THE STUDENTS' POINT OF VIEW.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1034, 25 January 1911, Page 8

THE STUDENTS' POINT OF VIEW.

CAPPING CEREMONIES. A PROFESSOR ON SPEECHIFYING, HOW THINGS AHE DONE AT CAMBRIDGE. (lly Telcgraph-Spcclal Corrißpondent.l ■* 1 Christchurch, January 24. Frofessor Haslani, of Canterbury College, in a letter to the "Press" regarding the attitude of a Senate towards Degree Day ceremonies, writes:— ''If Senators arrange to come down and 'improve' tho occasion' with speeches delivered by themselves or those whom they invite to do so, no authority ill tho world can ensure that an audience of undergraduates will remain silent or even patient if the speeches aro long and dull. I don't think one can blame tlio undergraduates. Nobody knows belter tuau I that sometimes they aro long and dull, .becruiso I've bad to make si>ccches my'self on these occasions, and havo al.wavs sympathised with those who had to listen to me. Of course, there have been good speeches occasionally, and -I -think such speeches have almost always been listened to attentively, but if some worthy ■Senator were to read off a type-written screed—half sermon, half lecture—in dogmatic style, full of extracts from French and'. German authors, whoso -names he 'could not pronounce, could you blames an audience of highly-educated young people-for resenting, such an. infliction? 'The fact is that the Senate and the undergraduates tako entirely opposite ; vicws of tho ceremony of conferring de-' agrees. 'The. Senate looks upon it as-.an occasion for speechifying about education; tho undergraduates regard it as an opportunity for the reunion of. old comrades for the public and friendly utterance of. good wishes and congratulations ; to -tho.so of their number who have happily steered [themselves into the untroubled waters of ■unexamined life,' and for tho generdl expression of collegiate esprit de corps. If this expression takes a somowhat boisterous sjftd."disorderly form 'sometimes, I .believe it is duo to an excessive and natural reaction from tho dullness of the ceremonial as it appears't'o' them. ' I do not mean to .say "that .this difference of -opinion justifies the undergraduates.in the introduction 1 -of more or less musical instruments,; or .crackers, or' pea-shooting (though'.the. latter is, or was, common at !Scotch, capping' ceremonies),- or in' seriously: 'disturbing* the - ceremony;-, but I do think that their, point, of .view is ivorth considering, and that ,is i boriio out iby the ceremony of conferring'degrees at' Cambridge,: and, I believe, at Oxford also. At the, regular 'congregations' of the year: at .Cambridge', \vhen degrees are .conferred on those who have passed their examinations, there -is- no speechifying. Each man is brought up to the ViccChanccllor along tho marble floor between the avenuo of statues and"Columns, and presented by the 'Father of his' College.' He kneels.. and nuts, his hands . between tho hands of . the Vice-Chancellor, who -.then admits him to his degree, in a set form of Latin, "In nomine Patris, et Filii, et-Spiritus.-Sancti.',* -

"This formula may bo varied, at tho option of the Vice-Chancellor, I believe, Crowded in the two loilg galleries abovo liim aro the undergraduate friends of himself ; and thoso who ~ are. , also being admitted. His friends above keep up an intermittent fire of jokes, more or less bad, but there is no' interruption, bccause . there is nothing . .that can bo interrupted, and no, loss of-dignity," because there is no rear collision between the authorities 'and - the - undergraduates. All the fun,, is impromptu:! 'There aro no carefully-prepared songs,, and . sometimes Olio hears a good joke. Onco, when the Senior Wrangler was a Jew, as -ho walked up the marble, floor there was a dead silenco for some seconds. -Nobody could think how to allude to his nationality without, perhaps, hurting his feelings, when, clear, upon the silence from a far off corner of -the .gallery came a voice: 'Abraham and his. seed for ever.' Only at tho 'congregations,' when illustrious people aro admitted to honorary degrees, is there speechifying', and then ill Latin, by the Public Orator, but unless the candidates aro very famous there is no great attendance of undergraduates. I am glad that the ceremony of publicly .conferring, degrees is not; to be suspended. I. think - the professors and'the undergraduates are really very good friends, and might agree on a 'modus operandi' for the''future. 'Let' tlio 'Senate drop the speechifying. Goodness knows, we get chances of lecturing'their youngsters and airing oiir ideas about their, education, let us simply call .them -np .-before their old. comrades and their old' teachers to give, (hem publicly the reward of their hard work' aniid the cheers- or harmless jokes of their friends;-, and wish them .God-speed ourselves at parting." > '