TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 8737, 8 March 1894, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Wβ think the University The Capping Senate has taken too seriCeremony. ous a view of thie little ebullitions of animal spirits on the part of the students at the annual capping ceremonies. In deciding that these functions shall be discontinued, and that the diplomas shall be forwarded in future through the prosaic medium of' the penny post, the Senate will not have added to the popularity of the University, or the zeai of the students. The public presentation undoubtedly had the effect of exciting the emulation of those already on the

books of the different, colleges and oi inducing others to joiu in the academic race who possibly would not otherwise have thought of entering. True, the students were a little boisterous during the proceedings and noi always very complimentary to ! the ultra-solemn persons on the platform. Members of the Senate, however, are quite mistaken in supposing that this boisterousness is entirely a colonial product. Sir Maurice O'Rorke said that no friend of the U Diversity would dare to ask a distinguished stranger to the presentation of diplomas. At Oxford and Cambridge, however distintingoished strangers who come up to receive honorary degrees have to run the gauntlet of a raking fire of undergraduate "cbaff" and banter. When Oliver Wendell Holmes received hie doctor's degree, the sportive young men present wanted to know if he came in the " One Horse Shay," and they clamoured for a speech with an insistence that overwhelmed the genial " Autocrat" with confusion. Nor is it only on the Southern side of the Border that this sort of thing occurs. At Edinburgh we hear that the students resort even to peashooters, possibly owing to the fact that the Scottish youth is not so ready with verbal repartee as the Southron, and finds a peashooter the most effectual means of conveying an epigram that shall sting. All this sort of juvenile rowdyism, however, is goodnatured enough in its intention, and is goodnaturedly taken. The University dons remember that they were young and full of spirits themselves once upon a time, and they make allowances accordingly. It was Mr Bumble, we believe, who used to account for the misdemeanours of poor Oliver Twist by saying it was the high living that did it. Dr. Grace holds that the irreverence of the New Zealand undergraduates for their professors is to be accounted for on the same grounds. Dr. Macgregor, oa the other hand, is reported to have said that " much- of the want of reverence attributed to the colonial youth arose from the absence of things to be revered." This seems to us rather severe on the professors. It is to be hoped that the Senate having made this protest will next year give the capping ceremony another trial. Anything which tends to increase the personal interest of the students in their University ought U be fostered, and in course of time as associations gather round the institution the spirit of reverence which the Senate craves for may make its appearance. It will certainly nob be developed by relegating everything to the penny post. As an example of the way in Cycling which cycling should not be Bun Mad. carried out the recent recordbreaking feat performed by Mr James Snell, of Adelaide, may be montioned. Mr Snell ie an athletic young South Australian, twenty-five years of age, who carries on the business of a hay and corn merchant, but devotes a good deal of hia spare time to cycling. Last month he set out from Adelaide for Melbourne with the object of breaking the record for the journey. In this he succeeded, performing the distance in 3 days 5 hours 42 minutes, bub when one reckons at what cost to himself ifc is extremely doubtful whether the game was worth the candle. Mr Snell went right through without sleep, and the consequence was that when he reached Melbourne he was more dead than alive. We pass over the incident of his tumbling into a lake whose shores he was skirting at night time, as that waa merely a minor disaster, seeing that he got out again. Mr SneJl had pacemakers to assist him along the route, but *during the last stage of his journey he was in a state of collapse, and his pace-makers, we are told, had constantly to urge him on. The long period he had been without sleep was having its effect upon him, and "he became dazed and scarcely realised where he was." A number of cyclists had assembled to greeb him in Melbourne, bnb "it was thought better in Mr Saell's condition that he should nob go through the crowd," he "was in too drowsy a condition to answer many questions," and nothing remained bu« to give him beef tea and put him to bed. It is difficult to see what ia to ba gained from foolhardy conduct of this description. Mills, the English champion long-distance rider, once rode from Land's End to John o' Groats without sleep, but on repeating the journey he took intervale of sleep, with the result that he put up a better record. No practical purpose can be served by an exploit like Mr Snell'e. If such refinement of cruelty were forced on any human being as to compel him to ride a bicycle for nearly four days without being allowed to sleep, public opinion would be aghast at the atrocity. " Record-breaking " of this kind only serves to convert a sport which should be not only healthful but pleasant, into a perfectly fiendish form of self-torture. •• Hullo, here's a church; Sir G. Grey, let's go ia and get married," wa3 the off-hand remark with which a well-known Dickens character plunged into what is usually the most important event in a man's life. Sir George Grey seems to have acted on much the came principle in a matter of minor importance. " Hullo, here's a steamer ; let's go home to England," he exclaimed in effect as soon as he saw the Gothic. Ib is another capital advertisement for that fine spacimca of naval architecture. The veteran politician has taken us as much by surprise oa this occasion as he loved to do when he waa in the House, where nobody knew what move he was likely to be up to next. Sir George Grey is sure to receive a warm welcome ia England. His name is widely known as an explorer, an ex-Governor, and a man of letters, and hia errors and eccentricities as a politician are leas patent to the world at large than they are to thoce who have had to suffer directly from the consequences. We trust that the veteran leader Kill have a pleasant trip.