526
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.

have proceeded to English Universities. The real
importance of "The Scholarship Act" is not to
be seen by regarding it solely or even mainly in
relation to the scholars themselves, but rather by
regarding the immense stimulus which it has given to
the cause of sound education during the years that it
has been in operation. It will be seen that the
Scholarships are the climax of a system whose effects
extend to all Primary Schools throughout the Island.
Any boy at a Government school may hope to obtain
an Exhibition which shall enable him to afford
the expense of studying in one of the Superior
Grammar Schools (viz., the High School and the
Hutchins School in Hobart Town, the Church
Grammar School at Launceston, or the Horton
College at Ross). He may then in another year
hope to be a successful competitor for one of the
more valuable Exhibitions conferred by the Council
of Education. These latter are tenable for four
years; and thus if the boy take the A.A. Degree
when he is sixteen, his Exhibition will pay the
expenses of his school studies till he may reasonably
hope to compete for a Tasmanian Scholarship with a
fair prospect of success.* Hogg and Perkins were
both Exhibitioners under the Council of Education
nearly up to the time of obtaining their Scholar-
ships. Nor is this merely a hypothetical result of
the system in force: it is the fact that, in the
Primary Schools, boys are carefully prepared for the
Exhibitions; that, in the Private Schools and
Grammar Schools, the work of the junior pupils
is arranged according to the scheme put forth by the
Council of Education for its Exhibitions; and that
not only do many boys under fourteen years of age
every year attain the standard of marks which would
entitle them to an Exhibition were there more than
two conferred, but these boys, by their example, and
the emulation they create in their respective schools,
are the means of carrying on the junior classes to a
point of attainment which the senior classes of the
various schools scarcely reached before the present
system of examination was established. Then, again,
the work of the head class of each of the principal
schools is arranged according to the scheme put forth
by the Council of Education for the A.A. Degree, -as
in Melbourne and Sydney the schools prepare their
head classes for the Matriculation Examination of
the Universities of those Colonies. But inasmuch as
the examination for the A.A. Degree requires higher
classical and mathematical attainments than the
Matriculation Examinations of those Universities,
there is reason to believe that the head classes of the
Grammar Schools of Tasmania reach a higher point
of scholarship than those of the leading schools of
the neighbouring Colonies. The work for the Scholar-
ships, requiring as it generally does two years' hard
study after the A.A. Degree, is rather of an
University than of a school character, and may be
considered as on a par with the first year course and
part of the second year course of most of the
Colleges of Cambridge.
10. The Council of Education would wish to draw
particular attention to that part of their system which
relates to the Degree of Associate of Arts. But for
the introduction of this scheme into the Scholarship
Act, it is hardly too much to say that the latter
would almost certainly have remained a dead letter.
To those who have entered for the Tasmanian
Scholarship it has served as a trial of strength before
commencing a course of study which would have
disheartened by its length and severity any who had
not gained confidence through success in the previous
A.A. Examination. It is also of immense value in

• It must however be mentioned that the Legislature have
  lately seen fit to reduce the value of the latter Exhibitions
  to £20.

itself, apart from its effects in reference to the
Scholarship, as giving a standard for the Grammar
Schools to work up to, and as sending forth into the
community every year a number of young men well
grounded in those subjects which form the basis of a
liberal education. The Legal profession in the
Colony have recognised it as an equivalent for the
literary portion of the examination which they require
of the young men admitted to practise at the Colo-
nial Bar; and the General Council of Medical
Education of the United Kingdom, and the Royal
College of Surgeons, have given to our Degree the
same privileges as to those of the English and some
other Universties, that, namely, of exempting such
as have obtained it from the necessity of passing
an examination in Latin and Mathematics before
admission to the Medical profession.
11. In order to illustrate the practical working of
the Educational System of Tasmania, the Committee
send with this Report Returns exhibiting the results
of the several Examinations which have been held
under the Council's directions since the passing of the
Act, and likewise of the Examinations conducted
under the authority of the Board of Education.

By order of the Council,

R. D. HARRIS, M.A.
ARTHUR DAVENPORT, B.A.
HENRY BUTLER.

Colonial Secretary's Office,
Wellington, 9th November, 1868.

THE following Act of the Imperial Parliament
intituled "The Colonial Shipping Act, 1868,"
is published for general information.

E. W. STAFFORD.

ANNO TRICESIMO PRIMO AND TRICESIMO SECUNDO
VICTORLE REGINÆ.

CAP. CXXIX.

An Act to amend the Law relating to the Registration
of Ships in British Possessions.

31st July, 1868.

BE it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty,
by and with the advice and consent of the Lords
Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this
present Parliament assembled, and by the authority
of the same, as follows :

Grant of terminable Certificates of Registry subject to
conditions in Colonies.

1. The Governor or Officer lawfully administering
   the Government of any British Possession may from
   time to time, with the approval of one of Her
   Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, make regu-
   lations providing that on an application for registra-
   tion under "The Merchant Shipping Act, 1854," in
   that possession of any ship not exceeding sixty tons
   burden, the Registrar may grant, in lieu of a certi-
   ficate of registry as required by that Act, a certificate
   of registry to be terminable at the end of six months
   from the granting thereof, or of any longer period;
   and all certificates of registry granted under any
   such regulations shall be in such form and shall have
   effect subject to such conditions as the regulations
   prescribe.

Ship to be deemed registered.

2. Notwithstanding anything in "The Merchant
   Shipping Act, 1854," or in any other Act, any ship to
   which a certificate is granted under any such regu-
   lations shall, while such certificate is in force, and in
   relation to all things done or omitted during that
   period, be deemed a registered British ship.