o as each per annum, the period of , pupilage at the College to be not less ; than a year, and the Exhibitioners to have been not less that a yea* in the State School previous to examination. I When the limit of 5 ) exhibitioners is reached the Governors will consider enlargement of premises and increase of staff' in order to provide for a practically unlimited number of Exhibitioner^ on the same terms. That is to say, the fees at the College for State School children ' entering upatx a course of secondary education are reduced oija half, and, according to the estimate of th# Governors, brought below the rate usually .charged for a State High School. The Secretary ! ( ito the College, in the letter containing , the proposal, £ays :— " Whether the sub- J ; sidy proposed i# the pir^bjr to the Edu- , eatiou Boards amounts jto <e& l£s per ' annum, as appears to be the case, or to j | the lesser sum of 46 158 (i.e. £2 plus j statutory capitation of *3 15s) tfce fee oy

[subsidy the Governors now propose ia less than that suggested to be paid for what must, under any circumstances, be i admitted to be an inferior system of i education." * # # i It must be obvious to all that if ] arrangements can be made with the College on the foregoing basis the necessity for the establishment of a State High < School in Nelson will be greatly if not I entirely obviated. As the Governors 1 point out, there is a danger of two in- < stitutions for secondary education in a i small city like Nelson acting in rivalry, ; the one impoverishing tbe other and neither being able to maintain the high ■ est standard desirable. On the other hand, it may be held that the application of the theory of the survival of the i fittest to entrance on Exhibitioner terms to the College contravenes to some extent the spirit of the Pablic Instruction i act in regard to its provisions for secon- j dary education. The conditions of entrance are that an Exhibitioner must . have been twelve months at a State School, must have passed the Sixth Standard, and must compete with others ' for the privilege of selection. The two former requirements are unexceptionable. The third, however, entails the exclusion of those who may desire secondary education and yet be unable to pass among the twenty-five of each sex, and also the exclusion of those who, reaching nearly the standard of the successful fifty, just I fail, either by some of tbe innumerable , accidents and hitches attendant on all examinations often because of the nervousness or shyness of the candidates, or by the little lack of knowledge which is yet not sufficient to justly debar from the advantages of secondary education. This is a difficulty which presents itself on a cursory consideration of the proposals of the College Governors ; but it seems to us-ihat it might be overcome in due time if the further suggestion that later provision be made for the reception of a practically unlimited number of Exhibitioners be carried out as promptly as possible. The qualification by candidature appears to us to be one of the weak points of the scheme, but if this apparent defect can be removed in time it, would be well for the Education Board to pause before it committed itself to the establishment of a school in rivalry to the Nelson College. * * * The College Governors, however, in making the proposition to receive State School Exhibitioners at £5 5s per annum, may be considered by som6 to have admitted too much. That is to say, parents may begin to ask themselves .vhy they should be required to pay £10 10s a year when fifty children of all classes are admitted at £5 os, or jnst one-half. The , answer can only be that the extra five guneas carry a certain social status, and thus at once there is a division of the ten-guinea and the five-guinea classes into social sheep and goats. In spite of every effort to maintain absolute equality among tbe pupils ab present, there is already a somewhat undesirable distinction ' between scholarship-holders and those who pay full fees, witb other infinitesimal subdivision* of £03ial rank which satirise our vaunted democracy. It may be admitted that these distinctions are absolutely unavoidable in all communities, having their origin not in the school but in the home. The College authorities themselves undoubtedly discourage any such classifications. But they exist, and are as unalterable as the course oi tbe stars. It is to bu feared, therefore that by the creation of yet another class of College pupils, branded as paying half fees and coming up from the State school* as avowedly unable to pay the full fees, we may engraft on our democratic colonial Institutions the evils of the sizar servitor and bursar distinctions oi rank now confined to British Universities. There aj/e many parents poor but proud, and 'howevej mistaken they may be, they would decline to accept for their children the terms of entry proposed for State School Exhibitioners, und for these and others a State High School alone cgn make provision. # » s The conclusion thereforo to which the proposal of the College Governors forces us ov logical process is that if the fees can be reduced to five guineas per annum for one class of pupils, it is feasible to reduce all fees to the same level. It woulc then be optional vvith parents of State school children to continue the course oi instruction from primary to secondarj without either competition or humiliation. We are perfectly aware that there are many difficulties in the way, not the least being the social influence exercised by the Nelson Colleges, that for girls especially, in a small and necessarily cliqueridden coinmnnity. For our part, we | should like to see the influence raised tc I a higher standard and broadened, instead of promoting snobbery much against the wifi of the authorities ay the spirit of the institution, and the first step upward uiig-ht be in the unification of the fees here suggested. Obviously, if the College can provide for fifty pupils at five guineas a year, and ultimately for an unlimited number at that rate, tuete ia no longei any need to charge other pupils t.en guineas. The additional five guineas in j such a case can only be the price of a social hall-mark -and that sort of pinchbeck stamp may well be left to private schools of the Misses Pinkerton"s Academy kind.