CORRESPONDENCE.

New Zealand Herald, Issue 6568, 5 December 1882, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE DISTRICT SCHOLARSHIPS AND GRAMMAR SCHOOL. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Your report of the conference between the Governors of the Grammar School and the Board of Education is full and clear in the main, but 1 find an impression has been created that I finally concurred in the opinion expressed by a member of the Board as to the imprudence of raising the general question. Far from this, I hold that it is the general question which has been forced to the front by the action of the Governors, and that we ought not to be led away from it by the consideration #f mere details. The general question is this. Are the endowments to become the absolute property of the Grammar School and to be used at the will of the Governors for its maintenance as a solitary school both elementary and secondary ? Or are they to be used in building it up gradually as a great, and possibly free,

secondary school in connection with the primary schools and an integral part of the educational system of the province ?

Legal technicalities or dry legal disquisitions are of little moment in considering this question. The endowments are not in the nature of charitable gifts on express conditions, according to the common rule of endowments at Home, They were given by the people from the public estate for purely public purposes. If the terms of the Trust make it unsuitable in present circumstances, the Trust can be altered by the people from whom the endowments came, and to whom they have always belonged. For thirty-two years these endowments have been inexistence and they have always been regarded as part of the educational resources of the province. For a portion of the time they were administered by the Board of Education. The district schools, and many private schools, have always participated in them by moans of prizes in the form of scholarships or certificates of proficiency from the Education Board. These schools were participating when the Board of Governors was created and are participating, still. The Gorernors now suddenly assert a claim to the endowments as ths exclusive property of the' Grammar School, and thsy offer as an act of grace to "grant" free tuition to a certain number from the district schools. I hold that this claim caanot be allowed. The Grammar School is an integral and important part of the general system of education and yrhen it ceases to be of use to other schools, in the widest possible sense, it ceases to have a reason for sharing in the endowments at all. The Gover rs follow up their assortioa of aright v :posals to limit the age of candidates • ) scholarships to IS years. The limits" : on is based on an alleged 1 difficulty, recently discovered, in admitting older boys to the Greek and Latin classes, albeit that Greek and Latin are purely optional with students according to the pro

visions of the Trust itself. There is no difficulty of this kind when boys go with their fees in hand. Why then place it ia , the way of those who win the scholarships and put them in a different position?'lattach the more importance to this point because the Governors' proposals are supported by a letter from the head-master laying down his virfW as to the object of scholarships, and this letter was sent officially by the Governcn to the Board. In it the scholarships are regarded only as aids to sift out the select intellects of the pcor for promotion to higher education." The »? De u j 13 otherwise excellent, but the head-master ha 3 only been a short time among us or he would have kno-.vn that this view, so common in England, is in no-n-ay whatever applicable to New Zealand. The scholarships here are prizes given bv the people to whom the schools and the endowments belong, and they are open alike to rich and poor without invidious distinction. I'he Governors, it is true, say that they have not adopted the head-master's letter. But they have not disavowed it in any respect, and the Board of cducE.tion, in my humble opinion, is bound to do so if the scholarships r.re not to be degraded and the district schools to be degraded with them. The Governors have further decided to limit the number receiving free tuition under certificates of proficiency from the Board. In this decision we have another arbitrary assumption of a new right—a right which cannot be admitted without recognising a concurrent right to limit the scholarships whenever future Governors may think fit to do so. The danger in this" is manifest from the history of endowed schools in England, where the enormous increase in the value of endowments has not been been used to increase the number of scholarships but to make the schools more attractive to wealthy people. To my mind the only t round on which the Governors can propose to limit or decrease the number of scholarship, or certificate holders, would be an insufficiency of funds. No other ground can be pleaded under the Trust and it is not even hinted at by the Governors among their reasons for the present decision.

These appear to me grave question?. They can only be avoided by mutual forbearance, so long as the Board of Governors i: il the Board of Education are elected by such widely differing constituencies. 1 have loni; been impressed with the difficulty. In ISSO I was fortunately able to assist actively in defeating an attempt to pass a Bill through the Legislature which sought to give to the Governors of the Grammar School the rights which they now coolly assume without it. Last session I endeavoured to get the Grammar School Act amended, by giving the election of the Governors to the School Committees, by whom the Board of Education is now elected. The amendment was defeated on the ground that the principle, if adopted, should be applied to all Zealand. This means indefinite delay, and in Auckland the activity of a majority of the Grammar School Governors is rendering delay dangerous. One thing is clear in the whole matter, and that is, the duty of the Education Beard to guard the interests of the people as a whole, and not those of any particular class. If, in so doing, they must coine into collision with the Governors it would be unfortunate, but it would be infinitely better than any attempt at hollow agreement , ; n details at the cost of sacrificing important principles. If the new claims set up by the Governors are pressed, the Board is bound to resist them to the utmost, and the conflict cannot be avoided. The issue would decide whether the Grammar School shall ultimately rise to its true position as a great secondary school, aidiDg and' stimulating education throughout the province, or whether it shall gradually sink into a select school occupied chiefly with the elementary teaching of boys of tender age, whose parents may be able to pay such fees as future Governors, from time to time, shall appoint.— Yours, &c., F. J. Moss.