"THE OLD CLAY PATCH."

Auckland Star, Volume 55, Issue 94, 21 April 1924, Page 4

"THE OLD CLAY PATCH."

We do not remember that the Auckland University College celebrated its "silver" jubilee. Probably the explanation of this failure to mark appropriately the passing of the years was that the college was ashamed to draw public attention to its own shabbiness. With Victoria College it has been different. Wellington was the last of the four cities to get a University College—it was sixteen years after Auckland—but it started with a building worthy of a college, not a wooden affair built ytars before for other purposes. This was a considerable advantage. The people of Wellington have always had before their eyes a college building conspicuously placed and easily recognisable for what it is. Victoria College has been a flourishing institution. It started with four professors and two lecturers and one hundred and fifteen students; to-day it has fifteen professors and thirteen lecturers and assistants, and seven hundred and fifty students. It has won the affection of its students, and drawn them to strenuous labour on its behalf. Years ago they worked with pick and shovel in laying out the grounds, and the phrase "the old clay patch," has peculiar associations for many. Among other things it has been used as a title for one of the best collections of University verse published in the Dominion. Southern colleges seem to inspire better verse than the A.U.C., but this, too, may reasonably be ascribed, in part at least, to our disabilities. We shall make up for much when we have our new building. In the meantime Auckland offers congratulations and best wishes to her more fortunate sister.