VICTORIA COLLEGE

New Zealand Mail, 22 January 1902, Page 46

VICTORIA COLLEGE

QUEEN’S SCHOLARSHIPS. REPORT OF THE EXAMINER. The monthly meeting of the Victoria College Council was held at the Education Board offices on the 15th, when there wore present—Sir Stout (chairman), Bishop Wallis, Dr Knight, Messrs J. R. Blair, A. W. Hogg, M.H.R., J. Graham, M.H.R., C. Watson, W. A. Evans and C. Wilson. Payments were authorised to the extent of £312 2s 4d from general account and £1 2s 7d from laboratory account. The following report from Mr Thomas W. Rowe, M.A., examiner for Queen’s scholarships, was read: — “ I have the honour to submit the following report on the recent examination for the Queen’s scholarships: — “ The examination was held on December 11th, 12th and 13th, at ten places, namely, Wellington, Masterton, Napier, Gisborne, Wanganui. New Plymouth, Palmerston North, Nelson, Westport and Hokitika. Six candidates were absent from all the examinations. The numbers of candidates who entered for examination, and of those who actually sat, were as follow: Entered—Wellington, S 3: Masterton, 6; Napier, 5; Gisborne. 2: Palmerston North, 7; Wanganui, 2; New Plymouth, 2; Nelson, 3; Westport, 2; Hokitika, 9: total, 121. “ The number of entries shows an increase of fourteen as compared with that of the previous year, which itself was nine less than that of 1599. “ Tho instructions sent to supervisors were the same as on previous occasions. The candidates have been known to me by number only; the names Mentioned in this report and its appendices have been inserted by the Registrar of the College. “ Tho regulations with reference to tho standard of qualification for a scholarship were the same as last year, that is, a minimum of 33 per cent, j of full marks was required in each sub- ' ject. Of the 115 candidates who were actually examined, twenty-three failed in arithmetic, one in English, thirteen in geography, ten in history, one in science and one in drawing, the total number of those who qualified being sixtysix. This is not quite such a good result- as last year, when sixty-nine qualified out of ninety-eight examined, but rather better than in 1899. when fiftyfour candidates qualified out of 108 examined. The arithmetic paper was rather harder than last year, when only five candidates failed to obtain the minimum of marks in this subject. “The full marks obtained by each candidate who qualified, and complete statistics relating to all the candidates who entered for the examination will bo found in appendices 3 and 4. “Tho six candidates who stand highest in order of merit, and to whom, subject to their compliance with other necessary conditions, I recommend that the six scholarships offered be awarded, are:— “Julia Spences Tavendale, Waimangaroa, 1493 marks (74.05 per cent.) “James Tait, Masterton, 1479 marks. “Joseph Heenan, Mount Cook Bovs’, 1472 marks. “ Bertha I. L. Reeve, Pahiatua, 1400 marks. Elsie M. Johnston, Pctone, 1405 marks. “ David Whyte, Havelock North, 1370 marks. “ Six other candidates obtained above 05 per cent, of full marks, and may, therefore, be deemed worthy of honourable mention. They arc: - “Leonard Daniell, Masterton, 1349 marks. r ,.“, J , es s ! o° Sutler, Mount Cook Girls , 1339 marks. Atkin, Te Arc. 1339 marks. Alfred W. Gyles, Te Aro, 1335 marks. “Grace A. Smith, Mount Cook Girls’, 1324 marks. .“Mark W. Lovell, Main School, Napier. 1322 marks. “The examination as a whole does not ca I for very detailed remark. The English as a whole was satisfactory, though candidates showed, I think, distinct weakness m some branches of the subject. Tho composition generally was good, but the paraphrasing was less satisfactory than last year; the analysis was good, but the parsing weak The syllabus prescribes a knowledge of tho more important Greek and Latin roots • the question set to cover this part of the subject was, as a rule, answered badly if answered at all. The spelling yea H r 1 rath '' r better tl,ail last “In connection with the English paper, an exercise was set in writing. The writing submitted in return was of various styles, both sloping and unrio-hf While approving myself of an upright or very slightly sloping stylo, lam pleased to notice that the very cramped or pinched upright form that was common two years ago was represented in this examination by comparatively few examples. “The arithmetic was good. The paper set was purposely made a little harder than last year’s, and this Jed to the disqualification of many more weak candidates, but the better ones showed themselves fully equal to the demands made on thorn, two, indeed, obtaining full marks, with many others but a Ji£ tlo below them.

“The geography was, in my opinion, again somewhat weak. The questions in physical geography were as a rule answered fairly well, in some cases very well, and question 9 (a list of names) elicited a very good set of answers, but tho two questions set on the broad physical features of Asia and North America, the two continents prescribed for study by the syllabus, were most inadequately answered. Ido not think that, if these examinations ai-e to be considered as a test, the teaching of geography in the primary schools of the middle district of New Zealand is entirely satisfactory.

“ Tho history was, on the whole, good, though a rather large number of weak candidates failed to obtain the minimum number of marks. A few of the best papers might even be called excellent. : “In science a paper was set in each of the six subjects included in the syllabus for primary schools, namely, : agricultural science, botany, chemistry, domestic economy, physics ! and physiology. The number of can-j didates who entered in each of obese \ subjects was as follows:—Agricultural! science, 1; botany, 7; chemistry, 51; domestic economy, 18 ; physics, 10 ; physiology, 34. The papers generally, in all the subjects, were again excellent. “In drawing, candidates were allow- ! ed to choose for examination two out of three branches—freehand, model and practical solid geometry. All chose | freehand, and many drew very good copies of the figure sot. Of course there • were some poor copies, but generally i tho candidates showed some skill in ! drawing curved outlines, as well as the! ability to observe due proportion be-! tween the different parts of the figure, j For the second paper all the candidates, but ten took model drawing. This was J not so good as the freehand, but tire j better candidates showed some know- i ledge of the principles of perspective. The ten candidates wiio took practical ! solid geometry varied much in merit, ’ one or two doing well, and the rest j badly. j

“ I should like to refer the council j to my remarks of the last two years on i the standard of qualification for a scholarship. If it is to be considered in any degreo meritorious to qualify for a j scholarship, the standard of qualifiea- j tion should be fairly high. I consider' tho present standard far too low. I j should also like to suggest that in his- i tory and geography the examination ! should be made a test of the pernia-! nonce and value of the candidates’ :arly I work in these subjects. Confining t::e| examination, which it must be remem- j bored is not a pass examination but a ; competitive one, to the work of a single j year is, in my opinion, strongly condu- 1 ciivo to ‘cram.’

“I have again to acknowledge my in- ; debtedness to Mr O. P. Powles, regis- j trar of the college, for his unfailing courtesy on every occasion when application to him for any purpose has been necessary.

“ Attached to this report are the following appendices:—l., a complete set of the examination papers: ii.. instructions sent to supervisors; iii., list in order of merit of the 60 candidates who qualified for a scholarship, with the total marks of each: iv.. list of all candidates arranged according to examination numbers, showing all the marks obtained by each.”

Scholarships were awarded according to the examiner’s recommendations, subject to the six successful candidates complying with the conditions. It was decided that the examiner’s report should be considered at the next meeting of the council.