RESIDENTIAL COLLEGES

Press, Volume L, Issue 14901, 14 February 1914, Page 14

RESIDENTIAL COLLEGES

TO THE EDITOR OP "THE PRESS."

Sir, —Permit mc a line regarding tho very interesting and valuable proposal submitted by Mr E. A. Belcher in his speech on Commemoration Day at Christ's College. The urgent necessity of providing somo residential facilities in connexion with our University Collego will not be disputed, for it must bo generally admitted that until we enjoy residential life in conjunction wi th' university life we cannot appreciate nor realise to the full the true ideal and purpose of university training and education. . Air Belcher has evidently given tho matter considerable thought and, assisted by an experience of English university systems in this connexion, h«k£ evolved a scheme providing for the establishment of denominational university colleges on Oxford lines. At the present timo tho Canterbury College Students' Association has a Residential College Sub-committee making investigations into the facilities enjoyed by all the greater and lesser universities at Home. The New Zealand University Colleges are unfortunately not blessed with residential accommodation, but various denominations have made provision in one or other of' the university centres for their theological students, viz., the Methodists in Auckland, the Anglicans in Wellington and Christchurch, and .the Presbyterians in Dunedin. Many years must elapse, however, before'the denominations of this city could undertake each to provide a local residential hostel.

From a consideration of the report we have just received from the committee appointed by the Congress of the "Universities of the Empire to prepare detailed information 'On the subject, it would seem more advisable that we should commence with somo system lees ambitious. It i? anticipated that if a hostel were established providing accommodation for not more than fifteen students, and we have 70 per cent, lodging in and around tho city, with some financial assistance a practical commencement could be made, We are perfectly certain that the whole question is merely one of finance, and that if endowments were forthcoming, tho establishment of several small hostels under the jurisdiction of the Board of Governors would be the most effective solution of a sad difficulty.

It is not desirable that money for educational purposes should be the subject of a public appeal, and it is a matter for regret that ever since the pioneer days when thoso magnificent men who founded this province made tho first provision for a university, the peoplo of Canterbury have been content merely to applaud the. generosity and foresight of the pioneers. It would be a pleasant change to find a modern philanthropist.—Yours: etr» R, H. LIVINGSTONE. Canterbury College, February 13th.