Principal's Annual Report.

To the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Wellington College.

Sir,—I have the honour to lay before you the Annual Report on the working of the College during the year.

The numbers on the books during the year have been—For the first term, 75; second, 72; third, 73; making an average of 73; and in addition to that there have been extra courses of lectures given in classics, mathematics, and modern languages by Mr. Hardy and Mr. Merlet, and there are now 15 students attending them, of whom five or six are working for the N.Z. B.A. degree. As I have good reason to believe that the number attending these classes is likely to increase, and as the work is already almost more than our present staff can manage, I have made arrangements with Mr. J. Gammell, B.A., London, to take the extra mathematics, and I feel sure that if some slight trouble were taken by the Governors to make these lectures known, they would be made use of by a considerable and increasing number of students. The number of boys in the higher classes is a good deal less than it was last year, and it is therefore only natural to expect that the examiners may have found some falling off in the work.

The standard, however, except in mathematics, has not been lowered, and I think, considering our numbers, we have no reason to be ashamed of the result.

A somewhat important alteration has been made this year in the conduct of the examinations. On previous occasions great inconvenience has been felt from having the College examination, the Cambridge, and the New Zealand University examination close together, thereby causing an excessively severe strain on the students. In order to remedy that to some extent, the examiners in English, Classics, and Modern Languages very kindly consented to accept for the upper and lower fifth forms the Cambridge papers. Press copies of the answers were taken in the room, and they have been looked over by your examiners, while the originals have been sent to Cambridge.

The reports of the examiners will enable you to judge how far the results are satisfactory. On account of delay in the page 12 arrival of the papers the examination has been held at a very awkward time, and has also been somewhat hurried. This is a disadvantage that must always attach to an examination in which the papers have to come from England, and renders the establishment of a satisfactory local system all the more necessary. I may state that additional attention has been devoted this year in the higher forms to English Literature, and in the lower forms to Arithmetic and Mathematics. I judge from the remarks made by the Mathematical Examiner that in the latter case at all events the results have been satisfactory. There is no doubt that to most young boys geometry is a subject of very great difficulty, and that any results in that branch can only be obtained by the exercise of very great efforts and ability on the part of the teacher. I know that the Mathematical Master has devoted himself to his work throughout the year with a zeal and energy of which few who have not tried the work have any conception. It is gratifying to find that the labour has not been in vain.

In the three previous years in which the Cambridge examination has been held in Wellington, the College has sent up 27 candidates, of whom 15 have passed; and of those one has gained a first class in honours, three a third class in honours, three special distinction in Latin, and one in Greek; while out of the whole number only three have failed in the preliminary examination, and one in Latin. This year we have sent up three senior and seven junior candidates.

Two examinations for Matriculation have been held during the year—one in April, when four candidates presented them-selves, of whom two passed, and one this month, when four came up, of whom one withdrew during the examination, and the other three passed with considerable credit. It is greatly to be hoped that before another year is over the University may be induced to institute a regular system of Matriculation Examination for the whole colony, as such a system would give those who are obliged to leave school early a chance of obtaining a certificate of general knowledge, which would have a definite value, while it would greatly facilitate the classification of those who remain. In fact the want of proper means of classification is a most serious defect in our present system. It is quite impossible that the work in the lower forms should be as good as it ought to be until something like a definite standard of attainments is established for admission to the College; that standard need not be at all a high one, at all events at first; but some standard there must be, and it should be so fixed that page 13 boys might pass at once into the College from the higher forms of the primary schools. Thus a boy entering the College at eleven or twelve with a fair knowledge of arithmetic and elementary English, should be able, after three or four years devoted to a steady course of Latin, French, and Elementary Mathematics, to pass the Matriculation examination, and thus gain a qualification sufficient for the Civil Service, professional life, or business; or else, if he were going to continue his education, he would be ready to enter the Collegiate Department and work up for the University examination. Thus the lower and larger portion of the College would be devoted to the work of an ordinary grammar, or what would in England be styled a second grade school, while the upper portion might be entirely devoted to higher education, and would only contain those who were able to profit by such an education. There are at present twelve matriculated students of the University who have their names on the boards of the College, and six of these have presented themselves for examination, in order by so doing to keep their University terms for the year, and five out of the six have been attending the College classes. During the year the following distinctions have been gained by old and present pupils of the College:—

• William Barton, 1st class in Annual College Examination at St. John's College, Cambridge, with special distinction in Latin.
• G. F. W. St. John, 30th in Annual Competition for Admission into Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.
• Albert Martin, 35th, out of 453 in the Preliminary Examination for the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
• A. W. Morrah, Senior Cambridge Local Certificate, with special distinction in Greek and Latin.
• J. W. Bell, Senior Cambridge Local Certificate.
• H. B. Harvey, 1st class in honours Junior Cambridge Local Certificate.
• J. Ludwig, Junior Cambridge Local Certificate.
• H. B. Kirk, silver medal for Botanical Collection, Ballarat Industrial Exhibition; bronze medal for Zoological, at ditto.
• J. C. Webb, silver medal for Botanical Collection, Ballarat Industrial Exhibition.

I have just concluded the Annual Examination for Primary Scholarships, the Governors having decided that for the future one of these scholarships should be open to boys from the town schools, and one to boys from the country schools. Nine boys came up for each. I have to recommend Charles Pownall, page 14 from the Thorndon school for the town scholarship, and Knight, from the Lower Hutt, for the country. There were seven other candidates who entered for the country scholarship, but the notice they received was too short to enable them to come up, another instance of the want of proper advertisement. The work of the boys from the Thorndon school, the only one of the town schools that sent up any candidates, was exceedingly good, and in fact there was considerable difficulty in selecting the best candidate, Louis Barnett, who stands next, being only seven marks out of 217 behind Pownall, and being well worthy of a scholarship, if the Governors had another at their disposal.

Making a total of £430 available annually for the promotion of higher education by scholarships and prizes.

A beginning has been made during the last few months towards supplying what has long been a great want, namely, a cricket ground for the use of the boys. About £50 was raised by subscriptions among the parents and friends of the boys; and with that sum, aided by the labour of a small gang from the gaol, obtained by the kind permission of the Visiting Justices, a piece of ground has been levelled, three chains by two; the expenditure of about a similar amount of money would complete a ground sufficiently large for all the requirements of page 15 the College, and the value of such an addition can hardly be over-estimated.

I subjoin a detailed report from Mr. Kirk on the work in the Natural Science Department. It is a matter of extreme regret that the unavoidable absence of Dr. Hector has prevented the inspection of that department by one thoroughly qualified to examine it; but the want of independent examination does not lessen the value of the work done; of that the report and collections now to be seen in the Museum are a sufficient proof.