Bickerton. — On University find General Education. 159 



only on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The fees payable should be 10s per 

 term for one hour per week and so on. A special fee might be charged to 

 students entering for a complete course, say £8 to £10 per term. There 

 should be evening classes in the various subjects taught by the lecturers and 

 professors. These classes should not be so complete as the day classes. The 

 broader principles and more important generalizations should be well worked, 

 with the view to give the students a comprehensive grasp of the entire 

 subject, while the smaller details might be left for private study. Each 

 professor should give one hour per week each tenn ; the lecturers one hour 

 per week for one or two terms. The fee might be about 2s 6d. At the 

 discretion of the Board of Governors this regular course might be replaced by 

 a course of popular lectures, to which course no greater sum than 2s Gd each 

 person may be charged. The regular course of instruction in the colleges 

 should include a complete course of all the sciences — Mathematics, drawing, 

 modern languages, classics, mental philosophy, history. Special courses should 

 also be established for the professions of law, medicine, and engineering. 



The University. 

 This would consist of an examining body, with a power of conferring 



degrees and granting scholarships, fellowships, etc. That a degree given by a 



university may be valued, the examinations upon which it depends must be of 



a high class. The worth of what is to be obtained, and not the mere facility 



of obtaining it, is the incentive to work with most competitors. The success 



of the London University offers a good example of this fact. In looking over 



the New Zealand University Calendar any one having the smallest knowledge 



of science cannot fail to be struck by the absurd simplicity of the science 



examination papers. The classical subjects would require years of careful 



training to pass successfully, whereas I am convinced that as much science as 



would pass the examination in any of these subjects might be taught in a few 



days. This should not be so ; a fair knowledge of chemistry requires quite as 



much study as a fair knowledge of Greek, and yet the questions in chemistry 

 require about as much knowledge of the subject as would be required of Greek 



to master the alphabet. No doubt the study of science at the present time 

 requires to be fostered; but this should be done by providing good teachers and 

 proper appliances for teaching, and by giving scholarships and fellowships of 

 value to successful students, rather than by making the examinations so 

 ridiculously simple that the knowledge required to pass can scarcely be of any 

 value to the holder. Let science once be well known and properly taught it 

 will require no further bolstering up ; its own intrinsic merits will be a suffi- 

 cient inducement for its study. The examiners should be men practically 

 acquainted with the subject ; no one should examine in more than two 

 subjects, and there should be some especial reason for his taking more than 



