COUNCIL PAPER.

Colonist, Volume XV, Issue 1531, 28 May 1872, Page 2

COUNCIL PAPER.

The Select Committee appointed to take into consideration the letter from the Central Board of Education on the subject of the "rovineial Scholarships, beg to report as follows:—

"The letter referred fcoyourCommitfcee enclosed the following resolution passed by the Central Board of Education on the 2nd instant.

"That the Provincial Council be respectfully requested in making the grant for scholarships at Nelson College open for competitionto the country, districts, either fully to defiue the conditions upon which the scholarships are to be granted and held or to place definitely in the hands of the Central Board of Education, (on whom the management of ttie Provincial Scholarship; Fund has hitherto practically devolved) the administration of thi9 grant. On referring to the proceedings of the Council, of the 9th June 187U, your, committee find that the fund under consideration, was intended by the Council to provide "Free scholarships of £40 each in the Nelson College, to be competed for annually by boys educated in the Provincial schools in the country districts."

Your. Committee think it advisable in accordance' with the wia'i of the Control Board, to give more explicit expression to the intentions of the Council than is conveyed in the words above quoted, and beg to propose '■.he following resolutions to the adoption of the Council :—

1: That competition for the scholarship should be conferred on boys who have been in attendance at some Provincial school (or schools) in the country districts for a period of not less than two years.

2. That the purpose of the Council would be b st answered by confining such competition' to scholars of twelve years of age and upwarda.

3. That the object of the Council being rather to extend the benefit of the College to as many boys at possible, than to confer higti education on a few, the scholarships should be tenable for two years only, and then without right of renewed competition.

4. That residence withiu the College walls should not be a condition of holding such scholarships, but that the intentions of the Council will be sufficiently met by the recipient residing within such distance from the College (to be approved by the Central Board) as will enable him to attend with regularity, and otherwise to secure the full benefit derivable from that institution.

5. That a scholarship should not be forfeited by subsequent removal of the residence of the parent or guardian of the holder from the country districts to tho town.

6. That regularity of attendance, good behavior and due diligence in the prosecution of his studies should be essential to, the continued holding of a s::h:)lari'hip, and that the certificate of the Head Master of the College to this effect, should be required from quarter to quarter.

7. That the interpretation of the rules, and the application of the principles here laid down rest with the Central Board of Education.

Your Committee find that in a Idition: to the four country scholarships given by the Provincial Council, four scholarships of £12 10s. each {i.e., free admission to the College), are thrown open by the College G-overnors exclusively to boys educated in the Provincial schools of the town. As two scholarships of each description are competed for each year, lour'of the elite of the boys educated in the Provincial Schools, are aucualiy leaving, and four other's: annually entering the Collbge. The report of the Examiners appointed by the Central Bonrd affords great reason to hope (if indeed it doea not conclusively show) that the constant and active spirit of emulation thus aroused has been of "great benefit, both to teachers ,aud scholars throughout Provincial Schools, while the constant introduction of the best trained and most successful of the boys from the Provincial Schools can scarcely fail in "its turn to exercise a beneficial influence on the College itself.

Your Committee therefore greatly regret the wanb of permanence in the existing system of Provincial scholarships, which, depending as they do on .the annual vote of the Couucil, are liable at any moment to sudden suspension. Your Committee hope, however, that should these, scholarships be perpetuated, the vigilance of the Central Board of Education, strengthened by the resolutions of the Council, will prevent the growth of any abuses by which the popularity or usefulness of these endowments might be in any way impaired.

In conclusion, your Committee desire to recognise the liberal spirit in which the efforts of the Council have been met by the College Governors in thus granting constant free education to eight boys, at well as by the first and second masters, in renounc-, iog in the case of these boys, the fees to which they are entitled. Wm. Wastnet,

Provincial Council Chambers,

Chairman.

Nelson, May 22,1872