THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE COUNCIL AND MR. JAMES ADAMS. B.A.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9336, 20 October 1893, Page 3

THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE COUNCIL AND MR. JAMES ADAMS. B.A.

XlilX/ lUIVI U AIUUO ai/AXUU) -4V. ill \ TO THE EDITOR. Sip.,— letters of Mr. Adams, if they tell us nothing new, raise some important points. " The question," says Mr. Adams, was entirely on the method of imparting instruction, not on the time that the professors worked and again, " It was very clear what I wished to show, namely, that the time the professors to college work, if employed in actual instruction, would be attended with far better results, and that the lecture suited perhaps to men of mature ape, is quite unsuited to young students. If in other University Colleges in ; New ' Zealand the students are employed all day, why have a different system in Auckland, although the Professors j , have to do quite as much work? A did Mt \

think then, nor do I think now, that the professors did not devote full time to their work but still I ; -' venture to say that class instruction, as in a school, will produce far more satisfactory results, and will largely increase the number <of day students." This is in October, 1893, and in Mr. Adams's letter to Dr.Kidd, the registrar, of June 6, 1890, we find the results: " There are now 23 students who have kept three-years' terms at the College, and oi these five only have graduated, and some of the remainder have not even passed their first section. This list of failures can be seen to be increasing year after year. Mow, in Canterbury College, where every assistance is afforded to the students, there are this year only nine students who have kept three years' terms, and six of these have graduated." Then, in the papers, we have the time-tables of the Auckland College and Canterbury College in 1890 compared, and the obvious inference Mr. Adams desires to draw is this, that, if the difference in the time between two tables had been devoted to tutorial or class instruction in Auckland, there would have been " more satisfactory results." And returning to the October letter, Mr. Adams says: " The result of my representation to the College Council was that I effected nothing— alteration was made in the hours, and the old lecture system was maintained." The letters of Mr. Adams open up the very important question as to whether the instruction imparted in Auckland University College shall be professorial, by means of lectures, as in Scotland, or professorial and tutorial, by means of lectures and class instruction, as in England.—l am, etc., C.