FAULTY FINANCE

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIX, Issue 31, 23 January 1929, Page 7

FAULTY FINANCE

SEVERE CENSURE ON GOVERNMENT N.Z. UNIVERSITY COUNCIL'S GRIEVANCE. FORETHOUGHT STRANGELY REWARDED. [Per Press Association.!. Dunedin, Jan. 23. The New Zealand University Council met this morning at Dunedin. The Chancellor, Professor McMillanBrown, in his opening address, deplored the mutilation of University finance by Government interference. The ’Varsity policy of putting aside any surplus money for accumulation as a scholarship fund, had been rewarded by the late Ministry removing the University’s annual fixed subsidy, finding the £32,000 shown as being a credit balance. A QUESTIONABLE ASSUMPTION. The Government assumed that the University was rolling in wealth, and had socialised (to use a mild word) that slowly accumulated scnolarsnrp fund at the moment when the University needed it most. The need for more scholarships became more urgent each year, particularly for post-graduate and fellowship scholarships. N.Z. NEED. New Zealand was on the eve of an era when all its best talent should be brought out to develop its resources, for. handicapped by being at a distance from great markets, the problem confronting us was how to cheapen production without cheapening labour, and that could be done by nothing but fostering research.

“A DISLOYAL CURTAILMENT.” In this crisis, the Government, instead of employing the ’Varsity’s resources for drawing out talent, had disloyally curtailed them. Worse still, this mutilation of finance had endangered the'liberty of the University. It would have to go, cap' in hand, to the Government for funds, and submit to State control. There was indeed a danger of the University losing all liberty, ultimately becoming absorbed by the Education Department. Another point the Chancellor condemned was the lessening of subsidies, according to the amount of the legacies bequeathed, which policy must ultimately extinguish the public benefactions. The Chancellor concluded by saying that it was time to call a halt on this downward path, and that the Council should call the new Ministry’s attention to the disastrous results certain to come from such a policy.