UNIVERSITY EDUCATION.

The advance of education is hardly more clearly indicated by the institution and success of Colleges and Universities than is the progress of wealth or the attainment of leisure. In Australia the earliest attempts to provide for what may be termed the luxuries of education were made in New South Wales in 1852, and in Victoria in 1855, when the Universities of Sydney and Melbourne respectively were established. No other province of Australasia was at that time sufficiently advanced in wealth and population to follow the example thus set; but New Zealand in 1870, South Australia in 1874, and Tasmania in 1890, each founded a University. The Universities are in part supported by grants from the public funds, and in part by private endowments and the fees paid by students.

The income received by the Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Tasmanian Universities in 1901 was as follow:

In addition to the above annual endowment, the Adelaide University has received a perpetual endowment of 50,000 acres of land from the Government of South Australia. The University of New Zealand has a statutory grant of £3,000 a year from Government, and an additional income of about £2,500 from degree and examination fees. Of the affiliated colleges, Auckland University College is in receipt of a statutory grant of £4,000 a year from Government. The University of Otago derives a sum of about £5,500 annually from rents of reserves.

The number of students attending lectures in 1901 is shown below. In New Zealand the students keep their terms principally at the University of Otago, the Canterbury College, the Victoria College, and the Auckland University College.

Attached to the University of Sydney there are three denominational colleges for male students, and a fourth, undenominational in character, for female students. In Melbourne there are three affiliated denominational colleges, one of which contains a hall for the accommodation of female students. In Adelaide and Hobart there are no affiliated colleges attached to the University; and in New Zealand the University itself is an examining and not a teaching body, the students keeping their terms at three undenominational colleges at Dunedin, Christchurch, and Auckland, besides several smaller institutions which have supplied a few graduates.

The Australasian Universities are empowered to grant the same degrees as the British Universities, with the exception of degrees in Divinity. In all the Universities women have now been admitted to the corporate privileges extended to male students; and at the Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide Universities this includes qualifying for degrees in medicine.

The number of degrees conferred by the five Universities, including those bestowed on graduates admitted ad eundem gradum, is as follows:

and there are about 1,600 students qualifying for degrees at the present time.

TECHNICAL EDUCATION.

Technical instruction is given in nearly all the capital cities of Australasia, as well as in many other parts of the country, and there is every probability that instruction in such matters will before long be still further extended. The State expenditure on this important branch of education in five of the Commonwealth provinces and in New Zealand will be found below; information for South Australia is not available :

In New South Wales, during the year 1878, a sum of £2,000 was granted by Parliament towards the organisation of a Technical College, and for five years the work of the institution was carried on in connection with the Sydney School of Arts. In 1883, however, a Board was appointed by the Government to take over its management, and the Technical College thenceforth became a State institution. Towards the end of 1889 the Board was dissolved, and the institution came under the direct control of the Minister of Public Instruction. The College, which, with the Technological Museum, is housed in a fine building at Ultimo, Sydney, is open to both male and female students. Branch technical schools have been established in the suburbs of Sydney and in many of the country districts, and technical instruction is also given in some of the public schools. In 1901 there were 325 technical classes in operation, of which 140 were held in Sydney and suburbs, 158 in the country districts, and 27 in connection with the public schools. The enrolment at these classes was 12,548, namely, 7,646 in Sydney and suburbs, 3,424 in the country districts, and 1,478 at the public schools. The number of individual students under instruction during the year was 9,267, and the average weekly attendance 7,721. In 1896 a Technical College was opened at Newcastle, and a new College at Bathurst in June, 1898. During the year the expenditure by the Government on technical education amounted to £33,630, exclusive of expenditure on the Technical Museum and branches. Fees to the amount of £5,742 were received from the students.

Technical education in Victoria has extended rapidly, but while the Government of New South Wales has wholly borne the cost of this branch of instruction, that of Victoria has received great assistance from private munificence, the Hon. F. Ormond, M.L.C., having given £15,500 to assist in the establishment of a Working Men's College. In 1901 there were 18 Schools of Mines and Technical Schools receiving aid from the State. The total State expenditure during the year was £26,225. Technical education has well advanced in South Australia. The School of Design in Adelaide during 1900 had 504 students on the roll, and there were branch schools at Port Adelaide and Gawler with an enrolment of 28 and 37 students respectively. The School of Mines and Industries, founded in 1889, received Government aid in 1901 to the extent of £3,250, while the receipts from fees and sale of materials to students amounted to £2,532. Manual instruction is imparted in the public schools, and special instruction in agriculture is also given at various country centres. At the Adelaide Agricultural School 101 pupils were enrolled during the year, and there was an average attendance of 56.8.

In Queensland technical education has received some attention, although there is no direct State control outside of North Brisbane. There are 15 colleges attached to Schools of Art at various centres, and these are subsidised at the rate of £ for £ of fees from students. 1901 the total payments of the State to these institutions amounted to

In

£11,419. The total receipts of the Colleges during the year reached a sum of £23,582; and the expenditure was £22,520, of which salaries of teachers absorbed £13,771. The number of individual students receiving instruction was 5,465, namely, 2,612 males and 2,853 females. Statutory provision was made for providing technical instruction in mining by the passing of the School for Mines Act of 1894," but up to the present its provisions have not been availed of.

In Tasmania the foundations of new Technical Schools were laid in 1889 in Hobart, and there is a branch school in Launceston. The schools are under the direction of local Boards of Advice, the members of which act directly under the Minister in charge of education. The average attendance of students in 1901, including those in the two Schools of Mines, was 689. The total receipts for the year came to £3,235. In Western Australia a Technical School was opened in Perth on the 16th May, 1900. The total number of students enrolled in 1901 was 113, of whom 99 were males, and 14 females. The receipts during the year were £221, chiefly from fees, and the expenditure amounted to £1,432.

In New Zealand there is a School of Mines in connection with the University of Otago, and two other Schools of Mines in mining districts; a School of Engineering and Technical Science, in connection with the Canterbury College; and an Agricultural College at Canterbury. Under the Manual and Technical Elementary Instruction Act of 1895, State aid is granted to classes established for the purpose of imparting instruction in such branches of science and art as are encouraged by the Science and Art Department, South Kensington, and the City and Guilds of London Institute. Workshops have been established in connection with some of the public schools, and part of the school day may be given to elementary manual instruction. For the financial year ended March, 1901, the expenditure on technical instruction was £7,132, of which £2,806 represented capitation allowances, £3,596. was absorbed in special grants, and £730 represented a £ for £ subsidy on local contributions. At the three mining schools, the number of students is about 230. There are 41 students at the Canterbury Agricultural College, and 89 at the School of Engineering and Technical Science in connection with the Canterbury College.

GENERAL EDUCATION.

Striking evidence of the rapid progress made by these States in regard to education is afforded by a comparison of the educational status of the people as disclosed by the five census enumerations of 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, and 1901. In those years the numbers who could read and write, read only, and who were unable to read were as follow,

Degree of Education.

children under five being considered unable to read, no matter how returned at the census:

Degree of Education.

Degree of Education.

The figures in the preceding table refer to the total population, and the number of illiterates is therefore swollen by the inclusion of children under school-going age. If the population over 5 years of age be considered in comparison with the total population, the results for the whole of Australasia will be as follow:·

1881.