“TORTURE CHAMBER”

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 222, 16 June 1930, Page 12

“TORTURE CHAMBER”

Conduct of Examinations STUDENTS CRITICISM Some amusing instances of the lesser trials most students have gone through in the examination room, otherwise the “torture chamber,” were given at the University capping ceremony at Auckland on Friday by Mr. J. N. Wilson, president of the Auckland University College Students’ Association. Mr. Wilson said that the University of New Zealand was merely an examining body, and it might be expected to function with some degree of efficiency, but that was not the case. The examinations were most inefficiently conducted. If an examinee wanted more paper during an examination he was allowed to. obtain only one sheet at a time, which caused much interruption and delay when a man was .working against time at the close of a subject. No paper was allowed for scribbling or making rough drafts of answers. Every stroke written by the candidate had to be submitted to the examiner, and even blotting paper had been known to be collected. Sometimes, for good measure, the wrong paper was issued, or the right one was found to have been wrongly printed. Sometimes, even, a candidate might present himself and find that no paper had been set in that subject.

Sir George Fowlds, the president of the A.U.C., said the New Zealand University was trying to carry out an impossible task, and he felt that the time was coining when there should be four universities, one for each of the four large centres; or a University of North New Zealand, embracing Victoria and Auckland University Colleges and the Massey Agricultural College. The latter course-was the one he himself favoured. ‘