c.—a

1886. NEW ZEALAND.

EDUCATION: THE AUCKLAND UNIVERSITY COLLEGE. [In Continuation of E.-8, 1885.]

Presented in pursuance of Section 25 of the "Auckland University College Act, 1882."

The Chaikman to the Hon. the Ministek of Education. Sib, — University College Council, Auckland, 11th May, 1886. In pursuance of the 25th section of "The Auckland University College Act, 1882," the Council of the College has the honour of making the following report:— 1. The Auckland University College being still destitute of a building or site permanently appropriated, the lectures and other instruction continue to be given in premises which are not contiguous to each other, and are defective. By " The Special Powers and Contracts Act, 1885," His Excellency the Governor is empowered to authorise the transfer of the site occupied by the present Survey and Crown Lands Departments at Auckland to the Council of this College as a site for College buildings, when the offices now occupied by those departments shall have been vacated. A commencement has not yet been made of constructing new buildings elsewhere for those dspartments. 2. In pursuance of "The Auckland University College Act, 1882," section 8, a ballot by lot was taken on the 21st May, 1885, for the purpose of determining what members of the College Council should then retire from being members thereof, and the following were allotted to retire : Of the members elected by the members of the General Assembly resident in the Provincial District of Auckland, Mr. Edwin Hesketh, barrister-at-law; of the members appointed by the Governor in Council, the Rev. Alexander Reid; and of the members appointed by the Governor in Council pending the time when there shall be thirty graduates of the University of New Zealand having their names on the College register, District Judge Hugh Garden Smith, M.A. Subsequently these three gentlemen were severally elected and reappointed to be members of the College Council for the ensuing three years. 3. On the 21st October Sir George Maurice O'Eorke, 8.A., the Speaker of the House of Representatives, was again re-elected to be Chairman of the College Council during the ensuing twelve months. 4. The ex officio members of the College Council are the Mayor of the City of Auckland and the Chairman of the Auckland Board of Education. Mr. William Richard Waddell was Mayor of Auckland throughout the year 1885, being again re-elected to that office. The Chairmen of the Auckland Board of Education during the year were consecutively the following : Mr. Samuel Luke ; Mr. William Steadman Aldis, M.A., Professor of Mathematics in University College; Mr. John Henry Upton ; and again Mr. Samuel Luke. 5. At the end of November last Professor Tucker, by permission of the Council, relinquished the Professorship of Classics and English in this College, having been appointed Professor of Comparative Philology in the University of Melbourne. In December the Agent-General for New Zealand, Sir Francis Dillon Bell, K.C.M.G., to whom the power of appointment had been delegated by the College Council, appointed to the vacant professorship Hutcheson Macaulay Posnett, M.A., LL.D., of Trinity College, Dublin. For the purpose of making the selection the Agent-General had obtained the co-operation of some of the most eminent members of the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin. These gentlemen met Sir Francis Bell at Oxford ; and, after interviews with fourteen selected candidates, the choice of Dr. Posnett was made unanimously. The thanks of this College Council are due to the Government of New Zealand for instructions given to the Agent-General to act in this manner, as similarly on former occasions ; and Sir Francis Dillon Bell has signally earned the gratitude of the College and of this community in general by his earnest and enlightened exertions in giving such effect to those instructions. Cordial and respectful thanks have also boen tendered to the distinguished members of English, Scottish, and Irish Universities by whom, in conjunction with the Agent-General, the selections of our Professors, on the respective occasions, have been made. 6. In the session of 1885 a course of popular lectures on geology and mining was given by Professor Thomas. This course was attended by 71 persons, artisans and others. During the