VICTORIA COLLEGE

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 187, 7 May 1934, Page 10

VICTORIA COLLEGE

Foundation Professors HONOURED BY STUDENTS Presentation of .Portraits Past and present students of Victoria University College assembled in the college library on Saturday morning to do honour to the four foundation professors of the institution—Professors J. Raifkine Brown, 11. Mackenzie, T. 11. Easterfield. and R. C. Maclaurin—who 35 years ago so well laid the foundations of higher education in ■Wellington. The occasion was the official presentation to the college of portraits in oils of the four professors, the presentation having been made possible by the initiative of Mr. G. F. Dixon, a former student. The pictures were received by Mr. I’. Levi, chairman of the College Council, on behalf of the college, the presentation being made by Mr. A. H. Johnstone, K.C.. of Auckland, a distinguished graduate. The proceedings opened with the singing of the National Anthem, and the gathering stood in silence while Mr. W. Perry, a graduate of the college, placed a wreath at the foot of the memorial window. The students then sang the college song “Absent Friends.’’ Mr. Johnstone said that more than 36 years ago the college was founded by Act of Parliament. The Act in its preamble stated that its object was to promote higher education by the establishment of a college at Wellington in, commemoration of the sixtieth year of the reign of her Majesty Queen Victoria. and having incorporated the college and having constituted the college council, and the professorial board, the Act proceeded to make the following financial arrangements:—(a) For the taking of reasonable fees from the students; (b) for the payment by the Colonial Treasurer from the Consolidated Fund of the annual sum of £4000: (c) for the setting apart as an endowment of 4000 acres of unproductive land. These arrangements were hopelessly Inadequate. There was no provision for . buildings, library, or equipment, and although there was soon the nucleus of a library, thanks to the generosity of members of the staff the equipment was gradually acquired, it was not for several years that the college had a home of its own. Serious Difficulties. Mr. Johnstone said that the council was not deterred by those serious difficulties, but determined, according to an account contained in an old calendar, to begin, not by pressing for buildings and equipment, but by the appointment of four professors for the chairs of classics, English language and literature, chemistry and physics, and mathematics, and the following were appointed: Classics, Professors John Rankine Brown, M.A. (St. Andrews and Oxford) ; English language and literature, Professor Hugh Mackenzie, M.A. (St. Andrews); chemistry and physics, Professor Thomas Hill Easterfield, M.A. (Cambridge), Ph.D. (Wurzburgh) ; and mathematics, Professor Richard Cockburn Maclaurin, M.A. (New Zealand and Cambridge). LL.M. (Cambridge). “The four professors,” said Mr Johnstone, “had come from ancient and richly endowed seats of learning, from associations of culture, and firm mouldering halls and the glory of gardens They came to a place where higher learning was but little esteemed, where they were obliged to work in uncon. genial surroundings and under every conceivable handicap. “Professor Maclaurin was the firslj tn leave us. Me was a man of brilliant attainments and an inspiring leader. He proved later to be a great educational organiser as well. He had won high distinction at Cambridge, both in mathematics and in law. He was both .Smith’s Prizeman and Yorke Prizeman, and he taught each with equal ease. The University of Cambridge honoured him with doctorates in science and law and he held many other academic distinctions. He was president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology when he died in 1920 in the 49th year ot his age. Many of us have good cause to remember with gratitude this largehearted. genial, and kindly man. Three Surviving Professors. “Of the professors still with us it I's of course more difficult to speak. Professor Easterfield went to the Cawthron Institute in 1920, to our great regret, and became emeritus professor. For several years he carried on almost the whole of the scientific work of the college. He is too well known as a chemist and as an expert witness to need any commendation here, but it should not. be forgotten that he is an able physicist as well. It was he who was responsible for the free translation of the college motto—‘Wisdom is to be sought for the sake of more gold.’ , “Professor Brown is a ripe scholar steeped in the classics. He has taught the classics here for full thirty-four years, and is still teaching. In ’he early days he taught French as well. ■ He has taken a prominent part in the affairs of the University of New Zealand. and has been honoured by bis own University of St. Andrews. To him we are indebted for our college song. He was always ready to listen, to help us. and ever ready to listen patiently to complaints. A lady student onee complained that he had commented rather severely on a translation of tiers from Latin to English. The professor maintained his ground, and at length she retorted, ‘Oh. well. I copied it straight out from a crib.’ “Professor Mackenzie has for the same period taught the beauties of our own incomparable language, and in his earlier days he taught philosophy as well. I was the member of a philosophy class of which the professor was not proud, and he had no reason to he so. Two of us went up for the degree examinations. We were examined by Professor Laird and passed with fair marks. Professor Mackenzie mentioned this strange circumstance to his class the following year, nnd added. ‘Aon know Laird is a very old man.’ lie is a most kindly and helpful teaeh-'r and a lover of freedom A Friendly Gesture. “I suppose that anyone who docs his | allotted task conscientiously may rightly be careless of the opinions of others, but I venture to think that it must be some satisfaction to a professor that his students have not. been ungrateful. I think I speak for the whole student, body when I say that they have not been ungrateful. It was left to thq kindliest of all students. Mr. G. F. Dixon, to evolve the mode whereby vur gratitude might in some measure be expressed. It was he who thought that steps should he taken to procure the portraits which at the request of my fellow-subscribers I am about to present to the college. “There was no difficulty in obtaining

the portraits of Professors Brown. Easterfield. and Mackenzie, but in the case of Professor Maclaurin tlicre was no material in New Zealand from which the artist could work. Mr. Dixon then communicated with the Massachusetts Institute, with the result that the portrait of Professor Maclaurin was presented to use by that great institution. 55 r e have accepted the gift in the kindly spirit in which it was made. It was a friendly gesture by a great Americgn educational body to perpetuate the memory of a man who had served both with the utmost distinction. Laid Foundations Sure. "Each of these professors in his time served Victoria College faithfully and well. The world has changed rapidly since they came to ns. 5Ve were then at the close of the s’ictorian era. The South African sVar had not broken our, the social revolution which followed had not commenced, there were no motor-ears, wireless, or aeroplanes, and the Great sVar was 15 years away, but throughout these mundane mutations they held aloft the lamp of knowledge and taught the truth as they knew .t ‘Two men.’eays Carlyle, ‘I honour, and no third. First.the toil-worn craftsman that with earth-made implement laboriously conquers the earth and makes her man’s. A second man I honour, and still more highly. Him who is seen working for the spiritually indispensable—not daily bread, but the bread of lite. These two in all their degrees I honour. All else is chaff and dust, which let the wind blow whither it lisfetli.’ "They have taught the truth’ have dispensed the spiritually indispensable, and have broken the bread of life. Representatives of every generation ef students who have passed through these halls return to-day to pay them respect and to do them honour. And now on behalf of the subscribers I band over these portraits to you to keep them as an inspiration to all professors and students who may henceforth work within these walls, and as a witness that the first four professors of this college—each in his several way—adorned the peerless profession of teaching. They laid the foundations sure They withal kept themselves humble in mind, avoiding all self-seeking and vanity. And of such is the salt of the earth.”