GRADUATES AND PUBLIC LIFE

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25181, 12 May 1947, Page 3

GRADUATES AND PUBLIC LIFE

OBLIGATIONS IN CIVIC AFFAIRS SPECIAL OPPORTUNITIES OF PRESENT GENERATION “ The Press " Special Service WELLINGTON, May 10. There was an obligation upon university graduates to associate themselves with public life, said the Mayor of Wellington (Mr Will Appleton), when he spoke at the Victoria University College graduation ceremony in the Town Hall. Most of the students, he said, enjoyed special opportunities. Such opportunities had not been so fully available to former generations. Although it was often stated that the most able men were not attracted to public life and service, it could not be overlooked that those who neglected their watch were as culpable as those who went over to the enemy. Apathy could never provide absolution from guilt. All students would comprehend how hard the country had been hit, and would be hit, by the loss of men who were just qualifying to be leaders, Mr Appleton said. It would indeed be another tragedy if that sacrifice had been partly in vain. “You university men and women have a great duty towards your country, to those who died to preserve its institutions, and to yourselves and your families to be,” he said. “It is to you to match the duty and the hour —never have the opportunities been more numerous.” Students were the governors of the future, the lamp-bearers of their generation, Mr Appleton continued. He exported all to help light the way for their fellows. In his report the chairman of the college council, Mr T. D. M. Stout, drew attention to the present record roll of more than’ 2300 students, and its attendant problems in accommodation. Some temporary relief had been afforded by the provision of Army huts, but an building programme confronted the college as an urgent need. Of primary importance was a new students’ union building. The students themselves had already provided a considerable sum towards it, and the Governtnent had offered to subsidise this fund. It was hoped to lay the foundation stone in 1949, the jubilee year of the college. Other urgentlyneeded buildings were a new chemistry, geology, and geography block and a new library.