Endowments For University

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26493, 7 August 1951, Page 6

Endowments F or University

The primary purpose of the brochure on endowments which is being given • limited circulation by Canterbury University College U to * possible benefactors ways in which their gifts can <moBt use * ul: but at the same time it draws attention to real need* of th* college. At present, minimum requirements are ensured by Government grwts. These grants are insufficient to make university colleges much more than vocational training centres, and insufficient for the colleges to meet the definition of “a living society of ••teachers and students engaged in ••the search for truth for its own “sake and to? the dissemination of “ learning ”, The only practicable way to avoid a deadening uniformity among the colleges, and among the students in each college, is through toe use of private endowments, and the colleges that ar* best endowed will best serve their communities. Such resources enable a college to develop independently to suit its traditions and its environment. Fw example, if the old School of Forestry had been even moderately endowed, Canterbury would never have lost it Within a college, independent resources make possible th* development of the university atmosphere by such means as properly equipped hostel*. Canterbury College is not, contrary to what might be thought, well endowed, even comparatively; it has not had the support that the University of Otago, for instance, has enjoyed. Compared with overseas universities, it is poor indeed. It is proper

to say that-Canterbury College has had some most acceptable gifts and bequests, one of the most modest and ■yet most notable being a bequest of £lOO from a young graduate, killed in the war, who chose this way of expressing his own gratitude to the college. The needs of the college are plain enough, and so, too, is the college's claim on the generosity of the people of Canterbury and Westland. The purpose of a university goes far beyond educating men and women for their professions; essentially, it is to teach them to think objectively, and, through their leaven, to spread this habit of thought through the community. The community looks to the university to provide its teachers, lawyers, engineers, yes; but it looks to the university also to provide the truly educated men and women on whom its wider life must be basedTo leave both these functions at the pleasure of the central government is to invite mediocrity. Those who have money beyond their needs can find no better way of using it than by helping to endow—-by gift or bequest—a centre of light and learning in their district. The Government also has a responsibility, because taxation in New Zealand discourages endowments. In Britain, the United States, Australia, and other countries income and succession tag concessions are allowed on gifts and bequests to universities. This is not only enlightened educational policy, but also good business. Sufficient endowments would lessen the Government’s liability for university education generally. They would also ease the pressure and the competition for public funds. Each college would be able to pay, as it should, for its own educational experiments. Canterbury College and the University of New Zealand should renew their requests to the Government for this reform. Perhaps the greatest deterrent to benefactions is the not unreasonable view that when the Government takes so large a share of incomes and estates it should pay for community benefits.