THE OXFORD STUDENT.

North Otago Times, 2 December 1911, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE OXFORD STUDENT.

THE FLAVOUR OF HIS LIFE,

When you- first come as a student to Oxford, you are entirely at the mercy, of your aesthetic sensibilities, You wonder if you can ever stop gazing. As you stroll through the college gardens and -walks or up the long, graceful curve of the High and lift your eyes to that airy creation of stone, the steeple of Bt, Mary, you will indeed be a'man of hardened sensibilities if your own mind is not occupied in deciding whether you will become an architect, a. landscapegardener, or a painter, But finally you turn your attention to learning something . about • that college- In which you are enrolled. You receive various instructions, and go through the ceremony of matriculation. You are informed how many times your college expects you to attend chapel, and how many times you must dine in the college hall. You are instructed not to walk in the streots after dark without the cap and gown that designate you nn undergraduate, and you are strictly ordered to be inside your lodgings or inside your college gates by midnight. For breaches of all these rules there are penalties ranging all tho way from small fines to being sent down, or expelled from I college. Within Oxford there exists every type of undergraduate-the rowing man, the football devotee, the politician, the book-worm, tho -scholar, the loafer, and every shade between. The average undergraduate gives himsel! strongly to some form of athletics. Rowing Is the chief interest, for tho season begins with the opening of the colleges and closes with Bights' Week' in May, and even after that many college crews continue practising for the Henley Regatta. In midwinter come the races of the college "Torpids," more familiarly known as "Toggers." These .Toggers consist of a coxswain and ft crew of eight men, rowing in a boat with fixed seats. Sometimes in January or February the practico of these oarsmen is stopped by tho freezing of the river. But the Oxford athlete is not inclined to heed the weather, You will find him swinging cheerily away at his oar in pouring,, freezing rain, or chasing the slippery football in several inches of mud. If you learn nothing elße at Oxford, you learn that unfavourable weather conditions are not real preventives.

If you step into the Union any afternoon, especially about tea-time, you will find the embryo politicians. Some are writing letters in the pleasant writing-room; some are ransacking the useful library for material for Thursday evening debates ; others are perusing extensive files of newspapers, or discussing the Budget with a confidence that might be envied by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Hereare men who will, eagerly inform you how many Prime Ministers obtained' their first training at the Union. Nor must the older members of the society(no longer undergraduates) be overlooked, especially that portly person who, while industriously reading one newspaper, is at the sametime quietly sitting on several others. The book-shops which abound in Oxford largely take the placo of libraries. Here books of all kinds are available from the numerous cheap but excellent editions to large handtooled morocco bindings. If you step into one of these book-shops at any time of the day, you will find men looking at books, Here undergrad* uate and professor meet on the ground of common interest and equal footing, and often you will Bee them in a quiet corner discussing various new publications.

One ol the first persons you meet on coming to an Oxford college is your tutor. Let us suppose that you are to try lor the B,A, degreo, and hare-passed the first set of examinations, You now come to the final stage of your journey towards the degree, and your work Is concentrated in one general field. Perhaps it is that lamouß Oxford school of Litterae Humanioreß (familiarly known as "Greats"), in .which you study ancient history, philosophy, Greek, and Latin: A certain number of examination papers will be set, the general scope of which is defined, Your tutor's object is to prepare you for these examinations, for on the examinations alone does your degree depend. Whether or not you shall attend many lectures is a matter of private settlement between you and your college, or rather between you and your tutor, Work is adjusted to individual needs.

Sometimes an undergraduate finds himself working with a tutor who, although a good scholar, is certainly not a good teacher. A man who has a large fund of information on a certain subject is not necessarily a teacher ; and sometimes a man with less information than he is more ablo to inspire enthusiasm in. students and accomplish the desired results. Thus it is apparent how much depends individually on the tutor and the student. A bad tutor handicaps an undergraduate just as a bad pupil handicaps a tutor, The best Oxford tutors arc men whom it is a real privilege to know and work with. They are. full of quiet but contagious enthusiasm, and eager to impart their interests to the sincere student Under tho Oxford system the student who" is graduate with a high rank has a real mastery of his subject, but more important still, he has a mind capable of thinking for itaclf.—"Century Magazine,"