165

The examinations postponed were those of the Papanui Church of England School, Governor’s Bay, Akaroa, Okain’s Bay, and Duvauchelle’s Bay Schools.

The details of each examination are entered in the Journal.

I have the honor to be, Sir,

Your obedient servant,

J. P. RESTELL,
Inspector of Schools.

Christchurch, Dec. 17, 1864.

Sir,—

I have the honor to inform you that in compliance with the request contained in your letter of October 29th, I have, in conjunction with Mr. Restell, inspected the three schools named by you, viz —

The Christ’s College Grammar School.
The Christchurch High School.
The Lyttelton High School.

The results of this inspection are embodied in the enclosed Report.

I have the honor to be, Sir,

Your most obedient servant,

G. S. SALE.

Hon. H. J. Tancred,
Chairman to the Board of Education.

COLLEGE GRAMMAR SCHOOL.

In proficiency in classics there is a considerable difference between the students’ class and the rest of the school.

From the students’ class the papers contained passages for translation into English, from Livy, Virgil, Euripides, and Xenophon. The passages were selected as being entirely free from difficulty either of language or construction. In composition, a short piece of English poetry was given to be rendered into Latin elegiacs, and a short piece of English prose to be rendered into Latin prose.

The papers were such as an average boy of 16, in an English public school, would have done without difficulty.

The only one of the students who was able to write decent Latin verses was Coterill. Brittan’s Latin prose was also very fair. The rest of the composition was very poor, and full of blunders, both in grammar and metre.

In translation, all of the students did a little fairly, with the exception of Harper, who does not seem equal to the rest of the class. The greater part, however, of the translations was very inferior to what it ought to be from boys of 16. The English was inelelgant, and there were the most extraordinary mistakes in grammar. Some of these mistakes were probably the result of hurry or carelessness, but many must have been due to ignorance. Mistakes of this sort in an English school would be cured by impositions; but from the position which the scholars occupy, this mode of cure is rendered difficult if not impossible. The difficulty might perhaps be partially met by insisting on every student repeating correctly every day a passage from some Greek or Latin author; this would ensure at any rate a certain amount of attention. But the real evil seems to be the position held by the scholars, who in England would certainly not hold a higher place than the middle class in a public school.

In the rest of the school the work was of a lower order. The sixth form were unable to write elegiacs; the passage given being a literal translation from Ovid with assistance in words.

The Latin Prose of this form was rather better. In translation one boy, Inwood, rendered two easy passages from Virgil and Cicero fairly, and into good English. They were unable to do anything with a simple passage from Xenophon. The parsing of Greek words was very indifferent. In this form, as in the student’s class, the work was full of grammatical blunders.

The rest of the school was examined vivâ voce. They were generally able to answer questions on parts of the books which they had studied, but seemed to be quite at a loss with a new Latin or Greek sentence, however simple.

In the fourth form Griffin and Rutland were decidedly the best in their part of the school. These boys have not been long in the College. The very young boys appeared to be laying a good foundation of grammar, and to be working well.

In mathematics the condition of the school appeared to be considerably better. The best boys in the students’ class were able to work easy problems in geometry, and to answer correctly questions in algebra from quadratic equations downwards, and in the elementary chapters of trigonometry. The sixth form, however, did not succeed at all with Euclid; which ought not to be the case.