COLLEGE FAREWELL TO DR. AND MRS H. R. HULME

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27367, 4 June 1954, Page 12

COLLEGE FAREWELL TO DR. AND MRS H. R. HULME

Canterbury University College has seldom had such a representative assembly, even on a degree day, as the one held yesterday for an official farewell ceremony to the Rector, Dr. H. R. Hulme, and Mrs Huhne. The Mayor (Mr R. M. Macfarlane, M.P.), the Town Clerk (Mr H. S. Feast), the College Council, the Professorial Board, academic staff of all faculties, professional organisations associated with the college, and hundreds of students attended.

Dr. Hulme has accepted another appointment in England . and will leave toward the* end of this month for discussion before an official announcement is made. He has been first fulltime rector of Canterbury University College since 1948. “Academic Mobility” had been given special prominence in recent congresses of the Association of Universities of the British Commonwealth at Cambridge and at Oxford, said Mr W. J. Cartwright, chairman of the college council. “We at Canterbury College have recognised over the years that movement is a necessary, stimulus to academic life,” he continued. “New minds bearing fresh ideas break down the isolation of our academic outposts. We have encouraged interchange of personnel and have had the benefit of visiting professors and lecturers front overseas. It is generally conceded that a five-year period is necessary for an overseas man to make his full contribution.

Contributions to University “Dr. Hulme has made his contributions to university life in this land, not only to Canterbury College but to the University of New Zealand through membership of the University Senate, University Grants Committee, Academic Board, and other committees with which he has been associated,” Mr Cartwright said. “I would not attempt to measure the inestimable value of his contributions both social and official. They consist in the impact of personality upon personality, of university man upon university man (whether administrator, teacher or student) *and of British university upon New, Zealand university. These contacts must have profound effect in the development of this new university in New Zealand.” Dr. Hulme had been excellently supported in his work by Mrs Hulme. In her assistance and sympathy with the individual in trouble or difficulty, in the reception of visitors to the college, in her leadership in college social activities, and in her participation in many forms of social and community life outside the college, her contribution had been outstanding, Mr Cartwright said. “Now they, with their family, are about to return to their native land, Mrs Hulme to make a new home and Dr. Hulme to take up a new position for which he possesses exceptional ability,” Mr Cartwright said. “Canterbury College expresses publicly to them its appreciation of all that they have been to the college over the last six years.”

Pattern for Future Decades Dr. Hulme's years in New Zealand had seen notable developments in the University of New Zealand and in its constituent colleges, which would set the pattern for the next few decades, said Dr H. N. Parton, deputy-chairman of the Professorial Board. One of the most significant was the appointment of full-time principals of the colleges. Dr. Hulme had come to the first such post in Christchurch to fill a stronglyfelt need. When Professor H. G. Denham and Sir James Hight had been part-time rectors, their responsibilities were already heavy, and during the term of Professor A. H. Tocker rolls had so increased to make the full-time appointment more urgent. “The burden we place on the rector is heavy—perhaps too heavy,” said Dr. Parton. Besides being chief executive officer of the college council he was a member of all faculties and of many committees, and an adviser to students as a body and as individuals. He was a member of the Senate, and its execu-

tive, of the Academic Board and its standing committee. The rector was required to do everything possible by sound administration to encourage and stimulate university activities internally and externally. He had a big task in public relations. Accommodation had been one of the greatest university problems in the last five years, Dr. Parton said, and Dr. Hulme’s work would remain in the

planning of the new university at Riccarton. Dr. Hulme had also made important contributions by his inquiries in America and Britain into new methods of examination and into student counselling. When these were developed his foundation interest would be remembered.

In aU this the Rector might seem, an abstraction, Dr. Parton said. The university would remember him equally as a man of- friendly informality, widespread hospitality, and tolerant spirit. Help to Student Body

This combined assembly, recognising the university as a community, was especially appreciated by the students, said Mr Neville Beach, president of the Students’ Association. Dr. Hulme had made a notable success of staff and student relationships. The regular informal talks with the executive, and the hospitality of Dr. and Mrs Hulme in inviting students to meet the council and staff at their home had induced a new standard of understanding. Dr. Hulme said his work in Canterbury had been interesting and rewarding—if sometimes frustrating—“but things seem to have been moving lately and I think we have achieved a lot together.” The university had taken great strides toward autonomy, and he hoped to see Canterbury College receive its own charter.

The greatest privilege of university service was association with young people, Dr. Hulme said. One of his happiest memories would be the time spent at the students’ congresses at Curious Cove.

Christchurch was one of the most friendly cities he knew, and he could say truly that he and his wife had more friends in Canterbury than in England, Dr. Hulme continued. This hospitality to newcomers and the variety and of the country, coupled with experiences in the college, would make the stay in New Zealand an experiment never to be regretted. Mr Cartwright presented a cheque from all sections of the college to Dr. and Mrs Hulme.

Already hanging in the college hall for the ceremony was a portrait of Dr. Hulme, painted by Rudolf Gopas, a Lithuanian artist now living in Christchurch, which has ben placed beside those of earlier rectors.