V.— No. I.

boys, if any, will be found to attain a first class in all at their early age. Some will show a greater facility for Classics, some for Mathematics; while a tolerable ability only is shown in those subjects in which they do not excel. Then that facility may determine the University to which the boy should be sent, and so one desired object would be attained. The subjects for exhibitions having a different object would be different in extent and kind. The English Grammar, with an ability to parse and read English well, as well as to transpose sentences and give meanings to words. Some claim to Rhetoric, and to the power of condensation with clearness. Some one Language or other of modern date, and of Colonial use. A perfect knowledge of Arithmetic, and of Algebra as far as problems producing equations. Elementary plane and spherical Trigonometry. The elements of Geometry and simple Mechanics. History, Geology and Mineralogy; the principles of Commerce, Agriculture, and Finance; —in short, all that may prove of service to himself and advantageous to the Colony in which he lives. Not that any one exhibitioner may be supposed to excel in all these subjects, but to give proof in these things of being the most likely thereafter to benefit society, and improve the status of the Colony. 7.] A University must necessarily be the growth of years, and of anxious fostering care. Doubtless it would be a great advantage for New Zealand to have her own University for the final education of her sons; but at present I scarcely see how that can, with satisfaction, be accomplished. The means of education, to a great extent, would be there; but there would be wanting those advantages that pertain to the crowded and pushing Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Besides which there would also be wanting the contact with educated and wel read men that is necessary for the formation of a character both educated and well read. Still there is no reason that I can see that should prevent the formation of a University in the Colony sufficient for the general purposes of education, provided it be not supposed that the education received there is either a finished one or one calculated to produce scientific and leading men. ■*#* The preceding Queries having been very comprehensive, and my opinion upon the subject matter having been given as fully as I think desirable, I have no other remarks or suggestions to offer. Stiil, should there be any information I can give which is not given, and which may be desired, I shall be happy to render it. Charles Chapman, M.A., Chaplain and Naval Instructor 11.M.5. " Charybdis." Bishop op Wellington.—l.] A priori one would expect that lads born and bred in New Zealand would derive great benefit from the intercourse with their compeers at an English University. But we have, of course, very few data for forming any induction as to the positive results. What has come under my observation has struck me very forcibly in favour of the experiment; but the previous education at home and the school-teaching had been exceptionally good. But any Universityman knows that it is by no means easy for a young man who has not been educated at one of the great public schools to get into a good set. The Colleges are split up into sets —a reading set for University honours—a Parliamentary set of candidates for future distinction in public life, who make the Union Debating Society their main object—a boating set, and a low set, —and the lazy ones that keep aloof from society. Now unless a Colonial youth has considerable attainments as a scholar before he goes— or has political aspirations, or athletic gifts, he will find it very hard to get into a good set, and the danger is that he will fall into lazy apathetic habits, or else into the low set. It will be gathered from this that I should not expect much good to be derived from a mere University course in England, unless the previous teaching had been good, and the youth fitted to take his place at once in one or other of the good sets of a College. And of course the preceding remarks apply specially to Oxford and Cambridge, with which lam acquainted. It may be very different at the Irish and Scotch Universities. 2.] My answer to the first question naturally leads on to the second; but, as will be seen, I have not done with the first. I should then by all means recommend exhibitions being offered for boys who are being educated in any of the New Zealand Schools, with the view of encouraging higher attainments than arc at present aimed at by parents or teachers. As far as I know anything of the schools in the Colony they could bring on a boy well enough to the age of fifteen or sixteen. What is wanted at that age is an intermediate stage between that and the usual age for entering the University, viz.—between seventeen and eighteen. In England, lads of that age often go to a private tutor, which Ido not recommend for a Colonial boy. There arc no intermediate schools or Colleges in England. But this want is exactly supplied in the Sydney University, whcre«l have known a lad distinguish himself and then proceed to an English University with successful results. And this course would have this further advantage, that the Sydney Scholarships would serve as probations for the English. The examination in New Zealand might lead to a scholarship in Sydney University, but the result of an examination at Sydney, after a year or two's study, should be the scholarship at the English University. I have on several occasions urged the Trustees of the Public School Endowments, at Auckland and Wellington, to devote their funds to the formation of a system like the Sydney and the London) University, where there is only a Caput or ruling body of Principal and Professors 14

53

ESTABLISHMENT OF UNIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIPS.