Hill. — On University Extension. 403 



majority of the boys and girls in this district closes after pass- 

 ing the Fourth or Fifth Standard in the primary school, and 

 there is no further opportunity offered to such pupils to pursue 

 their studies further. A like remark applies with equal force 

 to the pupils who quit the high schools. Advancement beyond 

 an ordinary high-school course is now impossible, except in a 

 few rare instances where parents are blessed with sufficient 

 funds for the maintenance of their children at one of the 

 university centres. Under our present imperfectly developed 

 methods the people in districts like Wauganui, Nelson, Inver- 

 cargill, and Hawke's Bay are heavily handicapped in all the 

 higher walks of life by the absence of educational facilities 

 such as are offered to the people in the more highly favoured 

 centres of learning. 



Now the question arises whether it is not possible to 

 organize some scheme whereby arrangements can be made 

 for the establishment of special centres, either on the lines 

 of the university extension movement or on the plan of the 

 Science and Art Department in England. Thus Napier, 

 Wauganui, Nelson, and Invercargill, to be followed by others 

 as the need arises, might each be made a centre of higher 

 educational work as a preliminary to the University course. 

 But the motive force and organizing capacity are wanting. 

 The only State machinery in operation is that established 

 for the furtherance of elementary education, and the ques- 

 tion arises how "university extension" can be carried out. 

 As explained already, the University is simply an examining 

 body, and, although the University Senate might countenance 

 the establishment of classes under capable tutors, it is doubt- 

 ful whether they possess the power to carry on examinations 

 and issue certificates which are of a lower grade than the 

 arts degree. This, however, could be put to the test. But 

 a difficulty at once appears. Men of capacity and power as 

 lecturers and specialists are wanted to initiate any scheme 

 such as is here suggested. Outside the college centres higher 

 educational thought and activity are dead, and the only hope 

 for the future is to be found in the opening of " university 

 extension centres " by the college professors, aided by men of 

 equal academic standing. 



Nothing illustrates the prevailing deadness better than the 

 futile attempts that have been made in Napier itself to create 

 mental activity of a higher kind. Parliamentary unions, 

 debating clubs, amateur and literary clubs have all been tried 

 with a view to arouse the mental energies of the better class 

 of young men, but failure has invariably followed each 

 attempt. And yet clubs for the promotion of athletics, such 

 as cricket, football, and cycling, flourish here and everywhere 

 throughout the colony. There is perhaps no other country 



