RHODES SCHOLARSHIPS

Evening Star, Issue 21286, 15 December 1932, Page 18

RHODES SCHOLARSHIPS

REASON FOR NO AWARD TRIBUTE TO PAST SCHOLAR ■Reference was made by His excellency the Governor-General at the prizegiving ceremony of the Otago ' Boys’ High School last night to the fact that no Rhodes Scholarship had , been awarded this year. His Excellency said he had for the third time presided over the committee which selected the Rhodes Scholars. On this occasion no scholarship was granted, although one would have been awarded to an Otago man (Mr Strang) hut for the fact that he would have been twenty-three years of age before reaching Oxford, which debarred him under the old rule which .laid.denn that a Rhodes Scholar must not have passed his twenty-third year before commencing his studies at that university. The rule had since been altered, but as all the colleges had sent forward candidates under the old rule, the committee could not in fairness make an award to Mr Strang. Apart from Mr Strang, the members of the committee could net convince themselves that • any of the other candidates would have ■ satisfied the requirements of that great patriot and Imperialist, Cecil Rhodes, _ who wanted young men of vigorous intellect, who had reached a high standard of attainment at school and at university, and who were determinted to do their part for the good of country and Empire. One Rhodes Scholar from Otago (Mr Henley), had, before he left Oxford, won golden opinions. He had heard three months previously, said the speaker, from the warden of New College, who stated that Mr Henley had been elected president of the junior common room, and that there had never been a more popular and efficient president than he. Moreover, he said that Mr Henley had made New Zealanders popular in the college, and asked the speaker if ho had any more Men leys in New Zealand to send them along.