CHAIR OF ECONOMICS

Evening Star, Issue 22202, 3 December 1935, Page 12

CHAIR OF ECONOMICS

APPOINTMENT AT OTAGO UNIVERSITY DR R. W. SCUTER THE SUCCESSFUL GAKDIDATE Regarded as one of the very few outstanding younger economists of today, Dr Ralph W. Souter has been appointed to fill the position of professor of economics at the Otago University, and has .formally accepted the appointment by cable from New York, where he has been stationed for several years. Ho commences his duties on March 1, 1930. There were 10 applicants for the office, four from Great Britain and six from New Zealand, Australia, and the United States of America, and after the testimonials of a'll the candidates had been thoroughly examined Hr Souter was selected.

Hr Souter is a graduate of the Otago University, but is now residing in the United States. He was born in Dunedin on February. 13, 1897, and was educated at the George Street School, the Mosgiel District High School, and the University. After nearly three years’ service as an officer of the Bank of New South Wales, Dunedin, and a little over throe years with the, New Zealand Expeditionary Force, in Egypt, France, and Germany, be became an undergraduate of the University. of Otago in 1919. Throe years later he graduated M.A., with first' class honours in mental and moral philosophy. In 1923 he attended the Teachers’ Training College, receiving an A certificate. That year he also obtained second class honours -in economics, and the'following year a University of New Zealand, diploma in social science. After acting as a master at the Otago Boys’ High School in 1924-25, Dr Souter became assistant in the departments of philosophy and economics at the Otago University in 1926-27. In the latter year he was awarded the prize offered by the Pol lok Foundation for economic research for the best criticism of the book ‘Profits.’ He was then appointed to a two-year Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship for study at the Columbia University, New York, . and .elsewhere in the United States. This fellowship he held during 1928-29, and he was then offered an_ appointment as lecturer in economics in the graduate school of the Columbia University, an appointment that he still holds. In 1933 he received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the Columbia University., . • His writings include * Pollok Prize Essay,’ ‘ Equilibrium Economics and Business Cycle - Theory: A Commentary,’ ‘ Land, Capital, and Opportunity Cost,’ ‘ The Nature and Significance of 'Economic Science in Recent Discussions,’ 4 Modern Monopoly as the Gentleman Crook,’ and ‘ Prolegomena to Relativity Economics.’ Members of the Professorial Board of the Otago University speak very highly of Dr Souter, whoso conscientiousness and thoroughness are equal to his ability, and believe that lie is a young thinker of great promise, that he has been well taught, and that he will stand high in any university.

V. riting from the Columbia, University, one of the principals in the faculty of political science states that Dr Souter came to the university about seven years ago, had a brilliant career as a graduate student, and took his doctor’s degree with an admirable and subtle, monograph. The writer continues :—“ He made such a good impression upon all of us that we appointed him lecturer in economics, in which position he has been conspicuously successful. I consider Dr Souter one of the very few outstanding younger economists in this country. So high is our appreciation of him that we would certainly have advanced him to a professorship had the financial situation been more propitious.”