THE New ealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11 1891.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8669, 11 September 1891, Page 4

THE New ealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11 1891.

♦ For our readers both at Home and in the colony it may be interesting on this occasion to diverge from the ordinary line of articles in a summary issue, for the purpose of showing how the higher education is progressing in New Zealand. The time is appropriate, for during the last month the capping of graduates has taken place at Auckland and Dunedin, and at the Latter place, Sir Robert Stout, who represented the Chancellor of the University, in his address showed the actual position at which we had arrived.

The University of New Zealand and the Colleges which are attached to it at Dunedin, Christchurch, and Auckland, have cost the colony a considerable sum, as endowments have been made and grants of land given from the Colonial Exchequer. Objection has frequently been made to the cost of this higher education, on the ground that in,* a colony there should be no State expenditure except for common school education, by which the children of the poorest can benefit. It is objected that in providing for the higher education wo are simply aiding the well-to-do to obtain the luxuries of education,. for which the State ought to give no assistance. But a better tone of feeling is beginning to prevail. It is seen that the political danger of these /Colonies is not the growth of a vast proletariat not having the capacity to read and write. The danger is rather that education will be universal but on a low level; that there will be nobody who cannot read and write, but that few will be able to do any more ; that the mass of the people will simply be in the position of being fitted and ready to imbibe the most crude, injurious, and impracticable ideas in politics and social economy. Without I

some provision for higher might be able to show a popukf \ We removed from illiteracy X** *»' nig and writing are concerned' L?*' which formed but a ready seed the most mischievous social dn ,' 1 for It must be remembered that OUP * mon school education teaches T scholar to read, and writ., an , tle sums in arithmetic, and it » . , ?' said that there it stops. It , Jft tees almost no knowledge of hiT*"' or capacity for reflection. A bov pass through to the seventh stimTl with an uninterrupted course of m cessful examinations, and may \ SUc ' reality, so far as the training f°r power of thought is concerned -i i trustworthy citizen than a boy who had far less school instruction hnf , has teen able to do son,, a miscellaneous reading. It j s " reasonable to expect that, with la? y number of students receiving a (JnV sity training, higher ambitions will instilled into our young men , }< j women, and that from the Universit graduates will come men fitted to J: \ their fellow-citizens. • a 1,8

From a statement • made by }}• Robert Stout wo learn the follow!, respecting the University :— Tim tot l number who came up for degree exam? nation last year was 200 fin t |,' e ' V( , " before there were 107. The December examinations, which were examinationfor matriculation, medical prolimhuir • and junior scholarships, also showed an increase; there were 473 examined in 1890, and 405 examined in pjgg This year the number of' degrees to be conferred throughout ° the whole of New Zealand i s (50 as follows : — Master of Arts 15"' Bachelor of Arts, 36; Bachelor of Science, 1 ; Bachelor of Laws 7 ■ Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, 3.. This will make a total number of 279 graduates who have been admitted to degrees by the New Zealand University after examination, There are now nine scholarships of £50 per annum—one for Greek, one for Latin, one for English and French or German, one for mathematics, one for chemistry, one for physics, one for biology or geology, one for mental science, one for political science. It is intended to make provision as the University progresses for the founding of scholarships to encourage research. It as also been agreed that certificates shall be issued by the University to students who have distinguished themselves at the Agricultural [School at Lincoln, and in the College of Engineering in Christchurch. During his address Sir li, Stout referred to the scattered position of the colleges. You might have, he said, sufficient at the different centres to give what is required in an arts curriculum, but you could not expect to have centred in one place all the special schools that are, necessary for a complete higher education. Canterbury is providing for "'culture and engineering, and Qtago for medicine and mines Auckland has a music course, and it ought to have a school of agriculture and forestry to give a training for dealing with the special agricultural adaptabilities of the district, and also a medical school. Auckland is undoubtedly behind Christchurch and Duriediti. The latter has had an especial advantage in the fact that the Presbyterian Church there has endowed a chair of- philosophy, a chair of English, and a chair of physic. We shall look in vain for any church hereto be as enlightened as the Presbyterian Church of Otago. We may here mention that Professor Pond, the newlyappointed Professor of Classics and English at the Auckland College, gave an address at the ceremonial of capping 011 August 25. He stated that justbefore leaving England he saw Dr. Reid, of Cambridge, who had been appointed examiner in Latin for the Senate of that University of New Zeasaid that the Uuiversity had set. a high standard for its degrees, and that most of the papers lie had got were good, and some of them admirable. New Zealand is at a disadvantage in regard to the higher education, because there is no great centre ot population where might be gathered all the persons and appliances necessary for efficient University training. The system which has been adopted, of making the University an examining body for those who desire degrees 01 certificates of proficiency, and who have been taught in the affiliated colleges, is the only one open to us. \ear by year the benefits of the University will be increasingly .felt. For instance, one vast practical benefit would be to spread in Auckland a knowledge of scientific agriculture fitted to develop the capabilities of our sub-tropical climate. And it may be hoped also that the colony will feel the benefit of having in it a cultured class, men who know the history of the race in all its details, and who are beyond the reach of being captivated by every passing political cry.