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Petitions Presented to The House of Representatives

No. 2. — Petition of the Rev. F. C. Simmons, M.A

No. 2.
Petition of the Rev. F. C. Simmons, M.A.

To the Honourable the House of Representatives in Parliament assembled,
The humble Petition of Frank Churchill Simmons, Master of Arts of the University of Oxford,

Sheweth,

1.That your petitioner is Rector or Head Master of the High School of Otago.
2.That your petitioner has observed amongst a very considerable portion of the Parents of Boys attending the said school a great indifference to higher branches of education, and that through this cause, and on account of the high price which the labour of even a half-instructed boy commands, pupils are usually withdrawn from the said school at an age when it is impossible for them to have received a liberal education; and further, that, from what your petitioner has heard and seen, he has reason to believe that the same causes are operating in the same manner throughout the Colony of New Zealand, as he learns by the reports of Schoolmasters in other Colonies they are in operation in Colonial society elsewhere.
3.That he is convinced that it is for the interest of the whole of the community of this Colony, that some members of it, and if possible those members of it, irrespective of the means of their parents, who are best endowed by nature with ability, should receive the same thorough education which members of the learned professions, and other persons whose means enable them and who are intended to occupy responsible positions, receive in the Mother Country.
4.That he sees small prospect of this desirable end being effected without some encouragement from the State.
5.That although your petitioner hopes to see a University established in New Zealand, yet he is convinced that the time is not yet arrived for founding a University in this Colony, because the moral effect of A University depends to a large extent on the number of the students, and the variety of stations in life, and in some measure of places, from which its students are drawn.
6.That, accordingly, your petitioner believes that a small portion of the Public Funds would be well employed in maintaining, at one or more of the Universities in the Mother Country, such limited number of the young men of this Colony as should be proved by examination most worthy of becoming the recipients of the public liberality.
7.That your petitioner is convinced that the benefits accruing to the community would be by no means limited to the improved education of the limited number who might be actually the recipients of the public bounty; but that many young men would be kept longer at their studies than they now are, or are likely to be, partly through the force of example, partly through the hope of obtaining such an honourable distinction as to be selected from among the youth of the Colony to represent it, as It were, in the Universities of the Mother Country; and that it is more than probable that many of those who may be unsuccessful in obtaining these distinctions would, through the spirit of emulation, and the necessities of competition, be also sent home by their friends for the same purpose.
8.That your petitioner feels sure that the cause of learning, and therefore of good government, would be greatly promoted by your Honourable House taking such steps as you may in your wisdom think expedient, for instituting Scholarships, to be open to all young men resident within the Colony of New Zealand, to be obtained by public competition, and tenable during good conduct, at one of the Universities of the United Kingdom.
9.That the ordinary course of an English University is of four years' duration.
10.That as Classics and Mathematics are acknowledged to the best instruments of a liberal education by most of the competent authorities in education, your petitioner is convinced that these branches of study ought to be made the test of excellence by which it should be decided who should be the recipients of the public bounty.

Your petitioner therefore prays that your Honourable House will make such provision as you may see fit for founding Scholarships for the purpose of maintaining young men of this Colony at a University in the United Kingdom. And your petitioner further prays, that he and the other Head Masters of Public Schools in the Colony may be examined by your Honourable House as to the subjects and limitations of the competition for the said Scholarships.

And your petitioner will, as in duty bound, ever pray, &c.

Frank Churchill Simmons, M.A., Oxon.,

Rector of the High School of Otago.