The Rev. W. H. West's Report.

To the Governors of Wellington College, Wellington.

Gentlemen,—In compliance with your request, I have examined the College in the English subjects of the course of study pursued—the 6th, 4th, and 3rd forms by means of written papers, and the 1st and 2nd viva voce. As I had charge of the Cambridge Local Examinations it occurred to me that in the absence of a New Zealand University examination test, no better one could be found than that supplied by the Cambridge papers, accordingly at the suggestion, and with the sanction of the Principal, I gave the Cambridge Senior and Junior papers in Shakespere's Julius Cæsar, English History, Geography, English Grammar, English Composition to the upper and lower divisions of the fifth form. The results are upon the whole satisfactory, the English Grammar paper was most creditably done, and the answers to the other papers evinced a fairly accurate acquaintance with the subjects.

The papers sent in to me by the 6th form on "Bacon's Advancement of Learning," two plays of Shakespere, and English Literature from 1658 to 1714, were well expressed, and showed a good grasp of the subjects. As regards the other forms there is considerable proficiency shown in some subjects, and in all the attainments are fair.

The only subjects in which the boys of the 2nd and 3rd forms are not quite up to the average standard is that of English Grammar and Analysis, speaking generally. As regards the quantity and quality of the instruction given, and methods page 16 employed, as far as such can be ascertained by examination papers, I think there is an honest effort made to drill the pupils of the College in the essentials of the subjects prescribed, and to train them in the use of what they do acquire.

There are, in my opinion, very undesirable contrasts in the attainments of some of the pupils in the lower forms, and it seems to me that such a state of things cannot very well be remedied as long as pupils are admitted to the College without having passed any examination. It must be obvious that such an institution as this is not the place to teach boys to write or to spell words of two or three syllables.

I think that it is most desirable, with a view to the efficiency of the Institution, that every boy entering it should be able to pass an examination equivalent to that of the 4th or 6th standard of the State schools, or be called upon to produce a certificate to that effect. As long as the present indiscriminite system exists, it must interfere, in my judgment, with the efficient organisation of the classes, and must issue in wasteful expenditure of teaching power and unsatisfactory results.