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to me to require no explanation. It would be desirable that some person or persons connected with the Board of Examiners should be present in each case. In my opinion it Avould be desirable to have a Board of Examiners selected from the various parts of New Zealand—from every Province if possible. Two or three members of such a Board should be the special examiners for the year. It is of the utmost importance that the examiners should be elected with the greatest care. Mistakes of a most serious kind arise from the appointment of incompetent examiners. Men of considerable ability, who have attained University distinctions, are often perfectly incompetent to examine boys. They take their standard from their own remembrance of an advanced stage. I think it is of great importance that the principal masters of the superior schools who are University men should form a part of the Board of Examiners. 4.] I should prefer to see them established in connection with the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, because I believe that the training at these Universities is of a kind most suited to prepare young men for all positions of life. I think, however, that it would be well to allow successful candidates to go to any one of the Universities of Great Britain and Ireland. 5.] I should recommend that the total annual value of such scholarships should be £250 a year, and that they should be continued for four years, to be computed from the date of the exhibitioner's departure from New Zealand. lam of opinion that a further sum of £100 should be allowed for the expenses of the voyages to and from England. I have fixed on the sum of £250 a year because I think that sufficient for a young man economically brought up. In cases where more is required, it ought to be provided from private sources. 6.] I should divide the subjects for examination into three : (1) Classics, to which I should give the largest number of marks ; (2) Mathematics and the Elements of Natural Science ; and, (3) English subjects, including General History and English Composition. I would recommend that more stress should be laid upon the latter subject than is the case in examinations of the same kind in English public schools for University exhibitions. I would also suggest that the exhibitions should be limited to young men under the age of twenty-one years, and that it should be an express condition that they had studied for at least four years at some New Zealand school. 7.] I have not been able to come to any definite conclusion on this subject. *#* I would suggest that two scholars be appointed annually—the examination to take place about Christmas. This time would be convenient for the masters of schools taking part in the examinations, and would give the successful candidates the opportunity of proceeding to England by the wool ships. G. COTTERELL, Second Master, Christ's College Grammar School.

G. Macparlan, Esq., M.11.R.—1 and 2.] If New Zealand were an old country I should object to the alienation of public money to purposes of what I may call ornamental education. I hold that Government is bound to provide an elementary education for everybody, but I cannot sec that it is the province of a Government to subsidize the higher branches of training. Still, under the circumstances of the Colony, I feel that the benefits likely to accrue from the foundation of Government Scholarships far outweigh the theoretical objection that occurs to me. The main difficulty in setting a scheme of this sort afloat appears to me to be this—the Colonial boys on arriving at cither University (I mean Oxford or Cambridge) would find themselves very inferior, both in instruction and in experience of the world, to the average of the more cultivated boys from the English Public Schools, and therefore would probably become intimate with and form part of a non-reading (and perhaps a fast) set. lam so thoroughly convinced of the importance of this objection (at least for some years) that I think for the first few years the candidates for scholarships should pass a trial examination two or three years before they would be ready to go to England—say at fifteen and a-half years old. Should the candidates show themselves reasonably proficient, the Government might allow them a moderate sum by way of an exhibition to enable them to obtain the best tuition available in New Zealand or Australia. I should confine the subjects of their studies to Classics and Mathematics, for reasons I will detail afterwards. I should not recommend that the candidates successful in the preliminary examination should be dignified by any degree, because such au examination would be intended simply to test whether the boys were fit persons to enter on a higher course of education and likely to do credit to the Colony. I make this remark because I believe the Tasmanian Government give to probationary students the title of Associate of Arts. I should be glad to sec boys from New Zealand avail themselves of the advantages to be derived from attending the lectures, or if possible becoming the private pupils of one or more of the Professors of the Universities of Melbourne or Sydney; hut I do not think that the training to be got at those Universities at all comparable with the advantages, both educational and social, which may be derived by any person of ordinarily good conduct from the usual academical course at Cambridge or Oxford. 3.] I should confine the examination to Classics and Mathematics. The various branches of Natural or Moral Science are very unfit subjects for testing the abilities of boys, and ought not to form part of their education. lam sure that a good training in Classics and Mathematics is the best introduction to Natural and Moral Science. If I was now writing generally on Education I should insist on European Languages, Drawing, and Music, as essential to a liberal

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REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON THE