THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1895.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 10009, 21 December 1895, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, DEC EMBER 21, 1895.

The very careful report of the headmaster of the Auckland Grammar School, road on the occasion of the distribution of the prizes, must be gratifying, not only to all who have sons or daughters attending the school, but to all in this district who take an interest in the higher education. Up til! within the last few years Auckland undoubtedly occupied a lower position than the Southern districts of the colony in the matter of education. Thejprovinccsof Otago and Canterbury began with a lead which Auckland has found it very difficult to reduce. Canterbury prided itself on being colonised by sections from the English Church and the English Universities. Many of the earlier settlers were graduates of Oxford or Cambridge, and they determined to make provision from the beginning for the teaching of classics and mathematics, so that University teachings and traditions might not be lost. By the possession of their land fund tho early settlers of Canterbury were enabled to act munificently in the matter of the higher education. Otago was colonised by some of the best men who ever left Scotland's shores, and each of them had within ljis breast that enthusiasm which has made many a Scottish peasant work hard and live scantily in order that his children might have a University education. Therefore Otago reared splendid educational institutions. Auckland was nowhere in the race. While Christchurchand Dunedin had universities and grammar schools of a good class, Auckland had nothing of the sort. The endowments sot aside for a grammar school were of little value till of recent years. For a generation almost, the common school system of the province was little better than a farce, while the only institution which pretended to teach anything more than the mere rudiments was the school conducted in a small building at the back of St. Andrew's Church under Mr. Farquhar Mcllae. Now all this is changed. Our leeway is not entirely made up, and Dunedin and Christchurch are still better furnished for imparting higher education. But we have now a University College with professors of high qualifications, and who have shown themselves in earnest in promoting every educational advance in the community. We have a Grammar School with an excellent dtaff of teachers. The best means wo have of judging of the success and progress of our Grammar School is by observing how the pupils stand when they come into competition with the pupils of other institutions. In regard

to the senior district scholarships, all the six offered for competition last year fell to pupils of the Grammar School. And here we may remark on one peculiarity of the Auckland Grammar School, and that is, that both boys and girls are taught under the same organisation. The report stated that a keen competition existed between the boys and girls for scholarships and other prizes, and that last year the girls more than held their own, for while they gained four out of the six district scholarships, three of their number were placed in the list of junior University scholars, and only one boy found a place there. The experiment of combining the two schools was thought to be, a somewhat risky one, but it has been found to be a success, that it does not hinder the advancement of the boys, while it undoubtedly stimulates the girls. The success of the gills as prizewinners in competition with the hoys is very creditable to their teaching staff. When the Grammar School pupils come to compete with tho other schools of the colony, there is every reason to be satisfied with the success attained. Out of 44 candidates from the whole colony who Rained distinction in the examinations for university scholarships, 14, or nearly onethird, were from the Auckland Grammar School. Miss Smith was first in mathematics, Miss Dinneen second in French, and Grant third in Latin. J. C. Dromgool, a last year's scholar, has won, over a large number of competitors, the Gillies scholarship at University College for mathematics and science. The achievements of old pupils of tho Grammar School in England are also noteworthy. It. U. Maclaurin was 12th wrangler in the mathematical tripos at Cambridge; B. N. Tebbs was 2nd in the first class in tho natural science tripos, and W. S. La Trobe stood Ist in the first class in the inter-collegiate examination of all the men of his year who wore reading for honours in the mechanical tripos. Mr. Tibbs is justified in his remark : " I suppose that no school in the Australasian colonies has had a better record in any single year at Oxford or Cam bridge, and it is an occasion oh which Auckland may justly be proud of its Grammar School and University College, for it was here that these young men received that accurate training, and acquired those habits ot industry which have enabled them to prove themselves a match for the best students of the old country." The Grammar School has also, at the famous Girton College, a lady representative who is doing credit to her early training.

It may be claimed, now, wo think, that Auckland has done much to recover the ground she lost during the earlier years of the colony. We have now in good working order the institutions which will enable us to make still greater progress. If somo of our citizens would follow the example of the late Mr. Justice Gillies and the late Mr. Rawlings, and found scholarships for the College or Grammar School, the cause of education would be materially tiled.