The Dominion. MONDAY, JULY 1, 1912. MR. BRYCE ON THE UNIVERSITY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1480, 1 July 1912, Page 4

The Dominion. MONDAY, JULY 1, 1912. MR. BRYCE ON THE UNIVERSITY.

''If one were asked to name the greatest living Englishman," wrote Mr. A. G. : -Gardiner in the Daily News a few weeks ago, "I" think'it would be necessary to admit, regretfully, that he was a Scotsman." He was referring' to the distinguished scholar and statesman who has just honoured New Zealand with a short visit. Perhaps Mr.' Gardiner sets Mr. Buyce in too high a place, but the fact that there are in Great Bri : tain men who are so truly great that Mr. Bryce would gladly sit at their feet is one that we in this young country, to which our visitor paid such a gracious and eloquent compliment on Friday, should remember a little more often than we do. If New Zealand enjoys advantages denied to Great Britain, she enjoys theni at tho price of doing without great men of her own breeding. Yet it is a pleasant reflection that Mr. Bryce's treatment demonstrated that New Zealand can at anyrate recognise and pay respect to the great-, ness that for most of us will always be something fine that is far away. Our visitor did not fail to pay us well for his entertainment. His speech to the College students on Friday is in every way stimulating , — whether you read it for the pleasure of seeing how a famous scholar and statesman thinks and uses the English language, or for the profit of knowing how our country struck him and how he our University problem. To a great many of our politicians the only University problem appears to bo the problem of giving "free" education to everybody, from the primary school up. To men like Mr. Bryce the real problem is another thing altogether. He regards graduation as, not tho end of education, but the beginning of it: "The greatest use of a University is to teach us how to educate ourselves and make life one long process of learning." He touched a weak spot' in our • Legislature, and perhaps a weak spot in our University, when he urged that there should be a close connection between the two, such a connection that Parliament would always include amongst its members a large proportion of University graduates. A great many people, in this country will refuse asaeijt to the implication that'tho work of government, even here (where government may appear to have little to do with the' principles that are the basis of all tne controversies in older States), is one which.can be better done by men whose minds have had a special training than by men who have picked up from their own experience rough and ready systems of their own. Mr. Biiyce did not develop his idea, since that might have led him into touching on specific public questions. ■ ' ' .

Of great intsrest and value n-orc Jus somnieats cm tha tho.

University. It is a commonplace that the best thing an able graduate can do who has specialised highly in scientific work is to leave Now" Zealand, since he cannot selj his intellectual wares'nt the price that New Zealand usually sots upon them. Although it is - true that the existence of four widely separated colleges in this country, each of ■ which is required to provide teaching , in practically all the subjects proscribed by the University, makes it difficult to •secure the very best teaching in them all; yet the total expenditure (public and private) on higher education licre is so large that a material increase in professorial salaries would not amount to a large percentage of the total.. It is surely singular that the average professor's salary is smaller to-day, by a good deal, we believe, than it was thirty or forty years ago. Only by paying generously for brains can brains worth getting bo got, and Mr. Bryce's plea tor a more generous finance deserves to bear.fruit. There could hardly be a more awkward setting for a University than New Zealand—a country a thousand miles lone, and yet containing fewer people than many a city in Europe and America. To Mr. Bryoe it seems clear that to' obtain_ the'best results specialising according to colleges is necessary.

I would suggest (he said) that each of. these four colleges form some special field of activity in which it might attain the highest excellence, so that, instead of having four universities inipcrfectlv equipped in oil departments, you would havo four colleges each of tho highest equipment in some particular department, which might be cultivated to the finest possiblo efficiency. It is not a necessity of university life that a man should continuo from the beginning to the end of it in ono place—one university. In Germany it I has long been tho practice to begin a course in one university and to go on to another, and so on to a third. This could k> easily done in New Zealand. You could have, as you havo now, your medical faculty highly equipped concentrated in Dunbdin; in Auckland you might havo your, school of mines and engineering of the highest efficiency; in Christchurch your faculty of agriculture! and , at Victoria College your school of law, practical economics, and finance.

Ol course there is already something of the kind, but what Mr. Bryce doubtless has in his mind is specialising of a broader and more thorough kind, which would involvo heavier expenditure in equipment and in salaries. The whole tning is\a matter of money; given the money, almost anything could be' done. It will be interesting to see whether, when the whole question is raised again, in the press and in Parliament, there will be a response to our visitor's appeal for greater generosity towards higher education. "The more you develop the brains of the nation, the more you advance the nation as a whole." One must be careful to distinguish, of course, between real brain development and a spurious imitation of it. Vast sums have been wasted by the State in the name of education, as the Education Commission will discover if it knows what education really is. Let this waste bu stopped, and there will be ready provided a handsome contribution towards making our University a living and effective force.