The university politicos

Press, 21 April 1979, Page 16

The university politicos

By

HOWARD JOSEPH

The barman who became a British member of Parliament — this story, about Austin Mitchell, is just one of the more incongruous moments recorded by the University of Canterbury staff club, which this year celebrates its fiftieth anniversary. Dr Mitchell, better known here as a political scientist and television frontman, is just one of a number of illustrious personages to have belonged to the university’s staff club. Another was the Vienna-born Dr Karl Popper, who, in the post-war vears. won acclaim as one of , the world's leading political thinkers. His book “The Open Society and Its Enemies” has a prized place in political literature.

He was to have a profound affect on university life and was, as one contemporary recalls, conspicious for his “intense and inspired conversational style.” In those days the staff clubrooms were in town, the focal point being the senior common room, which no doubt featured some of rhe more enlightened coversation of the day. The tone could also be decidedly turgid. - Considerable discord existed between the “New Z&’and” and “English” <Ap?- the latter claiming A ’

that the locals were favoured in professional appointments. John Meek, author of a recently completed history of the staff club, writes that “this tension was exacerbated by personal differences. The Englishmen tended to be bluff, outdoor types while the colonials were more donnish and affected the style of traditional academics — quite the reverse of what one might expect, and probably overcompensation on the part of the locals.” Further, he writes that "Chilton, the head of the professorial board, was virtually everything the Englishmen despised; a teetotaller who hated gambling and cigarette smoking.” In spite of this professorial politicking the staff club had as members some of the country's greatest educators. Arnold Wall was one such figure. For 30 years head of the English department and an expert on New Zealand English. Dr Wall in 1929 was elected the first convener of the club”s management committee. He died in 1966 at the age of 97.

What of the club’s outlook? Judging by the periodicals then available, the club appeared a transplanted bastion of English university life. It sub-

scribed to the finest offerings of the Establishment press, among them the “Illustrated London News,” “Country Life,” “Spectator,” “Punch” and “Sketch.” As Meek writes: “The list is probably indicative of how the university saw itself — British and 12,000 miles from home. Perhaps the ‘l9th Century,’ a journal, which was eventually discontinued, sums-up the mood best. All the periodicals were high-brow; no popular American publica-

tion dared show its face during the first 10 years, although ‘Life’ and "‘New Yorker’ were admitted in 1943. Some standards, however, were retained. The American and decidedly middle-brow weeklies ‘Time’ and ‘Newsw’eek’ did not make their debut until the 1900 s.”

By then change had overtaken the club’s Old World atmosphere of tea, scones and civilised discourse. The catalyst was the university move to Ham, and by early 1968 the staff club had been ear-marked for relocation at the Ham homestead. By 1971 it had become an incorporated club with a charter to serve liquor.

The homestead itself is worthy of mention. Set among some of the finest gardens in the city the building has a colonial pedigree second to none. The current homestead is the third to have been erected on the location, the first being built in 1857 with materials imported from Britain by John Charles Watts-Rus-sell, a wealthy young officer in the 17th Lancer. The aristocratic young blades chose for his home 500 acres of

land west of the Deans’ farm at Riccarton, calling the estate Ham after his home in Staffordshire. Staff club paintings and photographs presented by Bishop Warren testify to Watt-Russell’s silverspooned family seat — a huge, majestically pillared mansion set in rolling English countryside.

A backdrop of comparable splendour graces the location of today’s staff club, a fact appreciated for more than a century. Lady Barker, a visitor to Ham in April, 1866, gives in her book “Station Life in New Zealand” a somewhat ecstatic account of the Southern

Alps. She writes: “In the very early morning I have often stood shivering at my window to see the noble outline gradually assuming shape.

“Then as the sun rises the softest rose coloured and golden tints touch the highest peaks. Before a nor’wester the colour over the mountains and the sky is quite indescribable. Noone but Turner could venture upon such a mixture of pale sea-green with deep turquoise blue.” It is hard to imagine Lady Barker’s idyll blighted by scandal. However last century one homestead owner was involved in a big financial scandal, while many years later when the university took possession the daughter of the Rector, Dr Henry Hulme, featured in a sensational murder case. Today the Homestead has entered more tranquil times with the staff club lending its facilities for private socials and weddings. It is, as one staff member has put it, the most pleasant of watering holes.

A- a chartered club it offers within easy walking distance nearly every social amenity desired bystaff. It is with this in mind that the club this year celebrates its first 50 years.