HALF-FROZEN.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 260, 2 November 1928, Page 7

HALF-FROZEN.

EXAMINATION STUDENTS.

BITTER COMPLAINTS MADE.

SHOW BUILDING A FAELURE. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, this day. There is no end to the complaints voiced to-day about the conditions under which the annual University examinations are being conducted in the Winter Shmv building, where 600 students sat

yesterday. One student states that his chances are now practically nil. The vast iron building was not heated in any way, and during the bitterly cold southerly storm the roof was leaking so badly that he was obliged to keep moving to keep dry. He was half-frozen, and his writing was illegible. He was further hampered by the distracting noise of workmen handling machinery on the other side of a thin partition, by the creaking of the building, and the twittering and fluttering of a number of untidy sparrows. The instructions of the supervisors were inaudible in the big building, and in one subject wrong papers were handed out to one section. There was a variation in the time' of the clocks in the building of 20 minutes. The position is serious for honours students, especially as it might affect their whole careers.

Replying to the complaints, the registrar of the University, Mr. E. T. Norris, explained that difficulty had been experienced in past years in providing accommodation for examinations, and this year it was decided to try the Show building. There was no doubt the candidates must have suffered intensely from cold, and to some extent from the noise of the gale, but it must be remembered that in the buildings previously used the conditions would, have been extremely unfavourable on such a day. The rest of Mr. Norris' statement amounts to an admission that the leaks were troublesome, as he says there was room to move away from them, and apparently there were pools of water on the concrete floor.

Mr. Norris says the portion of the building used was not draughty to any serious extent. Of two women student* who sat both morning and afternoon, and to whom he had spoken, Mr. Norris said: "They were cold, and had been cold, but they did not complain. I did not express to them what I felt, my admiration for the cheerful and philosophical way in which they had endured a very trying experience. No one regrets more than the University that they had to go through such an ordeal."

"Hardly Fit for Cattle. ,, Many people are asking why the examinations should be held away from Victoria University College, which is in recess, and consequently has all its lecture rooms available for examinations. There the students would be in their normal environment and would be able to do themselves justice. "To put them in a great empty corrugated iron barn, hardly fit to house cattle—which is all the Show buildings are—a drab, cheerless place, seems shocking," one critic said.

It is true that the worst patch of weather that has been experienced for

a long time struck Wellington yesterday, but the blazing sun on the unlined roof and walls to-day i» not likely to prove much better.