P.—No. 1.

Oxford commission states that private tutors usually charge £10 a terra, or £30 a year, for three hours a week, and nearly double these amounts for six hours. I have stated above a 'much higher figure, from my impressions of the intentions of your Committee. 6.] Under this head I confine myself exclusively to the more immediate case of pupils from our superior schools competing for a fellowship at a European University. (1.) Classics, to the extent of Latin prose composition, translation of Greek prose, and translation and scanning of Greek and Latin verse. (2.) Mathematics and Arithmetic.—The ordinary rules of the latter, and the former as far as Quadratic Equations and the first book of Euclid. In my opinion, it is most undesirable to insist on great advancement in Mathematics until the mind has become considerably strengthened by exercise in other studies. (3.) English Prose Composition and Grammar. (4.) Histories of Greece, Rome, Britain, and General History of Modern Europe. (5.) Bible History. 7.] I consider that this is by far the most important subject mooted in these questions, and that the character of the society in New Zealand holds out reasons for expecting that a University would bo more than ordinarily successful in this Colony. The establishment of a University, with scholarships attached to it, would give a great impetus to education, both at elementary and advanced schools. It would attract to it many endowments from private sources. It would tend to give a more elevated tone to general society, by securing a regard for learning and science, such as if often wanting in the earlier stages of Colonial life. It would preserve to the Colony many families who in our present circumstances remove to England. Parents would have no objection to sending their sons to a neighbouring Province, from which they would pay them a yearly visit, while they naturally dislike the idea of complete separation for a period of four years. The establishment of a University is essential to a complete system of education, such as the Colony ought to provide, if it attends to education at all. *#* (!•) I think that the great error into which there is danger of falling upon the subject of a Colonial University is the outlay of extravagant sums upon the buildings and mere material apparatus, to the comparative neglect of an efficient professoriate. (2.) As the subject is of too much importance to be hastily decided, I would suggest the appointment of a commission to report to next Assembly. Such a commission would have to consider—l. The site of the University; 2. The system of instruction to be pursued, as based upon a comparison of the English, Scotch, and German systems; 3. The establishment of a General University Council, to act along with the Professors; 4. The number of Professors required at the outset, and the gradual additions to be made in developing the complete system. (3.) Meanwhile I would suggest the advantage of establishing one or two temporary lectureships on Science, History, or Literature, at the places where Grammar or High Schools are in existence. At a moderate cost, such lectureships would help to supply a great want. Salary need not exceed £100 a year. Charles Fraser, M.A., F.G.S., Christchurch, Canterbury.

HAWKE'S BAT. Rev. W. Colenso.—l.] No, for (among others) the following reasons : — 1. Financial. —Expense great, return small and uncertain; all moneys going out of the Colony. 2. Political. —Such might draw parents and families away from the Colony. Such students might not in every case return ; and if they did return, then it might not be to their country, their home, the place of their choice and affections : the heart might be left behind. The example thus set under the auspices of Government would be sure to be followed. 3. Mental {Talent). —May it not be fairly questioned whether such a scheme could be so conducted as to secure such University scholarships to the rising talent and genius of the Colony, apart from birth, wealth, or political influence ? 4. Physical. —Highly questionable whether in many cases our best young students from some of our Provinces would not suffer in health in removing for closer study to the hotter climates of the Australian Colonies, or to the colder and wetter ones of Great Britain and Ireland. 5. Moral and Religious. —The many egregious follies and mummeries of the day, Puseyism, llitualism, &c, &c. (to say nothing of the lamentable "fast" life of the young British generation), some of which are so speciously dressed up and supported, even at the principal English Universities, as, it is to be feared, to find ready way into the mind of the unsophisticated Colonial youth, unless his own sterling innate good sense should be strong enough and wary enough to repel all such attempts —but qua;. It is like sending a boy to Greenland to learn to skate. Further, here, in the Colony, we have the healthy development of all Christian denominations being on the same platform. Why then seek to place the young expanding Colonial mind in situations

35

ESTABLISHMENT OF UNIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIPS.