ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 138, 11 June 1917, Page 7

ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE.

(To the Editor.) Sify—Proposals to sell the endowment of St. John's College have not been unknown iv the past. The first occasion was about forty years ago—in 1875, 1 think—when a syndicate of gentlemen consisting of Mr James Watt, Mr Thomas Motrin, Mr Thomas Ruc-eell, and some one or two others, proposed to buy the whole estate, as well as the Melancsian property near by, for the sum of thirty thousand pounds. The idea was to use the flat at Kohimarama as a site for a training ground for racehorses, and the whole estate was to bo used as a grand racing establishment und 6tud farm. The trustees entertained the proposal, but in those days any alienation of Church land had to run the gauntlet of approval by the Diocesan Synod, and then by the General Synod. It got no further than a debate in the Diocesan Synod, where it was easily disposed of. Two arguments were used; first, it wias pointed out that this land was given by Bishop Selwyn as an endowment for St. John's College; that it was open to the Church to accept or refuse it; but it was not open to the Church to accept it for one purpose and then to apply it to another. The other argument was that the General Synod had made a law that in respect of any land sold the proceeds should be forthwith reinvested in other land; if, therefore, trustees soH land and bought some other, they became, ipso facto, land jobbers, which was not to be thought of. St. John's College is a most interesting institution, and the minute book of the trustees most delightful reading. In those minutes you sec a small number of able and enthusiastic men drawing their own portraits with a faithfulness and accuracy refreshing beyond measure. They were men of high ideals and utter selfiorgetlulness. One day Bishop Selwyn, Mr. Martin, afterwards Sir William, ard Mr. Swainson, Attorney-General, set forth to choose a site for St.. John's. They walked, as was Selwyn's way, end besides there were no roads. They left Parnell and came to Newmarket, and saw before them the slopes of Mount Hobson, but they stayed not. A little further on, just about where Portland Road now k, there burst upon their view an outlook not second to Posilipo itself, but they passed on. Then they came to Ellerslie, it was not so called then, with an inland view over a valley, now the racecourse, but again they passed on; then they came to Little Rangitoto, and all the fine country lying below it, but it was not Pisgah; and then last they -came to the highest ground and decided that there the college should stand; there, where the emigrant from England should, on his first sight of the promised land, be greeted by the towers of the new college. And bo it was chosen, and then Selwyn proceeded to buy the estate. He had some, but not too much money, but he had many friends and so in his charming way he bought one bit as an endowment for a Lady Margaret scholarship, and another for a Whytehead, another for an Appleyard, and the particular land just surrounding the lake he bought as an endownnent for the Consolidated Scholarships, so including the smaller gifts of several friends.

It was a great and an original ideal; he proposed that in the college should be trained the teachere of the colonists; not in theology only, but in industrial occupations, and in medicine, and the inclusion of both races was a fundamental idea. It succeeded for a time, but circumstances arose which made for failure. There was no fault in Selwyn or hie helpers; it was, perhaps, quite inevitable, but the time came when the college had to be closed; and how nearly his heart was broken those may find who care to read hie sermon preached some time afterwards in St. Mary's. New Plymouth. The estate of St. John's College ie hallowed by a record of noble ideals, by high hopes, and by bitter failure, and they who would sell it seem to mc to be in danger of forgetting what is due to the memory of a man like Selwyn. It is true that his hopes in one way were blasted, but there is a future for St. John's College in the work it can do for this people which is as much greater than the work of the college as organised by Selwyn, as the Dominion iteetf is greater, and will be greater etill, than anythiDg be dreamed of. I know so well the work Mr Yates has done as a trustee, that I read with great regret his statement in your columns. A trusteeship ie often a thankless task; there are so many difficulties, and so little, aaaieciation. of them_bv czttice. but

enthusiasm for land "development" is a poor outfit for a trustee. Rather his proper equipment is faith, hope and patience; and the greatest of these ie patience.

Why all this deference to the memory of Selwyn ? After all he was only a man like ourselves. Yes, but what a man he was! This letter is rather long, but I beg you to allow mc to quote a few words spoken to hie Synod by the Bishop of Quebec in 1878, and referring to an incident in the early days of Selwyn's career, when a native disturbance had broken out near Auckland. He said: "We were assembling for morning prayer on the Sunday, when a coasting schooner dropped her anchor in the harbour j and, without waiting for the landing of his baggage, the Bishop stepped ac it were from the ship to the church. I can see him now, as he stood by the altar in the plain black gown which was the only robe he had time to procure. I can hear the tones of his voice, as he poured out his fervent expostulation, pleading for justice, and demanding equal rights for all. Every argument, every figure, every illustration of that sermon, except one—-they have all long ago passed out of my mind; but tne sermon has been one of the most powerful and abiding influences of my life." That was Selwyn: A noble and inspiring influence.—l am, etc., J- H- UPTON.