Evening Post. TUESDAY, MAY 20, 1879. THE WELLINGTON COLLEGE.

Evening Post, Volume XVII, Issue 514, 20 May 1879, Page 2

Evening Post. TUESDAY, MAY 20, 1879. THE WELLINGTON COLLEGE.

The embarrassments of the Wellington College have attracted a good deal of notice — not altogether of the moat friendly kind — in various parts of the Colony. The Wanganui Herald, for instance, pleasantly remarks : — "That wretched institution, the Wellington College, is again in trouble, and its Governors are pestering the life out of the Colonial Treasurer to relieve it from the difficulties brought about by their own want of business capacity and long course of mismanagement." In view of the relations supposed to subsist between that paper and the Colonial Treasurer this amiable exordium does not look like a very cheerful prelude to cordial assistance from the Government next Session, bnt let that pass. The sentence which we have quoted forms, however, a convenient text for some observations relative to what our Wanganui contemporary in such a kindly spirit of candid friendship calls " That wretched institution, the Wellington College." One of the College Governors, the Rev. J. Paterson, recently haa alleged that "the College has very seriously Buffered from the repeated attacks in the Press." He adds, •' Surely it is an unworthy thing to run down the institutions of our city." Now we must join issue distinctly with Mr. Patbrson on this head. We freely admit that some scurrilous attacks and false accusations which have been made in certain obscure quarters and which lie thoroughly exposes, are "unworthy " and disgraceful. It ia not with these, however, that we have now to deal ; coming from Buch a quarter they carried no weight, but bore their own refutation. Mr. JPaterson, however, is inaccurate in his statement that the Press generally has ' ' attacked" the institution itself. On the contrary what has been "attacked," severely and most deservedly, is the gross neglect and mismanagement of the institution on the part of the Board of Governors, in consequence of which neglect and mismanagement the institution has been brought into a miserable condition of decay and abject mendicancy. The feeling almost universally expressed by the Press has been one of deep regret that so valuable and important au institution as the College ought to be and might be should have been driven into such serious difficulties through the grievou3 muddling of those to whom the direction of its affairs was entrusted. It is useless j for the College Governors to deny that they have been in fault ; idle for one of owr morning contemporaries to turn round and declare that the Governors have been " only Blightly to blame" for the present I embarrassments. .Nobody who possesses ' any acquaintance with the history of the College can acquit the Governors oE responsibility for its misfortunes. It is quite true that its endowments are deplorably inadequate, especially as compared with those of some kindred institutions which have been held up as models on account of their superior success. Again, a considerable proportion of even these inadequate endowments might just as well be non-existent, it being impossible to lease them on the terms the lessors are able to offer, while they cannot be sold, and the proceeds re-invested more profitably, btill the Governors took office in the full knowledge of these facts, and entirely accepted the position. Instead of making the best of it, exercising strict economy and careful vigilance in all the affairs of the College, they displayed the most utter apathy and indifference, only occasionally arousing themselves from their lethargy to perpetrate some singular indiscretion or other. Well aware of the limited extent of their means, they erected a costly and in many respects unsuitable building, and engaged masters at high salaries, apparently in total disregard of the fact that their income would not meet the expenditure they had ordered. It was notorious that the boarding department, which, in all other large schools and colleges, forms a very important element — in fact, the nucleus, to which the rest is merely the complement — had Droved the reverse of successful at the Wellington College. To this unfavorable result the fever outbreak several years »go, the exposure by Dr. Diver and Mr. Travers of the defective sanitary arrangements, and the weakness exhibited by the Governors in dealing with the matter, doubtless materially contributed. Then the injudicious severity of the Principal in the celebrated Turnbull flogging case, and the lamentable weakness again shown by the Governors when the case was brought before them, still further tended to impair the popularity of the College, and consequently, as in the former case, to reduce its income. Yet, in the face of all these f»ot8, which were patent to everybody, and notwithstanding that the steady decadence of the institution was a sub.

I jecfc of notoriety, both in and out lof Wellington, the Governors could " not bring themselves to face the difficulty boldly. WAether they were careless and indifferent or lacked the necessary moral conrage matters not. The result was the same — the College went steadily downwards. Times out of number meetings of the Board were called, but the Governors took good care not to attend in sufficient numbers to form a quorum. If by accident a bare quorum happened to be'present, one of the Board speedily discovered that he had most pressing business to attend to elsewhere and could not remain. In this way things went on for some years, the Board meetings usually lapsing for want of a quorum, and when by some fortuitous occurrence this was nob the case only the ordinary routine business " of steadily "outrunning the constable" was transacted. Whenever the Board were compelled to take some notice of the constantly increasing difficultiea ef the institution, representatives of the Press were promptly excluded, while some temporising makeshift was arranged in secret conclave. Mr. Patebsoh says that, " Though reporters were not always present, the Governors believed the publio would give them credit for honesty of purpose and for trying to do their best to further the interests of the institution." We can only say that in view of the past action of the - Governors this "belief" argued remarkable credulity on their part and a most touching faith in the trustfulness and, we may add, the obtuseness of the public. At the same time we freely admit that Mr. Paterson himself was an exception to the rule of non-attendance at Board meetings, and often vainly tried to collect a quorum of hia brother Governors; but he is only "the exception which preves the rule." The fact remains that the Governors could not be induced to meet and face their position. Had they done so fairly, there would have been no difficulty in effecting satisfactory arrangements. But they allowed things to go from bad to worse, until they recently culminated in something very like a complete dead-lock, from which only the chance presence in Wellington of a monied visitor enabled the Governors temporarily to extricate themselves at ruinous cost in the way of interest. We have entered into these details at some length in order to make clear the justice of our assertion that we did not "run down the institution of our city," as alleged by Mr. Patersoit, but simply condemned and deplored the wretched mismanagement and neglect of that institution in the past by its Board of Governors. We are very glad to see and cordially recognise that the Governors now are making earnest and strenuous efforts to retrieve their past faults, and we feel sure those efforts will be appreciated and supported by the public. While we deprecate the apparent injustice done to certain maskers whose services were dispensed with, although no complaint was made against them, we freely admit the ability and unexceptionable qualifications of those gentlemen chosen to succeed them. The only objection which could be raised to Mr. Kirk's re-appointment as science lecturer is that possibly the same end might be attained at less expense. Had the Governors always displayed the same earnestness and care for the interests of the institution as they do now, they would not have been liable to the severe cenßure which they have received from the Press and public, while the College would have been in a very different position, and we feel sure that their newborn zeal will receive cordial support and hearty encouragement .at the handß of the publio and the Prese.