A.U.C.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 117, 20 May 1933, Page 7

A.U.C.

THE FINAL GOAL.

PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE.

PRESIDENT'S LAST MESSAGE. (No. V.) Briefly, and in outline, we have now told the story of the first 50 years of the Auckland University College.' We have told of its establishment; we have talked in the growing twilight with the two remaining men in Auckland who knew it as it was; we have noted its famous men and women. Tlier.e remain hut one story to tell, one question to 1 as k: the story of the real development ot " the college ; N the query, what can it B lv e to the community ?

From a nucleus of four professors, one assistant, and seven departments —for three of the professors were responsible for more than one subject—the college has grown to have a staff of 15 professors > 40 assistants or lecturers, for 20 departments. As for the students, their numbers have grown from perhaps 80 at the outset to 1100 at the beginning this year.

■Right from tho outset the college began to grow. Almost immediately, by t|ie Sid of tho Auckland Amateur Opera Cub, music became a university subject, a nd exhibitions were granted. Situated as it was, in a city, lectures in commerce became a necessity, so that in 1905 a School of Commerce was instituted. To 1 elate in detail the growth of this school require a volume. It has become on ß of the most popular in the college. lectures to students are not all. In a practical way the community has benefited, especially of late years, when *ome explanation of economic problems became urgently needed. The present

Dean of the faculty, Dr. H. Belshaw, is a familiar person on the public platform. His name is often in the Press. Perhaps the most recent development within the school has been the course in Municipal Government and Local Body Finance. In fact, one of the staff, Mr. F. B. Stephens., is going to England to study local body administration. It is hoped to establish a separate school whec he returns.

Success of Architecture. I The thoughts of the council next j turned to engineering. That was in] 190lJ. In 192G a separate chair was I set up, and eventually partial recog- j nition was granted by the Senate. | Architecture was established in 1017. j Where all the departments have j progressed, the progress of this i school lias been remarkable. Five, years after its last reorganisation, it j was recognised by the R.1.8.A., surely a proud achievement. From then on the development of the college, measured by new chairs, is almost a tabulation. In 1921 came the Chair of Philosophy, leaving a joint Chair of History and Economics; in 1924, Education, also lectures in Journalism; in 1925, Agriculture, since transferred to the Massey College; the same year Forestry, since transferred to Christchurcli; 192*, the division of History and Economics into two separate chairs; the same year the Chair of Geology instead of a lectureship. Records show, too, that scholarships have been endowed and gifts of money and books made. These have greatly facilitated the development of the college —would there were more such gifts! Past Merged Into Present. - The past has merged' into the present. Still the University develops, though handicapped as ever by lack of finance. For a little, it seems, the pio(posa lin conjunction with the City Council, to establish a fine arts block, has been shelved; but it will come. Recently the registrar, Mr. M. R. O'Sliea, made a tour abroad and presented to the council a voluminous report of his observations. The fact that his far-seeing proposals have been adopted by the professoriate and by the council is significant.

The full value of the college to the community to-day, and what it is doing for its own students, are hard to assess, for a perspective of time is necessary to make tliat .judgment. Its aims for the future are best told by the retiring president, the Hon. Sir George Fowlds. About to fall from the race, and to hand the torch on to another, lie yet pauses a while to light the future.

"For 50 years this University College has been established. This is the jubilee. We have striven. Now we must pause and read the handwriting on the wall. Not in professors appointed, or chairs created, not in buildings enlarged or in growth of the student body, will we interpret this writing. For something indeed different must We look. I refer to tradition, to the place of the university in the community.

"So largely were the early years occupied with the sheer struggle for existence that the growth of an inner spirit was difficult, if not impossible. The students came, took lectures, and went their way. Nothing more; and more was not expected.

"Those clays, indeed, were days of expansion, when hardly was one advance consolidated than another was about to be /made. It was a tale of additional accommodation, of enlarged stall, of the establishment of new departments, all of which meant the growth in student numbers.

"But when to-day I speak of the growth of the college, I mean something different. The fulness of tradition, 1 suppose, can come only with age; but this I sav—if in 50 years a university has not a tradition, then it has failed in its function. So that when at this jubilee we measure the success of our efforts, it is for this tradition that we must look. We must ask what placc the university holds in the community; what is has to give to the students and to the larger world. Something More than Graduation. "So many illustrious names have been connected with our college, so many have gone into the world and earned fame both for themselves and their Alma Mater, that it is an honour to be a graduate of A.U.C. I believe that every student should aim at graduation; but I at the same time should take away | something more than a decree; should take -away, the pleasure of happy assoI ciation, the solemn joy of friendships

made, the remembrance of a thousand ties which neither time nor distance can sever. To the student and to the community the college should stand as the embodiment of upright thought, should point the way to progress. If the college can give these things, it has its foundation for tradition secure. This, I think, is the case. I believe that within the college is a deeper spirit, to which every student contributes, from which every student draws. It is part of the college.

"I am about to retire from active connection with the college; but to the students I would say this: You are students, of no mean college. Your future is bright before you. I sec an independent university, set in ample grounds, amply endowed. I see its name high among the universities of the world. I see its students filling high posts in New Zealand and in the uttermost corners of the earth. I see its< influence for good for ever expanding. I say your future is bright before you."