PROFESSOR BLUNT.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVI, Issue 12588, 24 August 1901, Page 8

PROFESSOR BLUNT.

AN INTERVIEW. [Fbom Oue Coeeespondenx.] WELLINGTON, August 23. The New Zealand Shipping Company’s steamer Whakatane brought here this morning, en Voute for Ohris'tchurch, Professor Blunt, who succeeds the late Professor Clark in the chair of modem languages and ■literature at Canterbury College. I was fortunate enough to reach the wharf about the same time as the liner, how fortunate I discovered! when I saw Professor Blunt, and recognised him for one of those brisk, observant people who always want to see things, and never let the grass grow when they are about it. He has, as I subsequently learnt, seen, many men and cities, all of them no doubt superior in many ways to the colonies ; nevertheless, as he is not of the superior sort who travel without -eyes, I feel sure that had. I not caught him at the “psychological moment,” which for ships is clearly the moment after they are tied up at a Wharf, and before anyone has gone down the gangway, hie would have been careering over the heights of this breezy town in search of anything and everything agreeable or instructive. Before* we had been talking more than a few seconds, he asked rapidly about Victoria College, and at once it was evident what he would have looked for first on his voyage of discovery.. Of course, he was astonished when I informed him. that Victoria College "did not yet possess a habitation. When he managed to convey the impression that be had heard somewhere that they had a staff of professors, and was informed that his impression was correct, the staff being, not only all here, hut at work, his astonishment evidently expanded to amazement paint. He mastered the emotion, however, andi continued to talk of .this strange college in the ordinary tone of wellbred surprise; but it- was plain that to ■this denizen of universities, British arid foreign, to this man of historic quadrangle, renowned facades, and storied halls, a university college without a habitation was the most awful possible revelation of the unexpected. The sight of Mm at the moment when he heard the words “ without a habitation,” would have compensated every member of the Victoria College Council foe much. Only yesterday morning, they were reported) as having in a moment of. delirium, wild but correct in principle, made up their minds to ask a hostile Government (which never replies to them) for £40,000 to begin building with. To-day, could they have seen that face, they would have consoled themselves with the reflection that the hearts of the learned, all the world over, were with them in this matter. 1 am sure, if I had) told him 'that the professors were expected to live a foodless, as well as homeless, life, this one would not have been more surprised. But let it be distinctly understood that all this became visible without any overt act on the professor’s part. Hs is a man of the world, the sort wherein the presence of local politics in strange places sees more prudence than anything else. For the rest, Professor Blunt is a fairly tall, athletic, and wed set-up man, in the prime' of life, which I should) take to be with him somewhere in the first half of the thirties. For that large respect of Ms for suitable buildings, no one need he surprised who knows his career. He received Ms education 1 at Shrewsbury School and Christ Church, Oxford; where he took the honours degree second class in both classes and modem languages. It is a beginning exactly suitable to the traditions under which your Christchurch has grown up to be the ' ideal Cathedral city of the colony, and! there is something to remember in the fact that the above was but the beginning, viz., that the Professor was not content to get Ms modern languages from any but the fountain heads. His French is not the French of " Stratford atbe Bow,” and Ms German is not the German of St Giles. He has studied these abroad, and it is safe, after you see Mm, to say that the Professor is thorough, not a bad quality for the College of Canterbury, a man moreover who wins Ms way, for he brought back from the University of Caen the diploma of the “Alliance Francaise, mention tres honorable,” and a degree from the University at Heidelberg. After the Continental training the Professor had a career in Ms own country, and when the opportunity came to Mm of making application for the vacant position at Canterbury, College, he was holding the. position of head of the modern side at Durham School, and was at the same time extension lecturer at Durham University. He came through his horses at once. How many of them there were he could not say, anytMng more than about the persons who made the selection or the system on which they acted. These are all apparently sealed books to the Professor, who has a vague idea that the Agent-General managed the whole business. At all events, he spoke very cordially of Mr Reeves, who had treated him with much courtesy and kindness, and given him a very fair idea of the nature of his position, and surroundings in Canterbury; and 1 Christchurch people knowing that Mr Reeyes can do this about as well as anybody could do it will understand that Professor Blunt has some good ideas about Min. He seems to have got other good ideas generally, for Australasia was everywhere well spoken of, and the New Zealanders were enjoying a very high place in that favourable public opinion. He •did not, however, flatter us by giving that as the reason for the hurry of Ms departure from the Old Country. He was obliged by the terms of the engagement offered him to sail three weeks after the day of appointment. His idea of the scope of his work in Christchurch embraces literature, of course, as well as languages, and when I assured him that he would find an excellent library at the College he was evidently very fully aware of the'fact. New Zealanders he has seen at various times. For example, some came on board at Hobart, returning from Africa, and ho “ enjoyed the pleasure of their society;” Several years before that he was at Oxford with others, Messrs H. D. Acland and T. D-. Acland to wit, and one of the many Harpers. One of the Aclands, by the way, rowed in the College boat with him, No. 3 to his stroke, which reminds me that a man who is thorough is not likely to neglect the physical side. The Professor stroked his College boat for years, and in this walk of life likewise seems to have had winning ways. In 1889 he and his crew put in an appearance at Henley, and carried off the Ladies’ Plate and Thames Cup. In football, he was not backward, for he was admitted to the honour of playing for his College, and in the kindred game of hockey he had represented Durham County for two years, all of wMch accounts for the athletic, well set. up look of the man, and the fin© physical condition of him. , Professor Blunt, who is accompanied by Mrs Blunt, their two hoys and a nursemaid, goes south this afternoon in the Tarawera.