The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24, 1904. OUR COLLEGE PROGRAMME.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 202, 24 August 1904, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24, 1904. OUR COLLEGE PROGRAMME.

F&r the cause that lacks assistance, for the wrong that needs resistance. For the future in the distance, Aud the good that we otm da.

Yesterday the University Oolleg 'ouneil received the report of the sub •ommittee. which was appointed to cop ider various schemes for tl.e, extension if the College work, and the means b\ .vhich they could be carried into effect. litherto the Professorial Board, tin College Council, nnd the Graduates' As wciarion have been working indepen lently foT these objects; but at a con-e-renee held last week it was decided that these three bodies should act in MHicert, and the sub-committee —Hon. •T. A. Tole, Mr Coleman, and Dr. Barnford—accordingly drafted a 'scheme ivhieh is evidently intended to include nil the suggestions for the development and improvement of our College that have hitherto been brought under pub lie notice. The report of the subcommittee was finally adopted by the University Council, and Hie acting , chairman was instructed to take all necessary <vteps to give effect to the Council's policy. The first feature of the report that will strike the reader is its extraordinarily comprehensive character. For the new School of Mines a gra-nt of £7000 is required, and an annual subsidy of £1500. For new College buildings a prant of at least £20,000 is needed. For the extension of the College curriculum by the appointment of professors or lecturers in mental, political- and educationa.l science, the present statutory grant must be increased by £ 1500 a year. Moreover, the conHnitl.se urges upon the attention of

the Government the re-quest lately made by the University Senate for a graait to the four University Colleges for residential accommodation. The amount of the grant required has been estimated at from £ 6000 to £ 10,000. Accepting the lower figure, Auckland's share of the grant wouH be £1500. We arrive, therefore, at the conclusion that out University College Council proposes to ask Government for at least £28.000 in building grants for School of Mines, College buildings and residences, and for an annual subsidy of £7000 instead of £4000, the amount of the annual statutory gra-nt now re- ,- cedved. We leave it to the judgment of our readers to decide what chance Auckland College has at the present time of see-| ing its la.uda.ble ambitions gratified in] this way. We hove no sort of corn-pla-int tr> make about the details of the scheme adopted by the Council, We have always strenuously adweated the esta-blishment of a School of Mines here, and it is obvious that (he grants proposed by the Council for this purpose are. by no means exorbitant. New College buildings would also be a very good thiug if we could get them. Our College course is certainly very onesided and incomplete without lectureships in political and mental science; "and we have always held that our University students are missing the best side of academical life through the lack «f residential colleges. But heartily as we sympathise with the aspirations of the University Council and the Graduates' Association, we fear that they can have no reasonable prospect of seeing their hopes fulfilled in all these directions at once; find we are inclined to think that in putting forward such: a programme they have run considerable danger of failing "to secure any Single item in it. It is not probable that Government would at present wa-

template the expenditure of such sums on any one of our College centres; and if the Premier requires a plausible excuse for rejecting our requests, he will probably find maay people to support him in the opinion that the demands of Auckland University College are so excessive that It is hopeless to make any attempt to meet them at all.

We do not need to repeat that Auckland College is, compared with the Otago University and Canterbury College, very poor, and that it has never been treated so generously as Victoria College. But as to the £30,000 grant for Wellington, the fact that all this money has been given for College buildings there is not likely to constitute a precedent in our favour in Mr Seddon's eye?; rather it may be taken as an excuse for refusing any similar grant to Auckland, on the ground of lack of funds. As to Otago and Canterbury, we do not think that our University College Council takes ;juite a reasonable view of their re venues. It is quite true that these College? derive incomes of £6000 to £9000 a year from their reserves; while Auck-1 'u;id College endowments are worth only £300 per annum. But is it possible for Government under existing ci renin stances to make up the balance between iur income and theirs so as to put a!i he University Colleges on approximate V the. same footing? After all, we nnst remember that only a certain united share of tlie public funds can b. ievoted to education, and the colony already spends an enormous proportion /f its revenue on this object. In Hitihstract, no doubt Auckland ought to b« p as favourably circumstanced as any other town in the colony as regards University work. But. it does no good to reiterate that we must be placed on the same footing as the other University centres unless wo can suggest ome reasonable, moderate and practic ible wav of gaining our ends. To ask for everything at once-:—to demand that the present Government shall here and now repair the past negligence of our representatives or the omissions ami errors of judgment of those who in the •met failed to endow our College as

generously as its Southern rival? — sudh a policy seems to us to be distinct], ■inwise. As a programme, to be used n directing the progress and guidini. he future policy of Auckland College ye think that the University Council , eport i? an admirable document. Bu! is a schedule of Parliamentary grants to be flourished by our representative bpforc the astonished eyes of tho Mm stry in Wellington, m regard it as . very dangerous expedient. The onh <ate course to follow, it appear? to us is to secure as substantial a grant an. subsidy for the School of Mines as w eau reasonably expect. But for the res', we think that the Council and every body sincerely interected in University work here will do wisely to wait for a more convenient season. Meantime i. lmist. be for our Parliamentary reprc s»«»niatives to see that fhr e.ducnliona: interests of Auckland shall not ne s. flagrantly ignored in the future as In the past: and that when grant? arc nl lotted to other similar institutes Auckland shall receive its fair share.