Page 2 Advertisements Column 3

Colonist, Volume VIII, Issue 758, 27 January 1865, Page 2

NEW ADVERT ABSTRACT OF THE RECEIPTS AND JjL COLLEGE, for the Year ending: ] Receipts. £ s. d £ s. d. Loans repaid , 1400 O 0 L< Interest Received 924 3 6 In Ir Boarding Account. St Arrears received 238 13 6 B< M Day Scholars. M March, 8 boys 14 8 0 Fi June, 9 „ : 23 0 0 B Sept., 8 „ 19 16 0 Ci Dec, 9 „ 22 4 0 U (£79 8 0) R Boarders. Ir March, 29 boys 371 5 0 A June, 29 „ 387 5 0 A Sept., 26 „ 303 15 0 Sc Dec, 24 „ - 311 5 0 E (£1373 10 0) Ii Tuition. P March Quarter, 61 boys ... 198 3 0 Si June „ 61 „ ... 200 10 0 V Sept. „ 57 „ ... 171 2 0 S< Decem. „ 55 „ ... 172 19 0 S« (£742 14 0) C Books V 6 18 8 Stewards Account 92 13 3 Pew rents 4 16 0 Medical attendance 4 3 0 'Endowment Fund. Rents 65 0 0 • Sale of cows and produce 157 4 0 Sale of Court House 28 1 6 Governor's fee returned ... 8 0 0 Cash on hand Jan. 1, 1864 18 0 1 £3628 0 0 1585 5 6 We hereby Certify that we have ext them with the several Vouchers relating thereto 146 ESTIMATED ASSETS AND LIABILIT 31 Decem: Assets. £ s. d. £ s. d. Loans on Mortgage 9777 0 0 I Freehold Property 2719 14 2 College Buildings 11,826 9 3 S Less allowance for depreciation at 2& per cent, 3 years 877 13 2 J 10,948 16 1 Furniture 1903 1 10 Less allowance for depreciation 6 years, at 2b per cent 193 5 6 2 l 1709 16 4 Books 328 12 5 Less allowance 5 per ct. 63 11 7 265 0 10 Cash on hand 57 3 6 Amounts clue for Interest -A and School Fees 466 11 9 £25,944 2 8 Original Capital 147 Estimated present Capital (exclusive of Gramrr REPORT sa CM TO THE GOVERNORS OF NELSON ' COLLEGE. \{ ri ENTLEMEN,—During the past year ix J \JT several changes have taken place in tho edu- 01 cational arrangements of the College. Before the 8l close of the first quarter the state of Mr. Cotterill's q health, (the third master) made it necessary for him pl to obtain leave of absence for three months, and at jj the end of that time to give in his resignation^ You j, ( have- already expressed your high sense of his zeal w and ability in discharging his duties ; whilst Ins per- a( sonal qualities have made him regretted both by ra masters and students. As you did not thing it de- f., sirable, on account of the diminished number of q boarders, to make any fresh appointment in his stead, j] Mr. Forster expressed his willingness to undertake by tc himself those out of school duties which had been 0: discharged conjointly by both masters. He has done p so very efficiently up to this time, but has informed t j you that his health will not allow him to continue them beyond next March. g In consequence of Mr. Cotterill's resignation, v various alterations in the arrangements of the school E work became necessary. g Tho two classes of the Lower School were therefore T placed under Mr. Forster1 s sole charge ; aud the five is classes of the Upper School were recast into four, it The Rev. Mr. Maclean has continued to take charge of these in French and the Mathematics ; whilst their classical instruction has come entirely under my own j direction: the subjects of English Grammar and -g Composition, Physical Geography, and History, w ancient and modern, being divided between us._ This j e arrangement has now been in full operation for the last six months ; and under it, the working of the classes has been steady and satisfactory. j The number of scholars during the last year has it been with little fluctuation between 50 and 60. At a : the close of last quarter it was 55—viz., 31 day k scholars and 24 boarders ; the relative numbers at the T same time last year being 30 day scholars and 46 \ e boarders. The difference in the boarding department gj was anticipated by you as a probable result of the ir increased rate of payment which you found necessary. c i But Ido not think that the decrease can be solely p ; attributed to this cause ; the charges even now not I being greater than, or so great as, in several other h, simifar establishments in the colony ; but partly to p the opening of a High School at Otago, from which t£ place many of our boarders came, and partly to the w unqualified strictures which have been published on G the management of the College, as well as on its in- ft structions. Attacks of this kind, whether well or ill m founded, generally produce some effect, and do harm p for the time ; their permanent influence must depend t'c upon their justice, impartiality, and truth. ]V I have again to regret, in the interest both of fi masters and students, the short period usually given G to the college studies. More than one third of those b now attending the classes have entered during the fi current year, one third during the past year, and the ai remainder at earlier periods, but mostly in 1861 and C 1862. So long as this rate of change continues, the C standard of education cannot be materially raised, nor F. the upper classes bear their fair numerical proportion al to the rest. Whatever other advantages they derive V from their studies, they cannot gain what some men G of great ability consider to be the most important of tl all, the feeling that by hard work and continued ap- bi plication they have fairly mastered what they pro- la posed to learn; and thus obtained, "through the hard drill and discipline of a classical school, the c i sharpening and setting of the wits to an extent that O i makes all after studies easy, and all the self-teaching 8 i (the only teaching) of life systematic and effective." a l We have also to make the complaint, which, as late tl discussions have shown, is a general one, that the J} majority of the students do not come properly pre- G pared for that instruction which the institution they 01 enter is specially intended to give. From the univer- c sities, which complain of the great public schools, to ft the preparatory schools, which say that mothers send a , their children ignorant even of the alphabet, the tl complaint is the same. The circumstances of colonial Q life are not calculated to be more favorable to sys- pi tematic teaching and thorough grounding in first Vi principles than they are in England ; although lam n happy to add that instances of careful previous in- v struction and early home training are not wanting tl even here. ai What then ought our course to be? There are c< two classes of objections: one that with the name w and the pretensions of a college, we are really doing hi the work of an elementary school; the other, that sc the Classics are taught to those who can neither read, ci write, nor spell their mother tongue with tolerable ease or accuracy. There is much force in both these b< objections; except, indeed, when they come from the to