LACK OF FUNDS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 45, 21 August 1913, Page 4

LACK OF FUNDS

POSITION OF VICTORIA COLLEGE INSPECTOR-GENERAL'S PROPOSALS EOUNDLY CONDEMNED BY COUNCIL. PROTEST TO BE MADE TO GOVERNMENT. The parlous state of the finances of Victoria College was discussed at the meeting of the council last evening. The topic arose out of a letter received from Mr. G. M. Thomson, M.P., Chairman of the Education Committee of the House of Representatives, to the effect that the committee had under consideration the report of Mr. G. Hogben, In-spector-General of Schools, on the University Colleges of New Zealand, and would be glad if the council had any further information it could give with regard to the financial requirements of the colleges, and Victoria College in particular. The chairman (Mr. H S. Ostler) explained that, as the matter was of great urgency, he had immediately replied, forwarding " the following documents :->-(l)^A summary of additions received to revenue. (2) The memorandum drawn up for submission to the Macarthy Trustees. (3) An estimate of the receipts and expenditure for the year ending 31st March, 1914: Statement No. 1, said Mr. Ostler's letter, iraß drawn up some two years ago, and was presented to the Government, but no action was taken upon it; statement No. 2 had been carefully\prepared to show what were now the-^eeds of the college in order to place it in a position for carrying out the work which should be done by a University College in a thoroughly efficient manner; and No. 3, as an estimate of receipts and expenditure for the' twelve months ending 31st March, 1914, showed that the council after this year could not carry on its work without increased revenue, as at present the estimate showed a deficiency of'£9l9oslod. ' It had become absolutely necessary to provide the Registrar with a clerk. The Registrar had had yearly increasing burdens of work laid on him, and received no greater salary than when the college started, with five professors and 115 students He still car-ried-out- all the increased work caused by the growth of the college to a teaching staff of nearly 30 and nearly 500 students. The caretaker also required assistance. A clerk and an assistant would entail an extra expense of about £300 a year, which would mean that next year, unless increased revenue was obtained, there would be a loss of £1200. The council could not, of course, carry on its work in such conditions The Chairman then went on to touch on certain points in the Inspector-Gen-eral's report, which he said had been in circulation for some months. At first, he «xpl»ined, he had not examined it very closely, and thought the proposals were going to benefit the council's funds. However, at the request of the Professorial Board, he had attended a meeting at which it was discussed, and from what was said there he began to see that if the report were adopted a very grave injury was going to be done to the colleg©. Since then he had taken the trouble to consider the report very closely, and Professor L»by and Professor Picken had attended a meeting of the Finance Committee, and had explained the proposals. After that explanation he had come to the conclusion that the adoption of the report by the Government would be very dangerqus to the college. Without going into any very detailed criticism he wished to point out a few details in which the proposals would be injurious. AN UNFAIR APPORTIONMENT. The critici«m to be levelled against the report, Mr. Ostler added, could be divided into two heads. The first was a comparative criticism (the treatment accorded the Victoria , College as compared with, other colleges) and a positive criticism. \The danger was that if the report were adopted it would stereotype the position for perhaps ten or twenty yearn. In th« first place it was proposed to do away with special grants for th© subjects of law^ and science which the college had had ever since its commencement. It was rather extraordinarily inconsistent in this connection that while the In-spector-General recognised the principle of specialisation and proposed' that large grants should be given to Canterbury and Otago, so that their colleges should be kept special colleges in which subjects were taught tjhicb were not taught in any other universities, the £2000 given for law and science to the Victoria College should be taken away and distributed among all four universities. The council could not object to law and science being taught in other universities, but, as the professors had pointed out, if the special grant were taken away it would mean that the standard of teaching would be lowered from the standard it was the id«al at present to attain. Not only that, but in proportion to the population of the district, the number of schools, pimary and secondary, and the number of students who attended their university college, the amount it was proposed to grant was altogether inadequate. The positobn in regard to the university colleges was very well explained in a. letter contributed to the Evening Post on 19th August : — Mr. R. M'Callum, M.P. : The writer wilt be hauled over the coals for it! Continuing, Mr. Ostler, proceeded to deal with the grants on a proportional basis. Worked out the figures showed that the South Island received two-third 3 and the North Island one-third. This meant £1 a head for every twenty-three people in the North Island and £1 for every nine persons in the South bland under the proposed scheme. Mr. A. R. Atkinson : It will get worse every year. The Chairman : Of course it will. The tendency is for the people to drift to the ,North. NIGHT AND DAY SESSIONS PROPOSKD. Dealing with what he termed a positive criticism, Mr. Ostler- said that apart from the proportional injustice that would be done to the North Island colleges, it would be remembered that the council had recently held a conference with the Professorial Board in regard to the Macarthy Trust Fund, and it had been decided that the most necessary scheme was to turn the college into a day college so as to raise the standard ' Mr. W. Ferguson : Not to turn it into a day college, but to supplement the night teaching with day teaching. The Chairman : Yes, to turn it into a day and night college, but Mr. Hogben proposes to let it remain a night college. Again referring to finance the Chair* man said that the Government grant this year was £7500, but another £1000 had been added to the Estimates as the result of a deputation waiting on the Minister. If this latter amount were passed it would mean a total grant of £8500. Mr. Hogb-r. however, proposed to cut the yearly grant down by Mr. A. T. Maginnity: Under another

recommendation we will get an extra £2500. The Chairman : "Yes ; I'll come to that." Proceeding, he said that Mr. Hogben's report stated that the decrease would be made up by an increase in fees. The increase in fees this year j was £300, and if the scheme were adopted it would mean that the council would still be £1200 short. Although there would be an increase next year the most they could hope it to be would be ju6oO— still £900 to the bad. It was proposed, further, to set aside a third of the revenue from the national endowments now allocated to education for the purposes of higher education— say one-third of £45,000, which meant £15,000. Ten thousand pounds of this was to be divided equally among the four University colleges (£2500 each), and the balance of £bUUO was to be set aside to be held in trust by the University of NeW Zealand for the colleges. If the report were acted on by Parliament it would mean that the council would have U> t spend the money under Mr. Hogben's direction, instead of nsing its own discretion, and this method would reduce'the council's functions to the automatic passing of accounts. Mr, Maginnity : Just the functions an Education Board has at present. A WRONG PRINCIPLE. Another dangerous heresy, added Mn Ostler, was that all salaries in regard to future increases in the staff would have to be paid out of the fee 3. That principle was very much analogous to the principle that the primary and •secondary school teachers, were complaining about from one end of the •Dominion' to the other in regard to being paid by average attendances. Take a concrete instance : If a class of 33 students in mathematics, for instance, paid fees amounting to £100, and the class increased to 200, the fees would be £200 — a sum quite inadequate to provide double teaching. Reverting to the proposal that £10,000 of the national endowments should be divided among the colleges, and £5000 held by the University of New Zealand, Mr. Ostler said the position would be that the council would have to go cap in hand to the Senate for any extra grant. The council was quite capable of exercising its own judgment. Why should Mr. Hogben say that they should have to go to the Senate? Mr. M'Oallum : Because Mr. Hogben is on it. "If this report is adopted," concluded Mr. Ostler, " there will be a real danger to the finances of the college." " IMPOSSIBLE TO CARRY ON." | Mr. Maginnity said he took it that ! they were not going to make any very large increase in fees from extra students. They had pretty well reached the maximum of their earning powers, and if their grant was going to be cut down to the extent of £1500 a year they would be in such financial stress that it would be impossible for them to carry on. A question of vital importance was the one of future control. That must be 'settled once and for all. He had the greatest regard for Mr. Hogben, but his policy seemed to be to centralise everything in the Education Department. The matter was one of such importance that a committee should be set up to go folly into the proposals seriatim. ' The Chairman moved— "That the council at once take steps to protest before the Education Committee of* the House against the adoption of the proposals for the future finance of the college contained lft the .reoort of Mr. Hogben, and that a committee, consisting of the mover, Mr. C. Watson, and Mr. T. R. Fleming, be set up to fully consider the report. The motion was seconded. MR. HOGBEN NOT TO BLAME. Mr. C. Wilson contended that, Mr. Hogben was not to blame — he was really only the figurehead of the Education Department. They should not necessarily attack the Inspector-General on the whole report. It was rather an open question as to whether other colleges should not be considered besides Wellington. It was, further, a question • of whether they were not making a mistake in keeping Open their science school, which was most expensive and from which they got such barren results. Points like these could be raised by Mr. Hogben. Dr. Prendergast Knight warmly protested against the attack on their science department. Mr. Wilson : I did not attack it. Dr. Knight : We might not have the large number of students, but we have the quality in the work. Considering the handicap of the syllabus the professors have to work under, we have had very good results. Mr. J. 'Fleming pointed out that if Otago and Canterbury had been more successful it was probably because, being r.aj colleges, the students had had more time to study. Mr. Wilson was-^sked by the chairman if he wished to move an amendment, but he replied in the negative. The motion was then put and carried unanimously.