NOTABLE ADDRESS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 153, 28 June 1912, Page 7

NOTABLE ADDRESS

AMERICAN AMBASSADOR'S FAREWELL MR. BRYCE ON OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM CAPPING CEREMONY TO BE REMEM'3EBED. Conspicuous am /> ng the many distinguished figure* c n the platform of th» Town Hall at t! w Victoria College Capping Ceremony to-day was that of the Right Hon. J&mca Bryco, British Ambassador to ■»&« United States. In bidding farew<f jl to New Zealand, for he leaves for Australia this afternoon. h« delivered ft speech whic h will i ong be remombe re d by his hearers for ite wisdom ami eloquence. Even the hundred, of stu'JenW who crowded the gallery, forgot, for Once t j,eir prejogativ© to banW and heckle, and listened raptly to •■ewsry word. At the end they got up P«nd cheered the spei^er with the utmost enthusiasm. The scone wa§ unique, at "Capping Ceremonies. The Ambassador opened with a gently humorous reference to the compliments paid to him by His Excellency the Governor— compliments he modestly ' deprecated, ac prompted rather by old friendship" than a strict adherence to the literal truth. "I & lft ashamed," continued Mr. Bryce, "to think of how many speeches I We made during the last thirty years ; I ought to be th©Ma«t pei-son to inflict a long speech on a youthful audience." (Hear, hear, from the students.) "Graduation at a university," he proceeded, "it not the end of education but the beginning. The greatest use of a university is to teach us how to educate ourselves and make life one long process of education. 1 often think in this connection of that wiee saying of an old and famous man, ' I will dio always learning,' for learriing only ends with life. The best tribute you can pay to a university ton- what it has don© for you is to culti vat© a desire for knowledge 'and a love of truth right to the vtfry end of your life " (Applause.) PARLIAMENT AND UNIVERSITY. After a reference to the special charm and interest lent to university life by the presence of ladies in the colleges, Mi 1 . Bryce urged that there should be a close connection between the university of New Zealand and the Parliament of the Dominion. (A voice: No.) "It seeme • to me," said the Ambassador, "that it would be of the greatest value and importance to the Parliament of this great Dominion, if it always included among ite members a large proportion of those , who had studied at its colleges and graduated in its university. They would bring to the deliberations of the Legislature that full knowledge and that habit of accurate and careful thought so muck needed in the work of legislation. (Applause.) May I venture to express a hope that many of those present to-d&y will offer themselves later for public life as candidates for Parliament, where they may hold an honourable and useful place in the deliberationa of the Legislative Assembly." (Applause.) LOCAL PROBLEMS. The problems of university education next received th© attention of the speaker, who referred to the difficulty of allocating the various studies competingfor a place in the University curriculum. New Zealand had its own peculiar university problems. How could they reconcile, for instance, the claims of the four , cities and their colleges with tho necessity for the highest and th© beet kind of teaching in ©very department? They had to spread their worlj, efforts, and money over four university institutions, whereas in England there was proportionately a smaller number of universities on which efforts could be concentrated. There was also the difficulty of the remoteness of the Dominion from. I Europe. "You are producing," said Mr. I Bryce, "and you hay© produced, nmny men of high capacity and liigh promise. I might mention two— Professor Rutherford and Professor M'Laurin — (applause) —men in the front rank of scientific advancement. These men. ar© drawn away to Europe and America by the somewhat larger salaries and larger scope— lai'gev than th© Dominion offers. It is a great pity such men should be lost to the Dominion. (Hear, hear.) It is a pity that such men should be lost to the land of their birth." (Hear, hear.) Those were only two of the difficult problems of University education in NewZealand. Then there was the difficulty that the Examining Board of the University was not in so close connection as some would like to bo© with the teaching work of the colleges. -It was a difficult problem to adjust University teaching to th© peculiar needs of New Zealand. "I earnestly hope," said his Excellency, "and indeed know, that your Govern' v ment and the public opinion which should guide ©very government in a ft* o country like this will address themselves in all seriousness to consider what should be done to put University education in New Zealand on the most permanent and best kind of footing. 1 earnestly trust that public attention will never be diverted from, this subject, until those problems have been solved in. sonic satisfactory manner." (Applause.) VALUABLE SUGGESTIONS. "It is not for me," he continued, "* comparative stranger among you, to giv« any advice and counsel on these difficult questions. But I may, perhaps, b& allowed to make three remarks based in some measure from ' what 1 hay© been able to learn about conditions in New Zealand and from what 1 have seen at Horn©, in Canada^ and in th© United States, where University problems arc sufficiently like your problems in your University, for m« to speak with somtf'' confidence." "First it seems to me here in. New Zealand you will be obliged to try speoialising work > in each of the four colleges. The difficulty of concentrating nil efforts on the Ixwt teaching on one fully equipped University of the highest order is obvious in n country the shape of New Zealand, where there are four centres of population each with independent int-et-ests. It would be difficult hero to create one great University out of its fouv constituent colleges. If thftt <-annot b» done what is the next best course? 1 would suggest that each of these four colleges form .some special field of activity in, ■which it might attain the highest, excellence, so.tllat^ instead of having four Universities ithperfectly equipped ill fill departments^ you would have four colleges each q{ tho highest cquipihe-nt in some- particular department, which iniglit b« cultivated to the finest possible efficiency^ It is not a necessity of University life that A man should continue from the beginning to the end of it in on© place— one University. In Germany it has long been th© practice to begin a course in one University and to go on to another, and so on to a third. This could be easily done in New Zealand. You could have, »m you have now, your medical lnculty highly equipped concentrated in Dunedin (""iii Auckland you might hay© youv school of mines and engineering of the higher

efficiency; is Christchurch your faculty of "agricultniie ; and at Victoria College jour school oi law, practical economics, sukF finance." - "These are merely illustrations," explained 'Mr. Bryce, "to show how it c&n be done. Let me say ' in paceing, Ihowever, thati it has been very strongly iborne upon' me in New Zealand how gjreat the importance is of creating in a. .^lftfrry like this Dominion an agricultural collegte of the highest possible "Excellence. (SHie Governor: "Hear, ihear.") You have got in New Zealand agricultural resources hardly equalled land certainly not- surpassed in any part Of the Empire. (Applause.) It *is for you to endeavour to use those resources *o the utmost. Thtfe is no truth greater $ian the supreme innportaaice of cultivating science for the purposes of agriculture. (Applause.) If "there were a mem|>er of your Legislature present I would Siell him there was no service that Legislature could render New Zealand than to make most liberal grants for an agricultural college on wise lines of the •highest efficiency. (Applause.) This has lately been done in the linited States and the Dominion of Canadi\. and I can aipsure you that in many parts of both countries the produce of agricultural land •and the value of stock has been doubled within the last twenty years by the application of proper scientific methods." ' After further amplifying his segges♦ion6 for specialisation in the four University colleges, with -emphasis on the 'importance of providing also for history and modern languages, the AmIbassador introduced his second remark an' counsel not to let the practical eide i of University study overbear the theore- ] tical. After all, progress in practical ■ and technical science was based on the j "theory of things. It was through the cultivation of the mind and the developSnent of ite powers to the highest degree by which progress was made in applied and practical as well as theoretical science, that nations grew and adyanced. (Applauee.) BKAINS OF A NATION. Lastly, they should not forget the immense importance of the factor of ithe University in public life. "You have an immense number of difficult rproblems to deal with in New Zealand," he said, "and you are proud to try to solve problems that puzzle the ymole world. The University should not be disjoined from praotical life. The more you develop the brains of the nation^ the more you advance the nation ax a whole. You want to get tie ibesfc possible teaching, to stimulate thti life and thought of your young people irom one generation to another. The only way you can get the beet teachers is by paying them high salaries. ,You are in danger of losing your beet men to Europe and America, as you have loci Kutherfnrd and M'Laurin. You have 4h-e advantage of getting young aspiring men of ability out from Howe, but you must pay your professors well. I do hope the Legislature •will realise the importance of having the best colleges, and of getting the jbest possible teachers, and of retaining ihere men of the highest talents and intellectual powers." (Applause.) APPRECIATION AND FAREWELL. "I have only one word more to say," ♦aid Mi-. Eiryce. with some feeling. "T. have now been a month in New Zealand. I waa received here "with a kindness I can never forget. I have admired the frandeur of your scenery, which coinines the splendours of the SwLse Alps, ithe lovely colours of Scotland, and the glorious landscape of the Norwegianitoxds. 1 have never seen a country •where the beautiful hues of lake ana ) forest and sea and mountain blended lv »uch exquisite perfection. I have ad- j mired the wpnderful resources of this .Dominion, with, its rich soils, its climate, ] and variety of fruits. I have admired i th 3 wonderful possibilities of its waterjp&wer. I have admired the wisdom ot .your Legislature in endeavouring to set i apart some of the most beautiful scenery '< ■for the enjoyment of the nation in the J daye to come. No one who visits'" Now Zealand can fail to be struck by the marvellous future that lies before you. four population ]& of the purest British stock — a population which in the earlier ' days contained a laTge number of 'men of the highest patriotism, public spirit, and intellectual capacity. Many of their descendants are still among you — men whose traditions you will always cherish and value. (Applause.) Ladies and gentlemen, it is with a. sense of deep yride and deep thankfulness that the vieitoK from the Motherland comes to yonr country. It stirs him to see what deep attachment its people feel for the Mother Country and the Empire n& a whole. (Applause.) When I return to England and go to Canada. I ■waait to tell your friends of that sister Dominion and the people of the Old Land how strong a tie it is that binds you to them, as I tell you nov/, how »trong a tie it is that binds them to you." (Applause.) May I, as I have to quit New Zealand this afternoon to visit Australia, take thus opportunity ' of rendering thanks to all those "who received my .wife and myself no kindly in this country for their hearty kindness. May I say that the warmth ot your reception will never be effaced from our memories, j May I wish that all the prosperity a i beneficient Providence has showered on i this happy land may continue, and that a leading pi.it in the life of this country may fall to University and college. May I wish for their students a'career of hon- ; our and nsefulness in the lile of this ! great Dominion." (Loud and prolonged j applause and cheers.) i