The Press. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1872.

Press, Volume XX, Issue 2303, 18 December 1872, Page 2

The Press. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1872.

We have observed in recent Melbourne papers some details relative to the I Melbourne University which are very encouraging to those who are interested in the promotion of the higher education in New Zealand. Every one _who remembers how the Victorian University University fared in its earlier dajs must know what difficulties it had, to encounter, and how little ifc was ex* pected to struggle through them. From the great body of the public it met with scant sympathy. It was regarded ac a highflown, extravagant, and, above all, an unpractical fancy, and its death within a few years from pure inanition, was freely predicted. For a time these predictions seemed likely to be realised. The students were few, and ac term succeeded term, their numbere did not increase. Nay, history tells—or is it of Sydney University that the tragic tale is recorded? —how there was a time when the efforts of the entire professional staff were perforce concentrated on a single pupil, whey co runs the story, under their incessant minietrations was ■peedily transferred from the University to the Lunatic Asylum. Wβ recollect, but ft few years ago, when the establishment "of a University in New Zealand was first mooted, by ourselves among othere, the condition of the Australian Universities was held up to us as a warning, and we wore bidden to learn wisdom from

the experience of our neighbors, and to abstain from such foolish experiments! -"■-. y Nevertheless, in ppite of the diffieuiiiea that surrounded them, the authorities continutd resolutely at work. Kor was their determination unrewarded. The attendance at the University began to improve, and went on improving. The number of matriculations increased year by, year, till it rival led i hat : of the., Uhiversi ties of England ft'self. At the November examination, IS7I, it was 226. At the same examination this year it was -327. Thiß include? those «lib p-e----sented themselves at Mt-lbourne only ; and is exclusive of thuse examined at centres of population, in some cases outside the colony, connected with the University, to the number of 104. The total number of candidates for matriculation on this one occasion was 431. The "Argus," expressing its gratification at thie result, contrasts the present position of the University with its condition for some years after its establishment, when " only a few sought to avail themselves of the advantages it offered," and " many feeble jokes were made concerning the paucity of students, and the disproportion between the number of lecturers and the number of pupils." And it cordially congratulates the professors on the genuineness of the success they have achieved. Iα the earlier days they were exhorted to make the securing of students their chief object. They were " recommended to lower the standard of matriculation examination, and thus inveigle all the dunces of the colony into the undergraduate ranks ;" and it was pressed on them that "as long as numbers were secured, everything else might safely be sacrificed." We cannot be too thankful," says the " Argus," " that the professors were deaf to such fatal advice, and that they refused to lend themselves to the manufacture of counterfeit graduates. In refusing to convert the University into a sort of high class grammar school, they have conferred an inestimable benefit on the cause of education. By adhering to a high standard they have raised the character of the teaching throughout the colony "

All this is vastly reassuring. Of course no exact parallel can be drawn between Melbourne and any town in JS T ew Zealand. From the success of the University in the one we cannot infer that a similar measure of success would attend a precisely similar institution in the other. The circumBtances are too different. Wβ do not allude only to the larger population of Victoria, but to the fact that Melbourne is socially, as well as in a merely political sense, the . metropolis of Victoria, and is as naturally the true educational, ac it is the political and commercial, centre of the whole colony. Whereas in New Zealand there is no metropolis. There is no town in either island which can boasfe of being the capital of more, at the utmost, than of a single province; and so little intercourse exists between the provinces, that the institutions of each rarely command the slightest notice beyond its own boundaries. But this difficulty, though, great, is not insuperable. It needs only an adaptation of the form and system of the University to the peculiarities of the case. By a distribution of the teaching power, local feeling and interests can be consulted without prejudice to the strictest preservation of central supervision and control. That is the course now being adopted; and which in some shape or other, even if the present New Zealand University Act is repealed, is certain to be followed. Meantime the example of the Melbourne University encourages perseverance. It proves that a University can be successfully established in a colony; and proves too that the establishment of a University is of the very highest value —or rather, is altogether invaluable—both directly and still more by its indirect effect, as a meanp of elevating the character of the teaching and raising the standard of education throughout the country