H.—l

REPORT.

To His Excellency Sir Hercules George Robert Robinson, Knight Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over the Colony of New Zealand and its Dependencies, and Vice-Admiral of the same. May it please your, Excellency,— We, your Commissioners appointed to inquire into and report upon the state of the University of New Zealand and other educational institutions^ submitted to your Excellency in the month of July, 1879, an interim report (hereinafter referred to as the interim report), together with minutes of proceedings and evidence, and a digest of written statements which we had obtained relating to the several institutions described in our Commission. Up to that time we had held meetings on ninety-nine separate days, and had taken the evidence of one hundred and six witnesses. Since then we have met on forty-five days 3 and examined four witnesses, of whom two had been previously examined; so that our sittings have occupied one hundred and forty-four days, and we have examined one hundred and eight witnesses. The evidence taken the day after we signed the interim report was printed with that which had preceded it; by a clerical error it is made to appear as if it had been given on the Bth of July instead of on the 10th. Since the date of the interim report your Excellency has been pleased to 1 accept the resignation of the Hon. W. Gisborne, and to appoint Mr. C. C. Bowen E in his place. Having carefully weighed the evidence of every kind which has been furnished to us, and given our most earnest consideration to the several matters set forth in our Commission, we now humbly submit to your Excellency our final report. The interim report contains our recommendations as to the constitution of the 3 University and of the colleges which we propose should be placed in close relation with it. In July last we prepared the draft of a Bill embodying these recommendations, and we append this draft to our report. It remains for us to give I an account of the present condition of institutions for University education, secondary education, and professional and technical education; as also of the various endowments for educational purposes, excepting (in accordance with our instructions) those Avhich, under "The Education Reserves Act, 1877," are set apart for primary education.

Proceedings,

Appx. to Journals f^ RjSess. I,

Resignation and aPP°lDtment-

Draft Bm.

Report.

I.—INSTITUTIONS FOR UNIVERSITY EDUCATION. There are at present only two colleges exclusively devoted to the purposes tWaion for of the higher or University education —namely, the University of Otago and niTersityeduoaCanterbury College. The instruction imparted in these institutions, the number of professors and lecturers, the attendance of students, and the suitability and relative completeness of the college buildings, all alike do honour to the foresight and enlightened liberality of the Provincial Governments by which the colleges were erected and endowed, and to the character of the communities for whose benefit they exist. The creation of similar institutions in Auckland and Wellington, and, as population increases, in other towns also, would be of the I—H. 1.