COLUMBA GIRLS’ COLLEGE

Otago Witness, Issue 3215, 27 October 1915, Page 63

COLUMBA GIRLS’ COLLEGE

REPORT TO GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

The Board of Governors of Columba College have prepared a report to be subnntod to the forthcoming General Assembly at Auckland. The report is that recently adopted by the Presbytery, with the following three additional paragraphs:— Registration.—To gain for the college the privileges which association with the Education Department of the Government gives the Board of Governors applied for registration under the Education Act. On March 31 the college was inspected on behalf oi the Government by Dr Don (Inspector of Schools). The Board of Governors has received a copy of the inspector’s report to his department. He says:—“The school is well organised, and classification is satisfactory. Schemes of work have bean prepared, ’ showing the division of the work of the primary department into grades corresponding with Standards I to VI, and dividing the secondary work into a four years’ course, preparing candidates for the matriculation examination of New Zealand University. In all classes the work specified has been carried out on good lines, and pupils generally are working with admirable spirit. I beg to certify that the school is an efficient secondary school in terms of the Education Act. The buildings and promises are ad-* rairably adapted for their present purpose, and arc kept in excellent condition.” According to the interpreting clause of the Act “ ‘ efficient ’ means, in respect to any private school, that the premises, staff, and equipment are suitable and efficient, and that the instruction is as efficient as in a public school or a secondary school as the case may be.” Sport.—ln order that a college may prove really successful it is essential that the physical as well as the moral and intellectual training of the pupils should receive careful attention. Physical drill alone, though very necessary for bodily development, does not suffice for this purpose. Sport, however, supplies the deficiency, and makes girls unselfish and enduring. The special sports encouraged at Columba College, are swimming, tennis, and hockey. Swimming classes arc hold under the supervision of Mrs Bligh, one of the staff, in the Y.M.C.A. baths. For tennis and hockey the grounds of clubs close to the college have been used, and so vigorous have the girls been in the improvement of their opportunities thxt the senior hockey team has this year won the B grade challenge cup open to Dunedin clubs. In order, therefore, to give full encouragement to sport, the Board of Governors has entered into negotiations with adjoining proprietors to purchase sufficient flat land for two hockey practice courses and for several tennis courts. Above all, however, the college exists to teach that fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom. The daily life of the college home begins and ends with Scripture reading and prayer. On Sabbath afternoons the principal conducts a Bible Class, the members of which are taught to take a practical/ interest in the work of orphanages, hospitals, arid missions, home and foreign. These advantages are not confined to boarders, for every morning the whole school, from the kindergarten to the senior classes, assembles for prayer, the senior classes remaining for a little while for the study of Scripture and for religious instruction. The principal and her staff are thus faithful to the historic charge given by John Knox to the Scottish Parliament, the charge which ever since has inspired the religious education of the Presbyterian Church; —“Of necessity it is that your honours be most careful for the virtuous education and godly upbringing of the youth of this realm; if either yo now thirst unfoignedly for the advancement of Christ’s glory or yet desire the continuance of His benefits to the generation following. For as the youth must succeed to us, so ought we to be careful that they have knowledge to profit and comfort that which ought to be most dear to us, to wit, the Church and Spouse of the Lord .Jesus.”