That very profound saying about the victory of the German schoolmaster
has not been without effect even in this distant land. During the last
decade education has been the question _du jour_ here; not that we have
studied it physiologically and psychologically and culture-logically, as
you have been doing in England. Theologies are a little beyond our ken,
and we leave it to the old country to discover, by a harmonious
combination of deductive and inductive teachings, what education really
is. Our educational crisis has been merely legislative and
administrative; but it is no small transformation for us to have emerged
from the chrysalis state of clerical and private-venture instruction into
the full butterflydom of a free, compulsory and secular national system.
And that not before it was time. Whatever may be the demerits of
uniformity, State-interference, secularity, etc., etc., it does not leave
room for the same incompetence in teaching and ignorance on the part of
the learner, as frequently occurred in the old happy-go-lucky fashion of
schooling. Australian children have all now the chance of learning the
three R's according to the latest and most approved fashion, and if their
parents choose they can also get a smattering of history, geography, and
one or two other things into the bargain.
The history of our educational evolution is perhaps worth summarizing. In
the early days of colonization the Church of England spun an educational
cobweb, which it has been very difficult to sweep away, and which still
remains in a fragmentary state as an evidence of past good service. When
the education of the first settlers was in danger of being altogether
neglected, the Church put forth the greatest energy to meet their wants,
raising funds both here and at home to provide schools and teachers. The
Catholics, and later on other denominations, followed her example; and
thus, at a time when the State was fully occupied with attending to more
primary wants, an education was provided which, considering the
circumstances and viewed according to the lights of those days, was
highly creditable. The State subsidized these schools, as well as others
which were established by private venture in townships where no
denomination was sufficiently powerful to establish a school at its own
cost. Boards were appointed to control the subsidies and roughly estimate
the teaching of each school, and in New South Wales these boards had also
power to establish national as opposed to denominational schools wherever
opportunity offered. You can easily imagine how inefficient and
extravagant this subsidizing arrangement proved. In small townships where
a single State school could have given a good education to all the
children in the district, there arose two or three denominational
schools, all drawing money from the public purse, and yet each too poor
and too small to teach well. At last in 1873 Victoria led the way in
discarding the denominational schools, and starting at enormous expense
an official system of free, compulsory, and secular primary instruction
throughout the colony.
In 1876 South Australia followed suit, though in that colony the
schooling is only free to those who cannot afford to pay a fee of
fourpence per week for children under seven, and sixpence for older
children. Finally in 1880 New South Wales also threw off the yoke, which
she had only borne longer than her neighbours because her old system was
far superior to theirs. Here, too, a weekly fee of threepence per child
is demanded, but no family may pay more than a shilling per week, however
large in number, and in cases of inability the fees are remitted.
All three Education Acts agree in their main bearings, though differing
considerably on points of detail. The system of district and local boards
of advice is largely made use of in all of them, but the compulsory
clauses have never been properly enforced, principally on account of the
great difficulty of doing so in thinly populated districts. The word
'secular' admits of different variations in each province. In Victoria
moral truths form the limit. In New South Wales an hour a day is set
apart for religious instruction from the mouth of a clergyman or other
religious teacher, if the parents do not object. In South Australia Bible
reading is permissible, but comment on the text forbidden. It is yet too
early to pass a definite judgment on the new systems, but it is already
evident that the teaching in the State schools is much better than in
those denominational schools which survive. Vigorous efforts are still
being made by the Roman Catholic Church, with some aid from the
Anglicans, if not to upset the new schools, which has become impossible,
at least to regain a subsidy for their own, but, I fancy, with less and
less chance of success every year, in spite of the fact that in Victoria
the agitation is at present especially strong. The fact is, that while a
large number of people agree that purely secular education is to be
deplored, no feasible scheme can be propounded for introducing religious
instruction into the State schools which will satisfy the demands of the
Catholics. The Protestant denominations might without difficulty agree
upon a common platform, and it is on the cards that they may, in spite of
the Catholic opposition, succeed in introducing a modicum of religious
instruction into the State schools. The Catholics maintain that false
religious teaching is worse than no religious teaching, and will be
satisfied with nothing less than a subsidy to their own schools.
In spite of the yearly immigration of a number of children too old to
learn to read and write in Australia, statistics show that in 1878, out
of 100 boys and girls between the ages of 15 and 21, no less than 93
could read and write--a result which must be considered creditable to the
old 'arrangements.' But what the statistics cannot show is the meaning of
that phrase 'read and write.' It is in quality far more than in quantity
that the teaching of the State schools is superior. To my thinking, one
of the best superficial proofs of their success is the number of
middle-class children who are sent to them even in the towns. Previously
these children had often grown to be nine or ten years old without
schooling or teaching of any kind, and even now much of the time of the
secondary schools is wasted in teaching simple primary subjects, which
ought to have been at the boy's fingers-ends before he came to them.
With the exception of an experimental higher school for girls, recently
established at Adelaide, the State in Victoria and South Australia takes
no part in providing secondary education. In New South Wales it has begun
to do so, but as yet only on a very limited scale. To meet the wants of
the colonists in this respect, two classes of schools have been
established: denominational and private venture. The first class have
often got good foundations, and taken as a whole they may be compared to
the middle-class schools, which have recently been established in several
parts of England, the two or three best rising decidedly above the level
of the best of these, but not being able to reach that of English public
schools even of the second class. Nor in spite of the vigorous efforts
that are being made in some quarters will a public school tone ever be
possible in Australia, so long as the majority of the boys attending are
day-boarders. In all day-schools the authority of the head-master is
necessarily impaired by that of the father, and the discipline of the
school by that of the home; but here this is more than usually the case.
The parents even go so far as to trench upon the schoolmaster's domain,
reserving to themselves the right of deliberately breaking the school
rules, whenever it is convenient to them to do so. 'Some parents,' writes
the head-master of what is probably the nearest approach to a public
school in Australia, 'keep their boys from school for insufficient
reasons, and without leave previously obtained, to carry a parcel, or to
drive a horse, to have hair cut, or to cash a cheque, or simply for a
holiday.' Being an old English public-school boy and master, and fresh to
colonial ways, he writes thus in his report for 1875; but in the report
for 1880 he has to acknowledge that he cannot maintain the rule he had
introduced, that no boy should be absent from school except on account of
ill-health or stress of weather or after obtaining the leave of the
head-master,'because I have not received adequate support.' 'The school
cannot, single-handed,' he continues, 'press the point, if parents do not
like it. The strain upon me, individually, is too great, if I have to
remonstrate with a parent, or to punish a boy, on an average about twice
a week.' The boys cannot be got to come back to the school on a certain
day, or prevented from leaving before the term is over, many parents
being of opinion that little is done the first week, and that therefore
they may as well keep their sons at home.
How hard this is for the schoolmaster who has his heart in his work, it
is easy to see; and I was quoting an instance where a man of great
resolution and perseverance had made an attempt under circumstances
perhaps more favourable than could be obtained in any other school in
Australia; for the school was certainly the best in the colonies from a
social standpoint, and very nearly so intellectually at the time he took
it. He himself, too, was summoned from England with the avowed purpose of
introducing the public-school system. In no other Australian school would
a five-years struggle of this kind be possible. Nor would this be a
solitary instance, for though naturally one cannot gather it from
published reports, the whole existence of a schoolmaster in Australia,
who wishes to do his duty, and understands what that duty is, must be, on
many important points of discipline and sometimes even of teaching, one
continual struggle with the parents. In too many schools the parent not
only uphold their boys in direct disobedience to their masters, but even
encourage them in it out of personal dislike to them. In a small
community, the master who dares kick against the parental goads soon
finds the town too hot to hold him. He has but one choice, either to sail
with the parental wind, or to lower his canvas altogether; and though a
man of tact may make some progress by trawling and tacking, at the best
he must feel disappointed at heart and his interest in his work half
gone.
Turning to the schools themselves. The divergence is so considerable,
that any remarks I make can have but a very general application. At the
best, the social tone is better than at your middle-class schools; at the
worst--I am still only speaking of grammar schools and denominational
colleges, the highest class of secondary schools--it is no worse; while
the moral tone never falls to so low a level, and in some cases almost
rises to that of second-rate public schools at home. The Church of
England grammar schools are naturally the best in social tone, the boys
being drawn from a better class of parents; and I am by no means sure
that the morals and manners of boys do not, to a certain extent, go
together. In the special sense of the word 'morality,' the best colonial
schools can, I think, challenge comparison with your, public ones; but
the regard for truth needs strengthening. On the other hand, theft is
almost unknown. The same master from whose reports I quoted above, tells
me that he finds colonial boys quite as tractable and amenable to
discipline as English, when the authority over them is paramount; but in
most schools this is far from being the case, the fault often, no doubt,
lying with the master's want of tact. I still have a lively remembrance
of the difficulty I had in keeping discipline on an occasion when I
helped to examine a well-known college; but then, even at the best
English public schools, the upper forms have a disposition to 'try it on'
when a new hand is set over them, as my own reminiscences tell me.
In the Victorian Schools, and in secondary, as in higher education,
Victoria offers infinitely superior advantages to those of the other
colonies combined. A feeling of _esprit de corps_ exists; not so
strong, perhaps, as in English public schools, but very strong
considering the number of day-boys. In the other colonies it does not
take root at all firmly, or else degenerates into party spirit--a
tendency which it also shows in Victoria, where it is moulded into better
form by the masters. In most schools the prefect system has been
established, of course with large modifications. It has difficulties to
struggle against in the democratic spirit of the country, and in the
early age at which the majority of boys leave school; but in its working
shape it seems to do good. This is especially the case at one or two
Victorian colleges, where the masters have established a mutual feeling
of trust between themselves and the boys; but at too many the natural
opposition remains. The masters get too easily disgusted at what they
consider the rough manners and ways of the boys, and are contented to
leave them to their own devices, so long as they get through their work
and obey the rules. Consequently the boys become rougher and less
amenable. Another difficulty in the path of good discipline and tone
throughout the schools is the too advanced age at which boys come there.
One of the greatest difficulties a head-master has to contend with is,
that there are practically no preparatory schools, even in Victoria, to
feed the large ones; and often, through a sudden rise of his parents'
circumstances, or from some other reason, a boy is sent to school for the
first time, at fifteen or sixteen, knowing nothing beyond the three R's.
Others are taken away in the midst of school-work, either to go to Europe
with their parents, or because times are bad, and then brought back after
a couple of years with formed habits of idleness and independence which
it is difficult to subdue. Looking at the last report of the Melbourne
Grammar School, I find the average age of the upper sixth to be 17 1/2 of
the first form 13 1/3; but I fancy that at the majority of schools the
averages would be quite a year younger in both forms.
At schools, as at home, more liberty has to be conceded to Australian
than to English boys, and the circumstances of their life make them more
fitted for it. But masters complain that parents of day-boarders do not
take enough trouble to see that their boys work, and leave them too much
choice of studies. This latter defect results from the strong feeling in
favour of individuality amongst colonists, which leads them to favour the
idea of each boy from the first striking out a line for himself, without
considering how far he is a competent authority as to his own
capabilities. Where parents do not interfere, obedience to rules is
generally well enforced and that, although punishments are much lighter
than in England, and the cane is only brought into use for extreme
offences. The staff of masters is usually fairly strong as regards
ability and attainments, but, as is too often the case in England, the
majority of them are neither trained teachers, nor even with an aptitude
for teaching; they have simply taken to this particular profession
because they could get more immediate return from it than from any other.
The head-masters, or rather those of recent appointment, are, as a rule,
well chosen. Their salaries run from £800 to £1,200 a year; and you can
get either a first-class man, whose health prevents him from remaining in
England, or a good second-rater for that sum. In some schools the council
or permanent board of governors work excellently with the headmasters;
but too often the Australian dislike to absolute authority in whatever
shape or form is so great as to induce the council to become meddlesome;
and unduly interfere with the master.
So much for the constitution of the school. The work though also modelled
after the English system, diverges from it considerably to suit local
requirements. English public-school training is directed to lead up to
University teaching; thereby losing in amplitude and finish, but gaining
in density and stability of groundwork. But here, although the majority
of boys matriculate, they do not go to the University; and, to suit them,
the University has itself been forced to widen its basis. It has become,
to a large extent, an examining body for a kind of _Abenturienten_
certificate, and of necessity the matriculation examination which serves
this purpose has had to extend over a wider area. These two
circumstances, reacting the one upon the other, have kept the
school-teaching wide, whereby, of course, it loses something in depth.
Thus the master of a leading school complains of the little time that is
given to classics--only less than a quarter of the total school-hours to
Latin, and no more to Greek, which is, moreover, an optional subject.
But before you begin to blame our system--which, I may prophesy, will
soon have to be adopted in England--you must remember the central fact
that nine Australian boys out of ten finish their education when they
leave school, i.e. at sixteen or seventeen. Four of the nine go into
business, three into the bush, and the other two directly into
professions. Obviously the interests of the nine are of far more
importance than those of the one, and it is for their benefit that the
system of education must be arranged. As the country advances in
civilization, we may reduce the proportion of those who have to face the
world directly they leave school to 80 or even to 75 per cent.; but even
then it is only possible to consider the interests of the minority to a
certain extent. I will grant that that extent should be greater than the
numerical proportion, because the aim of a school must keep a certain
elevation if it intends to keep above the average of schools; but it is
impossible to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, and the _main_
bearings of the school must reflect the purpose for which the majority of
boys come there, if it is to be of any service, or to achieve any
legitimate success.
For my own part, I am not altogether inclined to regret the little
attention that is paid to Latin and Greek. Mr. Matthew Arnold's complaint
of half-culture has always seemed to me to savour of the pedagogue, and
his school of the prig--though I use these words in the better shade of
their meaning. It would, I believe, be a gain if the splitting of the
educational system into denominational schools had not taken place. A
school with 200 boys--the usual size of our largest--cannot give the
twofold training, classical and modern, side by side, as most of your
public schools are doing now; but I am not sure that what the classical
side gains by such a division, is not lost by the modern side as compared
with the homogeneous system.
School-work nowadays cannot be mere training and foundation-laying. It
would be absurd to expect it to cover every department of the higher
education, but there is a happy mean discoverable between the two. A
compromise can be established by which, while a preference is given to
such studies as science and mathematics, which may be held to represent
the inductive and deductive training, boys may yet carry away from school
a reasonable amount of practical knowledge, which, if they do not allow
it to get altogether rusty, can be of use to them in its direct
application to their after-life, as well as in its indirect influence. To
meet some such views as these, the heads of our best schools are allowing
considerable latitude of subjects in their upper classes; but in most
cases it would probably be better for the man if the boy's future career,
being once settled, and his own and his parents' tastes consulted, the
decision as to what optional subjects he should pursue were left with the
head-master, the parent, of course, retaining a right of veto.
But I am lapsing into an educational dissertation, and must hasten back
to colonial school-work. Leaving out of consideration exceptionally
clever boys, the average of learning at our better grammar schools is
higher than in middle-class ones, which form the fairest standard of
comparison obtainable, but lower than at public schools. The four or five
top boys in the upper sixth would invariably be in the sixth at Harrow or
Rugby: at times eight or ten would. The rest of the upper sixth would
probably be well up in the upper fifth, or in what at Rugby is called the
'Twenty,' while the lower sixth would compare with the lower half of the
upper fifth, and higher half of the middle fifth. Here I am taking as our
standard our three or four best schools, all of which, except the Sydney
Grammar School, are Victorian. The two South Australian colleges and
other leading New South Wales establishments fall far below this
standard.
I think I alluded before to the want of preparation for secondary
education, and the interruption of the age-equality of the schools by the
advent of boys of fifteen and sixteen, who have to be put in the first or
second form Between them, these two causes lower the age-standard so much
that one must, on the average, estimate that a colonial boy is two years
behind an English one in point of education. This is most visible at the
beginning of school-life, where, as you will have noted, the first form
averages over thirteen years old, but is partially made up by the
superior rate of progress if the boy remains long enough. At seventeen he
should not be more than a year behind his English contemporary.
The setting up of the matriculation examination as a standard up to which
the average boy strives to make his way, has undoubtedly had a beneficial
effect. Being a reachable proximate ideal, it works strongly upon every
boy's _amour propre_, egging on the average and lazy to work, and by a
system of honours holding out hopes of distinction to the able. The
practice of giving text-books for it encourages cram, and its width
allows of shallowness; but, to counteract this, distinction in any
particular subject is very highly marked.
That there should be a disposition here to look coldly upon the
old-fashioned classical education is not wonderful. You are beginning to
have your doubts about its superiority even in England. Here the majority
of parents would just as soon bury the past, and everyone who becomes a
_bonâ fide_ Australian must feel that the history of his country is yet
only in embryo. Besides this, the tendency of a new country is towards
practical knowledge--small profits, and quick returns; and in classics
the outlay of time is considerable, the returns slow, and the profit not
always very perceptible. Science receives daily increasing attention, as
at home. Geography is better realized by colonial children, and, I should
fancy, better taught. In fact, all English subjects, as they are called,
get their fair share. Mathematics, even in those lower branches which
come within the scope of a school, are not a favourite subject, although
about the same number of school-hours are devoted to them as at home.
The school-hours generally begin about nine a.m.; but school lasts till
twelve. Second school begins at two, and lasts till four, when the
day-boys go home. Half-holidays, ordinary or extraordinary, are rare; but
Saturday is always a whole holiday. The main bulk of holidays are at
Christmas, when some seven weeks are usually given. The midwinter
vacation rarely lasts a month, and short breaks are allowed at Easter and
Michaelmas, after the fashion of all schools comprising any large number
of day-boys. As in England, the Easter term is the laziest; but here it
is so for a good and sufficient reason--the heat during that period being
often intolerable.
Nearly every Australian school has a stable attached, in which boys who
ride to school put up their horses during school-hours. It is most
amusing to watch half a dozen 'fellows' galloping their ponies up the
avenue, not to be late for first school, just as we used to scurry across
quad to chapel of a morning! The ordinary sleeping and living
arrangements for boarders are much the same as at home. At the Sydney
State Grammar School, which is in reality purely and simply a day-school,
several of the masters take boarders, in imitation of public-school
boarding-houses. At the Melbourne Grammar School the second-master has a
house, the property of the school; but, so far, there are not more
boarders than will fill the school-house.
The bill of fare of public schools has, I believe--thanks to scarlet
fever and doctors--improved considerably since my day; but I do not
suppose it has yet reached the luxury of unlimited meat and jam three
times a day, with frequent bountiful supplies of fresh fruit. It is as
necessary to the credit of an Australian school to keep a liberal table,
as it is for an Atlantic steamship company. Where several schools are
pretty well on an equality, the table often turns the scale.
In Victoria, especially, the boys are inordinately fond of games and
outdoor sports of every kind; but too many of the day-boys prefer playing
cricket and football with local clubs to joining in the school games, and
this makes _esprit de corps_ only possible between school and school.
There are no divisions sufficiently strongly marked in the school to
become parties. Sixth and school are perhaps the nearest approaches; but
the day is far distant when intellectual differences will be appreciated
by grown-up colonists, much more by schoolboys; and it is only in a few
schools where a 'sixth' and 'school' match is possible. Untidiness in
dress, and indeed in all of their belongings, is another of the colonial
schoolboys' weaknesses. At the Melbourne Grammar School the boys have
studies which they in a certain way appreciate; but they are quite
content with the bare floor and walls, and would despise the little
attempts at comfort and prettiness which an English boy makes. The
latter's pride in his study would be quite incomprehensible to the
colonial, who not unnaturally imbibes his ideas from the rough-and-ready
mode of living in his home. As for uniformity in dress, he would be a
bold master who would even attempt to carry it out.
What I have written of the grammar-schools and denominational colleges of
course applies more or less to all secondary schools. There is at this
moment near Melbourne a private-venture college, which, owing to the
great ability and reputation of its head, ranks with the best Victorian
grammar schools. I should doubt whether the tone that is possible in a
non-proprietary school can easily be brought about in a private one, but
in teaching power it is certainly not inferior. With this one exception,
the private-venture colleges established in each suburb of the different
capitals are little better than the commercial academies of England.
There is the same bad tone, want of sufficient numbers of boys of equal
standing in the school-work, and other disadvantages, which make the very
name of a private school malodorous. The boys are rough and unmannerly,
the discipline slack, the teaching staff inferior in ability and social
position. The public schools of Australia may not be all that could be
wished, but [Greek characters] that a boy of mine should ever go to a
colonial private school, unless it were a preparatory school--a class of
institution greatly needed and not yet provided, because parents do not
appreciate the need.
The existence of three universities in a country with less than two
million inhabitants speaks well for the colonists' appreciation of the
higher instruction, which they themselves have rarely had the opportunity
of enjoying. The Sydney University, founded in 1851, was the first in the
field, but in spite of fine buildings, affiliated colleges, able
professors, and a very fair supply of funds, it has never succeeded in
attracting any considerable number of students, and can hardly be said to
have won even a _succès d'estime_. No little of its failure is
attributable to the success which has attended its Melbourne rival,
founded in 1855, at the height of the gold-fever, and which may be said
to have been floated on gold directly, and kept in deep water by it
indirectly. Before Sydney could recover the effects of the emigration of
those years, Melbourne was well under way, and the size and central
situation of the latter city contributed no little to the success of its
young university, which, under unusually politic as well as able
management, increased annually in size and usefulness, until now no less
than 1,500 students have graduated in its halls, and the number of
undergraduates attending its lectures exceeds 280. It confers degrees in
arts, laws, science, medicine, surgery, and engineering--the standard for
which is above that of Oxford and Cambridge, and in medicine is higher
than that of London itself. All the professors are men of first-rate
ability. Amongst them are an F.R.S. (M. McCoy, Professor of
Palaeontology), and Dr. Hearn, the well-known authority on jurisprudence
and constitutional law. By acting as an examining body for the secondary
schools, the university has not only widened its sphere of usefulness and
materially raised the general educational standard of the colony, but has
gained influence in circles, into which not even its name would probably
otherwise have entered. Already a certain healthy tone and _esprit de
corps_ obtains amongst the students, and _ceteris paribus_ a Melbourne
graduate is professionally to be preferred to an Oxonian or Cantab., at
any rate for colonial work. Thanks in no small degree to its educating
and civilizing influence on the community, an anti-materialistic voice is
beginning to make itself heard in Victoria, and if it does not occupy
itself too much with politics, it promises to become an intellectual
centre. It would not be difficult to find faults in either its
constitution or its teaching, but it has the great merit of taking the
trouble to understand and keep abreast of the times. All things
considered, the Melbourne University may claim to have deserved the
success it has commanded, and to be one of the greatest achievements of
Victoria.
The present prosperity and bright prospects of New South Wales, together
with the educational influence of the late exhibition, and an opportune
bequest of £180,000 by a wealthy colonist, have lately stirred up the
authorities of the Sydney University to make a grand effort to justify
its existence. A medical school--_the_ most successful side of the
Melbourne 'varsity is to be established, and other improvements
introduced. But although the principal, Dr. Badham, is a better classic
than any that the Melbourne University possesses, there is an indolence
and _laissez-faire_ about the Sydney University which must long keep it
in the background. Not until there is a thorough reformation in the whole
style, tone, and management of the university will there be any real
progress, and the centripetal influence of successful Melbourne is so
strong, that I do not believe Sydney will ever be able to catch up lost
ground, or even to considerably decrease the interval between itself and
its rival, advance though it may, and undoubtedly will, when the present
governing body has died out, and the public insists upon an entirely new
regime. As for the Adelaide University, it is bound either to federate
with Melbourne on the best terms it can obtain, or to drag on in
extravagant grandeur. In five years of existence it has conferred five
degrees at a cost of £50,000, and the professors threaten to outnumber
the students. The vaulting ambition of the little colony has somewhat
o'erleaped itself; but by a federation with Melbourne there would
undoubtedly be practical benefit gained, and little but sham glory lost.
If Sydney would also forego its jealousy, and acknowledge the success of
its rival by federating on a basis which should allow the Melbourne
University the position of _prima inter pares_, all colonies would
profit; but even if Sydney would federate--which I do not think in the
least probable--it could hardly expect its successful _confrère_ to
meet it on terms of perfect equality, especially as, comparatively
speaking, Melbourne has little to gain by federation.
As regards the cost of secondary and higher education, it must be
considered exceedingly small, remembering that the value of money is less
here than at home; and that the salaries paid to masters are from £50 to
£200 a year higher than the same men would obtain in England. The highest
terms for boarders at any secondary school are £80 per annum, and from
£50 to £60 is the usual charge. Day-boys pay from £12 to £24, according
to the school. The University fees are very light, amounting to not more
than £20 to £30 a year, including all charges.
As the Universities are purely teaching and examining bodies, with but
little control outside their walls, the religious denominations are
beginning to supply the want of a college system such as obtains at
Oxford and Cambridge, by founding affiliated colleges in which the regime
approximates as closely to that of the English Universities as the
circumstances of the case allow. At Melbourne there are two of these
colleges--Trinity College, belonging to the Church of England, and Ormond
College, erected at the cost of some £70,000, and richly endowed by a
wealthy colonist, Mr. Ormond, belonging to the Presbyterians. At Sydney,
the Roman Catholics, the Church of England, and the Presbyterians, have
all three erected affiliated colleges, but they are smaller and less
successful than those at Melbourne, and in a large measure serve merely
as theological colleges for training young men for the ministry. The
Church of England in Adelaide has also founded St. Barnabas College,
where, however, the relative importance of the two duties is
reversed--the college being more especially a theological college. The
Sydney colleges have not at all fulfilled the expectations which had been
formed about them, largely owing to the want of success of the
university; but the Melbourne colleges, and especially Trinity College,
which is the least richly endowed, and has the smallest buildings, are
doing excellent work. The atmosphere which the students breathe in them
is conducive to greater steadiness of work and exertion to achieve
university honours than is generally found in the unattached student;
besides, they offer some social advantages, and are also morally tonic.
In founding Trinity College, which was the first of these institutions in
Victoria, four years ago, the Bishop of Melbourne may be said to have
conferred an educational boon upon the colony only second to that which
it owes to Sir Redmond Barry. Every year it is increasing in usefulness,
and I can well understand that many parents who before preferred the
expense of sending their sons to Oxford or Cambridge, will now see their
way to allowing them to complete their education at the Melbourne
University.
The provision for the secondary education of girls in Australia is
miserably poor. The only school that really combines the social and
intellectual qualifications requisite is to be found at Perth, in Western
Australia. At that school the teaching is admirable and the social tone
excellent. The only other school where girls are well taught is the High
School at Adelaide, but being a day-school and a State-school, it cannot
be expected to pay much attention to the social side of education. The
private schools for girls attain but a poor standard in instruction, and
a worse one still, when socially considered. There is one in Melbourne
considerably superior to the rest; but if I had daughters of my own, I
should certainly not send them to any as boarders, and would think twice
before I sent them as 'day-girls', if the expression be allowable. But it
is only fair to these schools to say that my standard of what a girls'
school should be is very high. It is, however, satisfied by the Bishop's
Ladies College at Perth.