THE IRISH HISTORY EXAMINATIONS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XLIX, Issue 50, 28 December 1922, Page 17

THE IRISH HISTORY EXAMINATIONS.

Sir,—When you asked me to adjudicate on the Irish History papers, I had no idea of the magnitude of the task to which I committed myself. Father O’Donnell, of Gore, kindly agreed to divide-the labor with-me, and for this help I am most grateful. When we opened out the various bundles and found that some 70 papers were forwarded from various parts of the Dominion we realised the intense earnestness of many of the teachers in our Catholic schools, to encourage young New Zealanders to cultivate a knowledge of Ireland’s sad, but instructive story. The bulk of these papers ran from a dozen to twenty closely written pages of foolscap. The neatness displayed in the get-up of most of them suggested much care and attention to detail. It could not .be called an examination in the ordinary sense of a school-history examination. _ It was rather a competition in composition, with full liberty to the candidates to make what use they could of books treating on the subjects given with a view to publication. This does not apply to all the papers for a number of them bore manifest evidence of having been written in the presence of a supervisor, and were a genuine test of the knowledge acquired by the pupil, and written from memory, A trained inspector would be able _ to distinguish between the genuine and the _ merely plagiarised, but even without any special practice in the art a slight knowledge of the more frequently used class books, could enable one to at once 3 trace whole sentences bodily taken ; over. Hence it can be seen how impossible it was to estimate the relative merits of the treatises submitted, and consequently no other course could be adopted, but that of recognising the good-will of the competitors and their desire to produce the best possible essay on the subjects given. To this end the prizes, forty books of a combined value of over ten guineas (towards which I have to acknowledge the receipt of five guineas from a few clerical friends), have been distributed amongst the competitors. The places from which I have received papers are as- follows (commencing with those nearest); The Marist Brothers’ School, Invercargill; Dominican, Convent, Bluff; Convent of Mercy, Riverton; Convent of Mercy, Alexandra; St. Dominic’s College, Dunedin; St. Philomena’s College; South Dunedin parish school; St. Patrick’s Dominican College, _ Teschemakers; Dominican. Convent, Oamaru; Convent, W aim ate; Convent of Mercy, Mornington ; St. Mary’s School, Greymouth; Convent, Petone; Marist Brothers, Wanganui; Christian Brothers’, Dunedin. Each of these schools has received one or more of the books, ■ duly impressed with the award mark, and name of recipient, which will be a reminder to the writers of the essays in Irish History, 1921, the year that,is destined to be-memorable as the year of Ireland’s emancipation from age long thraldom, and the establishment of the Irish Free State. . , / . .

I am etc., James O’Neill.

Waikiwi, December 12.