NELSON COLLEGE.

Colonist, Volume XXII, Issue 2514, 22 February 1879, Page 5 (Supplement)

NELSON COLLEGE.

The following letter appears in the Otago Daily Times of February 15th, and is a temperate statement of facts in reply to the sneering paragraphs that have recently appeared in that journal regarding the .Nelson College, which, as proved by its numerous victories, is the best Educational institution in this Colony. The writer says: Sib, —About two months ago a paragraph appeared in your paper containing strictures ¥apon the examiner of Nelson College, and b.y Implication on the college itself. The tj{}me paragraph was reproduced by request (of the wrjter ?) in the .Nelson Colonist of the2sth January; and as there is a tendency p$ th,e part of some to believe whatever they see jn print, J shall be obliged if you will kindly give me space for a brief reply. Holiday-making must be my excuse for not troubling you sooner. The value of a critique depends on the qualifications and the motives of the critic. The paragraph in question bears on its face ijnmistakeable evidence of the source from Vhiph it praanated. |fc smacks strongly of the inspiration of the naughty boy who had been asked to withdraw from the college, or, mayhap, of the exrmaster, whose services had not been duly appreciated. If the writer should see fit too deny this soft impeachment, and will at the same time furnish the public with his name, I believe I can set him a short examination paper on the internal evidences of his own production, which it will be Bomewhafc difficult for him fcj answer. With regard to the examiner, I would premise that he is not appointed by the inaaters, upr is he responsible \o then}, He i|| appointed by the Bof^rd of Governors, and being a free agent is at liberty to set on 'the year's 'work' whatever questions be pleases.' It is not fair, therefore, to bold the jnaßteri accountable for any mistakes, typographical or other, that may occur in the papers. Though it is not my provinpe to defend him, I may gay, \a pasg--fng, that''the Hey, 8. Boole has been the fjamiaer for these last 13 years; that it

would not be easy to find one more conr seientioua and painstaking than he; and that his awards, both of scholarships and prizes, so far as I know, have given uniform satisfaction, and have been amply sustained by after experience. My immediate object, however, ia not to defend the examiner, but to say something about the gratuitoi s assault which has been male' in your columns upon the College itself. Facts are as stubborn as mules, and to facts I shall appeal. As the years 1877;----78 have been ; specially singled out' for animadversion,,my statement shall be con| fined'to that period.. . : ,; At the. Civilt. Service examinations in December, 1877, and in June, 1878, a faij1 proportion of candidates from this College presented themselves. The results may be seen by those interested in the .Report of the Civil Service Examination Board, laid before both Houses of the General Assembly last session. At the examination in Decem^ ber last, 18 boys from this College entered for and passed the junior, and 6 the senior. Pew will deny that the above is more than a fair average from a school of 105 boys, whose ages vary from nine to 17. In December, 1877, a JSelson College boy left JNelson for the Old Country. After travelling for nearly six months in America and on the Continent, he went down to Bristol about June to compete for an open scholarship at Clifton College. Four open scholarships were vacant, two of £50 and two of £23. Atkinson gained a £50 for classics and mathematics. A month after entrance he stood high in the fifth form in classics, and found the mathematical work of the second aefc easy. The same boy, before leaving Nelson, competed for and gained a Junior University Scholarship, but being under age, was unable to hold it. £ Tot very long apo the boarding accommodation of this College was considered more than ample to meet the requirements of many years to come. But since the appointment of the present Principal the number of applicants has so increased, and so many had to be refused admission last half, that the Governors have determined to increase the class-room and boarding accommodation by the erection of a new wing. As the terms are £62 10s per annum, exclusive of extras, parents who can afford to place their children here must be iv fair circumstances, and presumably of at least average intelligence. The probability therefore is they are quite capable of judging for themaelvea whether the advantages their children enjoy at the College are worth the cost or not. With these facts before them, I leave your readers to draw their own conclusions. I can trust their intelligence to decide whether the strictures of the anonymous writer in the Times were really prompted by an honest desire to do a public good, or whether it does not rather appear that the writer had kept his little pop-gun beside him for some considerable time, and had spitefully discharged it on what seemed to him the first favorable opportunity. The man on the dyke always hurls well. If your educational critic is not the man on the dyke, what, may I ask, has he ever scored in the actual game? Tour readers have heard the clapper of his mill: let him now show them a sample of his meal. In reply to the sneer in the concluding sentence of the paragraph, I have only to iay that the Principal of this College—the Eev. J. C. Andrew, M.A., Oxon.—as far as academical honors are concerned, is second to no man in the Southern Hemisphere ; that the spirit which has animated this College ever since I have known it has been a single desire to advance as far as possible the cause of sound and liberal education ; and that its present masters will be far from disappointed to learn that there are many institutions iv the Colony which can not only rival but excel it in the race.—~l am, J. M4-CKA.X, Mathematical and Resident Master. Nelson, February 6th, 1879.