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Professor F. B. DeM. Gibbons to the Secretary, Education Department. Sir, — Otago University, Dunedin, 23rd April, 1887. I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 15th February, which I have laid before the Professorial Board for its consideration. The Board is unable to obtain any authorised publication containing a syllabus of the course of instruction given under the authority of the Science and Art Department in England, and is compelled to rely upon the knowledge of the course of instruction possessed by some of its members. The Board wishes to point out that the lectures given by the Professors of the four subjects named in your letter are so arranged as to be available not only for students intending to proceed to a degree, but also for students who wish to study those particular branches of science without any such ulterior object in view, and it is found, as a matter of fact, that a large proportion of the students attending the classes in the University do not afterwards proceed to a degree. The lectures are, in the case of mathematics, divided into a junior and a senior course, corresponding broadly to the division into elementary and advanced stages in the Science and Art Department; and in the other subjects the course of lectures is so arranged that work corresponding to the elementary and advanced stages is gone through in the course of a single session. In all the subjects mentioned lectures are held in the evening, with the view of enabling students to attend who are engaged in some occupation during the daytime. Examinations are held in the subjects of the lectures at the end of the session, and certificates of attendance and of success in passing the examination are issued to the students by the University. The Board will be happy to assist the Department by sending the names of students passing the examinations to the Department, for certificates to be issued by the Department to them. The Board is quite of opinion that it would promote the study of science in the colony if classes were held in other parts of the colony out of the immediate reach of the lectures in the University by alumni of the University, of whom there is now a considerable number resident in various parts of the colony ; and the Board will readily assist the Department by considering the qualifications of and recommending former students for the work of conducting such classes. I have, &c, F. B. DeM. Gibbons, Chairman of the Professorial Board. The Secretary, Education Department.

Steps will be immediately taken to give practical effect to the proposals contained in this correspondence. Dr. Laishley's report upon Education Systems, which was presented to Parliament during last session, has been revised and extended by him, and printed during the recess as part (E.-12) of last year's Appendix to Journals of the House of Representatives. Dr. Laishley has generously presented to the Education Department a very large number of books, reports, and other papers illustrative of his report. The fourth biennial examination for a Gilchrist Scholarship of £100 a year, tenable for three years, took place in February. There were only two candidates, one in Napier, and one at Dunedin. The decision rests with the Gilchrist Trustees in London, and will depend on the reports of the London University Matriculation Examiners. Arrangements are in progress for the examination of a candidate for an Indian cadetship at Sandhurst; the papers for the examination, which will be held at New Plymouth, have been sent out by the authorities in England. The accumulated proceeds of reserves made in pursuance of the Act of 1868 for the endowment of a " Colonial University" now amount to £983 3s. lOd. Trustees of the fund have not yet been appointed, nor has the General Assembly given any direction as to the application of the proceeds. A proposal will be made in the present session of Parliament to create a Wellington University College, and to endow it with the reserves at Waitotara and in Taranaki. Should that proposal be acceded to, there will remain of these reserves only 1,500 acres at Ashburton, and six five-acre sections at Greymouth and Hokitika. The Junior and Senior Civil Service Examinations have hitherto been superintended by a Civil Service Examination Board, consisting principally of Heads of Departments. The first competitive examination required by " The Civil Service Reform Act, 1886," was conducted in the usual way by the Board. By the new regulations, made to give effect to the design of the Act, the management of the examinations is now placed in the hands of the Minister of

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