A BLIND STUDENT'S FEAT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVI, Issue XLVI, 24 January 1911, Page 3

A BLIND STUDENT'S FEAT.

PASSES MATRICULATION EXAMINATION.

AUCKLAND-, Monday

/«aojig the successful candidates a't the recent matriculation examination is Doric Laird Aigie. whose success is the more striking -on a-c-I'Ciunt of the exceptional difficulties under w'hich he has worked. Aigie i; a son of J. A. Alg:e, n 'Queenstown, Lake Wakatipu, and, -though, not quite blind, is far deprived of. Iris si.ght as to be unable to pursue his studies yin theusual way. Pour years ago he en-ter-ed the Jubilee Institute for the J<iind, and in less thaai 18 _month)s r.ol only mastered the Braille system of reading and writing, but jecame proficient in Braille slioithand. 1 At the Auckland winter exhibition in August.. 190'Sj he made "a verbatim report of the inaugural speech of the Prime Minister at -a speed of SO a minute, and afterwards transcribed it on a Hammond typewriter. Algie showed such marked "ability that at. the beginning • 5 1909 it was- decided to .prepare him for matriculation. "The teaching s-Aff of the Institute undertook part th-e work, while for English, and geometry lie was placed "■nder the tuition of Mr. ■ (n«w ■Rev.) Ernest Chitty, M.A. He niude such rapid progress that by the end of the" year his teachers decided that he was quite ready to tak« his place in the matriculation form »r Ki'ng's College. The Latin text books had all to be'copied in Braille S-FPther with the arithmetical examples, and Macaulay's essay on Loid Chatham. A very considerable part of this wor.k was done by Alg.ie himieilf. The year was indeefl a "hard) one for -the young student, tout rlja-nkb to his own efforts and those of his friends it has eaided in victory.