JUSTICE AT LAST.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12967, 21 November 1907, Page 6

JUSTICE AT LAST.

Canterbury College has at last succeeded in obtsining the measure of justice for which those who administer its affairs have made a number of fruitless appeals. Thirty-one years 'ago what is known as the Coldstream reserve, comprising some 1600 acres in the County of was set apart by the Legislature as a reserve for the purpose of promoting higher education in Canterbury, in such manner as the General Assembly should determine. The Assembly did nothing, •nd from that day to this the rents from the reserve have been paid into the publio account, without any benefit to the cause of higher education in Canterbury. The persistent application hy the Board of Governors of Cantfrbnry College, that reserve should be added to the endowments of the College, has, however, now pr*. vailed, end the Canterbury College Endowment Bill, which beoame law a few days ago, not only transfers the reserve to the College, but hands over to the Board of Governors the accumulated rents received from the reserve since 1881. The Bokrd hardly needed direction as to how they should sperm the money, for the most pressing work to be done at the College Is the erection of a new chemical laboratory In which the students may find tbe §p*oe and the equipment for their work. The accumulated rents, amounting to sev»ral thousand pounds, will therefore-be .applied to tb4 purposes, of the longdesired laboratory, and we may congratulate the- College most sincerely on this building being at last in sight. The' balance of the tamey required should not be difficult to raise, seeing how important a part the scientific research which a well-equipped laboratory makes possible playa in the development of a country's resources. It is only just to recognise the persistence with which the chairman of the Board, Mr. 6. W. Russell, has kept the- nutter under the notioe of Ministers until tbe desired object was attained... He had a good foundation to work on, in the efforts that had been made by his predecessors to •»• cure the reserve for the College, and he made excellent use of it.