E.—6

39

CHRISTCHURCH BOYS' HIGH SCHOOL. Staff. Mr. C E. Bevan-Brown, MA.; Mr. U. K. S. Lawrence H.A.-, Mr. U. Walton, B.A. ; Mr. R. M. M.A., B.Sc. ; .Mi. A. Merton ; Mr. R. Speight, -M.A.. B.Sc. ; Mr, T. H. Jackson, B.A. ; Mr. J. H. Smith, M.A. ; Mr. T. W. Cane, .M.A. ; Mr. .1. Cook ; Mr. S. A. Clark, B.A. ; Mr. J. I). Davey ; Mr. C. M. Bevan-Brown; Mr. W. S. Malaquin ; Captain P. Farthing; Mr. T. S. Tankard. I. Report oi-' the Headmaster. The school-roll for 1908 was as follows : Km- the first term. 220; for the second term, 218; for the third term. 201. These numbers include the Preparatory Form, which had on its roll *.'(). 23, 22 lin tin- three terms respectively. There were «.»1 holders of free places 51 junior and 43 senior. The expansion nf the upper school continues there were US as against 7 I in 1906 : but the tota school-roll slmus a shrinkage, owing to tin- numerous district high schools and tin- Technical Dav-sehool. Tin- gymnasium was opened on the 7th August, and is large enough for school meetings. The school is much in need of a physical laboratory and nf a reading-room and library. Mr. .1. Hartley Smith has been away since May dangerously ill. but has made a good recovery, and hopes to resume next year. Mr. R. Speight, M.A., B.Sc., has been appointed Lecturer in Geology at an increased salary, and Assistant Curator tn the Museum, and will cease work at the High School on the Ist March next. His departure will he a great loss, lie has been here nearly twenty years. Messrs. .1. I). Davey and ('. M. Bevan-Brown filled the temporary vacancy caused by Mr. Smith's absence. In the examinations of December, 1907. 63 boys presented themselves; this December (1908) there were 69 ;in 1906, 69 : and in 1905, 32. It will be seen that the number of candidates for outside examinations has doubled. Of the 63 hoys who sat in December, 1907, 21 sat for Matriculation, and 14 passed ; 10 sat for Junior Civil Service or Senior Free Places, and 36 passed ; 1 boy passed the' Senior civil : 2 obtained Senior Board Scholarships. Six hoys sat for the Junior University Scholarship Examination ; 2 won Junior University Scholarships, one of them being first for the Dominion in Greek, French, and German ; 1 won a Senior National Scholarship, I a Gammack Scholarship, and the other 2 were on the credit list. Of old boys, Mr. C. A. Cotton obtained his M.Sc, with first-class honours in geology; Mr. J. Haiti urn. M.5... v, it li third-class honours in electricity and magnetism ; and Mr. D. Floranee his M.A., with first-class honours in electricity ; Mr. M. Gresson, the degree of LL. H. Old hoys won seven out of the thirteen exhibitions awarded by Canterbury College at the recent annual examination. Mr. D. B. MoLeod won the Sir George Grey Scholarship. The cadets have won the Snow Shield, and also the Victory Shield, given by the Defence Department for competition among secondary schools in Canterbury. The Old Boys are setting on foot a memorial to the late Mr. R. G. Deans, one part of which will lie a scholarship awarded similarly to the Rhodes Scholarship, to some boy while at school ; when he leaves a medal will he given him. The first medal (for 1908) was awarded on prize-day to E. E. Crawshaw. I am of opinion that free places are granted too easily — e.g., those granted under 3c (certificates of proficiency under the age of fifteen), and those under 76, where the restriction of age to under sixteen for the Junior Civil Service pass is omitted. I think the study of history should be more encouraged. It does not pay to take it for Junior Civil Service. Matriculation, or Junior University Scholarships; and it is impossible-to take it for Senior Board Scholarship with marks limited to 2,000. I think for all these examinations some knowledge of the great men and great deeds of the past should be compulsory. C. E. Bevan-Brown. M.A., Headmaster. 2. Work of the Highest and Lowest Classes. Highest. Latin Livy, Hook 1 (BlacWe) ; Virgil, iEneid, IV (Bell); Catullus. Tibullus, and Ptopeitius. by Rev. A. 11. Wratislaw (Hell) ; Myths and Legends of Ancient Rome ; Bradley's Arnold ; Bradley's Aids to Latin Prose ; Kenneth's Revised Latin Primer ; Gepp and Haigh's Latin Dictionary ; Robinson's First History of the Romans ; Rivington's Class Book of Latin. Unseen. Book VI. English —Romola, George Kliot (Warwick cd.) : English Prose, from Mandeville to Huskin (World's Classics) ; Henry V. (Pitt Press), Shakespeare; Palgrave's Golden Treasury: Nesfield's Manual : Nesfield's Historical English ; English Literature, Laing (Collins and Sons). French — Moliere. Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (Hachette) ; Advanced French Composition, Duhamel (Rivington's) ; Le Pecheur d'lslande. Pierre Loti : Longmans' Advanced French Unseen (Bertenshaw) ; French Grammar. Moriartv (Sonnenschein). Mathematics —Bon-hardt and Perrot's Trigonometry. Todhunter and Loney's Algebra ; Elements of .Applied Mathematics (Jessop, Bell) ; Hall and Stevens's School Geometry. Parts Ito VI (Mac-millan) ; Hogben's Trigonometry Tallies ; Pendlebury's Arithmetic. Science — Advanced Inorganic Chemistry (Theoretical) (Bailey, London. W. B. Give). Gymnastics, Scripture, Greek. Lowest. —Latin —Elementa Latina (to the end of active verbs) : Scalre Primse ; Shorter Latin Primer (for revision of verbs). English—Westward Ho!, abridged (Macmillan) ; Lyra Heroica (The Revenge, &c.) ; Nesfield's Outlines; parsing notes; dictation, composition, parsing, analysis (four forms of predicate and easy subordinate clauses) ; also one of sixpenny editions in Lower IV list to be tead at home per term. History —First Book of British History (Tout) : Longmans' Historical Series for Schools, Book I. Geography Longmans' Geography Series. Book II: Mathematical and Physical Geography. French As for Lower IV. Mathematics —Pendlebury's New School Arithmetic (Bell