E.—lo.

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Mr. Holmes moved, That all juuior national and Education Board scholarships bo abolished; that sufficient travelling-expenses and boarding-allowances be made to those pupils attending secondary .schools from .1 distance or obliged to reside away from home. This motion naturally followed mi the resolution the Conference had already ooine to. In abolishing the proficiency certificate, and having a leaving-oertificate, the Conference bad practically decided that we should do away with examinations altogether, except in so far as the conferences between the Inspector and the headmaster were concerned. He thought the Department would also be happy in being released from this examination, because it must, be an awful task for the Department to conduct the Junior Scholarship Examinations, considering the number of candidates they bad to ileal with and the number of papers that had to be got through. His idea in connection with this matter was this : that our policy should be to distribute whatever money was available in such a way as that the greatest good would be given to the greatest number. That was aoi the case aow. The teachers at their institute meeting had also talked this matter over, and they had come to the conclusion that the time had come when scholarships should Ik.' abolished. The teachers were certainly of opinion that scholarships should not be continued, because it was simply, as it were, giving monetary value to brains, and they did not think that at that stage of a person's school life they should be putting £10 or £40 a year as the value of certain educational equipment. Scholarships were useful in the olden days when children bad not the advantage of free places, and secondary schools were much fewer. £10,41-'! was expended in scholarships last year, lie did not suggest giving full boarding-allowances, because he thought parents should be prepared to supplement the graul made by the Department in keeping the children when they were boarding away from home. Mr. FLEMING seconded the motion. He might say, as far as the Wellington Education District was concerned, that when the free places were established lie said to the Hoard that he thought the scholarship money should be given for the benefit of the country children. Seeing that the children had free places given to them, he thought that was quite sufficient in the way of scholarships for those who were living near any secondary school. He thoroughly agreed with the principle of the resolution. The details could lie worked out afterwards. lie thought Mr. Holmes wanted to lay down the general principle that the money should lie restricted generally to country children. He heartily supported the teachers on this question. Mr. StraoHAN thought that before this question was disposed of the Conference should consider the claims of town pupils in regard to the cost of books. A good many people in the towns had ohildren with a fair amount of brains, but the parents had not an overplus of money, and the cost of the books was a considerable item. He thought that, at any rate to the extent of the cost of the books, the claims of the town pupils ought to be considered. lie knew of some cases where the cost of the books was a turning-point in deciding whether the ohildren should be allowed to go to the high school or not. Professor Thomas said there were two minor points that he thought were worth mentioning. A difficulty sometimes arose in the selection of a boardinghouse lor a child who came in from the DOOntry with a scholarship. The parents were not always able to choose wisely, anil sometimes the children were boarded in most undesirable localities. It might be better if the boarding-allowance were coupled with the condition of an approved household. Then there was the question of some allowance being made to town children to cover the cost of books. In the case of parents who were not well-off, some allowance might l>o made to assist in the purchase of books, or an allowance in the nature of partial maintenance. The Chairman said, in regard to books, the amount required was very small, and an arrange ment could be made to give assistance in certain really deserving eases. In the case of the bulk of parents, he did not see why they should not make some sacrifices. lie thought tin boardingallowance should l>e a full allowance, l>ecause there were a good many expenses such as clothes connected with sending children to secondary schools. He thought they ought to authorize the authorities of secondary schools to make a rule compelling children from the country to board at certain licensed houses—preferably where there were teachers in charge. Dr. Andkhson wished to express his entire sympathy with Mr. Holmes'B attitude on ibis question, and also his own personal concurrence with Mr. llogben's view that as far as possible these things should not be competitive. However, the abolition of the competitive element was uecessarilv a financial matter. If Parliament was prepared to provide moneys sufficient lor all who attained to a certain qualification, the competitive element could be abolished. If not, a certain amount of competition must prevail if there were more applicants than there was money to provide for them. There was another aspect of Ihe question to which he would like to call the attention of the Conference. In regard to free places, what were they to do in the case of pupils from private schools? Mr. Holmes had shown that the carrying of his motion would relieve the Depart iiient of the work of examination for Junior National Scholarships, ami concurrently with thai for junior free places. lie could not see how they could apply any principle of selection such as hail been suggested to the pupils of private schools, who were as much entitled to higher secondary education as pupils attending the public primary schools. Mr. PhTRII thought the Conference ought to very seriously consider what some of the motions they were adopting would involve. The present motion involved this: that every child who qualified lor admission to a secondary school was going to have a boarding-allowance. That might mean the expenditure of a great deal of money. It might mean expending four or live times the present grant for National and Board Scholarships. He thought that before they were invited to pass a resolution of that kind they ought to have some information as to the financial burden the change would involve. The CHAIRMAN said it was all worked out in his report three years ago. Mr. PITBIB said lie did not like to vote in the dark on a motion like thai now l>efore the Conference. While examinations had many objectionable features, still he thought they did a great