GRADUATION SPEECHES.

Evening Star, Issue 19001, 24 July 1925, Page 6

GRADUATION SPEECHES.

( The Otago University Council, staff, ! and students are to be congratulated on the undoubted success which attended . the Graduation ceremony yesterday. It I was a great honor to have the presence 1 of Sir Harry Roichel, principal of the I University College of North Wales, who participated in the proceedings by delivering the main address of the after- ! noon. * It is pleasing to note that our distinguished visitor was able to express himself so kindly of our dominion and | its educational life. Sir Harry naturally had little comment to make at this stage. But it was significant that the one° special impression he uttered was that the Commissioners “ had been 1 struck with the way in which examinar i tion seems to dominate the whole educational field, and with the zeal and capacity for hard work shown by young New' Zealanders, which often, alas! .loads them to work for examinations I under conditions that render university | study difficult, if not impossible.” This i was a salutary reminder on an occa- ! sion such as a graduation ceremony, 1 when the results of passing examinar j tions seem so much to the fore. Other visitors to New Zealand, however, have sounded the same note; so it is to bo hoped that those who lead in educational matters will give this matter earnest consideration. The competitive motive has undoubtedly Its place in education as in industry, but not to I the same extent. The best things are I clone when they are thought wmrth I doing for their own sake. That is j always so with real study, and especii ally with research. The Chancellor, Mr T. K. Sidoy, M.P., indirectly stressed the same note when in his opening speech ho pointed out that the two factors which seemed to him to have made for the high standing of the University were its distinguished teachers, past and present, and the work done by capable graduates in later life. Truly, these count more in a nation’s eyes than the number who achieve examination passes. It will ho interesting to note what recommendations the Commission will make in this connection to bring about a deeper note of study for its own sake. We are afraid, how'ever, that the issue is a considerably wider one than this. The outside public, as well as the students and professors, have a part here. For in a young dominion such as ours there is too great a tendency among the general public to apply a wrong scale of values to education, the results of which are often intangible, and not to be measured by mere examination testing. In Sir Harry’s concluding remarks, wo must all work to build up that “ true university life which is derived from two sources—study under large-minded and inspiring teachers,” who must have time and opportunity to be so, and “ conynon intellectual and social life” to be fostered in a community of students.