THE PRESENTATION OF UNIVERSITY DIPLOMAS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9452, 24 August 1889, Page 6

THE PRESENTATION OF UNIVERSITY DIPLOMAS.

jfPrrF. annual ceremony of presenting tt diplomas for "this district in connection wit (the New Zealand University was held yeste day afternoon at the Choral Hall, Symond street. There was a large attendance, ii eluding many ladies and a considerabl number of students. Professor Brown, a ■tile Chancellor's delegate, presided,, and ther "were also present on the platform Professor Thomas and Aldis, His Lordship Bieho Cowie, Rev. R Coates, Miss M. Colemai ,"Messrs. McDowell, lonian, C. F. Bourne andseveralother University graduates. Professor Brows saidlhese diplomas I'which I am commissioned by the Chan cello of the University to present to-day, wer forwarded in the first instance to Mr. Justic Gillies, and arrived in Auckland on the da; of his death. Had he lived he would hav occupied this place to-day ; and no one couli have done so more worthily or more appro priately. For his interest in the progress o knowledge, which was first- exhibited in thi; part of the colony at the foundation of tin Auckland Institute, was one of his cliie characteristics, aud was maintained un diminished until the close of his life. Of tin many years which he spent iu this citj scarcely one passed in which he did noi render efficient assistance to education, ant on several occasions, as when contributing tc the cost of building the Museum, and whet founding the Sinclair aud Gillies' Scholar ships in connection with the University College, he proved himself ready to devou large sums of money to the cause which lu baa at heart. His death casts a deep shadow over our proceedings to-day, a shadow which is accentuated by the fact that one ol the diplomas, and the most- honourable among them, is destined for his son. The Professor went on to speak of the value o: the diplomas, and said :There exists in tin colony, outside the colleges, neither control ling them nor being controlled by them, ; chartered University, which possesses t-hi sole right to grant degrees. This University like die London University at home, does no: teach, but holds examinations from time t< time, and these diplomas are the rewards oi success at those examinations. This system taken by itself, ensures a high standard ol work, inasmuch its the University, .having nothing to do with teaching, and being subject to no competition, has no motive for lessening the value of its degrees. The Senate, however, is not content with this: it recognises the fact that we are an isolated community ; it foresees that we might not always thoroughly appreciate the various steps in the intellectual progress which is daily taking place iu the great centres of thought, and that hence our standard of examination might become fixed and behind the times. In order altogether to prevent _ this the Senate long ago decided to hold the examinations in England : or, what is practically the same tiling, to appoint English examiners, to receive from them the sets of questions, to return to them the answers of the candidates, and to grant the degrees according to their reports. The examiners are men of the same standing as those who are employed in the same capacity at Oxford, at Cambridge, and at London ; frequently they are the same men. It follows that these diplomas are no insignificant local documents, but that they can challenge comparison with any similar certificates throughout the empire. (Cheers.) Now that it is the fashion tor a North New Zealauder to be an admirer of every country save his own, I often hear people criticising our University system, and declaring that we ought to have one central teaching and examining University like those in Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide. To all such critics I would reply that the plan adopted in this colony is the onlv one which brings the higher education within reach of the homes of the people, and is the only one which, by constant reference to English . authority, is enabled to grant diplomas which command such wide and almost universal recognition as those which I am now going to distribute. (Cheers.) The diplomas were then presented as follows —Bachelor of Arts Degrees —Misses Edith Mary Adams, Man,' Lilian Hill. Mary Mair Sinclair, aud Louisa Durrieu, Messrs. Thomas Hilliers Green, Herbert Mason, and Hugh Shrewsbury. Master of Arts Degree : Mr. Sinclair Gillies. As Miss Sinclair could not attend, her diploma was received bv her sister. Mr. Gillies is absent in England, and the certificate of bis degree was token on his behalf by Mr. W. E. Bruce. The recipients of degrees were loudly applauded when they ascended the platform. Bishop Cowle spoke as follows : —Since I last addressed an assemblage in this hall at the presentation of diplomas, I have had the pleasure of visiting the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and some of the most famous of the ancient public schools of EnglandEton, Harrow, and Charterhouse. It is very gratifying for me to say in this assembly that wherever I went in England and made inquiries at these seats of learning as to New Zealand's young men. I was told that they were a credit to the country from which they came — (cheers) — and it was quite evident they were able to hold their own in University examinations, as well as in all manly sports, —in the cricket field, at football, and on the river. The many healthy diversions of mind and body which we have, not in connection with our New Zealand University, but which are provided at the public schools of England, are among the special advantages of those institutions ; and the comparative lack of such diversions for mind and body amongst our young students is certainly a source of deficiency and dinger in our colleges and schools. Much has been said and written of late on the evils of what is known as a state of chronic examination. For the sake of obtaining distinction in school and University examinations, some of our young men aod young women—no doubt many of our young womensacrifice, I fear, the chief end for which examinations are j held, —the cultivation of the mind to the advantage of themselves and others in future life. Amid the strain of mind of the pre- j paration for examination, there is great fear that true education will be neglected— culture of the thinking faculty. Bishop Cowie urged the paramount importance of the maxim mens tana in corpore -tano, pointing out that for man and woman alike, bodily strength was necessary to bear the strain to which the minds of students were subjected. He proceeded :—ln England, by a University man is commonly meant not necessarily a scholar, but a man of general culture. Those who ire "scholars " in the technical sense of the ' word, are comparatively few; "a scholar" is taken to mean those who, in after life, i

come to know "something about everything and everything about something. General culture is what we expect to find in oui University students; and that general culture is acquired in the daily intercourse oi college life. We have no college life here : our Auckland students do not live together, and thus they are at a very great disadvantage as compared with those at home. Our Auckland students must do all they can tc sounteract this necessary defect of our University system. (Applause.) The Bishop mentioned the difference between the knowledge required for an ordinary B.A. degree at Cambridge and what is required for such a degree in New Zealand. Greek was not a compulsory subject in the New Zealand curriculum, and he was glad that it was not so ; but he was sorry that it was not more generally chosen. It was sad to think that few of the New Zealand students would be able to read the Greek Testament, a book that had done more to produce virtuous men and women and good citizens than all the other works that had been written to the present day. (Cheers.) Professor Addis also addressed the meeting. He said : Since I have been in Auckland it has sometimes happened to me to hold and to express opinions which have not met with universal acceptance. On these occasions I have usually noticed that some person, generally, though not invariably, ashamed of his name, have discovered that the people of Auckland do not wish for a University College. This argument, if, for want of a better word, we may call it such, is one which it has never seemed to me worth while to notice, because in the first place it savoured very much of the sulky schoolhoy, who, when the game does not go to his mind, declares vehemently that he will not play any longer; and secondly, it was difficult, if not impossible, to see the connection between Auckland's alleged want of desire for a University College, and the scientific and educational merits, for instance, of a certain lessonbook ; while in the third place the assertion, whether true or false, was one in connection with which neither I nor any of my colleagues had any responsibility. The Auckland University College was founded by the desire of the Auckland people acting through then chosen representatives before any of us had anything to do with the colony, or knew anything about its educational arrangements, except what the Agent-General chose to tell P 3 - The present Professors were chosen, and induced to leave their positions in England, as the most capable men the colony could secure to make the University College a sue* cess. On us simply rests the dutv of giving our best energies to the promotion of the objects for which a University College exists, the necessity, or at any rate the advantage', of its existence having been long ago decided by the people of Auckland themselves. - Nevertheless, on an occasion like this it may not be oat of place to consider what are the benefits which may rightly be expected from such institutions ; in what direction and in what manner the Auckland University College may be expccted to work for the good of the city and province, and therefore of the nation. There are those who estimate the , value of any educational institution merely

by the number of pupils who pass through its classes, and who assume that, because only a very small proportion of the community will actually enter "a University College lectureroom, the rent of the people have no part nor lot in the matter. It is, of coarse, true that our actual students do represent the point of greatest intensity of the influence we exert. The statistics given by the chairman, and the number of graduates who appeal- to-day to receive diplomas, show that for a six-year-old College out- results, even from this narrow point of view, are by no means to be despised. Yet I believe that this direct and immediate

influence is not the greatest part, nor perhaps even any very large part, of the good which is involved in the existence of a workiug University in a community. The influence goes farther and deeper. Of those who have been in our classes, many aro now occupied in teaching others, and a very large proportion of the teaching in the primary schools is already affected by University training. In a country where all the grades of education are so closely connected as in New Zealand, it is absolutely necessary that the highest grade should be as high as possible, in order that the quality of the lower should be sound and valuable, and the influence of the highest stratum permeates downwards to the very lowest, Not so much the matter that is taught as the manner of teaching, not so much the facts as the principles which underlie the treatment of those facts by specialists, constitute the element which is valuable in all education, the full presence of which it is difficult to secure without something which may bs called a University at the head of the educational structure. Outside, however, even the strictly educational world, the University College has a mission. The professors act as referees in relation to a great variety of matters more or less clearly connected with the subjects they teach. Men who never attend our classes, who perhaps could not point out nor discover the . localities of the " Shedifice" where cur

Registrar holds his court, and where chemical products blaze and smell, and of the other dilapidated wooden buildings in which we utter words of wisdom, write to us for information and guidance on all sorts of subjects. I have been appealed to, for instance, to determine the proper depth of a vat to hold a given quantity ot sheep-dip : to explain the method of calculating the percentage which diluted spirits are under or over proof; to reconcile a supposed discrepancy between the usually received dimensions of the earth and the distance at which Tiri light can be seen, and to answer many similar enquiries. Proj fessor Aldis pointed out that the existence of a college implied the presence of a body of specialists, and he enumerated the various duties of the professors, and he went on : — In the subjects which most of us teach there is this great advantage in this matter that any departure from truth and accuracy is sure to revenge itself. If a mathematical student, for instance, makes a slight error in the beginning or middle of his work, that error will <;o on accumulating till an absurd result clothes him with shame and confusion. A small mistake in the proportion of the elements in a chemical experiment will sometimes lead to more strikingly disastrous results. In the pursuit of any real science nothing is more constantly impressed upon the student than the two" facts that amistake at any point carries itself on right to the end, and that to get rid of the consequence of such a mistake the only plan is to find it out. and cancelling all subsequent work to start afresh from the point where the error had crept in. And who will deny that a nation, where young men and women have learnt that lesson thoroughly, is in a more vastly favourable position for solving economical, social, and political problems , than we are at present in New Zealand. | Again, the studies of the University College are adapted to impress upon the mind of the j students the importance of little things. I Even in what some consider the most unpractical of our subjectsthe dead languages— this is eminently the case. The minute points of grammatical construction, and the great difference of meaning caused by slight changes in the turn of a sentence, all tend to impress upon the student that "out of small causes great effects do spring." A recent traveller among us complained that New Zealand batter was for the most part only fit to grease cart-wheels. That such a charge should be made, even by a casual and unfortunate observer, show's that some of our farmers have not learnt the lesson of the importance of little things; that care in small details, and infinite pains are needful even in the commonest work.

" This will do well enough"' is a motto which will ruin any industry, and it is a motto which no one who has attended the College laboratories for a term ought to be in much danger of adopting. In conclusion, I would urge upon the students of our College that it rests after all with them to prove that the sketch now presented is not a mere dream of the ivory gate. It is by the influence which its students exert that the college will be known and valued, and while I heartily congratulate those who to-day receive diplomas on the honours they have gained, I would remind them that the degree of B.A. or M.A. does not comprehend all knowledge; that their college course has brought them within the gateway of the paradise of knowledge, and so placed them, that, if they will, they can explore its pathways, and climb its hills; has taught them how to learn, and perhaps, given them hints as to how to teach, but leaves them still with their life-work before them. The student to whom the letters B.A. or M.A. at the end of the name, represent the be-all and end-all of a University career, is not to be reckoned as one of our successes, but as a most dismal failure. The title is valuable only as an outward and visible sign—

The rank is but tbe guinea's stamp, The man's the gowd for a' that. And if you have really gained the advantage which the title implies, then remember that the greater your knowledge the greater your responsibility. To whom men have committed much, of them they will require the more. Failures in courtesy, kindness, and skill, in accuracy, and the roughness which might be tolerated in others, will not be forgiven in you. Wherever you go the honour of yonr Aim/. Metier will lie in your hands. On you and your fellows will depend whether our University shall grow up to rival the famous seats 'of learning of old, honoured and esteemed as a potent factor in the progress and prosperity of the nation, or sink into contempt as a mere repository of useless cram. Be true, be thorough —not in one thing, but in alland so will there be no need to discuss the national advantages of a University, for they will lie known and read of all men. Professor Aldis was frequently applauded during his address.