F.—No. 1.

advantages which the training of our University system confers on those students who enter well prepared, and properly disposed to benefit by it. This training appears almost indispensable for the higher branches of the learned professions; but I do not think that the full advantage it is calculated to confer can be obtained except in the Universities at home. If University scholarships arc to be founded, I should therefore prefer to sec them founded in Great Britain rather than in the Australian Colonies. Even supposing the educational advantages to be equal in each case, the English Universities must otter a wider field of competition, a larger sphere of action, greater social advantages, and, above all, a means of keeping up in the Colony a tone of thought and feeling more thoroughly in accordance with that of the mother country, the need of which will be felt more and more as the Colony advances. But, judging from my own limited experience, which is entirely confined to the Province of Nelson, I should hesitate to recommend any such measure as that proposed, on the ground that so far at least as that Provincg is concerned, its educational facilities arc not such as would allow of its entering into the proposed competition with advantage. In Nelson College my predecessor, Mr. Broughton, a gentleman with high University honours, and much practical experience gained as a Master of Cheltenham College, recast the whole system of tuition in accordance with the home models, especially designed to prepare students for the Universities. On my succeeding him, I was compelled, owing to the deficiencies I found in the knowledge of English Orthography, Grammar, Geography, &c, to diminish the instruction in the Classics. I did this very unwillingly, but have reason to believe I should have been strongly supported in making still further changes in the same sense. In fact, with the exception of the school founded by Bishop Ilobhouse, there is no place of education where instruction is given of a kind intermediate between that of the College and that of the village schools. Two or three attempts to give a rudimentary knowledge of Latin in these latter have within my own knowledge been discouraged or prohibited. The attempt to enforce a higher standard of qualification for admission to the College was followed by an immediate decrease in the number of the pupils. To derive any advantage from the proposed scholarships, therefore, the instruction in the Nelson College would have to be raised at least to its former level; in that case the scholars would have to present themselves much better prepared than they usually did during the period of my connection with it; and except in the one instance I have mentioned, of the Bishop's school, there are no means of so preparing themselves. 2.] There arc six exhibitions connected with Nelson College, and I know that they have encouraged and enabled parents to keep their sons at the College for a longer time than they would have done otherwise. But these exhibitions are confined to boys actually studying at the College. Could inducements of a similar kind be held out at entrance, and exhibitions given to those who came best prepared, I think that such foundations would have a very beneficial effect. 3.] I think that the examination of candidates for University Scholarships might be conducted in the first instance by written papers, prepared under the eyes of the Head Masters, and certified and forwarded by them to a central Board of Examiners, such Board testing the qualifications of the candidates they select still further by a viva voce examination. In cases where the papers of candidates were nearly equal in merit, the second candidate should have the option of presenting himself for such further examination; and the travelling expenses of the candidates, whether successful or not, should be paid for them. 4.] lam unable to offer any suggestion under this head, beyond this—that supposing a certain number of Universities to be selected, it might be a matter of great interest and importance to the parents that their sons should be placed in localities with which they had been themselves connected, of which they had some previous knowledge, or in which they had friends or relations. • 5.] Taking into account the passage-money to Europe and back, and the probable advantage of being under a private tutor for a few months previous to matriculation as well as during the vacations, the sum of .£IOOO (one thousand pounds), or j£2oo per annum for five years would probably be required. C] The subjects must, I presume, be those required to pass the examination on matriculation at the Universities, viz. Classical and Mathematical, but 1 would suggest that a competent knowledge of the mother tongue and of General History should be made a necessary adjunct. 7.] I am afraid that the Colony is not at present able to support such an institution, taking the term University in its widest acceptation. Even in the neighbouring Colonies of Australia, with a much larger and denser population than our own, the results have not been very successful. I have, however, often wished to sec established in some central position an institution with Professorships of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, and perhaps the Belles Lettres, Moral Philosophy and Logic, which might serve as a nucleus for an establishment of a more important character at some future period, but which even from its commencement might afford instruction on subjects which must otherwise from the total want of any such means of acquiring the requisite information, remain comparatively disregarded or unknown. Exhibitions to such an institution would in my opinion be much valued and eagerly sought after, especially at the termination of the usual school course. ■je.** The prevabnt neglect of the higher branches of education may, I think, be very much 10

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ESTABLISHMENT OF UNIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIPS.