STUDENTS’ UNION BUILDING OPENED

Press, Volume C, Issue 29537, 12 June 1961, Page 14

STUDENTS’ UNION BUILDING OPENED

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, June 11. No university was complete without a place where student could meet on common ground, said the Minister of Education (Mr Tennent) at yesterday's official opening of the Victoria University of Wellington's Student Union bir’dcng The new building would provide such a link, he said It would enable students to stand on their own feet by the use of their own facilities University standards were as high as ever, said Mr Tennent. But learning was not an end in itself. In the formative years of undergraduate life, the student leernt to think, and. by so doing, should acquire some measure of wisdom, a true seme of perspective, and a due sense of modesty. “At university, we all find our own level, we realise we are fragments of a great whole," said Mr Tennent. Toe many men drifted into their life’s work inadequately prepared He was pleased to see men who adapted themselves to the purpose best suited to their talents. The buildin e cost approximately £250.000. Considered as long ago as the 1920's and first worked for in 1929. the building represented the work of successive generations of students who bad worked and gathered money knowing their work would not benefit them personally, said the Minister,

Of the building costs a total of £94,000 had been contributed or guaranteed by the Students’ Association, a colossal task of which they bed every reason to be proud, said the Pro-Chancellor (Dr P P. Lynch). The Solicitor-General (Mr H R. C Wild), speaking on behalf of the 290 students who lost their lives in World War 11. announced that the little theatre incorporated in the new building would be dedicated as a memorial to all who bad served in 19391945.