CAPPING CEREMONY

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3118, 23 June 1917, Page 6

CAPPING CEREMONY

VICTORIA COLLEGE GRADUATES Tlie annual capping ceremony in connection with the Victoria College took placo in tho Town Hall lust night. Tlio graduates, undergraduates, and student*;, with their friends, occupied tho body of tho hall. Mr. Cleinout Watson, chairman of tho Collego Council, presided, and ■with him on tho platform were His Excellency the Governor (Lord Liverpool), tho lion. A. L. Herdman (AttorneyGonoral), tho Mayor of Wellington (Mr. J. P. Luke, CM.tr.), and membors of tho Professorial Board nnd the College Council. Tho students had armed themselves with whistles, a gong, and a few topical vorses, and they became noisy at intervals during tho evening. But tho effort to uphold the traditions of Capping Day in this respect was not very successful. Tho chief speaker was tho AttorneyGenoral (the Hon. A. L. Herdman), whoso references to Imperial matters are reported in another column. Tlie chairman said that on boiialf of the council ho offered the graduntes hearty congratulations and all good wishes for their future careers. They were entitled to the public recognition that was being given them that evening. Tho year had been a successful year for the college in epite of tho steady drain upon tho students and tho staff caused by the war. Mpro than 400 past .and present students of tho college had gone to the front, and some of them would never return. The movement to the front-had groatly reduced the number of students and the strength of tho staff, and the year had been one of difficulty for the College Council. Ho referred to tho fact that fifteen Rhodes scholars had already fallen at the front, two of them from New Zealand. . One of these heroes had been the late Athol Hudson, of Victoria College. When tho war ended many of fhe students now facing the enemy would return to their studies, and it would be for the Dominion to decide whether adequate provision should be made for them. One of the lessons of the war was that the means of education must not be neglected or provided grudgingly. He did not think that New Zealand would be guilty of stinting in educational expenditure, but it might make the mistake of placing too much stress on tho material side of education, forgetting that there wore spheres of knowledge more important thau trade and finance.

Tho chairman continued his remarks ou educational questions to the accompaniment of concerted sneezes, loud snores, and occasional comments from tho students. One of the interruptions was a 6hout, "How long, 0 Lord, how long." Tho Attorney-General said that he joined in congratulating the graduates of the college. He was. very pleased to see that one of the graduates was a. soldier who had been to the front, and had returned to tho Dominion in time to receive his diploma. Tho graduates were then, called to the platform one by one and presented to the Governor and the Countess of Liverpool. They included half a dozen men in uniform. The names of the new graduates were as follow :— Masters of Arts (with Honours).— •Catherine C. Braddock, \yilliani H. Gould, Selina R. Oliver, Eileen N. Sampson, Olive B. Sutherland, Roland D. Thompson. ("Jacob Joseph scholar.) Masters of Arts.—Fanny L. Ross, Albert H. Tocker. Bachelors of Arts.—Ethel M. W. Bell, Edith J. Crawford, Joseph J. Cullen, Eileen M. Duggan, Leonora J. Frayne, ■Dorothy F. E. Junker, Thomas Lyons, Annie C. W. S. Mackenzie, tHugo A. Mackenzie, James M'Master, I-eonard J. O'Connell, Robert B. Ryder, tConstance H Shields, Francis A. Tocker, Irene G. Webb, William H. Cocker (Canterbury College), Geoffrey A. Revell (Canterbury College), Maxwell E. Holgate (Otago University). (tSenior scholars.) Bachelor o£ Science.—Ernest Glynn Jones. , Masters of Laws (with Honours).—Carl A. Berondsen, Henry H. Cornish, Oswald £' Mazengarb. . Master of Laws.—Robert William M'Connell. ' Bachelors of Laws.—Harry D. Chrisp, Frederick G. Hall-Jones, Joseph W. A. Heenan, Eric W. Inder, Leyon M. Moss, Samuel J. Poole, Lancelot A. Rogers, James M'C. Tudhope, William H. Cocker (Canterbury College). Lord Liverpool also spoko briefly. Ho extended his congratulations to the graduates, and reminded them that their Capping Day was tho anniversary of the coronation of King George.

During the ovening college songs and choruses wero sung by the students.