The Press. TUESDAY, MAY 7, 1878.

Press, Volume XXIX, Issue 3988, 7 May 1878, Page 2

The Press. TUESDAY, MAY 7, 1878.

The Otago Daily Times has been betrayed into a ludicrous error through a blunder of the Press Agency. On Thursday last it published a telegram, sent by the Agency, purporting to give the results of the late University examinations. Among the rest, it was reported that six students had passed the first section of the examination for the B.A. degree. The Daily Times, looking at the list, was enraptured to find that five of the six came from Otago. Here was a theme for exultation. Here were splendid materials for a glorification of Otago —a glorious proof of the immeasurable superiority of that favoured region over the rest of the colony. Such news, exclaimed the Times, " justifies us in crowing some- " what loudly": and at the very top of his roice our contemporary proceeded most lustily to crow. Otago is first, he shouted, and tho rest nowhere. We " have passed all the five sent " up, while all the rest of the colony " has not got more than one." Ours is " the " one only good machinery of the whole " colony." As this becomes more widely known "it will result in all the clever " students of New Zealand coming here " for their education." But the crowning boast has still to be made. Not only had Otago won but, what was best of ali, Canterbury had been left far behind. This was the climax of delight. The cup of our contemporary's satisfaction fairly ran over as he contrasted the five students sent up and passed from Otago with " the one solitary passed-man sent " up for examination by the intellectual " City of Christchurch "

Suddenly however a discovery was made which checked the strain of triumph. What about the scholarships ? Four senior scholarships had been awarded, and three of them had fallen to students of Canterbury College. Tliis would never do. Foul play! at once screamed the Daily Times. Two of these students had not passed the degree examination, and were therefore, by the regulations of the University, ineligible for scholarships. Local jealousy must have been at work. The law had been broken. Tho Chancellor was the offender, and must be called to strict account. The Courts must be appealed to. And the article which opeued with such boisterous huzzas went off into still more clamorous demands for summary justice on the Chancellor; who was held up to public execration, and handed over to the pains and penalties of tho Supreme Court, for " flagrant favouritism," " defiance of the " plain letter of the law," " misappropria- " tion of the public money," and " im- " pudent and indefensible breach of " trust."

Thus transient is mortal happiness. And the worst is yet to come. A terrible disappointment awaits the too-credulous and too-jubilant Daily Times. He is the victim of an egregious mistake. He has rashly jumped at his conclusions, and has gone an unmitigated cropper. The simple fact is that the Press Agency had blundered. Its telegram was all wrong. Tho compiler, in forwarding the names of students who had succeeded in the B.A. examination, omitted no less than three. The number who passed was not six but nine; and of these nine not one, but four, were from Canterbury College. So that, when they come to be fairly compared, the loudly vaunted performances of Otago sink to something le6S than equality with those of decried and despised Christchurch. We say this in no spirit of detraction. We have no wish to pluck one leaf from the laurels won by our friends in the South. The two institutions —the University, as they love to call it, of Otago and the University College of Canterbury— stand side by side, equal in position as in deserts. Theirs should be, not the animosity of jealous, foes, but the healthy and inspiriting rivalry of generous competitors, vicing with one another in a contest for which each is proud to recognise the other's distinguished qualifications, and each ready to welcome with hearty applause the other's gallantly won success. But when so extravagant a claim to pre-eminence is put forward as we have just noticed, truth compels us to declare that such pretensions are unfonnded. In this instance Otiigo has done well, but not best. It is first in quantity but not in quality. With a slight advantage in point of number, in point of merit it can claim but the second place. Of tho four successful candidates from Canterbury College, three passed with such especial credit as to entitle them to scholarships; but of the five from Otago, the reward of exceptional merit was gained, but by a single one. Thus then melt into thin air the vainglorious Iwasts of the superiority of Otago, and the happy prospect of immolating the Chancellor of the New Zealand University upon the altar of Otagan self-esteem. We are sorry that our contemporary has been so deluded. We can only recommend him for tho f nturo, before indulging in comparisons, to make sure of his facts. Especially let him l>eware —a lessonwhich we should have thought no newspaper in the colony had yet to learn —how he goes to any length in dealing out either praise or blame on no better warrant than a telegram from the Press Agency.

Some important items of European intelligence, brought no doubt by steamer from Singapore to Batavia, appear in this issue. The latest .date is April 30th, on which day it was telegraphed that Russia had accepted the German Minister's proposal for mutual withdrawal, that is, the withdrawal of the British fleet and the Russian land forces from the immediate neighborhood of Stamboul. Tho final arrangements for this movement are,

however, not yet completed, and considering the numerous difficulties which Russia has thrown in the way of a satisfactory settlement, it will be well not to attach very much weight to her apparent concession in the present case. Even after the withdrawal has taken place there are many points to be arranged, notably the impossibility of England recognising the treaty of San Stefano, before it can be said that the danger of war has I been avoided. It is stated that Russia I has made a proposal for the partition of the Turkish Empire. Such a method of I treating her new friend is at least unkindly. But further particulars of the proposed partition, and an indication of j Austrian views regarding it will be neces-1 sary, before the effect of the proposal can be conjectured. "Whatever may be the nature of the negotiations, it is clear they are not such as to lead English statesmen to feel any confidence in peace. British preparations for war, we are told, are incessant and increasing. If there is no other reason for congratulation to be found in the prolonged suspense in which the world has been kept while the nations are discussing their difficulties, such a reason may be obtained from the fact that it has given our country time to fit herself thoroughly for undertaking the terrible contest, if it should ultimately bo forced upon her. Of course Russia has not been idle in the meanwhile. New levies have been made, new material collected, and the old repaired. But it is evident that by her, just emerging, exhausted and spent from a costly war, tho work of renovation has to be accomplished before she can begin preparing for a war upon a yet vaster scale, and one which will tax her resources tenfold more than her combat with the Mussulman Empire.