REORGANISATION OF THE WELLINGTON COLLEGE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5552, 14 January 1879, Page 2

REORGANISATION OF THE WELLINGTON COLLEGE.

TO THE EDITOR OP THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES. Sib, —Our College is to be reorganised. The scheme has been published as drawn up by a committee appointed for the purpose, permit me to make a few remarks on what is proposed to be done. It will be well to begin by calling attention to the history of the institution. The Wellington College is the development of an institution previously existing under the name of the Wellington Grammar School. During the last few years of its existence the Grammar School lost favor with the public, and its character as an efficient institution was almost ruined by the publication of an elaborate report on its condition, drawn up by the Rev. Mr. Harvey, and in which he commented in very plain terms on the inefficient character of work done in several departments. The governors of Wellington College resolved, according to their light, to make the new institution a success, invited, on the recommendation, I believe, of Dr. Vanghau, master of the temple, Mr. Kenneth Wilson, from England, to fill the office of head master, but they proceeded to associate with Mr. Wilson the very men who, as teachers in the Grammar School, had, justly or unjustly, lost the confidence of the Wellington public. By that act the Weilington College was virtually ruined ab initio. Next, the governors, some of whom were men of political influence, finding that the institution was unpopular, and therefore unsuccessful in a pecuniary way, proceeded to bolster it up by large grants of public money. The grants of public money made to Wellington College from the provincial chest and from the colonial Treasury must be classed among the jobs—the disgraceful jobs. They provoked much indignation among all who hats dishonesty and trickery; and they gave occasion to a series of

articles in one of the Wellington papers onttfe College, winch were no doubt moved to some extent by envy and characterised by bitterness, but which did a great deal of harm to the College, since they were too true. Next the governors proceeded to destroy the discipline of the institution by laying down a number of “ priggish" regulations about corporal punishment, such as theorists and dilletantes on education are so fond of enacting. Then, as it has been ax-ranged by the governors, the institution has about it a pretentious and high-falutin air which is supremely ridiculous. I have been greatly amused on reading the report of the convener, on the requirements of the teachers in this organised institution. First teacher, “ higher classics and mathematics requiredsecond teacher, “ higher classics and mathematics required,” —shades of Homer and Virgil, of Newton and Laplace, what homage to your genius ! But do the gentlemen who are govex-nors of Wellington College not really know that what is x-equired in the colony is a sound practical education, with which young men can go out into the world and earn their living. Did the wise men who formed the committee on the reorganization ever consider how many pupils the two professors of the higher classics and mathematics will be likely to have ? I will venture to make a guess,—Under six. If I am told that far more than this number will study classics and mathematics, yet elementary Latin and and elementary mathematics, from a score to thirty will study them to a small extent. lam sure that the present state of the Wellington College has been brought about in a great degree by the unwise action of the present and former governox-s. But the institution, we are informed, is now to be reorganised. Let us just look for a moment at this proposed scheme. On examination, the chair of natural science is to be abolished. Higher mathemamatics and classics, Aristophanes and the Calculus are evidently patronised by the convener and those associated with him. Now, though it would be to the credit of Wellington and to the advantage of the less than the half-dozen of gentlemen abovementioued to be able to construe a Greek chorus, to investigate Napier’s analogies, or to work out the problem of the three bodies (higher mathematics and classics), yet for all these great advantages I would not give up natural science. This country has but recently been peopled by civilised men ; its productions are far from being as yet fully known; its geology and mineralogy are yet in their infancy. I doubt if its native plants have as yet been all noticed and described ; there are shells to be found in the seas, and creatures swim in the .waters, which require in the interests of science to be catalogued, and their habits noted. Has the insect world of New Zealand been fully investigated ? In the circumstances in which we are placed in this new land, it is one of the most important obligations that we are under to the great brotherhood of scientific men all over the world, to take care that there shall be educated from among the youth of the colony a number of observers and students of natural science, who shall investigate and describe the productions of the laud of their birth, and record them for the intormatlou, not of New Zealanders only, but of mankind .generally. In those large but distant islands, which have been sepax-ated during countless ages from the rest of the world, there are natural productions to be found which may throw much light upon the former history of our earth. And it is proposed now that the teaching of natural science shall cease in Wellington College—and in favor of what 1 Higher mathematics and classics, which can be learnt out of a book, and the professors of which are thick as blackberries. But natural science cannot be learned out ef a book, and hence the necessity of museums and the endewments such as a college possesses to foster the study. It is false also to say that natural science can be taught only to a very few. Almost any child of tender years might be instructed in botany and in the habits of bees and insects, and taught to use its eyes for the purpose of the intelligent observation of natural objects. Some children would develop extraordinary tastes and aptitudes for such studies, and might in after life, without ceasing to be contractors, merchants, or artizane, be naturalists who would intelligently observe the geology, the mineralogy, and the other productions of the country, and a little knowledge of botany might help to give a charm to life on many a lonely run. lam sure every thoughtful and intelligent man in Wellington who considers the matter will rise up to protest against the abolition of a chair of natural science in the capital of the colony. Such an act would not only be a mistake, it would be a crime against the interests of the colony. If the gentleman who occupies the chair of natural science is inefficient, or incapable, dismiss him, but never abolish his office in the College. The chair of natural science is worth all the rest, because the higher mathematics, &c., can be and are taught in private schools in the city just as efficiently as at the College ; but|natural science can be taught only with the aid of an expensive apparatus, and a museum, such as colleges and not private persons can provide. I believe that sufficient use has not been made hitherto of this important professorship, but that ought to be corrected in the future.

The general scheme of re-organisation proposed is no reorganisation at all ; it changes nothing in the old bad system by which a lot of governors, none of whom are practical educators, meddle fatally with what the head of the institution should direct and control. I appeal to the English spirit of justice and fair play, which is not dead in Wellington, to give Mr. Wilson the chance he has never had of organising the Wellington College on a proper footing. Let him be delivered from the unpopular men that came from the old grammar school, and from the interference of certain persons who pretend to know everything about the proper organisation of an educational establishment, and yet know nothing. Let the absurd regulations affecting the discipline of the institution be deleted. Let Mr. Wilson have the privilege of appointing, subject to the approval of the governors, all the under teachers. Let him graduate the institution according to the needs of the people, and not according to the fads of persons who talk big about what they call higher education. Let him collect the fees, and account for them to the governors, so that no secretary may stand between him and the parents. Let the revenue of the institution be appropriated among the teachers or masters in such proper-

tions as may be agreed on. In a word, let Mr. Wilson have the management of the institution in reality, so that he may be justly responsible for its success or failure, and let him have this for two years. Mr, Wilson has obtained the respect and esteem of all the lads who have enjoyed the benefit of his instructions, and I am sure the people of Wellington will, whatever course is finally adopted, take care that a man, who was expressly invited from England, is not made to suffer on account of the sloth, the errors, the impracticability and stupidity of other people.—l am, &c., Chas. S. Ogg, Minister of St. Andrew’s Church. Wellingtcn, January 13.