D.]

E.-2.

IX

As in previous years, special reports have been received from the various Inspectors on the work of ex-students for the first two years after leaving the College. These give me an opportunity of seeing how ideas imbibed during the course are put into practice, and, on the whole, I am quite satisfied with them. Physical Culture. —Strenuous efforts were made during the year to insure that each student took sufficient exercise to keep in good health. Having athletic teams usually means that the eleven or fifteen concerned get exercise, but that the rest are neglected. I have tried to avoid this by requiring the shirkers and those whose early training leads them to look on games as a waste of time to take their share in reasonable exercise. Fives and tennis are indulged in by all students, and swimming is compulsory. Life-saving courses were taken by all students, but as the long vacation comes during the hot season, when the weather is just suitable for swimming, certificates are not so numerous as they otherwise would be. This year Mr. William Henry, founder of the Royal Life-saving Society in England, toured the Dominion, and devoted a morning to us in the College bath early in November. As a result of the examinations, 5 students received bronze medallions, and 13 certificates of proficiency, while 2 received elementary certificates. Three hockey teams took part in the local competitions, two men's teams and one women's team, making a total of thirty-three actively engaged, though another twenty practised the game. Some half-dozen of the male students took part in the University football games. Another new departure this year was the starting of a Cadet Officers' Training Corps, all the men students being enrolled as members. Regular drill was carried out by the officers, and a week's camp was held at Narrow Neck under the supervision of Major Mac Donald, the Department's officer in command of the Dominion's cadets. He expressed himself as well satisfied with the work done. Some topographic work, surveying and mapping the district, carried out under his personal guidance, struck me as particularly suitable, co-ordinating as it did with the physiography course taken in +he College. The uniforms supplied gave a smart effect to the general bearing of the men, and lam sure that this branch of our work is a valuable one. The physical-culture courses were taken, as in previous years, by Mrs. Brabant and myself. It would be a good thing if we aimed more at the Rhodes-scholar type of student —not the mere bookworm, but the all-round man. Why not begin by making swimming compulsory for the D and C certificates ? I look forward to the time when swimming will be a compulsory part of the schoolleaving certificate of proficiency. The College championships in the three main athletic exercises were won as follows : Women — Tennis, Miss Batkin ; fives, Miss McElwain ; swimming, Miss Hare. Men—Tennis, Mr. V. Johns ; fives, Mr. 0. Burton : swimming, Mr. V. Johns. No prizes are given, but the students learn — To set the cause above renown, To love the game beyond the piize. Photographs of the winners are placed in the respective common rooms, so that a record is thus kept of a kind appreciated by past and present students. General Humanizing-work. —Every student who has attended a college, of whatever kind, knows that his chief gain is not the result of his time-table work, but is rather the outcome of his general surroundings, the subtle spirit of the place. It cannot be tested by the winning of degrees and certificates, though in a good college these are won in the stride. It is so elusive that it is difficult to say exactly what it is ; but the student knows that he is better for its presence—his character is strengthened ; he scorns to be mean ; he is not contented with the mediocre ; his aim is " ever onward, ever upward " ; his environment has improved him. lam pleased to say that I think the students of 1910 learned to " play the game " as well as their predecessors. Schoolmasters are notoriously narrow and pedantic, and one way to remove this is to mix with men in other walks of life and to visit them at their work. To this end visits of observation were paid during the year to the following places : the gasworks, Plummer's hat-factory, Bycroft's biscuitfactory, the ostrich farm, the City Abattoirs, the Blind School, &c. Accounts of the visits are written out in special note-books, and I am sure these jaunts do much to remove the feeling students are apt to get that they are the only flowers in the garden. Having a hobby is another thing which removes narrowness, so a good deal of attention was paid during the year to photography and lantern-slide making. A regular weekly lecture was given by Mr. Trendall, the instructor, and good progress was made, some thirty enthusiasts going through the course. All the male students taking up appointments at the end of the year have pledged themselves to introduce lantern-work, in order to illustrate their geography lessons. Seventeen lanterns have been ordered from England ; these will be the property of the students, and most of them already have collections of slides made during the year. To help on the movement the Board granted £10 towards the cost of additional slides, so that in the near future children in the backblock schools will have some variety added to their lessons. As the bulk of our students are from the country, and are so at a loose end on Saturday nights, regular social gatherings are held on alternate Saturdays. From Bto 9 p.m. we have readings, lectures, debates, &c, then an interval for refreshments, followed by songs and dances. On the alternate Saturdays the Ruskin Society met. Some seventy students attended the meetings on the average, and extracts from Ruskin's works, with discussions following, occupied a couple of hours. One daytime gathering was held at Kauri Gully, appropriate extracts being read on clouds, trees, moss, grass, rivers, &c. The girls in the society kept the College brackets supplied with flowers during the year, their common room being well kept as a result of the efforts of members. During the year a play, " Tom Cobb," was staged. Two casts were trained, so that twenty students received the benefit of the extra work involved. Four presentations took place, each to crowded houses. The reasons that actuate me in this work are best given from the programme issued

ii—E. 2. (App. D).