The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 1910. COLLEGE GOVERNMENT.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 755, 2 March 1910, Page 4

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 1910. COLLEGE GOVERNMENT.

The unusual and interesting dis? oussion that preceded the election of Me, as Chairman of .the. \ Governors of Wellington College raises issues larger and more important than the one immediate to the discussion. The terras upon which Mb. Brandon allowed himself to be nominated for the 'Chairmanship will, with all,due deference to; Dr. Findlay, Btrike most: disinterested persons as • being not merely proper, but alsa as honourable and praiseworthy ,as the opposition of them was unnecessary. Some time ago the Chairs raau proposed, in effect, that he should bp permitted to veto such financial decisions by the Board as ho disapproved. He admitted yesterday that he could not reasonably ask the Board for that large authority, but he wished it to be understood that, if there were any proposal for | expenditure which would entail an application to the bank or to the Government, he would enter a protest, and hold himself free to resign his post if the vote of the Board went against him. His attitude is the outcome, he explained very clearly, of bis anxiety "to keep the finances of the Board in such a position that they will never be placed under the necessity of going either [ to a political body or a commercial j body for assistance." The public will, we are sure, be astonished ! that any exception should have been taken either to the Chairman's policy or to hiß announcement of the attitude which, if elected, he would feel himself bound to take up. To the tender sensibilities of Dr. Findlay, however, Mr. Brandon's statement came with the shock of "a threat"! Neither common sense nor the common meaning of words can denounce as "a threat" to the Board the simple announcement by i the Chairman that if he were elected he would follow "a certain course. ' One might just as reasonably say that Dr. Findlay, if contesting a seat in the House of Representatives, would be improperly "threatening" the electors if he were to announce that if returned he would vote for the leasehold. It is equally wrong to say that by frankly stating his policy prior to being nominated Mr. Brandon was claiming "some over-riding judgment, some overriding discretion." Why, Mr. Brandon asserted nothing but his I subordination to the majority. Dr. [ Newman, in a political analogy too delightful to appear quite as innocent as it might have been, put tho' position of the Chairman very clearly indeed. "If," he said, "the Government brought down a measure to which Dr. Findlay was opposed, and of which he disapproved, would not Dr. Findlay consider it aa in his power to resign?" To this arguTn&ntum ad hominem, the At-torney-General could only^reply: "I should not make it a threat at the time of my appointment." This is, of course, no answer at all. It does not destroy Dr. Newhah'b defence of Mr. Brandon's attitude; it merely serves to throw an interesting light on Dr, Findlay's naive idea as to the duty of a Minister of the Crown.

Of courso Mr, Brandon was right; and right, not only in placing his position clearly before the Board, but in condemning by implication the policy of recklessness that in these days of State subsidies and Government grants has a fatal fascination for public bodies of all kinds. It is refreshing, in a day when prudence and self-help have almost disappeared from the list of public and semi-public virtues, to find anybody courageous enoujri to

express a preference for self-reliance and independence of the State. When there are upon the Board of Governors members who are as unable as some showed themselves yesday to get a clear grasp of the principles of quite an easy situation, we are bound to say that Me. Brandon's anxiety is not without foundation. Every. friend of the college must desire that it shall not be reduced to an undignified dependence upon the Government for charitable doles.