The Dominion. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1908. THE VICTORIA COLLEGE GRANT.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 335, 23 October 1908, Page 6

The Dominion. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1908. THE VICTORIA COLLEGE GRANT.

The Victoria College Council has had an oxperienco as pleasant as it is unprecedented. It has unexpectedly received a favourable reply to its request for an increased subsidy from the Government, and, what is more astonishing, it has actually received more than it asked for. When the letter conveying the Government's decision was read at the Council meeting on Wednesday, Me. H. D. Bell said he was "almost as much astonished as delighted." "I confess," ho said, "that I had not anticipated such a response." That the Council's deputation to the Pit mi; Minister was not sent away with light hearts,. even although Sir Joseph said he was "not unfriendly" to the proposition placed before him, is clear from the delighted surprise of the Council. It is unfortunate that the Government did not sooner make up its mind on the subject, since in order to carry out the improvements required before the first term of next year the Council must exercise all possiblo dispatch. At the same time, the Government must be given the credit that is its due for recognising the just claim of the College. Nobody will wish to withhold that credit, but it appears to us that hero we must safeguard ourselves against a certain kind of dishonest criticism which is being much employed in the current election campaign. Whenever a critic of the Government blames the Government for its parsimony in matters where public policy requires generosity, the Government and, its friends promptly charge the critic with inconsistency. "In one breath," the argument runs, "you are crying out about oitl' extravagance, and in the. same breath you call upon us to spend more money." Of course there is nothing in the protest against improper expenditure inconsistent with the demand for proper expenditure. But it suits the purposo of tho Government and its friends to represent a demand for public expenditure for ail urgently-required purpose as a disqualification against the condemnation of a wasteful and corrupt manipulation of the public funds. We have littlo doubt that at somo futuro time this very propor grant to Victoria College will bo urged against any Wellington protest relating to Government extravagance.

Few objects have a more meritorious claim upon the Government's power of subsidy than the College. A young institution, it is yet doing very fine work, and work of a kind most urgently required in this unleavened democracy. It has no endowments, and save for a trifle of £74 per annum it is wholly dependent on students' fees and the State grant. Owing in some measure to the fact that its fees are lower than those charged by any of the sister University Colleges—they are just half those charged at the Dunedin institution—the roll of students has mounted up with surprising rapidity. In 1899 there were 115 students attending lectures; during the past year the number was 433. As a result the Professors' classes are utterly i unwieldy. Some of them comprise over 100 students, and anybody acquainted with university work knows that it is impossible for any Professor properly to supervise the work of the individual student in such circumstances.- Such a state of affairs is unfair to the Professors, unjust to the students, and injurious to the College. The choice lay, as Mr. 11. D. Bell pointed out in August last, between an increase in the fees or an increase in the annual grant. The new assistance will bo of very great valuo to the College. Apparently the bulk of the money will be spent in improving the science department of the College's teaching, since the Government expects the Collcgo to carry out the conditions of the grant for specialisation "more strictly than it has hitherto been able to do." One can feel that the Government should not expect too much for its money. The College authorities may bo relied upon to do what they can, but even with the increased grant the finances of the institution will not be so overpoweringly magnificent as to enable it to make a lavish provision for special researches and at the same time keep efficient the machinery for supplying the general teaching proper to a University College.