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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 42

Rector's Report

Rector's Report.

I have to lay before you to-day the Report of a satisfactory and successful Session. There has been an increase in the numbers attending the School, and the classes in the Upper School especially have been well filled up. The work has gone on from day to day vigorously and harmoniously. The discipline of the school has been maintained with firmness, but without harshness. Substantial progress has been made towards a more complete organisation of the classes; and the boys have enjoyed excellent health.

During the Session, 202 pupils have been enrolled, of whom 77 entered the School for the first time. The numbers on the roll for the four quarters were 173,177, 185, and 188. Mr. Thomson informs me that twenty-four boys have been received into the Boarding Establishment.

With respect to the practical working of the School, I have to note that the Fourth and Fifth Classes have been taught separately throughout the course, and that the Fifth and Sixth Classes have been taught separately in Latin and Science. As the numbers of the highest class increase, I am confident that the Governors will so increase the staff that it also may be taught separately in every branch. In this way an entire year will be added to our course of study in the Upper School. In the general class arrangements of the School, my aim has been to ensure that each master shall feel himself closely identified with, and directly responsible for, a well-defined portion of the work, and that the whole work shall be so distributed that each master will be able to do justice to the work entrusted to him. This aim has, to a very considerable extent, been realized. Mr. Brent, with the help of two masters, teaches all the Mathematical and Arithmetical Classes, the preparatory class alone excepted. Mr. Wilson teaches daily the English Classes from the Sixth to the Lower Third inclusive. The page 2 teaching of writing is entirely in the hands of the commercial master. We have now a French as well as a German Master. Our arrangements for Science teaching are very complete. Of the seven Latin Classes in the School, I have myself taught five daily throughout the Session. I wish also to express my satisfaction with the preparatory class. So long as the present constitution of the School is maintained, this class must always be of very special importance. One of our gravest difficulties in arranging the classes is, how to do justice to boys who come to us late in the course; and it is therefore desirable, for their own sakes, that boys should be sent to us as early as possible. On this account I have marked with pleasure the prosperity of this year's preparatory class. It has increased in the course of the Session from 23 to 33; and it has been admirably managed. We shall conduct the preparatory class of next year in the same manner; and we shall continue the arrangement by which the younger boys have the playground entirely to themselves at their lunch hour.

The arrangements with respect to holidays made last Session by the Board of Governors have been loyally observed; and the attendance has been on the whole punctual and regular. At the same time, I may take this opportunity of once more pointing out how much the true prosperity of the School depends on the faithful attendance of the pupils. I earnestly appeal to parents and guardians to co-operate with us in encouraging our boys to form habits of punctuality, regularity, and self-denial at the important period of their lives when their characters are "wax to receive, and marble to retain."

I think it due to the admirable Scholarship scheme of the Education Board of Otago to record here that live of their provincial scholars have been with us during the session—two trained in the Normal School of Dunedin, one in the public school of Palmerston, and two in this school. All have highly distinguished themselves, and give excellent promise for the future. I trust that next session we may have the satisfaction of receiving more of those scholars. I sympathise with my professional brethren, especially in the country, who lose their best boys at the very time when their work becomes most interesting. I venture, however, to remind them that every other consideration must yield to the welfare of the scholars themselves, and that we suffer the same pang when our pupils are trans- page 3 ferred to the University. There is room for difference of opinion as to the due gradation of our educational institutions; but I trust that there will always be a free course for talented boys from the humblest grade to the highest. In every completely organized educational system—and surely in this country we shall be satisfied with nothing less—a genuine High School is the true door of entrance to a genuine University. Every intelligent educationist must therefore regard the Scholarship scheme as an invaluable part of our educational machinery.

I observe with much pleasure in last session's Prize List of the University of Edinburgh, that Charles Low, our dux of 1873, has carried off first-class honours in Materiamedica and Therapeutics, and second-class honours in the Senior Anatomy Class. The names of many former pupils of the School appear in this session's honour list of the University of Otago. William McLean took a distinguished place in Mental Science: A. B. Todd in Senior Mathematics: George S. McDermid in Junior Mathematics: Herbert Macandrew in Anatomy: W. D. Milne in Advanced Mathematics and Junior Mental Science: F. H. Jeff'coat in Senior Mathematics and Zoology; A. Purdie in Practical and Theoretical Chemistry; and A. Montgomery in Zoology, Senior Latin, and Senior Mathematics. J. Salmond, who entered the University last year as a New Zealand University Junior Scholar, is first in English, second in Latin, and first in German.

We have again this year received many prizes in addition to those provided by our Board of Governors. The Chamber of Commerce has given us a gold medal for the best scholar in English and Arithmetic, a silver medal for the best Arithmetician in the whole school, and a silver medal for the best Arithmetician in the Lower School. The Dunedin Builders' Association, through their secretary, Mr U'Ren, has given us the sum of Two Guineas, to provide prizes for the duxes of the Arithmetical Classes. Mrs. Burn, Mr. J. S. Webb, Mr. Maurice Joel, Mr. A. Burt, Mr. J. Wilkie, Captain Hutton, and the Rev. Dr. Stuart have kindly renewed the prizes which they presented last year. Mr. G. Matheson, Mr. T. Austin, and Mr. Mendershausen have also presented us with special prizes. To these warm friends of the School, and to all others who help us in our work, we return our most hearty thanks.