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168 requested to submit to the House during the next session some scheme by which this result could be attained."

The subject continued to receive consideration from time to time, but nothing definite was done until June, 1869, when, on the motion of Mr J. L. Gillies, it was resolved by the Provincial Council—"That the Government be requested to appoint an honorary commission to determine the best site and scheme for a High School, and to consider whether it is expedient that provision should be made in the same building for the teaching of girls as well as boys." The commission consisted of the following members:—The Rev. Dr. Stuart (chairman), Mr Justice Ward, the Hon. P. D. Bell, and the following members of the Provincial Council:—Messrs Reynolds, Turnbull, McIndoe, McLean, Reid, Haggitt, Duncan, Gillies, and Mouat.

In addition to other documents, the commission had before it a letter and papers received from a committee of ladies in Otago, who greatly interested themselves in the proposed establishment of a Girls' High School. The late Mrs. E. B. Cargill was President of the committee, and Miss Dalrymple was its most indefatigable Secretary. The commission expressed its deep obligation to the ladies' committee and to Miss Dalrymple, and embodied in its report a number of the recommendations made by them. The commission recommended that the rector's residence and boarding establishment should be removed to another locality, and that the rooms to be vacated, together with such additional accommodation as might be found necessary, should be occupied as a Girls' High School, a residence for the Lady Principal, and a boarding-house for girls from a distance; and that the other portions of the building should be enlarged and adapted to the purposes of a Boys' High School.

At the end of 1870 the several additions and improvements recommended by the Commission were completed, and the Education Board was placed in a position to open the Girls' School, and to organise it in accordance with the Commission's recommendations. Mrs. M. Gordon Burn, formerly Lady Superintendent of Geelong Girls' College, was appointed Lady Principal, and the following teachers were also engaged:—Miss Macdougall (now Mrs. Neish), first assistant; Mrs. Rhind,