PRIZE DAY AT NELSON COLLEGE.

Colonist, Volume XII, Issue 1172, 18 December 1868, Page 3

PRIZE DAY AT NELSON COLLEGE.

Ox Tuesday last, a large party, including several strangers, a number of the Governors, and the parents and friends of pupils, assembled at the College to witness the distribution of the prizes and the breaking up of the classes for the Christmas Holidays. His Honor Judge Richmond presided on the occasion. The Head Master, the Rev. Mr. Simmons, M.A., and the Second Master, Mr. Maekay, M A., read the lists of the successful pupils, whose abilities, Mr. Siramonds stated, had been tested by a strict system of marking, and his Honor delivered the prizes to the successful competitors as they came to the table. When the ordinary prizes had been distributed, The Head Master said that, after allotting the regular prizes, he had felt that their was one prizo which was not provided for, but which, he thought, ought to be given to one boy, who, although not reaching so high us to gain a prize iv the classes he had entered, yet, by dint of sheer energy and pluck, to use an expressive word, and by steady application had thrust himself among boys older and stronger than himself, and had maintained a very excellent' place throughout. Prize boys were not always, or necessarily, the best pupils, although, of course, their position displayed considerable merit; but, perhaps, the best of all boys were those who, rising above their fellows in the lower forms, thrust themselves, among their seniors and held a respectable position there. In this case there had been wonderful energy and perseverance displayed ; the boy set himself to work hard, and he did it. showing no half-heartedness, and therefore "he considered that Vickerman Becundus deserved a prize, so as to remove to some extent the necessary injustice which more or less attended the prize system. The prize was then awarded to little Vickerman. The following is the prize list: — Classics .and Genebal Work.—Form IV. Latin —Gully, 1; Barnicoat, 2. Form 111. Burnett, 1 ; Blackett, 2. Greek—Blackett. Forms IV. and IIT. General Work—Vickcrimm. Form 11. General Work —Richmond. Latin—Richmond. Repetition —Gallic and. Arruitage, equal. Form I. General Work —Sharp. Mathematics.—Division 1: H. V. Gully. Division 2: Vickerman. Division 3: Blackett. Division 4 : Tennant. Division 5 : Sharp. The Judge then addressed the students. He said the Head-Master had tnkon the words almost out of his mouth when speaking of a certain amount of necessary injustice which the prize system produced. It was an injustice which he thought attended ail men in deciding in such cases, for »t present we but "see in part." Of course men of right judgment give the best decision thnt can be arrived at; but still it wns not for all to gum the prize, although their strenuous efforts might have deserved it. H« did not, however, disapprove of prizes; he thought them good things. .Colleges, and similar institutions, coul.'l not get on well without such stimulants to emulative effort, which produced that work from which good results flowed to all engaged in the desire to excel and become worthy of the prize. At the same time, the prize system had its disadvantages, for, while no doubt they hnd been distributed with the most perfect fairness, it did not follow as a matter of course, that those who gained them were really superior to all the rest, or that, in the future, they would always be found to excel. The prize gsiiners, therefore, ought not to be puffed up; they must recollect how small was the amount of knowledge they had goined when compared with the great store of knowledge that men had achieved, and how much yet remained to be accomplished. Let them open their Latin dictionary and examine the quotations it contained, and they would see what an immense amount of knowledge was required for the production of that one dictisnary, and Latin was only one language, and there were many languages. All languages formed but one branch of knowledge, and the;r were many branches in which great discoveries had been made; and yet »]\ the knowledge the men possessed, compared with that which yet remained unknown, was but as a grain of sand beside a huge mountain. There was, therefore, no occasion for conceit on the purt of the prize gainers, neither should there be depression felt on the part of those who had not succeeded ;• for, even if the most advanced boys here were engaged in a competitive exnminution with some 400 or 500 of the youth of England, they would not be very high as a rule. It was not necessarily the prize boy who secured success in life, but those with tough, steady abilities, strength of will, certainty of purpose, pergeveranoe and energy,—these more than even intellectual ability j for, if intellectual ability were not baoked up by energetic application, its real and ultimate

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