CURTAILMENT OF CAPPING

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21746, 31 March 1936, Page 18

CURTAILMENT OF CAPPING

♦_— CANTERBURY COLLEGE NOT AFFECTED I'ROFESSOR SHELLEY'S OPINIONS

The decision of the Victoria College Professorial Board to curtail the cappins ceremony because of the boisutcus behaviour of undergraduates at the ceremonies in past years is not likely to be copied in Christchurch. Interviewed on the subject yesterday, Dr. J. Hight, rector of the college, .-aid ht? had heard of no suggestion •hat the ceremony at Canterbury College should be curtailed. He declined to comment further. Commenting upon a statement in the rtncrt which mentioned "flouroomb 'battles" and general disturbances among students at the Wellington ceremony last year, Professor J. Shellev i=aid that few people would regard the "'custard-pie" level of wit as appropriate to a capping ceremony. He had never heard any member of the professorial board in Christchurch object to the play of wit which accompanied such ceremonies, and which was merely an expression of the students' spirits. Most members would welcome and enjoy it. He did not know the Victoria College board's attitude, but he felt justified in saying that most of the professors in Christchurch had no objection to the students entering into the spirit of proceedings. Students knew as well as anyone that there was a need for courtesy to speakers, and respect and honour for fellow students who had achieved distinction, and to whom, after all, the ceremony really belonged. He did not believe that students' revelries were gradually being repressed. On the contrary he thought there was more freedom to-day than jn the pasf. Professor Shelley said he was quite tare that no professorial board had ever felt ashamed of "the badinage, raillery, and infectious spirits of students," which was the accusation of the Wellington students' journal "Smad." Mr R. M. Young, president of the Students' Association, speaking from the students' viewpoint, said that a position such as had arisen in Wellington would be unlikely in Christchurch. The forms of amusement did not interrupt the ceremony as'did the more boisterous activities which Wellington students apparently favoured.